Diving while on a cruise ship

[Doc]

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]

Beyond the diving

We are kind of play it by ear vacationers this is going to be quite different than most trips. What clothing to take the ship has laundry service and its a 7 night cruise pack light or? Do many of you participate in the formal dining events there may be two of them. Im A redneck greasemonkie suiting up for dinner is a stretch for me, but my wife might enjoy it? I clean up well enough that they probably wont throw me out but any input on what to expect from one of these events would be great. Any other thoughts.

 

[Damselfish]

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.

After reading about this for years (purely an armchair cruiser here) my sense is it's good to research what is best to do in each port, rather than have a blanket rule of "always do" or "always avoid" the cruise dive excursion. Every port seems different on the ease/risk of doing it yourself, and the quality of diving the cruise ship route might get you vs. going direct.

 

[Altamira]

Beyond the diving

We are kind of play it by ear vacationers this is going to be quite different than most trips. What clothing to take the ship has laundry service and its a 7 night cruise pack light or? Do many of you participate in the formal dining events there may be two of them. Im A redneck greasemonkie suiting up for dinner is a stretch for me, but my wife might enjoy it? I clean up well enough that they probably wont throw me out but any input on what to expect from one of these events would be great. Any other thoughts.

Holland America will generally have two "formal" nights on a seven night cruise. On those, you will see some folks dressed to the nines, but most men will be in coat and tie instead of tux. I don't know if Holland America is still so stringent on shirts with collars on men's clothing, but on one cruise they would not let me in the dining room on dress up night because my very elegant and expensive dress shirt did not have a collar. It was pretty humorous to my group because I was one of the best dressed in the room, and had to dress down to use a collared shirt. Unless you choke to death in a coat and tie, I would not skip the formal night dining because there you will find the best food on your cruise, and the ladies do like to dress up.

 

[caydiver]

As mi000ke mentioned you have lots of options in Grand Cayman. There ops literally just down the street from the cruise terminal. Cannot speak for other locations but here it is not an issue.

 

[Altamira]

Per gr8jab's post. Yes, this can happen on a ship's dive excursion, but it can also happen with an off ship vendor. Some folks on this board seem to think that off ship vendors only service highly competent and skilled divers, and therefore you are going to be diving with the cream of the crop. I assure you that is not often the case. I find I am just as likely to find a new OW, or once a year, diver on an off ship dive boat as on the ship's excursion. Other than diving with a select group of divers who rent the entire boat, I am not sure how you can avoid divers that may not have the luxury of frequent dives, and whose skills are less than desired. But even on my most unpleasant dives, I still had fun and learned something.

 

[Kohanbash]

Hi
See my post (on second page) for details about a recent cruise ship based dive in Cozumel
https://www.scubaboard.com/community/posts/8542485/

 

[hilljo88]

Beyond the diving

We are kind of play it by ear vacationers this is going to be quite different than most trips. What clothing to take the ship has laundry service and its a 7 night cruise pack light or? Do many of you participate in the formal dining events there may be two of them. Im A redneck greasemonkie suiting up for dinner is a stretch for me, but my wife might enjoy it? I clean up well enough that they probably wont throw me out but any input on what to expect from one of these events would be great. Any other thoughts.

If you are on one of the mega ships (several thousand passengers) dress is pretty casual. Very few people wear a suit and tie. A sports jacket would be adequate. There is always a casual dining option. Your wife will likely have a better idea of how dressy she wants to be and you can judge accordingly. On diving, I would definitely look at the port schedule and see where diving is a possibility. Coz and GC are best bets for facilities and quality of dives. Email dive ops in both, tell them what ship and date you will be in port. The shops will know the schedule better than you and can advise on what they can do for you. They do it for a living. I've done this in the Med in places like Croatia, Ibiza, Sardinia, and its worked well. GC has awesome shore dives, so you won't need to time the dive boat schedule. Scheduling dives later in the week will probably work out better. You might meet another diver on the boat, and you will likely make some new friends so your wife will have someone to tour the botanical garden or pile of rubble on the hill while you dive.

 

[gr8jab]

Per gr8jab's post. Yes, this can happen on a ship's dive excursion, but it can also happen with an off ship vendor. Some folks on this board seem to think that off ship vendors only service highly competent and skilled divers, and therefore you are going to be diving with the cream of the crop. I assure you that is not often the case. I find I am just as likely to find a new OW, or once a year, diver on an off ship dive boat as on the ship's excursion. Other than diving with a select group of divers who rent the entire boat, I am not sure how you can avoid divers that may not have the luxury of frequent dives, and whose skills are less than desired. But even on my most unpleasant dives, I still had fun and learned something.

Yes, you are correct. I've been very diligent about booking off-ship. Twice in Cozumel, I booked an 'independent' DM/boat. It was a small boat, but we were the only customers. In Grand Cayman, I search for 6-pack boats...

cheers

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

Holland America caters to a nicer/older/more refined crowd normally (as far as mainline cruise lines go; Oceania, Regent, Viking and many others are much more “upscale”/formal however) and more passengers will lean towards wearing a coat and tie on formal nights and dinners in general than not. Normally very few children onboard HAL too outside of Christmas/holiday trips. For your next cruise maybe consider Royal or Norwiegen as they cater more to families/“relaxed” cruising and tend to be less “stuffy” than say HAL. Carnival is always there too but that is basically “slumming it” (IMO).

As others have said, book your dives independently and only in GC and Coz for your sailing. OR is a port to skip almost altogether (maybe book the “ride horses along the beach/into the water” tour or a zip line excursion... Dunn’s falls will be overcrowded most likely and while we’ve hopped into random taxis all over the carribean to visit random sites/places I would not recommend doing so to a first time cruiser/visitor to Jamaica). Half Moon Cay makes for a wonderful day of sitting on a pristine beach but not for too much else.

Tom at Off the Wall Divers would take great care of you in GC (provided you are able to tender) and there are many options in Coz (we use Aldora but they are no longer taking new cruise ship customers as I understand it). To avoid crowds/new divers/etc we will either reserve the entire boat or cruise with another 2-4 like minded/skilled divers, book the whole boat and are always assured a great day of diving at whatever dive site(s) we want. Many of the normal cruise diving cliches are easily avoided/circumvented with proper planning. Enjoy your cruise!