Another cruise ship/dive op question

[Clearwater]

Hi, all. My wife and I will be stopping at Cozumel on the Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas next Wednesday. It is going to be a very tight schedule, as the ship is supposed to arrive at 7 a.m. and leave at 2 p.m. (At least it's supposed to be docked, which wasn't possible when we were there last year.)

I've already called several dive ops in Cozumel. Some like Blue XT Sea are filled that day, but most have told me it just won't be possible for them to get back in time for our departure. I've found one that said they might be able to get back in time, but that sounds a bit iffy.

Does anybody here know who Royal Caribbean uses for their scuba shore excursions? It might be our only choice to get some diving in on Coz. Any other suggestions will also be greatly appreciated!

 

[Christi]

Hi, all. My wife and I will be stopping at Cozumel on the Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas next Wednesday. It is going to be a very tight schedule, as the ship is supposed to arrive at 7 a.m. and leave at 2 p.m. (At least it's supposed to be docked, which wasn't possible when we were there last year.)

I've already called several dive ops in Cozumel. Some like Blue XT Sea are filled that day, but most have told me it just won't be possible for them to get back in time for our departure. I've found one that said they might be able to get back in time, but that sounds a bit iffy.

Does anybody here know who Royal Caribbean uses for their scuba shore excursions? It might be our only choice to get some diving in on Coz. Any other suggestions will also be greatly appreciated!

Yeh, the ship has really messed you up with that schedule.

The thing is that if the ship leaves at 2:00, that's probably SHIP time, which would be 1:00 Coz time...so that's something else you need to double check. You also have to be back to the ship 45 miutes to an hour before departure, which puts you back to 12:15 to 12:30. Even the ops that do short bottom times and short SI's would have a hard time getting you back.

Sand Dollar Sports is who the ships contract with. http://www.sanddollarsports.net/

They will cater the dives to the ship schedule...which will still mean they have to choose sites strategically and watch bottom time and SI times.

Your other option would be to charter a private boat....then pleasing other divers and sticking to a schedule for the other divers isn't an issue.

Sorry I don't have better news for you!

 

[Clearwater]

Thanks, Christi. BTW, I was the one who spoke with you on the phone earlier today. I know it'll be tight but we'll just see what we can do. And thanks for letting me know who RCCL uses -- I saw Sand Dollar mentioned in an older post but didn't know if that was still the case.

 

[scubawife]

Have you checked the boards at Cruise Critic to see if you can find a few more divers on your sailings who might be interested in doing a charter with you? Or maybe there's someone who's already booked a boat and is looking for more divers. If you can get 4 or 6 divers you should be able to find a boat who will accomodate your schedule. Since it's only a week out the selection of available dive ops could be limited, but there should be someoone who will accomodate.

 

[Trainacomin]

The thing is that if the ship leaves at 2:00, that's probably SHIP time, which would be 1:00 Coz time...so that's something else you need to double check. You also have to be back to the ship 45 miutes to an hour before departure, which puts you back to 12:15 to 12:30. Even the ops that do short bottom times and short SI's would have a hard time getting you back.

Why would ships time be an hour ahead? The Splendour comes out of Galveston which is the same time zone as Coz?

Clint

 

[hlcdlc]

We dove with Sand Dollar Sports over Thanksgiving, as we were staying at the Reef Club, where they are located. It's maybe 15 minutes from town.

I can tell you they got the cruise ship people out of there earlier than those of us staying on the resort, and they were cleared out before we returned from our two tank dive. So apparently they WILL manage to accomodate the ship's schedule. have fun!

 

[Christi]

Why would ships time be an hour ahead? The Splendour comes out of Galveston which is the same time zone as Coz?

Clint

Because most ships don't come out of Galveston. Most of them come from the East Coast. Ship time is the same time zone as the departure ports time zone. I don't know where every ship departs from, that's not something I have memorized. Even so, 2:00 Coz time would mean back on the ship by 1:30 at the latest, and that's a hard guarantee to make.

 

[dartref]

My experience has been that the ship always changes to local time at the beginning of each day. I've been on many Carnival Cruises...maybe it's just them.

 

[nyprrthd]

We've been on 14 cruises. The ships have always changed to local time, in every port we visited.

Princess used Dive House the last time we dove in Coz from a ship. We had a great experience (6 divers on a 32+/- foot boat!), but the 20 divers on the smaller Dive House boat were not pleased.

 

[Clearwater]

Thanks to everyone for their quick replies to this thread. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out. It's too late to book the shore excursion online now anyway, and I'm still hearing back from e-mail I sent earlier to some operators (one from Blue Angel today indicated their 8:30 dive might work).