Need advice about booking a dive trip from a cruise

[smelton521]

Just an FYI -- booking through the cruise ship is almost certain to cost you at least $20 more per diver than booking directly through a dive op. i say this through very limited experience - I've only been on one cruise in my life, and I just don't like it, but when I checked prices on that cruise, with stops in both Cozumel and Roatan, the Cruise Line was charging $30 more for the exact same 2-tank dive as a dive trip booked directly through the operator. You are also likely to get better dives and better service booking directly through a Dive Op. I started diving in Cozumel over 20 years ago, and my first few years I dove with Fantasia Divers (an op which no longer exists). I stopped using them and searched for another operator after they started contracting with the cruise lines to provide dives to Cruise passengers - the quality of dives really declined because of the care they had to take with divers off the Cruise lines -- generally people with little experience, or who hadn't dived in many years, divers who had no experience in drift dives, with very little bouyancy control, divers who were hung over from hard partying the night before, divers who paid no attention to where they were in relation to the group or the dive master, who kicked up lots of sand in the swim throughs and forced the DM to act as a baby sitter. Don't be one of those divers. Take the refresher course, and learn as much as you can about drift diving. Listen carefully to the DM on pre-dive briefings. Pay attention underwater - drift diving is easy and relaxing as long as you keep track of the DM, stay up-current from him, if he stops to look at something, you stop as well (you do not want to drift 20 or 30 yards past him and have to fight the current getting back to the group). And learn and use the techniques to minimize your cross-section in the current. And please, respect the other divers in your group - control your bouyancy, don't grab or kick the coral, don't kick up sediment in the swim throughs, and don't force the DM to come after you because you have completely lost track of your depth and find yourself at 120 feet on what was supposed to be an 80 foot dive (I've seen it happen!). Have a good trip!

Great advice, thank you! We definitely do not want to be those people who annoy everybody else or mess up the dive! Maybe I should look into shore dives since it has been so long since our last dive. I absolutely am going to do a refresher course before this cruise!

 

[Jmandelbaum]

Having been on over 30 cruises and also being a dive instructor, I will tell you to stay with the cruise line for your trip. I have actually watched a cruise ship pull away from the docks while I watched due to an operator running late.

in my case the trip was arranged by the cruise line so they sent a boat to us to bring us out to the cruise ship. If we had not been organized by the line, it would have been a much different story!

just my .02

 

[driftwood]

Since you are docking at 9am, most of the shops will have already left for their morning two tank dives by the time you a, disembark, b, travel, c, get checked and geared up. If you were docking at 7am, then it would be worth a shot at booking a dive op outside the cruise ship's vendors. Most shops will be back at the dock by 12-1 so no problem making a 4pm departure.

IMHO, I would go with a guided tour over shore diving. The reefs will be a lot better, its been a while since you have been diving and you don't know the site you will be diving.

Definitely get the refresher done and get comfortable clearing your mask. 9 will get you 10 that the mask you rent will not be a "perfect" fit for your face. It doesn't sound like you dive enough to justify spending the money to buy a decent mask (figure around $100 give or take $30). Probably worth the $1 or so to get a travel size bottle of baby shampoo to use as a defog.

Have a great time, and welcome back to diving.

 

[Carlos Diver]

Cruised out of NOLA in 08 on the Fantasy doing the same trip you will be. I used SCUBA with Alison for that trip and could not have been happier.

Yes, like another post said, be very watchful of the times. Ive never had an issue, but it can happen if you get to relaxed.

 

[jbark]

I want to chipin here. I took a carnival cruise with the family christmas 2011 and we went to coz for one day. We decides to go do the "beginners" snorkeling trip offered by the cruise ship for ~$18 each. we had a great time, saw lots of fish and other sea life and ate some great mexican food at the beach club where the snorkeling was. great bargain, and the experience caused me to take my scuba course back home in the spring. we were told that we should have taken the regular snorkeling trip since we all knew how to swim just fine, the beginners class is really snorkeling for non-swimmers.

