Royal Caribbean Cruise Diving - Roatan and Cozumel

[BlowBubbles]

Good info. I assume this was on Royal Caribbean, what ship?

This was Royal Caribbean. We were on Symphony of the Seas. I think this information will apply to any Royal Caribbean ship that docks in Roatan and Cozumel. This was part of their Western Caribbean itinerary.

For those listening: the Cozumel provider did not have a fresh water dunk tank at the end of the dive from what I could tell. Roatan provider did. Plan on using the ship’s TINY in-room shower to rinse off your gear! Only the suites have bathtubs. And if we didn’t have a balcony, I don’t know where we would have dried the gear off.

 

[BlowBubbles]

I’m not a shill for Royal Caribbean, but if you do decide to book with a non-affiliated outfitter be very mindful of the time you have in port.

I think that because Symphony is such a huge ship we had very short times in port. Sometimes we’d dock at 7am and gangway up by 3:30 or 4:00. Not that it isn’t enough time to do a 2-tank dive.. and the excursion operators never “cut it close” for us.. but I could see how the smallest hiccup in Cozumel could result in a delay in getting back to the ship on time. It took us about 45 minutes by boat to get to the dive site.

 

[BlowBubbles]

The cruise planner (RCI) lists the price w/o equipment at $119.

This was confusing to us when we were booking because my wife doesn’t really have her own gear except mask/fins/snorkel. Even though it says without equipment, they do provide all the basics you need to get wet. It just doesn’t include wetsuits, computers, or any type of accessory items.

I can contrast this experience with our liveaboard trip in Australia (Reef Quest / Ocean Quest with Deep Sea Diver’s Den) where they were ready to provide everything - wetsuits, computers, SMB, pretty much everything. On the night dives they even provided 2 flashlights.

 

[mac66]

Great info BB, thanks!

I will be in those ports on the Allure in December.

 

[Pat.D]

Plan on using the ship’s TINY in-room shower to rinse off your gear! Only the suites have bathtubs. And if we didn’t have a balcony, I don’t know where we would have dried the gear off.

Royal Caribbean ships have PADI dive schools and small shops onboard, if you drop by and chat them up there is a pretty good chance you can get permission to use their dunk tanks in the shop. I used the ones on the Navigator OTS and I'll ask when I'm on the Symphony this coming November.

When I cruise on other on other cruise lines, I end up using the shower in my stateroom and dry stuff by hanging it on the balcony or if no balcony (like in a Solo Studio on NCL) it hangs in and outside the shower. With the aggressive A/C on ships it all dries fast. On the NCL Bliss a few months ago the stateroom attendant saw I was drying gear and left me a housekeeping card so my cabin's ventilation system stayed on all the time.

 

[BlowBubbles]

Great info BB, thanks!

I will be in those ports on the Allure in December.

You’re going to have a great cruise!

When you’re in Nassau, if you decide not to dive, check out a restaurant “Bahamian Cookin’ Restaurant and Bar.” Put this in Google Maps: 3MG4+PP Nassau, The Bahamas

It’s a few minutes walk from the Port and they had good cracked conch (whole fried conch) and conch salad (basically conch ceviche).

 

[BlowBubbles]

Royal Caribbean ships have PADI dive schools and small shops onboard, if you drop by and chat them up there is a pretty good chance you can get permission to use their dunk tanks in the shop. I used the ones on the Navigator OTS and I'll ask when I'm on the Symphony this coming November.

When I cruise on other on other cruise lines, I end up using the shower in my stateroom and dry stuff by hanging it on the balcony or if no balcony (like in a Solo Studio on NCL) it hangs in and outside the shower. With the aggressive A/C on ships it all dries fast. On the NCL Bliss a few months ago the stateroom attendant saw I was drying gear and left me a housekeeping card so my cabin's ventilation system stayed on all the time.

That’s really great advice about visiting the PADI dive shop on board. We got to meet one of the instructors, he came on the Roatan dive with us. I think his name was Chris, he was from South Africa. Really nice guy. He told us about diving the sardine runs in South Africa. I think he was formerly affiliated with Nat Geo? But I could be wrong on that.

 

[Diver below 83]

Royal Caribbean ships have PADI dive schools and small shops onboard, if you drop by and chat them up there is a pretty good chance you can get permission to use their dunk tanks in the shop. I used the ones on the Navigator OTS and I'll ask when I'm on the Symphony this coming November.

When I cruise on other on other cruise lines, I end up using the shower in my stateroom and dry stuff by hanging it on the balcony or if no balcony (like in a Solo Studio on NCL) it hangs in and outside the shower. With the aggressive A/C on ships it all dries fast. On the NCL Bliss a few months ago the stateroom attendant saw I was drying gear and left me a housekeeping card so my cabin's ventilation system stayed on all the time.

Another option is using the showers on the pool decks. They have a lot more space and typically the times you return from the dive trips the ships pool areas are still pretty empty. You can rinse all the gear there as well if you find the stateroom showers too cramped.

 

[Pat.D]

We got to meet one of the instructors, he came on the Roatan dive with us. I think his name was Chris, he was from South Africa. Really nice guy. He told us about diving the sardine runs in South Africa.

That's really cool! I've found the staff divers (padi instructors and also the dive theatre divers) to be super friendly and chatty on RCCL ships.

Another option is using the showers on the pool decks. They have a lot more space and typically the times you return from the dive trips the ships pool areas are still pretty empty. You can rinse all the gear there as well if you find the stateroom showers too cramped.

Very good point! I've done that a few times when returning from an early dive excursion and once a pool staff member even got a garden hose out for me. I then lay out all the gear on the deck chairs to dry before the crowds return on board.

 

[mac66]

Ooops, didn't read all the posts. Was going to recommend using the showers poolside but now I see it was already mentioned.

And...I just noticed that the scuba trip through the ship in Roatan is now $95.