I really enjoyed my cruise diving. We were at port 9am-5pm in Jamaica. Remember if you're bringing your gear use a roller scuba bag to hull your gear, it's easier! In Jamaica, they wasn't a dive through the cruise line. We booked our dives with Kelly's located at Sunscape Resort. They were one other diver from the cruise and one finishing up his certification from the resort. They were two guides, one for the resort Jr diver and one for us. We dropped down first and went to the Caverns and drifted to Spanish Anchor were they picked us up. Our guide and the other diver didn't go to the Caverns. He told us to go thru it and he will be above us which allow us to be at 85/45ft and we went to two caverns having the briefing underwater with the guide above us since the other diver was newly certified and was comfortable in 50ft range. The newly certified Jr diver was already on the boat w his guide after our 50mins dive. We dropped off the newly certified Jr diver at the resort and loaded new tanks before going to our next site. We went to Sand Chute to Seawinds as a drift dive too and was suppose to be down for 60 mins but one diver was popping up too many times! We completed our dives at 50 mins and both times the guide dragged his buoy line after 20 mins. And that diver stayed around 30ft while me and my buddy went to 75/35ft. The sealife was mediocre but really enjoyed my wall drift dives! After our dives, we hung out at the resort beach/pool before heading back to the ship since taxi is $20 each way. Bring snacks/lunch cause Kelly's is in an All-inclusive resort!
In Grand Cayman we used the cruise line operator, Cayman Diving, and we were at port at 8-4pm They gather us up near the end of the dock and we had to walk to their shop which is 5-10 mins walk. I used a roller bag for my gear! We did a wall dive and Kittawake Wreck dive and both dives I got 50-55 mins. Our ship dock at 8am and we hit the water at 9:30am. After everyone got their rental gear! We return to dock at 12:30pm. If the operator knows you're comfortable in the water he let you first in the water and last out. After our boat dives, we did a shore dive in front off their shop. Our shore dives at 1:30pm 35/29ft for 60mins to the Wreck of Cali was good. We saw two big tarpons and two southern sting rays! It cost us $15. We rinsed our gear before heading to the tender line. Supposedly, our last tender was at 3:15pm and we got to the line at 3pm. The line was long and our ship didn't really leave port until 4:30pm. We got 3 awesome dives in Grand Cayman! We dive Nitrox if it's available and pay extra. We didn't use Nitrox for the shore dives since it was a shallower dive and we knew we weren't doing a dive longer than 60mins.
In Cozumel, we were at port at 10-6pm and our excursion was at 1:30pm with Sand Dollars. We opt to shop and I did a fish pedicure while some just sat on the beach chair near the cruise dock. We went back to the ship at 12pm and had a leisurely lunch before meeting the Sand Dollar excursion people. Make sure you talk to your fellow divers so you can be group with like experiences. I usually like to be in group A. Usually, group B gets to the boat first at 35-40mins while group A gets 50mins. Our site was Tormentos Reef 60/50ft used Nitrox and Paradise Reef was 45/35ft. A spotted Eagle Ray came to join our dives at the end!
Next time, I'm going to email the cruise operator if we can met them at the shop instead of the dock so we can do a shore dive near their shop before going on the boat dives. I hope my post will help someone.
