Royal Carribean

[Mark GH2O]

[GOOGLE][/GOOGLE]Anyone know who Royal Carribean books their dive excursions with? I plan to dive with my two teenagers in March and find myself having a difficult time trying to decide on setting something up on my own or through the ship. The ship is easiest of course.

I want enjoyable dives for all without tons of people on the boat. I am a fairly experienced diver and my teenagers are fairly comfortable in the water but only have 10 or so dives in.

I understand that the cruise ships do not always keep schedule (9-5) but it seems that we could ge back by 4:30 on an afternoon dive (but since it is tendered who knows)?

thanks - Mark

 

[dl348]

They use Don Fosters.

 

[diversteve]

I thought it was Red Sail:

We are the on-island operator for the following cruise lines:
Royal Caribbean International,
The Disney Cruise Line
Costa Cruises

http://www.redsailcayman.com/gc_cruise.html

I want enjoyable dives for all without tons of people on the boat.

My personal opinion - that's not them. Look at their boats to get a sizing of their operation. IMO Foster's looks similar.

Try Neptunes, WalltoWall or Off the Wall. Most will pick you up at/near the cruise dock also.

 

[drl]

Last time we sailed with them it was Red Sail Sports. But it could have changed.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

It was Red Sail Sports last April (2006) when we took a cruise. Definitely a crowded cattle-operation type boat. Next time I'll book the excursion myself and pay a bit more to get a smaller, less stressful environment.

 

[billinwilliamston]

If you're worried about getting back to the ship, forgo the dive boats and walk two blocks to Eden Rock. You can do a decent shore dive with an easy entry and still have plenty of time for a couple of cold beverages (or a second tank, or both) before the last tender leaves. As a bonus, you'll save somewhere between $275-$300 US between the three of you.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Red Sail lost that contract. It is now Don Foster's.

 

[flyhimd]

We dove on a Royal Caribbean cruise in December (Cayman, Belize, Cozumel, and Mahahual). Except for Belize we made our own arrangements. Divers Down (diversdown.net) is a short walk from the new cruise pier, and you can rent gear and do a shore dive from the shop in the harbor...the Wreck of the Cali is the attraction there, so you can probably Google around for some pictures to see what you'd be in for.

We did their Stingray City dive, but in retrospect, we should have just done some shore diving or their afternoon boat dive. But Stingray City is one of those "gotta do" trophy dives, so opted for that. It was OK, but wouldn't do it again...I was extremely bored after about 10 minutes and just sat on the bottom and watched everyone else feed sun-ripened squid to the rays. All I could think about was the fact that these animals also have to perform "bodily functions" and judging from drop in visibility trailed behind the swarm of creatures, they did quite a bit of that. I guess it's revenge for all the divers who relieve themselves in their ocean.

The only other downside was the travel to and from the dive site. The shop van picked up several other divers at their hotels, and then had to make a stop at their second location where they provided rental gear. Because of that, the van time was longer than the bottom time.

If we were going to do it again, we'd just shore dive from Divers Down. Don't know your ship's ports of call, but for Mahahual, we used Blue Ocean Safari (had an awesome time...fell in love with the place...great people, picture-perfect setting, divemasters who treated you like house guests), and for Cozumel went with Blue XTSea (also a first-class operation). Have fun!

 

[Mark GH2O]

Thanks for the replies. We did some night dives at Eden Rock exactly 20 years ago. They were pretty good. Thought it might be getting a littly beat up. Think the day we are in port is the busiest day of the week for cruise ships plus it is spring break.

Suspect the local shore dives would be very busy-

Mark

 

[TN Traveler]

Take a cab up to the DiveTech site at the Turtle Farm and shore dive from there. It is not crowded and the diving is great. Short swim (50 yards) to the mini-mall (drops from 25 to 60 ft) - go left to the Tarpon Cave on one dive and right for a different type of sea life. If you want to swim out further (another 100-150 yards) there is a deeper wall.

You can eat at the Cracked Conch, on the same property, and have a great meal (a little pricey) when you are done diving.