I was in Belieze at the end of January on a cruise with my wife, and didn't have enough time on the island to book my own dives, so I tried the one being sold on the ship.
I didn't have high expectations, since Carnival's dives usually consist of 40 minutes of staring at a dead reef through cloudy water, but since I didn't have much of a choice, I figured even a bad dive is better than no dive.
The dives were with Hugh Parkey's Belize Dive Connection, and I'd like to take this opportunity to give them a big round of applause!
Even though they had a boat full of 20 or so Carnival Cruise Passengers (including myself) they didn't just dump everybody and say "Be back in an hour" like I've seen in a number of other places.
They took the time to make small groups of divers according to their ability and air-hoovering probability so everybody had the best dives possible.
We got to stay under as long as our air held out, and had a great time. The water was crystal clear and the reef was in great shape. Besides pointing out interesting creatures, our DM even took the time to write their names on a dive slate (unfortunately, I don't remember most of the names
)
I saw tons of critters including hundreds of brilliant yellow and purple fish (two different kinds), a really cool eel with lots of very sharp teeth and several really large rays, which look like they just escaped form a sci-fi movie.
I can't wait to get back there to dive again (maybe this time I can stay for a week instead of a day).
Keep up the great work guys! You completely blew my expectations out of the water.
