Diving while on a cruise ship

[lowlysubaruguy]

My upcoming trip to Florida may have evolved to included a week on a cruise ship. Any advice on if we should dive any of the ports or use our time at these ports to be typical tourists, there are three islands that do promiss to be be great diving. But it seems like the short amount of time we are at port we will not have time to dive and see much of these places. I guess thats a loaded question because I always want to see whats in the water most of the time however I have more than myself to accommodate. We will also have a week to dive in Florida so its not like we wont get some diving in on the trip regardless.

 

[noj3333]

What ports?

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

Cozumel, grand cayman, Ohio Rios, Half Moon Cay the guy booking the cruise told me the cruise ship was adapt at getting the dive arranged for a seamless event if we wanted to dive.

We have never done a cruise wifes got a lot of interest in it.

 

[Altamira]

I would dive GC and Coz for sure, and perhaps give Ocho Rios a pass on diving. Have not been to Half Moon Cay, but when visiting RCCL, Disney, and Princess private island venues, snorkeling was available, but not diving. The three that I mentioned had a wonderful array of things to do, and just relaxing on the beach was also a delightful option.

 

[flyboy08]

Book directly and not through the cruise line...you’ll find better service and cheaper costs...contact a few operators on Cozumel and ask about times, cost and pickup....there are a few threads here already...play with the search function and you’ll find them.

 

[Altamira]

If you book dives "off ship", make sure you understand the difference between ship time and local time so you do not miss ship departure because of time differences. Also, be aware that GC is a tender port, and getting off the ship in a timely manner may not be at your discretion since the ships generally put their own excursions on the earlier tenders. A possible work around that is to go down to the tender loading spot when they call for the first group and see if they will let you jump on if there are open spaces. Sometimes works, and sometimes not. If you are looking for a great dive op a couple blocks north of the cruise terminal, Lobster Pot and their sister ops are wonderful.

 

[gr8jab]

My experience diving through official cruise ship 'excursion':

1. meet in random cruise ship lounge
   1. wait for missing passengers who overslept
   2. wait while forgetful diver runs back to room for mask/snorkel/sunscreen
2. wait for tender (or maybe dive op boat)
3. boat(and maybe bus) from ship to dive shop
   1. fill out paperwork, and more paperwork
   2. wait for same forgetful diver to find missing c-card, but then call PADI
   3. wait for half of the divers to find the right size rental fins/BC/wetsuit
4. load on the boat and fight over weights, get stuck with 3 5lb bricks
5. listen to forgetful boast about all the many dives they've done
6. go to the easiest (and usually most boring) available dive site
7. get in the water and float around in the waves waiting for everyone else to get wet
8. descend and then wait at the bottom while ms/mr forgetful go back up to add some weight
9. dive for 30 minutes, then surface because forgetful sucked all their air
10. get back on boat with 1500 psi in tank
11. and so on... and so on...

In truth, this is a combination of experiences at multiple locations from several cruises. I'm exaggerating some, for comic value, but not a lot. I've had much better luck booking direct.

Use Scubaboard regional forums to ask about good dive shops. Book them!!!!

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

Glad I asked. Diving isn’t necessary top of the list if we do the cruise I just landed from a Bonaire trip and will hopefully be able to dive the full second week I have in Florida but you never know in Florida weather is always a factor if it looks great I’ll worry less about diving from the ship but I might put more effort into it if it looks like my week in Florida is iffy. I was looking for things that my wife is interested in so many of my trips are diving without the whats really on your list. So the cruise kind of peaked her interest.

Thanks for the input.

 

[mi000ke]

We used to do a lot of diving on cruises and always booked directly with a shop rather than go through the cruise line. Always had great luck with that. Searching SB plus a few emails to local shops will help you find a good dive op that works with your schedule. For us the diving (and/or snorkeling) at different ports was a heck of a lot more interesting than the t-shirt, jewelry, and souvenir shops that lined the ports. This is especially true for our current home away from home on GC. I would definitely try to book a dive here.

Some dive ops that work with cruise ship schedules are
lobster pot
divers down
off the wall
cayman turtle divers

 

[Anthony A.]

I have been on 7 cruiseships in the last 7 years (Royal Carr., Celebrity and 1 in Australia), and always take my own gear. A few times I booked directly with local dive shops and I felt rushed and once i even missed it. Its not always easy to find the shops, other times the cruiseship has changed port dates the day it began sailing, and once the tender boat caused me to miss my dive. So i agree that there is better diving if you book direct, but in my experience I now just book through the ship as its organized and even if the dive op is late returning, the cruiseship will wait for you. Its a tough call as there are lots of pro/con opinions here.