When I worked on ships, I had all my own gear. When I went to visit my other half (who still works on ships) earlier this year, i took all my own gear, including drysuit. Just rinsed and hung everything up in the bathroom to dry.
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
If I'm driving to the cruise port, I always take my own gear. It fits better than rental gear, I know that it's well maintained, and I know how much weight I'll need to use with it. After the dives, I usually rinse the gear out in the shower by the pool and hang it over a deck chair, then when it stops dripping, I carry it into my cabin and hang it on the balcony unless the weather is bad. That didn't work with a Carnival "cove balcony" though. The sea spray got everything wet and salty.
When I'm flying to the cruise port, the decision is more difficult. I have to weigh the cost and hassle of traveling with an extra checked bag against the benefits of diving with my own gear.
One thing we learned years ago was to figure out which excursions we wanted to book and book them early. Many fill up completely more than a month before sailing, and waiting until you get on board means you may not get anything you want. Of course a lot of times we just enjoy grabbing a taxi to town and enjoying some shopping and dining.
Usually I only dive once on a cruise and just use their gear. This time I may be doing a couple of dives so I was wondering how many folks take their gear (other than snorkel, mask and fins which I always take)?
It's a pain to haul all that stuff but I sure do like the familiar feeling of my own gear. I'm just not sure it's worth the hassle.
Just wonder what others do...
Jim