Vacation planning help required

[tadeotadeo]

Have you lookd into San Andres Island
I think Air Canada has direct flights in the winter months.Then a get one of the all inclusive package deal with Decameron for your accomidation. Several dive ops there worth diving with.

 

[vonmosh]

I took an 11 day Royal Caribbean cruise that stopped at 9 islands and I dove 7 of them. The cruise left from Puerto Rico and I dove there too. Don't listen to the nay say about diving from cruise ships. Just go by your cruise itinerary and email ahead to the dive shops on each island. The islands I dove were, St. Martin, St. Kittts, St. Lucia, St Barts, Barbados, Curacao and Aruba. Trip of a lifetime, and I don't know of anyway I would have ever got to dive these islands in 11 days. It was awesome, and I think that Royal Caribbean still offers this trip.

 

[DRsharky]

We had few clients from cruise ships too, and they said about the same what vonmosh said, even though they came with different company not Royal Cruise. They go for cruises to different islands, they contact dive ops from all stops to arrange some diving, they dive everywhere and where they like it, they go for a diving vacation later. Not a bad idea.

 

[Scubagolf]

I took an 11 day Royal Caribbean cruise that stopped at 9 islands and I dove 7 of them. The cruise left from Puerto Rico and I dove there too. Don't listen to the nay say about diving from cruise ships. Just go by your cruise itinerary and email ahead to the dive shops on each island. The islands I dove were, St. Martin, St. Kittts, St. Lucia, St Barts, Barbados, Curacao and Aruba. Trip of a lifetime, and I don't know of anyway I would have ever got to dive these islands in 11 days. It was awesome, and I think that Royal Caribbean still offers this trip.

Did a couple of similar cruises with my non-diving family members. The key is to pre-arrange your diving with operators on the islands where you want to dive. The are almost universally conversant via e-mail, will generally pick you up at the dock, and you will usually get better diving without the hassle and "cattle car" arrangements usually made by cruise ship contracted dive operators. Less expensive, too.

Having said that, my wife and I are going to Scuba Club Cozumel the first week of April. Maybe not the best choice for a non-diving spouse, but you may want to look at either the El Presidente Cozumel (upscale hotel) or and Cozumel Palace (upscale all-inclusive.) We have stayed at and enjoyed both in the recent past.

 

[caymaniac]

I would choose the fartherest most travel that you can afford. Maybe Australia or Fiji, somewhere you will remember for awhile as kids do change your vacation picture.
I will advise you that you still take one week a year to travel somewhere together, diving or no diving as it is much, much, much cheaper than a lawyer.
We stayed in the Caribbean when the kids were small, when they were older we took them with us or went to far away places like South Africa, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.
Those exotic places are exciting, pre kid we went to the Red Sea and Europe. The diving in the Red Sea was great.
You would love Cairns, lots of beaches just north a little, liveaboard possibilities, lots of eateries and plenty things to sight see including the GBR.

 

[ScubaduoAdventures]

As the others have said you have picked a very busy time to go but if it is the only time you have consider this:

If you choose the cruise ship you get the cruise ship dive operators which may have you on crowded boats and because they have to get you back to the boat by a precise time they may not be able to take you to the best dive sites!

Why do you lock yourself in with these Canadian tour operators who give you such limited choices when the internet offers you so much more? Take a look online at the all inclusive dive resorts for the locals you want to dive at, I am sure you will find a lot more choices and maybe some better prices and use a agent if you must for the airfare.
For example if I was going to roatan which is a beautiful laid back island with great diving I would look at staying at Fantasy Island or Anthonys Key Resort, both have packages which include rooms, food and multiple dives a day but Roatan is mainly for diving but you could go over to La Ceiba from the island to white water raft and see some beautiful nature.
Some one mentioned Grand Cayman Which has fantastic diving and a multiple choice of other things to do, you could look at staying at the sunset house for instance which offers all inclusive pricing and there are many others, it is also way easy to book your own flights from canada. We are actualy going ourselves in two days!!
Feel free to asks us any questions.

 

[Compression]

Thailand to far? Similan Islands.

 

[Damselfish]

Perhaps you're struggling with this because you're limiting yourself to mass-market tour operators and packages, which for a diver tend not to be very useful. Even if they happen to offer packages to a place generally known for good diving, the hotel choices they offer are usually not the best choices for a diver due to factors like location, convenience, quality of the on-site dive op, etc. They have other priorities. Do some research, see what dive destinations it's easy/reasonable to get to from Toronto (if that's important), then pick an appropriate place to stay and dive in those places. It's not hard once you get into it. If you accidentally eliminate everyplace, start over.

If you really want someone to do it all for you, there are a number of good dive travel agencies that specialize in this sort of thing. Even if you leave it to a dive travel agent, you still want to do some of your own research to make sure they are pointing you the right direction.

As a relatively new diver, you may discover your favorite evening activity is to sleep. Once you get past that, your new favorite evening activity may be night diving.

If you're stuck on packaged tour operators and not comfortable with booking a land based trip yourself, you may actually find the cruise thing more challenging. Booking the cruise ship dive excursions is easy and stress free, but they have a reputation for being of less quality, shorter dives, not the best sites, and more expensive than doing it on your own. If you decide you want to go your own way to get better prices and diving, you'd have to research each port, figure out if the cruise ship excursion or something else makes more sense there, possibly figure out how you're getting there, and worry about getting back on time.

The Curacao Marriott Beach resort might indeed be a good choice for you. It's a nice place and good compromise of everything.

There are lots of nice places on Grand Cayman, but if you prefer higher end places Sunset house probably won't meet your expectations.