diverrick
Contributor
Hi all
Just got back from a great trip down to these ports and wanted to share the report with y'all.
Took a Cruise ship from Miami to Belize, dove with SeasportsBelize. Belize was Hotter than HELL!! and this was November! We had to wait at the shop a few hours before they'd even take us out, even though we agreed to pay for the whole boat in advance, they wanted to hold out for more divers.Their boat was kinda small, No shade at all, and we had ten all together onboard. Divemaster was John. We went out some miles from shore to dive. Turns out the rest of the folks on board except us and the DM were new divers. They had no bouyancy control AT ALL!! they ran into you, cut in front of you, kicked up the sand, ran into coral, and all had a bad case of the danglies. Seems they never learned any under water edicate (SP) We had one uncontrolled ascent. One was crying when she first got in. Burned through thier air in about 20 mins. so at least my wife and I got to do a bit of good diving. The reef was not very good though. not much color. Second dive was even worse. Lots of silt in the water, and the reef apeared to have been blasted by handgrenades. only fish we saw worthy of mention was tons of squirrel fish, on the second dive. John was ok as a DM, But there was some room for improvement.. I think if we did that place again, we would go further out on the reefs system. Maybe its better out there.
Second Dive was in Roatan
Dove with Bay Island Beach Resort. Again had to stand around for hours while they got their stuff together, even though we had made all arraingements in advance. As we were from a cruise ship we had a limited time to dive, so the stress was always there. They ignored us until they got the people that were staying there out and gone. We got a guy as a DM who did not usually dive, but he was great, showed us lots of things like sea horses. We saw three eagle rays up close and personal. Great wall dive! they said we did three different locations as the current was taking us along, at a
perfect pace. Boat had no water, nor food, no place to go if you needed a bathroom. Lucky for us that did not arise.
The manager took us back to the ship the long way at my request, and we had a great little tour at no additional cost. they fed us lunch when we got back on land, and offered us Breakfast when we arrived. Only complaint was with the boat we used, and my wife said she didn't like the interval time out of water. She felt it was too short, as the second dive took us into the edge of DC time according to our Computers. It made her nervous.
Third dive was in GC. We had planned on diving at Sunset house or Eden rock, but we were late getting in due an emergency at sea from an emergency flare being shot up the night before, we had to go search for the people, but never found anything, and the dock had a big back up so we wasted another hour getting docked. Once we got ashore we attempted to get a cab to go the 5 or 6 miles to the dive site. (we landed at the alternate port a few miles South of town.) They insisted on 29.00 each way! no way was I going to pay that much. We caught a van down to town, and when we arrived at sunset house, it was Sooooo blown out. We went on down to our back up destination of Eden Rock, and they same thing. Blown out! we could have gotten wet just standing in the parking lot! what a disappointment that was, as I was really looking forward to diving there again. due to time contraints, we could not get out rental tanks,
and then go somewhere else, plus the cabs were particularlly expensive, so we called it a wash for the day.
Third dive was in Cozumel. (should have been the 4th) We went to our old stand by Sergio with Aquatic sports.. I had been instructed to go to their house in town where they would meet us. When we arrived they seemed to not know that we were even coming. Every body was out on dives for the day. We killed some time in town, then tried again. This time they told us they were ready to go. We got a cab out to the marina, and the boat and crew was there when we arrived, but no DM, they were still out diving. We had to wait about 3 more hours for them to get back! I was ready to throw in the towel by the time we were ready to go as it was already 4:30 PM, clearly we would be doing a night dive on the second tank. My wife had refused to dive at night due to her fear of dark underwater. We couldn't dive with Sergio as he was gassed out for the day. We got another fellow as a DM who turned out to be just fine. First dive was great except for my wifes HP line to her console started to leak. Second dive was, as expected, a night dive. Wife was pretty upset, but the DM talked her into trying it, and once she got down she was fine. This was a first for both of us, and we really liked it. saw lots of things we would have never seen in the daytime. All in all, it turned out great, just started badly. We were pissed off about the time it took for them to get us going, but after we were done diving, the owner came to use and explained that the Marina had been closed due to rough water in the Morning, so that pushed back the whole days trips by three hours. That made it a bit easier for use to understand why we had waited so long. I wish they had told us that right up front, it would have helped. Other problems I noticed were no Navigation lights at all, and it was really dark by the time we return, and no O2 on board in the event of an emergency. They seemed unconcerned bythis when I inquired. Looking back one might say we should've stayed with the cruise ships dive operations, but for the extra hassle. I think we got along just fine, albeit, a bit rough around the edges. My wife and I really enjoyed the trip even with all the troubles we had. Next time though I think we'll go do a dive only resort instead of a cruise ship, so we can dive more.
