cruise ship diving experiences

[scuba-sass]

Dear NINman,

Check out Cruise Critic , it has a great board, where folks on specific cruises often try to meet up ahead of time. You can post a thread about your ship & sail date, (or see if one is started already), and pose your question about other couples who may not each dive.

Here is a link directly to the NCL section.

Many thanks to my B-in-Law for introducing me to that site.

Good Luck, and Happy Diving!

Scuba-sass

 

[Natasha]

Doc:
I hope to see Princess keep their name. As you know in all the other "take overs" by Carnival that was allowed.
But then again Royal Caribbean has their bid in too. Time will tell.

Sass: The Cruise critic is a board my partner follows everyday. She is a "Master Cruise Consultant". This means in our industry, she has her master's degree in cruises.
She has been on 45 cruise ships sailing, and many more doing inspections. Wild huh?
I call her the Cruise Queen.
NIN : I think you should pick a few of the dive trips that the ship is offering. On the other days be with your wife.
You still can meet back with her at the ship, after your dives, and shop or relax.
I think you should forget the shore diving idea, unless you are willing to do alot more work on your trip. This will mean setting dives up with land based operators, getting yourself there, and hoping to get out of the dives in time for the ship to sail. Most of the time you can find other couples that will have a non diving partner. I have paid divemasters to be my buddy. I have never regreted this.

 

[NINman]

WOW .. Thanks for that link. I will be checking that out.


Nat,
I just don't want her to be alone. I was even thinking of asking if she can at least go on the boat and maybe just snorkle around .. ahh who knows I just might find a group on that board. Thanks again all

 

[scuba-sass]

I just looked at your tag-line...

We're practically neighbors!

Good Luck with the Cruise,

Scuba-sass

 

[NINman]

If that’s the case you might want to check out our clubs web site. We have a few events going on this year. One particular one is the DAN Treasure hunt. All the proceeds go to D.A.N. and it is a hoot.

 

[KoralKat]

My husband and I just took a WindStar cruise from
Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, Key West, and then back.
The cruise ship had 4 divemasters aboard, and a complete
marina full of gear. They were excellent, the diving was
excellent, and the ship was wonderful. Will definitely do it
again!

The dive boat was from the ship, and the ride to the dive
site we did was about 20-30 minutes. Our dive equipment
was rinsed & stored (by the divemasters) in the marina,
and was set up & ready to go when the dive was scheduled.

The only part that went bad is that on the third day out,
I got a raging ear infection/bronchitis, and we had to
cancel the rest of the dives we had scheduled, and we
got very familiar with the room service menu.

Very sorry now that we didn't get to dive more, and am
thinking about starting the plans for the next dive trip.

KoralKat

 

[davisdivers]

We are cruising and diving several times a year primarily because we love cruising ( food, entertainment, convenience) and diving. Living in North Florida we have an advantage of 5 ports to choose from. Several months ago during the colder season we drove to Miami and took a Carnival ship around Cuba to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios and back to Miami. ( Water temp was 80 in January). Next month we leave froim Jacksonville to Freeport and Nassau. We have gone out of Tampa to Cozumel on a 4 night 3 day cruise for only $299 pp. Another trip out of Tampa to Grand Gayman and Cozumel. We never missed a meal on the ships. As far as diving recommendations we are researching our findings ro a follow on article. Lugging dive gear is a pain BUT you just never know what you are going to get if you go with gear provided by the dive shops. Even Don Foster, who runs a great dive operation in Grand Cayman, provided us with wimpy snorkel full foot fins. The rest of the gear was fine but take your own dive fins and booties. The protection provided by the ship not leaving you stranded is well worth the extra $$. Amost happened to use in Grand Cayman in 2006. The boat captain on the dive boat got the times mixed up but the ship waited for us. Thank you Carnival. The combination of crusing and diving is fantastic. I strongly recommend it to all my students. That way they have a fun vacation even for the non-diver. capt. jim