Cruise ship dive experience - RCCL Oasis of the Seas

[TxThunder]

My 14 year old son and I had our first cruise ship dive experiences the first week of August while cruising on RCCL Oasis of the Seas using the shore excursions. We are somewhat recently certified (Memorial Day Weekend - OW, July 4th weekend - AOW), but had managed to get in 17 dives each prior to the cruise. We have our own gear that we brought along with us.

We had booked dives in St. Thomas and St. Martin, but due to tropical storm Emily we got rerouted to Costa Maya and Cozumel instead. We did a two tank dive at each location and came back very satisfied with our experience.

In Costa Maya, the group of divers got split into two groups. We were lucky to be assigned to the smaller boat and dove with just 2 other divers and a DM at two spots on the reef nearby. It was our first experience with a backroll entry, but it all went smoothly. We saw plenty of fish and a couple of turtles. I got some nice pics of one turtle lunching on the reef. We swam through some nice narrow coral "canyons" and found a few lion fish hiding underneath some small ledges (not many though, they had had an organized lion fish hunting competition recently, and our dive op had gotten first prize with 208 lion fish). Depths were up to 60ft on the first and about 40-45ft on the second dive. There was no real current and visibility was great, 50ft++ (at least for someone used to diving in murky lakes).

We were also quite satisfied with our Cozumel experience. We got picked up right off the cruise ship pier together with another 17 divers. We were divided into 3 separate groups, with a DM assigned to each. Both dives here were drift dives, the first a wall dive (San Francisco?) at up to 70ft, the second around 45ft or so. Again, plenty of life, including a nurse shark that swam a bit lower along the wall.

I've read a number of negative comments about cruise ship associated operators, but our experience was good and I thought appropriate to our level of skill and experience. I can see that more advanced divers may not be similarly excited. In conversation with other divers, there were a number of people that had been diving for years, but only during vacations, and thus had far fewer dives than us, so experience wise I don't think we trailed nor led the pack.

 

[Shasta_man]

It's funny because sometimes even with just 17 dives, you may be the most experienced diver.

Make sure to establish good habits, no matter where you go, like doing gear check before you put it on like checking weights, both regs, amount of air, and air turned on, etc then buddy gear checks before jumping in. Always.

 

[TxThunder]

It's funny because sometimes even with just 17 dives, you may be the most experienced diver.

Make sure to establish good habits, no matter where you go, like doing gear check before you put it on like checking weights, both regs, amount of air, and air turned on, etc then buddy gear checks before jumping in. Always.

Well, after those it's now 21 dives!

I'm very careful about checking the gear, test breathing both regs and making sure the air is on, and not just by checking the pressure, as some times it might have been turned off after pressurizing the regs; inflating my BC etc. Unfortunately, on my 16th dive, I did forget to put the weight pockets into my BC before hopping in. Since it was my first salt water dive it took me a minute or two to realize what I had forgotten. At first I just thought the extra buoyancy of the salty stuff was messing with me until I finally remembered where they were. I had pulled them out of the BC to avoid having the tank/bc fall out of the rack on the boat...

Only other minor mishap was around dive 8 or 9 when I descended with my snorkel in my mouth. The dry snorkel shut real quick, but easy enough to find my regulator and pop it into my mouth.

 

[ShootinSquid]

LOL!!! Not to resurect a really old thread, but I will be on the Oasis July 12-19 going to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. We will be in Nassau too short to dive (sucks) but I am hoping to get a dive in in St. Thomas. St. Maarten supposedly isn't the greatest either, and no diving excursions.

Overall, did you have a good experience on the ship??

Anyway, descending with the snorkel in the mouth isn't really a mishap.... it's just funny to watch.

If that's the worst that ever happens to you.... you are blessed by Neptune

 

[patrickusaf08]

I haven't been on any Oasis class ships but have been on a ton of RCCL ships to the eastern Caribbean. I have learned over time to just book the dives I want my self. Last time I went on a cruise on Grandeur of The Seas both my dives in St. Thomas and St. Marten were cancelled due to "lack of participation". I have decided to go through private organizations because with the cruise line unless they have a certain amount of people going off the ship then the cancel them. Going to Bermuda on July 4 on Grandeur and already have two days worth of diving booked. My suggestion if you ever go on a small ship off season, and you have been to the islands a few times would be to go private just to make sure you don't have to deal with the cruise ship canceling, also some dive shops may give a discount if you bring your own gear excluding tanks and weights.