Celebrity scuba excursions

[Rick_A]

My wife and I are doing a Celebrity cruise to the Southern Caribbean at the end of May. When we booked it, we weren't thinking about diving but after we booked it, we realized is an awesome scuba itinerary (Grand Cayman, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao).

The cruise line offers scuba excursions but you can only sign-up for them once onboard. I presume they want to check dive credentials before signing people up for diving. The excursions are reasonably priced so there is no big saving by booking with local dive operators ourselves.

However, I am concerned that there may not be many divers onboard and the ship may cancel dive trips due to lack of participation.

Has anyone done any diving on a Celebrity cruise within the last 2 or 3 years? If so, was your experience like?

 

[yle]

I would call Celebrity and ask. I've dived from a cruise ship many times, sometimes using the ship's excursion, and have always been able to sign up well in advance. No one has ever wanted to check my cert card prior to me signing up for the excursion. They state that the excursion is only for certified divers and that the responsibility of presenting my cert card to the dive op is all mine.

The only reason the dive excursions might not fill is if people have to wait until they board to sign up. Otherwise, there will be plenty of others on board that have the same idea as you do.

If you're at all concerned, look for other dive ops. Most of my cruise ship diving has been directly with the dive ops (i.e. not through the ship's excursion desk.) I haven't been to the ABC islands, but I know in Grand Cayman the west end (where the cruise ships drop anchor) is covered with dive ops that would be more than happy to accommodate you.

 

[lunula]

We did a similar itinerary on Celebrity back in 2013 and decided against the ship excursions. All the dive shops we went with in 6 different ports (we skipped diving in two ports) were experienced in working with cruise ship passengers and understand that timing is a big deal. Most of them gave us instructions for getting to the shop, a few even helped us coordinate having a cab meet us at the ship and at the shop when the dives were over. One time, we were able to walk off the ship and to an adjacent pier where the boat picked us up. All of them let us pay in advance if we wanted.

On the cruise, we were also in Aruba (went with Happy Divers) & Curacao (went with the Dive Bus) and had great experiences with both. We've also gone to Bonaire 4x now for week-long trips, not sure about how they deal with cruise ship passengers since shore diving is so prevalent, but I'd wager that the shops are happy to coordinate with passengers.

FYI - we spoke to 2 different divers on board who both said they weren't thrilled w/ ship dive excursions. Apparently one was canceled due to only 2 people signing up and one was apparently a "shared" experience with a different group of cruise ship passengers and he said the boat was way overcrowded and the dives were very short.

 

[noj3333]

What @lunula said. Book outside the cruse ship for the best prices and experience. The only benefit to the cruse ship is the will hold the ship if your late. If you book with someone close to the cruise port they'll be accustomed to cruise guests and they'll have you back with plenty of time to spare.

In bonaire I recommend VIP Diving. They cost a little bit more money, but they were great when we were on out last cruise.

 

[AlexL]

FYI - we spoke to 2 different divers on board who both said they weren't thrilled w/ ship dive excursions.

its very much a lowest common denominator dive operation when you go with the ship excursions. we've done ship scuba excursions on two celebrity itineraries, and each one was pretty forgetful, even our first open water ocean dive. :-/ unless you're dealing with a very tight time window in port, i'd strongly consider booking a 3rd party dive op, which is what we're doing with our upcoming cruise in 2018.

FWIW, the wife and I were the only couple out of a group of 15~25 cruisers that were on the scuba excursions who lugged our gear with us. if you do take your own gear and you're on a solstice class, one of your first pit stops after muster drills should be to track down the pool deck manager and ask permission to rinse your gear in the corner of the lower pool deck next to the showers and and under the stairs up to the upper pool deck (far side left and right on attached picture) they were very accommodating in this regard, and were thankful that we asked first. there's a sturdy hand rail under the stairs that is perfect for hanging gear to up to dry, of the way of traffic, but within a moment's walk to the pool bar and the upper deck grill. sure beats trying to rinse gear in those super tiny berth showers. also works for a nice calling card for other divers (and non divers) to stop and chit chat a bit.

 

[ronscuba]

I've dove with the Royal Caribbean cruise excursion and booking on my own. The main deciding factor was what time the ship docked and how long it is in port.

Booking on your own means coordinating times, transportation and locations between the dive operator and the cruise ship. Some dive operators are conveniently located near the cruise pier, others not. Although booking on your own will be cheaper, it will take additional time and effort. Depending on timing, the cruise excursion might be the better choice.

When I dove with the cruise excursion, dives were 45-55 minutes. I've booked on my own when I had my own group of 4 divers.

For Bonaire, I suggest doing shore dives at Buddies or Den Laman.

 

[arcticat99]

i booked my excursions through princess cruise ahead of time and yes you need to show your padi card at the dive shops .i dove grand turks grand caymen and cozumel. not all divers come off the cruise ship there were divers that were there from other ships and local hotels so i wouldnt worry about it being cancelled ,one thing about going through the cruise line is they really take care of you .and make sure you come back.when booking an excursion through the cruise line you are guaranteed the ship will wait if there are any delays but if you book outside the cruise and something happens like boat running late .the cruise line wont wait

 

[Rick_A]

We ended up doing a self-guide shore dive at Eden Rock in Grand Cayman - our 1st open water dive after our refresher course. We then did 2 dives in Curacao with Bas Harts (great dives & highly recommend Bas Harts).

My wife had a problem with one ear, so she skipped diving in Bonaire. I dove with Dive Friends, just a 2 minute walk from the cruise dock. Those dives were also very good but I actually liked the Curacao dives better.

 

[CGE925]

i booked my excursions through princess cruise ahead of time and yes you need to show your padi card at the dive shops .i dove grand turks grand caymen and cozumel. not all divers come off the cruise ship there were divers that were there from other ships and local hotels so i wouldnt worry about it being cancelled ,one thing about going through the cruise line is they really take care of you .and make sure you come back.when booking an excursion through the cruise line you are guaranteed the ship will wait if there are any delays but if you book outside the cruise and something happens like boat running late .the cruise line wont wait

Close, but only partially true. The only real benefit to a ship's dive excursion (actually, any ship's shore excursion) is that they take responsibility for getting you back to the ship. A cruise ship will only wait WITHIN REASON. If some delay causes a ship's excursion to be really delayed, the ship will depart after waiting a reasonable amount of time, but THEY are now responsible for getting you back to the ship, even flying you to the next stop if necessary.