Dive trips from large cruise ships

[friscuba]

I thought it was around Cancun. Still 7mm is a lot of neoprene. Oh well, to each his/her own.

Mexican Riviera= Sea of Cortez/Pacific Ocean. Mayan Riviera = Yucatan region Carribbean/tropical Atlantic. Way different water conditions and temperatures.

 

[tomboyy]

I'm thinking about another cruise end of august... can't decide where to dive... GC and Coz maybe

 

[TMHeimer]

The temperature thing is about personal tolerance. There is no right answer. Everyone is different. Anything near 65F I consider a shortie. It's easier to rinse.

 

[Airleron]

I did a RCCL dive in the Bahamas a few years ago. It was booked through Royal Caribbean, but the dive op was Stuart Cove. It was in my top 5 dives I've ever done.

 

[Shinsen]

I was in Cabo the first part of April and used Sunshine Dive & Charter. This was my first "real" dive after being certified. I couldn't ask for a better experience. Jonatan and Chui were great. As it turned out I was the only diver that morning so I ended up with two private dives with Jonatan. The rental equipment was in great shape and Jonatan offered excellent feedback and advice during our surface interval and post dive. He took a ton of pictures while we were down and made sure I didn’t miss anything interesting. By the time I was done rinsing off and changing he was almost done burning the photos onto a CD for me to take home. No charge! They were about $20 more than the other dive shops the concierge tried to set me up with, but I had done some research in advance requested them.
Oh yeah, during our surface interval a lone diver popped up near our boat and looked a little distressed. He had become separated from his large group underwater and surfaced about 120 feet from their big boat. Chui and Jonatan were more concerned about him than his own dive company.

 

[gargoyle999]

What do you think about doing the dive through the cruise ship if you are brand new? We are hoping to get our open water cert in August and have a couple cruises in November. I was thinking it would be better to go through the ship since we will be newbies.

 

[hdtran]

What do you think about doing the dive through the cruise ship if you are brand new? We are hoping to get our open water cert in August and have a couple cruises in November. I was thinking it would be better to go through the ship since we will be newbies.

Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta both have relatively easy diving (depending on weather, etc.). Currents are generally mild to non-existent, or the dive op will find a site with low current. Your major issue, depending on where you got your OW, is dealing with a 5 mm wetsuit (or heavier). I think November may still have warm water.

Ship-organized tours (I can't speak about scuba, but I can speak from one cruise) can either be extremely regimented, or they can be pretty nice, with the people who are signed up broken into several small groups, each of which has a small-ish contractor. Certainly, it is more convenient to have the tour organized by the ship. But it may be a bit 'luck-of-the-draw' what your experience is. For myself, when our family does our next cruise, if it's the Caribbean, I'll probably go to the travel-specific forums and ask for dive-op recommendations, and arrange the tour(s) by myself separately from the ship.

Again, let me repeat that you may get more specific answers if you post the question in the travel-specific forums (such as Mexico general, or Cruises & Live-aboards).

Best of luck & have fun!