Celebrity or Royal Caribbean cruise lines--dive op on Cozumel?

[jimw]

We are visiting Coz in January, '18 and have some onboard credit to use, so we are considering taking the ship trip for a 2 tank dive. Wondering who the dive operation contracted with Celebrity or corporate parent RCI is? I know they do offer a dive trip--just not who the dive op IS.

 

[Ricardo V.]

Jim,
It's been a while, but I think It was Sand Dollar Cozumel.

They picked us up at the dock, we them hopped on a bus that took us south into a resort that has since changed names, but then it was the Wyndham Cozumel from where the operator at the time ran boats from. We did 2 sites, both ended up being good experiences. There was ofcourse a guide with a video camera selling footage of your dive. At first, they wanted $100, by the time we returned to the terminal, the CD had dropped to $20.

It was a good experience and we enjoyed it.

Today, we would not repeat going with this operator because we would be looking for less crowded conditions, less frequented dive sites, longer bottom times and would be staying in Cozumel for several days but considering it's a cruise excursion, it was fine.

When staying in Cozumel, we prefer to go with operators that cater to smaller groups and that offer steel tanks, nitrox and longer surface intervals.

Hope this helps.

Ricardo

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

On our first cruise after certification, Sandollar was the ships dive op. I read several reviews on TripAdvisor and decided to go a different route. Since there were 4 of us, we chartered a boat through Dive With Martin. It was about $400 and we had our own boat, we chose when and where to dive, and the DWM dock was next to the International pier. It took far longer to get off the boat than it did to walk to DWM. I hope I will always remember the feeling of my first backroll into Carribbean Blue water.

We dive with Aldora now and recommend them without hesitation. DWM was great as well. If you're using ship credits so it's basically free diving, Sandollar (if it is sandollar) might be worth the chance. Even bad diving in Cozumel is better than good diving in a lot of places. The comments that steered me away were related tocrowded boats, short dives and very used equipment. That was 4 years ago, it may have changed.

Good luck, safe travels,
Jay

 

[DjDiverDan]

Many, many, MANY years ago, when I first got certified (1989) I dove several trips over 3-4 years with Fantasia Divers (they're no longer around) basically because it was owned by an Americam ex-pat that was a friend of the owner of my local dive shop. I quit using them after they started contracting with the cruise ship lines because of bad experiences - mostly the divers coming off the cruise ships, at least half of whom were still hung over from drinking themselves to sleep the prior night, and most of whom were only casual divers who hadn't been diving in a few years and were very careless about things like kicking you in the face while going through swim-thrus, dragging their consoles, fins, and hands all overthe reefs, and having no control over their bouyancy. But I did listen to the owner and DMs constant bitching about the Cruise lines - they demand a big kickback from all excursion contractors. If you pay the cruise line $100 for a two-tank dive, it's likely the contractor Dive Op will only get $50-$60. And that will affect your dive experience (also, Cruisers are notoriously bad about tipping the DMs). You'll save money AND get better dives with pretty much any dive op that you arrange diving with privately, and pretty much all of them will make certain that you get back to the boat on time.

 

[robint]

We were just on a cruise in May that stopped in Cozumel and used the cruise ship dive op, Sand Dollar. I think they are the only one for all the cruise lines now. So if you have enough people in your group to schedule a whole boat with an independent dive op, you best bet is to go with them.
We were satisfied with them, but they weren't the best we have ever used, and clearly not the worst. They did a good job considering it was raining and current was stronger than normal, vis was lower due to rain and cloudy conditions. I am sure you would get better dives with an independent, but if you can't book a whole boat you are stuck. That was our problem, but turned out better than we expected. We have read such horrible reports on them, but it wasn't bad at all. We were diving all week with the same people (2 ships docking at same ports each day, so some from each ship) and with Cozumel our last day of diving we knew each other and who to watch. We did have one dude with a camera who swam around like a maniac and got low on air both dives. The two DMs went in with our group of 8 divers that day, and one ended up taking him up at the end of each dive while the other stayed with the rest of us. You can get bozos like that on any trip though, not because he was a cruiser. No one in the group was a noob, so we had zero problems diving together... except for the one dude who had to go up early.
Seriously, I would use them again if we decide to dive from a cruise ship in Cozumel again. But I prob won't dive our next cruise there. Cozumel has so many great excursions that I want to do something else next time.
FYI - we just did a week land based dive vacation to Cozumel last month, so we do love divng Cozumel..... its just that we want to do other things there, too.
My dive log:
#1...Santa Rosa reef, 73' max, 32 minutes... shorter dive due to ripping current, unable to enter most of the swimthrus, vis bad.
#2....Yucab reef, 53' max, 46 minutes...excellent dive, 2 nurse sharks, tons of fish, toadfish, southern rays, beautiful color on reef, light current. Vis still low due to weather. Great dive.

robin

 

[jimw]

Thank you robint and others. This is what I needed. We've been to Coz many times since '85. Maybe 10-12 cruises and multiple week long dive trips. Cozumel was my first dive trip outside the US.This trip, we have some onboard credit which we could use for diving. These cruise lines have evidently been using Sand Dollar for some years. Thanks!