Just got back from a great trip down to these ports and wanted to share the report with y'all.
Took a Cruise ship from Miami to Belize, dove with SeasportsBelize. Belize was Hotter than HELL!! and this was November! We had to wait at the shop a few hours before they'd even take us out, even though we agreed to pay for the whole boat in advance, they wanted to hold out for more divers.Their boat was kinda small, No shade at all, and we had ten all together onboard. Divemaster was John. We went out some miles from shore to dive. Turns out the rest of the folks on board except us and the DM were new divers. They had no bouyancy control AT ALL!! they ran into you, cut in front of you, kicked up the sand, ran into coral, and all had a bad case of the danglies. Seems they never learned any under water edicate (SP) We had one uncontrolled ascent. One was crying when she first got in. Burned through thier air in about 20 mins. so at least my wife and I got to do a bit of good diving. The reef was not very good though. not much color. Second dive was even worse. Lots of silt in the water, and the reef apeared to have been blasted by handgrenades. only fish we saw worthy of mention was tons of squirrel fish, on the second dive. John was ok as a DM, But there was some room for improvement.. I think if we did that place again, we would go further out on the reefs system. Maybe its better out there.
Second Dive was in Roatan
Dove with Bay Island Beach Resort. Again had to stand around for hours while they got their stuff together, even though we had made all arraingements in advance. As we were from a cruise ship we had a limited time to dive, so the stress was always there. They ignored us until they got the people that were staying there out and gone. We got a guy as a DM who did not usually dive, but he was great, showed us lots of things like sea horses. We saw three eagle rays up close and personal. Great wall dive! they said we did three different locations as the current was taking us along, at a
perfect pace. Boat had no water, nor food, no place to go if you needed a bathroom. Lucky for us that did not arise.
The manager took us back to the ship the long way at my request, and we had a great little tour at no additional cost. they fed us lunch when we got back on land, and offered us Breakfast when we arrived. Only complaint was with the boat we used, and my wife said she didn't like the interval time out of water. She felt it was too short, as the second dive took us into the edge of DC time according to our Computers. It made her nervous.
Third dive was in GC. We had planned on diving at Sunset house or Eden rock, but we were late getting in due an emergency at sea from an emergency flare being shot up the night before, we had to go search for the people, but never found anything, and the dock had a big back up so we wasted another hour getting docked. Once we got ashore we attempted to get a cab to go the 5 or 6 miles to the dive site. (we landed at the alternate port a few miles South of town.) They insisted on 29.00 each way! no way was I going to pay that much. We caught a van down to town, and when we arrived at sunset house, it was Sooooo blown out. We went on down to our back up destination of Eden Rock, and they same thing. Blown out! we could have gotten wet just standing in the parking lot! what a disappointment that was, as I was really looking forward to diving there again. due to time contraints, we could not get out rental tanks,
and then go somewhere else, plus the cabs were particularlly expensive, so we called it a wash for the day.
Third dive was in Cozumel. (should have been the 4th) We went to our old stand by Sergio with Aquatic sports.. I had been instructed to go to their house in town where they would meet us. When we arrived they seemed to not know that we were even coming. Every body was out on dives for the day. We killed some time in town, then tried again. This time they told us they were ready to go. We got a cab out to the marina, and the boat and crew was there when we arrived, but no DM, they were still out diving. We had to wait about 3 more hours for them to get back! I was ready to throw in the towel by the time we were ready to go as it was already 4:30 PM, clearly we would be doing a night dive on the second tank. My wife had refused to dive at night due to her fear of dark underwater. We couldn't dive with Sergio as he was gassed out for the day. We got another fellow as a DM who turned out to be just fine. First dive was great except for my wifes HP line to her console started to leak. Second dive was, as expected, a night dive. Wife was pretty upset, but the DM talked her into trying it, and once she got down she was fine. This was a first for both of us, and we really liked it. saw lots of things we would have never seen in the daytime. All in all, it turned out great, just started badly. We were pissed off about the time it took for them to get us going, but after we were done diving, the owner came to use and explained that the Marina had been closed due to rough water in the Morning, so that pushed back the whole days trips by three hours. That made it a bit easier for use to understand why we had waited so long. I wish they had told us that right up front, it would have helped. Other problems I noticed were no Navigation lights at all, and it was really dark by the time we return, and no O2 on board in the event of an emergency. They seemed unconcerned bythis when I inquired. Looking back one might say we should've stayed with the cruise ships dive operations, but for the extra hassle. I think we got along just fine, albeit, a bit rough around the edges. My wife and I really enjoyed the trip even with all the troubles we had. Next time though I think we'll go do a dive only resort instead of a cruise ship, so we can dive more.
