Cruise ship excursion report - Bananarama Divers

[jbw2106]

We stopped in Roatan on Oct 1 on Celebrity and dove with Bananarama Divers. DM Marco was great, it was just 4 of us from the ship. My DH and I are still beginners and we had a great time. It was our first visit to Roatan, and we will definitely return. They picked us up from the Coxen Hole pier and brought us back. We didn't hang around too long after because the weather wasn't the greatest. They had a separate boat for cruise ship divers, which was very nice.

 

[billmosel]

Stayed and dove with Bananorama back in March and they were great. Dive groups were very small, let you dive you own profile, staff was professional and had a nice gear room. The rooms were very comfortable and clean. I would do it again in a nanosecond.

 

[willy_b]

well, i guess it's all about perspective...used bananarama last week as part of a cruise stop, and was truly disappointed with their operations. too laid back for my taste, equipment rather old, you had to drag the full equipment across the beach and water onto an outdated dive boat, and our dive master was a bit too inexperienced. while group was very small (3 divers), we shared the boat with 5 snorklers which did not leave much space to move about. our DM did not take into account the skill level of his group, and was at times out of reach from the rest of the divers.
maybe i am spoiled, and maybe roatan is not cayman or cozumel, but i was glad to be back on shore after the dives. not recommeded.

 

[flots am]

. . . and our dive master was a bit too inexperienced. while group was very small (3 divers), we shared the boat with 5 snorklers which did not leave much space to move about. our DM did not take into account the skill level of his group, and was at times out of reach from the rest of the divers.

It's bad for your heath to depend on the DM for anything more important than pointing out cool stuff.

If you need help in an emergency, you need to be able to count on your properly trained buddy, not some random stranger who is responsible for you and seven other people spread over a few hundred feet of reef and a 60 foot vertical spread.

flots.

 

[Mike]

It's bad for your heath to depend on the DM for anything more important than pointing out cool stuff.

If you need help in an emergency, you need to be able to count on your properly trained buddy, not some random stranger who is responsible for you and seven other people spread over a few hundred feet of reef and a 60 foot vertical spread.

flots.

I took it that since they were a group of 3, that the DM was a buddy to one of them.

 

[flots am]

I took it that since they were a group of 3, that the DM was a buddy to one of them.

Not necessarily.

On dives in tourist locations, the DM is quite often busy looking under rocks and in holes for critters to annoy, and the three divers could have just beeen "together".

flots.

 

[willy_b]

the DM was indeed the assigned buddy for the 3rd diver!

 

[Doc]

well, i guess it's all about perspective...

What he said.