Caribbean Cruise - Diving as an Excursion

[jnberke]

Hello,

My wife, 4 year old and I are going on a Western Caribbean cruise in January. I am NAUI advance and primarily dive in CA, but my wife and child are non-divers but want to snorkel. My daughter snorkels at Casino Pt. in Catalina, so she's okay in the water.

What I would love are some reccomendations of operators that pick up at the Cruise ship docks and would accomodate this type of diver/snorkeler combo. Someone who is also family friendly would be great.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had this experience. Here is where we will be stopping:

Ocho Rios
Georgetown, Grand Cayman (although I think Stingray City and the Atlantis sub might take all the time)
Key West
Cozumel

Thanks,

-j

[Tim Ingersoll]

You might want to use your search function. There is a lot of info on the board on this subject in previous threads. In answer to your question I have cruised a couple of times and would give the following basic advice:
1) Cruise ship sponsored excursions are a little more expensive and will give you less of a bang for your buck. They tend to be cattle boat operations who are geared to the lowest common denominator. Bottom time and max. depth are severely limited. They do, however, guarantee no worries about getting back to the ship on time.
2) If you choose to make your own arrangements remember that the cruise ship may dock at 8:00 a.m. but you may not be able to get off until 9:00 or 9:30.
3) I highly recommend chartering your own boat in Cozumel. You will pay more but be guaranteed of doing what you want when you want to do it. Aldora Divers did this for me. We (2 divers) found another diver on board the cruise and split a charter three ways. It was a little more expensive but we had the boat to ourselves.
When it comes right down to it even the cruise ship sponsored ops are better than lounging around the ship all morning or strolling down yet another "tourista walk". Good luck!

[jnberke]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions, Tim. I'll do a search and see what I can turn up. I agree, chartering a boat in Cozumel might be a great way to go. That way we have a lot more flexibility.

-j

[eggman131]

Hey J - Regarding Key West, I found that of the 3 different operators I used, all accomodated snorkelers without a problem. Sea Breeze had a particularly friendly crew and now that I think about it would be very convenient for you from where you'll be docked. There were no kids aboard but I sensed that it wouldn't be a problem.

I'm jealous!:)

[jnberke]

Thanks Eggman, (& KooKooKeJoob),

I'll check it out SeaBreeze - because we'll probably do a full Keys trip sometime soon. My daughter has done some snorkeling in Catalina and she liked that so I'm sure warm water Caribbean diving will blow her mind!

-j

[Tim Ingersoll]

Key West snorkeling is pretty good although the diving leaves something to be desired.