bcleveland
Registered
(This report is for the trip I sought advice about in http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=115868
This is a trip report for our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean onboard Holland America's ms Maasdam. We sailed from Norfolk, VA for a 10-day cruise on November 16th. My wife and I and our two daughters were really looking forward to this. My oldest daughter, Annelle (13 y.o.) and I got certified in October at Lake Rawlings, VA in anticipation of diving on this trip. We had booked several dive activities (excursions) through the cruise line, as this was both my first cruise and our first post-cert non-quarry diving.
Our first stop was Holland America's private island in the Bahamas called Half Moon Cay. We got there and headed over to the boat and were told by another worker that he didn't think there was diving that day since no one had set up the boat yet. So, with a sinking feeling we finally located the excursion staff and were told that the dive master didn't come to work that day. So we ended up just snorkeling around the swimming area for the day. We were pretty upset that we couldnt dive. We were counting on this being our warm up dive for the trip. Getting our weight right, getting used to salt water, etc. Not to whine too much (I know that belongs in a different section), but this was their (Holland Americas) private island. They should have had better control or at least a backup DM.
Our next dives were at St. Thomas. We were met by staff from Underwater Safaris/Water World (http://www.scubadivevi.com) on the cruise ship dock. We walked over to their shop at the Havensight Mall and did paperwork. While they worked through the non-certified divers' paperwork, we browsed around their shop. They had a good selection of everything diving and snorkeling related, clean and pretty well organized. Finally it was time to go. They divided up the certified and discover scuba divers and we walked a short way to where their boats were docked and loaded up. We went to a site called 'dive flag'. After a briefing and roll call, the pool was declared open and in we went. I did a weight check and was fine with 8 pounds. I checked Annelle and she seemed to be right where she needed to be, mask half way in the water. The DM said see you on the bottom and down we went. I was both excited and nervous to finally be doing something! As we went down I got a little turned around and ended up facing away from Annelle and facing the DM. I wasnt too worried as Annelle has never had problems equalizing and is pretty much a fish. When we got to the bottom, the DM started checking everyone's status. Since I was right there, I was the first one checked and she turned around checking everyone else. I started looking for Annelle and couldn't find her! Everyone seemed to look alike. I had put a green hose wrap on her air2 hose and we painted a design on the bottom of her fins just so this wouldn't happen. For some reason, I looked up and saw the bottom of her fins! She seemed to be struggling at the surface. Of course all I could think of was there was some sort of big problem (concerned dad reaction). I went up and she was just mad saying she couldn't get down. We swam over to the boat and got her 4 pounds of weight and everything was good to go. We both went down, looked around and there was no one around. Everyone was GONE! There wasnt even a silt trail to follow. I figured since I didnt know where the hell I should be going, but was pretty sure of where I was, we werent going anywhere. We went back up and told the boat captain the situation and said we would be hanging around the boat. We went back down to about 20 feet and just cruised around until the group came back. When we got back on the boat, I talked to the DM about what happened. He was apologetic and concerned, which was comforting. As this was our first dive, I felt like it was a good warm up for us both. If I was a little more experienced, I might have been mad about getting left behind, but as a couple of newbies, we had a great time just tooling around. I think Annelle was a little more nervous than she was letting on, so this ended up being a good first dive. We then went to the next site, called Navy Barges and we were in the water again. We both got to the bottom fine and had a great time at about 35 feet. We saw lots of cool stuff (theres a technical term for you) and even took a few photos. Lots to learn about underwater photography. Did a couple of swim throughs, pretty exciting for first timers! It seemed like we had only been down a few minutes and it was time to go. I was pleased that I hadn't used up a bunch of air in a real dive. I seemed to be an air hog during cert dives. After roll call, we headed back to the shop. We were pretty pumped up and probably would have jumped right back in if we had the time. As it was, we settled for a few t-shirts and a stroll back to the ship.
A very positive first time experience for both of us! I would highly recommend Underwater Safaris. They seemed to follow good practices that I've read about here on SB, especially the roll calls.
Our next stop was St. Johns, Antigua where we had a kayak/snorkel excursion. We took a 25-minute taxi (minivan) ride. We got our belts and paddles and kayaked through some mangroves to a small beach. There we loaded into a boat to run out to the reef. Here I experienced the meaning of cattle boat. They had us pretty crowded (cheek to cheek). They seemed new to having to deal with this many people and many suggested to them to have the cruise line reduce the number of people per excursion or run two a day. Anyway after a short run (1/2 mile) everyone jumped in the water. We snorkeled around for about 45-55 minutes. Saw lots of fish, a small barracuda and many tourist butts. My younger daughter (10 y.o.) was the first one off the boat with the leader and one of the last back on. We all had a good time. After everyone was back on board (no roll call, I guess snorkelers don't count) the rum punch was passed around as we returned to the beach. We then kayaked back to the dock. We had an even more exciting ride back to the ship. Our driver seemed to be trying to qualify for the Antigua 500.
