Rinsing and storing gear on cruise ships

[simcoediver]

We have our first cruise booked for Symphony of the Seas Oasis class ship. and plan on diving Cozumel, Coco Maya,Roatan and the Bahamas. We will be booking all our own dive ops. Any advice from experienced cruise /diver goers would be appreciated. We are bringing our own gear and a question is do we have to haul our gear down to the deck and after diving bring it back to our room and rinse in the shower hang to dry on balcony? we will be on the 14 floor with a balcony unit.

 

[Bubblesong]

I did cruise Diving, i rinsed stuff in shower and still was able to dry in our inside room due to air conditioning drying out the air. I had a bit of trouble about showing dives knives to security, but they finally let me bring it back on after dive.
I’m less optimistic about balcony drying due to concerns about theft, high humidity and rainy nights, but if it works for you, then I’ll learn something too.
Edited to add that I use a rolling Hockey bag for moving all the gear around. We had three divers.

 

[uncfnp]

There may be something here...

Cleaning gear on vacation (limited facilities available)

 

[Dogbowl]

Yup! If bringing your own gear, you must haul it all off the ship and to the dive op or boat or transportation, whichever you’ve arranged. After the dive you will need to haul it all back on the ship, and rinse them in the tiny shower (if you don’t have one of the expensive suites with bigger shower and bathtub). Then you can dry them all in the tiny balcony!

We used to cruise a lot and dive in all 4 ports on a 7 day cruise. It can be done but hauling gear back and forth is quite tiring, and rinsing them on the ship is not easy. It can be done but some might find it more bother than it’s worth.

Over the years, we’ve chosen balcony cabins because the fresh sea breeze dries out gear much better, and if they’re not in your bathroom drying, you can actually use your bathroom!

There might be some pieces of gear that you might decide to leave at home and rent instead, to lessen the load you carry and the need to rinse them.

It sounds like a lot of work and it is, but we also enjoy cruising a lot so we get why people would do this.

Enjoy!

 

[daduls]

I usually take my mask, fins, and reg and rent the rest. Saves on the rinsing and the luggage drag. Enjoy and be safe!

 

[wsr523]

We rinse our gear in the shower and dry on the balcony and its usually dry before the ship leaves the port. You should have 2 chairs and a little table out there you can hang or drape stuff on. You do have to carry your gear back and forth from your room to the pier. We use a heavy duty mesh backpack for carrying our gear. We have been on Royal Carribean and Carnival and I have taken a 3 1/2" blade folding dive knife without a problem but lately I just leave it at home. The shower will have a clothes line that you can hang things on too, we bring some cheap plastic hangers that we use and then just leave in the room for the next person. Have fun on your cruise!

 

[Schwob]

My son and I dove off a cruise ship once (Belize, Roatan, Cozumel - not organized via the cruise ship). Brought all our gear etc, except for knives (were expressively listed as not allowed). It started out with my son staying in a cabin with my daughter and I with my wife. After all the dive gear got rinsed the first time in my shower and pretty much took over the bathroom + hallway for drying it turned out the cruise continued with my son and I sharing a cabin and the girls the other one... I brought some string to hang stuff from ... for drying good thing I did.
...
I struggled with what to do with the passport - something that had to be taken on land (even if not checked, what would you do if you missed the boat or had other trouble), but which I was not willing to leave on the dinghy or boat we dove from locally - I just was too worried about potential loss. So, I took mine and my sons with us diving together with some cash in a waterproof cell phone vinyl pouch. I figured if all air is out it should hold up nice and stay dry. Did so successfully the first to dive days. Not the third. Lessons learned:
An older fabric covered passport binding de-laminates pretty good in saltwater. Some ink from some stamps runs pretty good. Not much harm to more modern style passports (like US or the newer German ones) except for running ink from some stamps. Saltwater logged paper and money dries very slowly in a cruise ship cabin, even when well pressed (page by page, bill by bill) between (changed several times) toilet paper sheets. Maybe rinsing in non-salt-water first might have been the brighter thing to do.
...
Afterwards I was wondering if it was worth the hazzle and the carrying of gear through ports and quite a ways down roads (e.g. Belize) ... but whom am I kidding, compared to going shopping with the girls... in a tourist filled cruise port ... or taking a cattle tour to a beach, ... no contest... sure it was worth it!

 

[drrich2]

It should dry on the balcony. I'm too cheap to pay the hundreds extra for balcony rooms these days; I end up laying on a lounge chair on an upper deck with my gear spread over another, letting it dry in direct sunlight while I chill in the shade. Takes awhile, but cheaper. And yes, rinsing in the shower works.

On the knife issue; on one cruise (I think the one I did on Celebrity several years ago) they confiscated my dive knife when I got on the ship. I could have it back when leaving. If you get a line cutter of some sort, a Trilobyte or DGX Sharp Cut, things that don't look like knives, it may not come up.

Oh, and at line at Security in Grand Cayman, I learned they wouldn't let me take a scuba tool in carry on (perhaps they think I could take apart the plane in mid-flight?), only in checked baggage. Just in case you planned to take one (e.g.: in case a hose connector gets loose on your reg.'s 1st stage).

 

[jmdive]

Bring a few bungee cords to hold down your equipment. I did this with my wetsuit on the chair on balcony so that I would not have to worry about the wind taking it away. Spare string from your smb reel works great also.

 

[SOFDiver]

I take my gear on cruises all the time. I take my gear up to the pool and use large open air pool showers to rinse my gear. No one minds and often my activity results in interesting conversation. Depending on time of day I either find an out of the way spot on deck to lay gear out or dry on cabin veranda. Never had a problem drying on veranda with items blowing away or any incident of theft, just don’t hang anything on the rail. Invest in a waterproof bag/sack for your clothes and other items while on the dive boat, put it in your dive bag and shove it under your seat, no one with bother it. Leave knives at home, bring a line cutter if you must. No dive operator is going to take you where entanglement is an issue.