I offer this input for two reasons:

1. if you have little experience (like I) you can still have a great time doing a trip that many on here would not "waste their time with"

2. there are some nice snorkeling trips available if the scuba trip does not work out for you. give it some thought.

one last thing, as I recall the cruise booked scuba trip was around $120 each. You can book a private dive trip (for example using dive with martin) for under $400. This might be a good choice since you could probably arrange for a little more personal attention and arrange a no-worries schedule. This would still be cheaper than spending the day shopping the cruise port area. just a thought.

have a good trip,
Jerry

 

[DjDiverDan]

Actually, a private charter might be a very good idea. And Dive With Martin would be an excellent choice - it's a very good operation, the location is literally right next to the International Cruise Ship Pier (the office is within the enclosure -- if you dock at the International Pier, as I believe the Carnival Ships do, you will see the operation while walking off the pier, and you won't even have to leave the enclosure), and you can make the arrangements on line or over the phone ahead of time. I've used Dive with Martin my last three December trips, and they'll treat you right. You might want to check to see how many divers DWM will take on a private charter, and see if fellow passengers want to join you. If you split the cost among 4-5 divers, you'll come close to the cost of a private dive operator (typically $65-$85 plus tips for a 2-tank dive), and avoid the huge markups that the Cruise lines charge.

 

[Prop Joe]

These guys have many boats, safe, run regular late trips and cater to Cruizers and main land divers:
Bienvenidos - Aldora Divers | Only the best of Cozumel
If you can get enough people on the ship for a dive/snorkel, private charter trip, you can do that too. Refresher courses, you name it. Call and ask. Price list:
Bienvenidos - Aldora Divers | Only the best of Cozumel

 

[clevie]

I wouldn't hesitate to use the cruise line and do so about 50% of the time we dive on cruises. It might be $20 more, but the logistics of the trip fit your arrival and departure, you don't have taxi fare to worry about and often it includes all the equipment. I schlepp all mine around, but that included often makes it equal to other dive ops. We used the cruise op in DR and we were 3 of the 4 divers on the boat. pleasant surprise!

That being said - I have never used the cruise op in cozumel. I think there are so many choices you can do what is best for you.

 

[Fatterboy]

I agree that diving with an operator outside of the cruise can be cheaper and you might get to see more. My wife and I generally like to fly to and stay in Cozumel. From Little Rock we can fly in, stay a week or so all inclusive (AI) and fly home for around a grand each. This year we chose to cruise because we wanted to dive Belize and Roatan and can't afford to fly down there and stay.

We LOVE to visit Cozumel, we have been to Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain and all over the US. Our first stay at Cozumel my wife asked me "Do you think you could get a job down here?" It's just that kind of place. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible for an American nurse to work in Cozumel, I tried.

We have gone under with Sand Dollar (first cruise), Scuba Du, and Dive Paradise. I really wanted to try Christi's dive op, but my wife wants to go to Cancun since we have never been there.

As for a refresher course, Rick's Dive and Travel in North Little Rock, Arkansas can get you a refresher course reasonably. They do it in an indoor heated 14foot deep pool. We did our OW there and have the privilege of diving in their pool anytime it is not in use, and do so frequently. They have a wonderful, knowledgeable staff and top notch service. I don't know how far you are from Memphis, but in my experience, Rick's can't be beat.

 

[Altamira]

Have done a lot of cruising, and have used the ships ops as well as non-ship excursion operators. Have had mostly good experiences with both types of operations. Note: If you are diving using the ship's excursion, you will have to have had a logged dive in the past two years, one year with some cruise lines, and most of the dive operators I have used require the same currency. So you are going to have to do at least one refesher dive before you go, no matter who you use. No one has ever asked me for my log, but you need to be up-front about your lack of recent experience, not only for your own safety, but in consideration of your fellow divers. While you might get a slightly better dive at a slightly better price using an off-ship operator, I think you might be better served this time by using the ship's op. The ship will likely have more low experienced divers (highly experienced divers generally want to go their own way with other operators), so you may not feel as pressured or feel like you are holding up the operation because you will likely have a higher percentage of vacation divers who only dive once a year on the boat. Also, not having to worry about anything other that having a fun time diving is worth the extra money (in my opinion) that you are going to pay the ship's excursion. You are going to be putting a lot of pressure on yourselves because of your lack of recent and consistent dive experience, so why add more pressure with worrying about getting back to the ship on time. That extra $20-30 for the ship's excursion is going to seem like peanuts if you have to pay for a flight to catch up to the ship at the next port if that is possible at all. I think a lot of folks focus on the short term savings, and overlook the very large down side cost of missing the ship departure time. Also, it is not all that unusual for ships to be late into port or have a slow process of getting cleared for passengers to depart the ship, so be very careful about booking with off-ship operators, and make sure you have adequate slop time between scheduled arrival time and the dive ops departure time. Also know what the off-ship dive operators' policy is for cancellations, or if the ship is late or does not arrive in port. No matter who you use, you will have fun. Welcome back in to diving.