Advice needed - PADI certified divers but 1st time Cruisers

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Andale, KS
Hello everyone! We are going on our first cruise this coming June and I'm wanting to find out other's experiences and advice on booking dives through the cruise line or booking direct with an independent dive shop at the destinations? We are most excited about diving Grand Turk and will be in port from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, so we have a full day, BUT the company that the cruise line uses has not gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor with comments about pretty much "in and out" dives without being able to enjoy the wall or any depth for any length of time.

Could you all please share your wisdom? Book independently or book through the ship?
 
We cruise with Disney (with kids) and dive most ports. If the port timings are close I'll use the ships excursions as I'm confident that they'll get us back in time. If there is a good buffer I'll book online. Sometimes reviews aren't applicable to you or your situation, sometimes they are. It's always a gamble, you just have to decide how much. We've yet to have anything serious go wrong in our years of cruising.


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Hello everyone! We are going on our first cruise this coming June and I'm wanting to find out other's experiences and advice on booking dives through the cruise line or booking direct with an independent dive shop at the destinations? We are most excited about diving Grand Turk and will be in port from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, so we have a full day, BUT the company that the cruise line uses has not gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor with comments about pretty much "in and out" dives without being able to enjoy the wall or any depth for any length of time.

Could you all please share your wisdom? Book independently or book through the ship?


Going to St. Kitts by any chance?
 
Which cruise line? Which ports? Sometimes it is not worth trying to book privately and I'd just go with the cruise line. However, which cruise line and which port will make a difference. Mostly, which port you go to will make a difference. Some ports the dive shops understand the cruise line schedules and they can pick you up at the cruise ship port. Other islands don't allow dive boats to pick you up at the cruise ship port. What time you get into port and how long you are going to be there can make a difference. For example, I'd go with Ocean Encounters or The Dive Bus in Curacao. However they are both not near the cruise line port and you have to find your way to the dive shop and back to the cruise ship. If the ship disembarks late and leaves early, you might not be able to go out with certain dive shops.

If you miss the ship because the cruise ship approved dive shop is late, the ship will wait for you. If you are late because a private dive shop ran late, the cruise ship will leave without you. You then have to find a way to catch up with the ship at the next port.

Typically, if you go with the cruise ship excursions they will be packed and short. The dive operator is trying to maximize profits. The first person to run out of air usually ends the dive. You are expected to stay with the guide and everyone ends the dive at the same time. This typically makes the dives fairly short. I usually hang out on CruiseCritic.com and ask the divers there. Most will tell me for a given port and cruise line whether I should book privately and with who I should book.
 
I checked my dive logs for ship's excursion dive times vs independent bookings, and do not find that much of a difference in average bottom time between the two dive options. Granted, I am usually on a boat with a mixed assortment of diver capabilities in both scenarios, and not on six pack boats with a more homogeneous, higher diver experience/capability. Even with a small group, the dive usually ends when DM decides to end the dive, and that decision could be based on anything from someone reaching the agreed upon minimum air pressure, to the DM deciding to end the dive for any other reason. I have had great, and not so good, dives with both ship excursions and independent operators, and decide which to use at a particular port based on how much pad time is available before the ship departs, and my risk vs reward tolerance for that port. On a recent cruise, a missed ship departure would have been extremely expensive and difficult to catch up to the ship, so it was a no brainer as to which dive option to use. Other times, the decision is not so cut and dry, and you need to weigh all the options, costs, and consider back up plans to determine if any extra potential time under water warrants the risks.
 
Hello everyone! We are going on our first cruise this coming June and I'm wanting to find out other's experiences and advice on booking dives through the cruise line or booking direct with an independent dive shop at the destinations? We are most excited about diving Grand Turk and will be in port from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, so we have a full day, BUT the company that the cruise line uses has not gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor with comments about pretty much "in and out" dives without being able to enjoy the wall or any depth for any length of time.

Could you all please share your wisdom? Book independently or book through the ship?

