First tropical ocean dive...bittersweet

[agilis]

Not long ago I was snorkeling near Roseau at dusk when a cruise ship the size of an aircraft carrier, as brightly lighted as Times Square, devastatingly ugly and with countless tatty 'outside' cabins somehow hanging off every square foot of space above the waterline, hove into view. It was a real monstrosity, the floating embodiment of vulgar tawdry tastelessness.

I began to imagine that my mask was a periscope, that I was at the helm of a submarine, plotting our convergent course and calculating the path of an imaginary torpedo with a half-ton of explosives in its head, set to intercept directly amidships and just under the damned thing, removing the supporting sea for an explosive instant and cracking its wretched back.

By then it was full dark so I swam to shore, making my way back to my little house, and mentally modifying my plans for the next morning in order to keep me as far away from the cruise ship pier and all that ugliness and noise as possible.

 

[Russoft]

yup. Ocean is much nicer than quarries and lakes in terms of temp and viz. That said, I've had ocean dives with absolutely terrible viz. It happens sometimes.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[AdivingBel]

Sorry your dive didn't turn out so well. You've read the general advice from SB about trying to dive from a cruise ship. Unfortunately it's more true than not. There are exceptions (Doc is very colorful & entertaining ). So you've had that input... IMHO ocean diving in general is a bit of a roll of the dice. Some spots are meh, some are great, some are both depending when you hit them (lots of variables). In other words..."Diving is like a box of chocolates..." jk ... There are several locales that greatly increase the odds of good to great ocean diving. A little research on SB & Google will make those apparent. Many require a bit of travel and the longer you can stay and dive the greater the chances of hitting the sweetspot that just knocks your socks off. The real upside is even a crappy dive (as long as everyone survives) is WAY better than just about anything else you spend your time doing (except sex and that's a different thread with plenty of other variables), IMHO. So have it. Travel as widely as you can afford. When you find that "spot," just hang there and take it in. Warm water dive travel is a wonderful thing. Dive safely.

 

[Nemrod]

Just got back from a cruise trip. It was a long time overdue honeymoon with my wife (married 2 years now). Well one of the stops on the ship was at Royal Caribbean's private island called Coco Cay in the Bahamas. They offered a morning scuba dive for 65 dollars including equipment, which was nice since bringing my own would have stunk for one dive. I have had many lake and quarry dives over the past few years but I have never been in the ocean, let alone warm parts of the ocean. so I was really excited to say the least. The dive was only to 30ft on their "reef". They had stated on the website there was a sunken plane and boat which would be cool to see as well as the fish and reef itself. Well let's just say that is where the excitement ended. Before we went out, the dive master stated the visibility has been down the past week. I must say the visibility was still better than the lakes and quarries I am used to BUT nothing like the pictures my parents have shown me from their scuba trips. We saw a handful of fish (which included a lobster and a large puffer fish). That was about it... We never saw the plane nor the boat (apparently only the snorkel people get to see those now). The reef did not seem very alive. Saw some corals but again nothing like my parents pictures from their dive trips to Bon air or Cozumel. Diving without a 7mm wetsuit was a HUGE improvement. I cannot believe how freeing it felt and the drop in weight was pretty substantial which was also awesome. Overall, id rate the dive a 6 maybe 7 out of 10. It was definitely better than diving the quarries and lakes ive been to but nothing like I was hoping for. Hopefully my next trip will be to an actual scuba diving location!

The worst diving you can probably do is that involved with any sort of cruise ship.
N

 

[Bigeclipse]

ALL,

Thanks for all your comments. I am certainly not giving up on ocean diving (haha) I still had a lot of fun on the dive but it just wasn't exactly what I expected compared to the video and pics of trips my parents went on. After reading all the comments on here, I think I will be leaving the scuba part out of the next cruise trip (unless, like others have stated, I plan the dive on my own with a local known good dive OP).

 

[Rick Murchison]

A note regarding cruise ships & diving... good diving just isn't part of the package, but... realize that if you arrange your own diving separate from the ship sponsored trips, the trade-off for the good diving you may get is that the ship is under no obligation to get you home should things turn to worms & you fail to get back aboard before the ship sails. And depending on where you are, getting home can be not only expensive but a bureaucratic nightmare.
Personally, if I'm on a cruise ship, I book any diving through the ship. Knowing what to expect, where to look, and what to look for, my bride & I can squeeze a fascinating, wondrous dive out of seemingly awful conditions. There may not be the grand vistas of the movies, but the ocean is positively crammed full of interesting critters to see, even on the "deadest" bottom.

 

[george_austin]

30 fsw and above is where the best lighting is for seeing stuff! You want to dive the ocean? There's a ton of ocean where you're at in New York and as well down in Florida - - hell, all along the East coast! But to really get the awesomeness of diving in the ocean, may I recommend California? - especially from May-November (or anytime really) -
I'm sorry you got snaked by the kiddie dive cruise ship sales marketing scam - but hey any dive is a good dive, really. Sometimes I go diving in my mom's pool just to clear my head. Its definitely a warm water dive with unlimited vis.

 

[Rick Murchison]

...may I recommend California?

Just so ye'll know... in the interest of full disclosure... it's COLD!

Rick

 

[The Chairman]

Rick, I think stinking cold is a better descriptor.

 

[diversteve]

Coco Cay has a reputation as about the worst cruise dive in the Caribbean. But since the cruise line owns the island, you get what you got.

Cruise ships also regularly call on Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan, Nassau, Curacao, St. Croix and Bonaire. Notice that most of these are on the top 10 lists of best Caribbean Dive destinations. It's a little more work to find operators outside of the cruise operators but at least on Cayman, two of the better operators are actually closer than the one that owns the cruise contracts. So the likelihood of missing the ship sailing - barring mechanical failure - is pretty low. If you're not fussy there's also two shore dives within walking distance of the port - although decades of cruise divers haven't helped - they're pretty mediocre.

The "official" dive operator on Roatan is Anthony's Key Resort - they have a shuttle from the cruise port. Similarly on Nassau, Stuart Cove's owns the cruise contracts for the past decade - they're only one of two options on the island anyway. On St. Croix your ship docks at Frederickstad Pier. Last I knew there were 3-4 dive operations within a block walk.

So if you continue to cruise, check the port list vs. a good dive site list. We have a cruises forum here on SB also. Many people suggest/review cruise operators there also.

Did you do the Nassau/Freeport/Coco Cay run? Should've picked one of the other ports...