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I have done a few dives from cruise ships and something that has always worked for me has been befriending the dive guides really early. Even before we get on the dive boat. I do exactly as they tell me to do during the briefings, etc. Generally this has paid off at the end of the dives when most people are back on the boat I'm usually getting a private tour.
Last month I dove in the Bahamas from a cruise ship, we were diving a fairly shallow and sandy patch reef where this dive op usually does shark dives. At the end of the dive when just the dive guide and I were in the water we went back to check out the small broken down wreck we had swam over earlier as a group and found an octopus and huge moray eel, then heading back to the boat the sharks came to check us out and a huge school of horse eye jacks formed a swirling tornado right underneath the dive boat.
Even the worse sites in the caribbean have really interesting sea life if you get the chance to look for it. YMMV.
I've had several experiences like that, well maybe not as exiting as that one, but to me being in the water beats d'heck out of some tourist trap tour
---------- Post added March 19th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ----------
That's exactly how my wife feels... We usually do 2 cruises a year, one just us and the second trip with the kids. When it's just us, if we can't find something that we both want to do she's happy staying on the ship and I may go diving or just get off and check out the town. On sea days I get cabin fever while she reads
Last month I dove in the Bahamas from a cruise ship, we were diving a fairly shallow and sandy patch reef where this dive op usually does shark dives. At the end of the dive when just the dive guide and I were in the water we went back to check out the small broken down wreck we had swam over earlier as a group and found an octopus and huge moray eel, then heading back to the boat the sharks came to check us out and a huge school of horse eye jacks formed a swirling tornado right underneath the dive boat.
Even the worse sites in the caribbean have really interesting sea life if you get the chance to look for it. YMMV.
I've had several experiences like that, well maybe not as exiting as that one, but to me being in the water beats d'heck out of some tourist trap tour
---------- Post added March 19th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ----------
Ah, there's the thing: At home, I have difficulty "doing nothing." I always feel like there's something else I should be doing. I kind of liked being "trapped" on the ship. The high cost of Internet communication and resulting low expectation by my employer that I could maintain contact was a bonus. I really could disconnect and not feel guilty. Reading a book--what a novelty!
That's exactly how my wife feels... We usually do 2 cruises a year, one just us and the second trip with the kids. When it's just us, if we can't find something that we both want to do she's happy staying on the ship and I may go diving or just get off and check out the town. On sea days I get cabin fever while she reads