There is always the exception but generally if you book with the cruise ship you will be diving with other people on the cruise ship. Generally speaking cruise ship passengers are known in the industry to be awful, inexperienced, out of shape and out of practice divers. As a result most cruise ship dive shop vendors make the dives for cruise shippers to be very easy, shallow and sometimes boring dives. Often times you will find yourself with a large group of divers with numerous problems. Often times a cruise ship dive vendor will be all about getting the divers in and out of the water and back to the cruise ship. They typically are known to not be too worried about providing a great experience for the divers since you will only be diving with them for the day. Also, I'm sorry to say that 90% of cruise ship divers are the most needy divers out there but DON'T TIP, so most DMs have little motivation to help you have a great experience.

So, my recommendation is book your diving separately and take some tip money with you. Just because you don't tip on the cruise ship doesn't mean you shouldn't tip your dive professional when you go diving.
 
BUT the company that the cruise line uses has not gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor with comments about pretty much "in and out" dives without being able to enjoy the wall or any depth for any length of time.
Who is it? Oasis Divers? Options on Grand Turk are pretty limited - there's only 3 I know of:

Blue Water Divers
Grand Turk Diving
Oasis Divers

The wall in some areas can be done as a surface swim so it's not like you're going to have too much worry about missing the your departure time there. There's about 40 dive sites along it also.
 
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There is always the exception but generally if you book with the cruise ship you will be diving with other people on the cruise ship. Generally speaking cruise ship passengers are known in the industry to be awful, inexperienced, out of shape and out of practice divers. As a result most cruise ship dive shop vendors make the dives for cruise shippers to be very easy, shallow and sometimes boring dives. Often times you will find yourself with a large group of divers with numerous problems. Often times a cruise ship dive vendor will be all about getting the divers in and out of the water and back to the cruise ship. They typically are known to not be too worried about providing a great experience for the divers since you will only be diving with them for the day. Also, I'm sorry to say that 90% of cruise ship divers are the most needy divers out there but DON'T TIP, so most DMs have little motivation to help you have a great experience.

So, my recommendation is book your diving separately and take some tip money with you. Just because you don't tip on the cruise ship doesn't mean you shouldn't tip your dive professional when you go diving.

Compared to what other group of divers? If you compare cruise ship divers in general to people that dive every weekend or perhaps several times a week, then yes, they probably are not as proficient or capable, nor would you expect them to be. However, from what I have seen, cruise divers are no more, or less, capable than the majority of "vacation divers" that I have seen on cruises, land based vacation resorts or just on a weekend trip. These infrequent or low experienced divers all have to deal with the same issues related to the amount and frequency of their dives, and should not be compared to the overwhelming number of super divers on this website. I think many super divers sometimes forget that they were once the un-proficient, incompetent, and needy divers that they love to criticize. As far as tipping is concerned, I think the problem is that most vacation divers do not read ScubaBoard, or any other dive forums, and are not schooled in dive tipping etiquette, and the problem is worse if the diver comes from non-tipping societies. Lead by example.
 
I hope I'm the exception to that......


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Compared to what other group of divers? If you compare cruise ship divers in general to people that dive every weekend or perhaps several times a week, then yes, they probably are not as proficient or capable, nor would you expect them to be. However, from what I have seen, cruise divers are no more, or less, capable than the majority of "vacation divers" that I have seen on cruises, land based vacation resorts or just on a weekend trip. These infrequent or low experienced divers all have to deal with the same issues related to the amount and frequency of their dives, and should not be compared to the overwhelming number of super divers on this website. I think many super divers sometimes forget that they were once the un-proficient, incompetent, and needy divers that they love to criticize. As far as tipping is concerned, I think the problem is that most vacation divers do not read ScubaBoard, or any other dive forums, and are not schooled in dive tipping etiquette, and the problem is worse if the diver comes from non-tipping societies. Lead by example.

Compared to divers that go to dive locations specifically for the purpose of diving. It's not a matter of being a super diver and I certainly don't mean to come off as acting like I think I'm a "super diver." But I have worked at at dive shop in the Caribbean and have seen it over and over, so much so that I would continually find myself wondering how in the heck they ever got certified to begin with. Lastly I'm not criticizing any particular person. I was just explaining why a person might not want to sign up for a cruise ship dive excursion.

---------- Post added December 28th, 2014 at 10:17 PM ----------

I hope I'm the exception to that......


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I'm sure you are! There are plenty of exceptions, but unfortunately there's a large percentage who aren't
 
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