Diving from Cruise Turks/Nassau

[krawdady]

Hello everyone. My wife and I will be on a cruise in November and we are stopping in both Nassau and the Turks. I would rather not go with the cruise dive excursions and I'm wondering if anyone has ever been in the same situation and what did you do? We are in the bahamas from 8-5 and the Turks from 7-4. Can anyone recommend good dive ops for both locations that would allow us time to get back to the boat before departure? Thanks.

Brent

 

[nrh]

I can't say that we've ever tried to combine our cruising with our diving, but if you do, be super careful. If you use the cruise ship's dive excursions you're going to be stuck on a cattle boat and be likely to have a miserable time, but if you don't and your outside contractor is late, the ship will not wait for you. It's a coin toss we were never willing to take, so we've always cruised places w/o diving that we'd want to do and gone land based for the dive trips.

 

[Misplaced Priority]

I have to say that I have now done the dive excursions on the RCL cruises 4 times. I have no complaints. One cruise line sponsored dive in Nassau, we ended up with diving with Stuarts Cove. My son and I were the only people on the dive excursion and the only people on the 46' Newton dive boat. We had an incredible escorted dive by the dive master. I consider myself an experienced diver and have dove all over the east coast, Florida, Bahamas and Carribean. This was an awsome dive experience. I was very glad booked the dive excursion through the ship as their policy is not to leave anyone who is late getting back to the ship who is out on one of their sponsored excursions. Stuarts Cove is a fair distance from the port and our cab was almost out of gas and had to divert to find a gas station. We were 30 minutes late getting back to the ship. I hate to think what would have happened if we had gone off on our own.

I used the ships dive excursions in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Belieze and Costa Maya. I have never had a bad experience with a dive booked through the ship. The only one thing I could say that I thought just slightly bothersome, no big deal really, was the fact that the cruise lines restricts dives booked through them to 80ft max depth.

Anyway, there is my two cents worth. Have a great time on your trip.

 

[nrh]

I have to say that I have now done the dive excursions on the RCL cruises 4 times. I have no complaints. One cruise line sponsored dive in Nassau, we ended up with diving with Stuarts Cove. My son and I were the only people on the dive excursion and the only people on the 46' Newton dive boat. We had an incredible escorted dive by the dive master. I consider myself an experienced diver and have dove all over the east coast, Florida, Bahamas and Carribean. This was an awsome dive experience. I was very glad booked the dive excursion through the ship as their policy is not to leave anyone who is late getting back to the ship who is out on one of their sponsored excursions. Stuarts Cove is a fair distance from the port and our cab was almost out of gas and had to divert to find a gas station. We were 30 minutes late getting back to the ship. I hate to think what would have happened if we had gone off on our own.

I used the ships dive excursions in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Belieze and Costa Maya. I have never had a bad experience with a dive booked through the ship. The only one thing I could say that I thought just slightly bothersome, no big deal really, was the fact that the cruise lines restricts dives booked through them to 80ft max depth.

Anyway, there is my two cents worth. Have a great time on your trip.

Wow! If that's the way it works, we might have to rethink our preconceived notions a bit. We've stayed away from cruising places that we'd want to dive solely for this reason and now you're making me think it might not have been as bad as we'd guessed it would have been. One way or another, we seem to agree that going with the cruise based excursions seems to be the way to go...the idea of missing the ship scares the poo out of me!

 

[DiveMaven]

I believe that all the cruiselines use Stuart Cove in the Bahamas. They are about the only operation big enough to be able to dedicate a boat just for the ship's schedule, etc. An 8am arrival time may not get you off the ship until 8:30, which by the time you get a cab, etc., you may not make it to a dive shop until 9:30, which is awfully late for most regular charters. An afternoon charter would be at like 1pm, and getting back to the ship by 4:30 might be impossible. I'd say with that schedule, you may want to book with the ship in the Bahamas to make sure you get a dive and that you don't miss the ship!!

 

[krawdady]

Thanks for the response everyone. We have taken a couple of cruises before and used operators other than the ones that the cruises use. Weve gone to the Caymans, Tortola and Cozumel and It has worked out great, but I will admit I have always had a nagging fear that the boat would break down and we wouldn't make it back in time. I guess maybe we can give the crusie excursions a shot and hope for the best. It would be a pretty horrible feeling to watch the ship pulling out without you.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Krawdady,

On New Providence (Nassau)----> Stuart Cove's http://www.stuartcove.com/ is well-versed in catering to cruise ship divers.

On Provo----> Caicos Adventures http://www.caicosadventures.com/ Tell "Fifi," the owner, that I sent you.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

 

[BurBunny]

Pretty sure the two excellent companies Doc has mentioned are also the ship's vendors, so they may not allow you to book directly with them rather than through the ship.

 

[CAPNVINNY]

I also know its more expensive to use the ships vendors cause they give the ship a cut.It wouldn't take much research to find a good dive opt that would cater to a cruise schedule and maybe get some better dives than the plain ole vanilla ones I've had the experience to work for a cruise ship cattle car

 

[JAMIE MCG]

What do you take with you on Cruise Dives, just basic or fulll gear?