TheDivingBear
Registered
Which is better (in your opinion), taking a cruise ship dive excursion or finding a LDS on your own?
Peace,
Bear
Peace,
Bear
Cruise ship excursions or LDS?
- Thread starter TheDivingBear
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Well, there are pluses and minuses to both.
The plus side for going with the ship excursion is that the ship will not leave without you if you get held up for some reason. If you book your own diving and are late or held up for anything (like motor won't start on the dive boat), the cruise ship will leave without you. The downside to doing the cruise ship excursion is that it typically costs more and you don't get to pick the dive op. You are stuck with whoever the cruise line has decided on, which usually means whoever the lowest bidder was.
HTH,
Jason
The plus side for going with the ship excursion is that the ship will not leave without you if you get held up for some reason. If you book your own diving and are late or held up for anything (like motor won't start on the dive boat), the cruise ship will leave without you. The downside to doing the cruise ship excursion is that it typically costs more and you don't get to pick the dive op. You are stuck with whoever the cruise line has decided on, which usually means whoever the lowest bidder was.
HTH,
Jason
MtnDiver
Guest
Just got back from a cruise to Cozumel on Monday.
We chose to not do the ship's excursion and went on our own and found a dive operator to dive with. I'm very glad we did. It ended up being just my wife, the divemaster, and I diving together. We saw much more than my friend who chose to do the cruise ship excursion and we didn't have to do our best impression of a sardine on the cattle boat like he did. Plus, we ended up paying the same amount for two people diving as he did for one person through the ship's excursion.
We chose to not do the ship's excursion and went on our own and found a dive operator to dive with. I'm very glad we did. It ended up being just my wife, the divemaster, and I diving together. We saw much more than my friend who chose to do the cruise ship excursion and we didn't have to do our best impression of a sardine on the cattle boat like he did. Plus, we ended up paying the same amount for two people diving as he did for one person through the ship's excursion.
matt_unique
Guest
You will pay more for the cruise ship to use the very same LDS. My last warm water dive trip was to Bermuda and I saved $20 a day using my own research with an LDS.
--Matt
--Matt
The overwhelming opinion I've heard on the subject is to go with the LDS. The only advantage to using the cruise line is that it's more convenient to set up. This is good for cattle boat-type folks that know very little about diving or diving trips.
I just got back from a crusie and booked through LDS - much better service than excursions (which i have used before). Also, if not enough people book on the excursion, they can cancel the trip and you are out of luck.
Edit: Plus, choosing your own LDS allows you to go away from the masses... not with them.
Edit: Plus, choosing your own LDS allows you to go away from the masses... not with them.
JRScuba
Contributor
I prefer looking for my own dive boat ( via the internet). The dive boats I used were accommodating brought me back to the ship hours before the ship was to sail.
In cozumel I used Aqua Safari.
In grand Cayman I used www.otwdivers.com
Had a really great time with OTW. Checkoout their guestbook.
Good luck and Safe diving.
Joe
In cozumel I used Aqua Safari.
In grand Cayman I used www.otwdivers.com
Had a really great time with OTW. Checkoout their guestbook.
Good luck and Safe diving.
Joe
- Messages
- 1,325
- Reaction score
- 41
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
Only time I'll use a cruise ship dive arrangement is when it is included in the price of the cruise. And you know how often that is.
Regards,
Regards,
OP
TheDivingBear
Registered
JRScuba:
Thanks, those are two places we are gitting and I'll check them out.
Peace,
Bear
Tod
Contributor
I have only been on one cruise in my life, so I don't have a whole lot to go on. But on that one cruise I did three scuba dive trips and one skin dive (snorkel) trip. Of the three scuba dives, one of those was booked by myself through a local LDS (Grand Caymon) and the two others were through the cuise line. (One had to be, because it was a "private island" stop they had.)
Of the three, the one I booked was the best just because of the location, the other two were not bad. The price was not all that much different, but the LDS was still less expensive. The cuise lines may vary from one to another in terms of their mark-up, but I can't really say since I've only been on one. I suspect they all do.
Cruise lines may also decide to cancel a trip if they don't get enough participants, or if the one operator they've booked can't make the date/time of the stop. So be prepared to book your own trips - I think you'll come out ahead.
Of the three, the one I booked was the best just because of the location, the other two were not bad. The price was not all that much different, but the LDS was still less expensive. The cuise lines may vary from one to another in terms of their mark-up, but I can't really say since I've only been on one. I suspect they all do.
Cruise lines may also decide to cancel a trip if they don't get enough participants, or if the one operator they've booked can't make the date/time of the stop. So be prepared to book your own trips - I think you'll come out ahead.
Similar threads