At St. Maarten we had signed up for a discover scuba dive with Dive Safaris (http://www.divestmaarten.com ). They met everyone at the cruise ship dock and we walked over to their boat, which took us across the bay to their shop. This shop seemed to be a little less retail oriented but had everything you needed for diving. They had radioed in everyone's equipment requirements so after signing paperwork, we loaded up. Everything was organized. BCD's, weights, fins, masks all at 'assigned' seats. The instructor went through his lesson while we sat at the dock. We were the only certified guests on the boat. I had decided to do this as I figured it would be a pretty easy dive and with our limited experience, I didn't mind any extra supervision. They divided everyone into groups of 4 and it ended up just the two of us with an instructor named Mike. It was awesome! While everyone else was doing skills in the confined area, he took us around the site called 'little bay'. We saw lots of fish I can't recall, a couple of eels, and some pretty cool urchins. We spent about 45 minutes with a max depth of 34 feet. Mike spent a lot of time writing names of stuff on his slate and showing us around. We got back on board and after roll call we went back. It seems as if a side benefit to diving is the accumulation of t-shirts as we couldn't resist buying one before they took us back over to the ship's dock.
That was it for water related activities for this trip. The staffs at both Underwater Safaris/Water World and Dive Safaris were great! Everyone was very friendly and seemed to know what they were doing. They all took great care to ensure that no one got dehydrated and offered everyone plenty of water.
In the future I would think twice before bringing our own gear on a cruise ship like this. It was a little bit of a hassle bringing the stuff back and forth and then trying to hang everything to dry in a cruise ship cabin was an experience.
We all had a great time and as you can tell I'm pretty excited about this newfound way to spend money! We're planning on doing some weekend camping/diving at Rawlings this summer and are looking for a Florida destination for spring break, possibly the Keys.
I've spent a lot of time reading on Scubaboard and appreciate everyone's comments and helpful information. For some reason, I don't feel the need to be at 100-130 feet. I had such a good time at 30 feet! I would like to get other certifications as I get more dives in. Especially as my wife and younger daughter want to get certified this spring as well. My paternal instincts are to be as prepared as possible to protect my family, so I am thinking rescue cert. at least, well see.
I would just say that I hope that I don't become bored by the easy stuff. There was so much to see on just the three dives we did on this trip, that I feel like I could have spent three weeks there just checking it out.
Thanks for reading and don't lose the wonder of it all!
This is a trip report for our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean onboard Holland America's ms Maasdam. We sailed from Norfolk, VA for a 10-day cruise on November 16th. My wife and I and our two daughters were really looking forward to this. My oldest daughter, Annelle (13 y.o.) and I got certified in October at Lake Rawlings, VA in anticipation of diving on this trip. We had booked several dive activities (excursions) through the cruise line, as this was both my first cruise and our first post-cert non-quarry diving.
Our first stop was Holland America's private island in the Bahamas called Half Moon Cay. We got there and headed over to the boat and were told by another worker that he didn't think there was diving that day since no one had set up the boat yet. So, with a sinking feeling we finally located the excursion staff and were told that the dive master didn't come to work that day. So we ended up just snorkeling around the swimming area for the day. We were pretty upset that we couldnt dive. We were counting on this being our warm up dive for the trip. Getting our weight right, getting used to salt water, etc. Not to whine too much (I know that belongs in a different section), but this was their (Holland Americas) private island. They should have had better control or at least a backup DM.
Our next dives were at St. Thomas. We were met by staff from Underwater Safaris/Water World (http://www.scubadivevi.com) on the cruise ship dock. We walked over to their shop at the Havensight Mall and did paperwork. While they worked through the non-certified divers' paperwork, we browsed around their shop. They had a good selection of everything diving and snorkeling related, clean and pretty well organized. Finally it was time to go. They divided up the certified and discover scuba divers and we walked a short way to where their boats were docked and loaded up. We went to a site called 'dive flag'. After a briefing and roll call, the pool was declared open and in we went. I did a weight check and was fine with 8 pounds. I checked Annelle and she seemed to be right where she needed to be, mask half way in the water. The DM said see you on the bottom and down we went. I was both excited and nervous to finally be doing something! As we went down I got a little turned around and ended up facing away from Annelle and facing the DM. I wasnt too worried as Annelle has never had problems equalizing and is pretty much a fish. When we got to the bottom, the DM started checking everyone's status. Since I was right there, I was the first one checked and she turned around checking everyone else. I started looking for Annelle and couldn't find her! Everyone seemed to look alike. I had put a green hose wrap on her air2 hose and we painted a design on the bottom of her fins just so this wouldn't happen. For some reason, I looked up and saw the bottom of her fins! She seemed to be struggling at the surface. Of course all I could think of was there was some sort of big problem (concerned dad reaction). I went up and she was just mad saying she couldn't get down. We swam over to the boat and got her 4 pounds of weight and everything was good to go. We both went down, looked around and there was no one around. Everyone was GONE! There wasnt even a silt trail to follow. I figured since I didnt know where the hell I should be going, but was pretty sure of where I was, we werent going anywhere. We went back up and told the boat captain the situation and said we would be hanging around the boat. We went back down to about 20 feet and just cruised around until the group came back. When we got back on the boat, I talked to the DM about what happened. He was apologetic and concerned, which was comforting. As this was our first dive, I felt like it was a good warm up for us both. If I was a little more experienced, I might have been mad about getting left behind, but as a couple of newbies, we had a great time just tooling around. I think Annelle was a little more nervous than she was letting on, so this ended up being a good first dive. We then went to the next site, called Navy Barges and we were in the water again. We both got to the bottom fine and had a great time at about 35 feet. We saw lots of cool stuff (theres a technical term for you) and even took a few photos. Lots to learn about underwater photography. Did a couple of swim throughs, pretty exciting for first timers! It seemed like we had only been down a few minutes and it was time to go. I was pleased that I hadn't used up a bunch of air in a real dive. I seemed to be an air hog during cert dives. After roll call, we headed back to the shop. We were pretty pumped up and probably would have jumped right back in if we had the time. As it was, we settled for a few t-shirts and a stroll back to the ship.
A very positive first time experience for both of us! I would highly recommend Underwater Safaris. They seemed to follow good practices that I've read about here on SB, especially the roll calls.
Our next stop was St. Johns, Antigua where we had a kayak/snorkel excursion. We took a 25-minute taxi (minivan) ride. We got our belts and paddles and kayaked through some mangroves to a small beach. There we loaded into a boat to run out to the reef. Here I experienced the meaning of cattle boat. They had us pretty crowded (cheek to cheek). They seemed new to having to deal with this many people and many suggested to them to have the cruise line reduce the number of people per excursion or run two a day. Anyway after a short run (1/2 mile) everyone jumped in the water. We snorkeled around for about 45-55 minutes. Saw lots of fish, a small barracuda and many tourist butts. My younger daughter (10 y.o.) was the first one off the boat with the leader and one of the last back on. We all had a good time. After everyone was back on board (no roll call, I guess snorkelers don't count) the rum punch was passed around as we returned to the beach. We then kayaked back to the dock. We had an even more exciting ride back to the ship. Our driver seemed to be trying to qualify for the Antigua 500.
At St. Maarten we had signed up for a discover scuba dive with Dive Safaris (http://www.divestmaarten.com ). They met everyone at the cruise ship dock and we walked over to their boat, which took us across the bay to their shop. This shop seemed to be a little less retail oriented but had everything you needed for diving. They had radioed in everyone's equipment requirements so after signing paperwork, we loaded up. Everything was organized. BCD's, weights, fins, masks all at 'assigned' seats. The instructor went through his lesson while we sat at the dock. We were the only certified guests on the boat. I had decided to do this as I figured it would be a pretty easy dive and with our limited experience, I didn't mind any extra supervision. They divided everyone into groups of 4 and it ended up just the two of us with an instructor named Mike. It was awesome! While everyone else was doing skills in the confined area, he took us around the site called 'little bay'. We saw lots of fish I can't recall, a couple of eels, and some pretty cool urchins. We spent about 45 minutes with a max depth of 34 feet. Mike spent a lot of time writing names of stuff on his slate and showing us around. We got back on board and after roll call we went back. It seems as if a side benefit to diving is the accumulation of t-shirts as we couldn't resist buying one before they took us back over to the ship's dock.
That was it for water related activities for this trip. The staffs at both Underwater Safaris/Water World and Dive Safaris were great! Everyone was very friendly and seemed to know what they were doing. They all took great care to ensure that no one got dehydrated and offered everyone plenty of water.
In the future I would think twice before bringing our own gear on a cruise ship like this. It was a little bit of a hassle bringing the stuff back and forth and then trying to hang everything to dry in a cruise ship cabin was an experience.
We all had a great time and as you can tell I'm pretty excited about this newfound way to spend money! We're planning on doing some weekend camping/diving at Rawlings this summer and are looking for a Florida destination for spring break, possibly the Keys.
I've spent a lot of time reading on Scubaboard and appreciate everyone's comments and helpful information. For some reason, I don't feel the need to be at 100-130 feet. I had such a good time at 30 feet! I would like to get other certifications as I get more dives in. Especially as my wife and younger daughter want to get certified this spring as well. My paternal instincts are to be as prepared as possible to protect my family, so I am thinking rescue cert. at least, well see.
I would just say that I hope that I don't become bored by the easy stuff. There was so much to see on just the three dives we did on this trip, that I feel like I could have spent three weeks there just checking it out.
Thanks for reading and don't lose the wonder of it all!
