Royal Caribbean Nov28th from Colon, Panama?

[petsin]

This is my first time in a cruise ship after becoming a diver in 2003 and I have more than 300 dives by now. I have been reading lots of threads in this great forum to learn how to choose my diving during this trip. Ports of call with diving are Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Roatan. I am alone with my girlfriend who is not a diver and looking for dive buddies...

After some email inquires during the last months, it seems I will be booking my dives with Jamaica Scuba Divers Ltd aka Scuba Jamaica, and in Grand Cayman with Divers Down and in Roatan with Barefoot Divers. All of them also offer beach and transportation for my girlfriend. So, I would love to read some oppinons on my choices for the diving and of course would be great to know that there other divers on this cruise ship!!

Peter

 

[diversteve]

I'm probably one of the people that recommended Barefoot Divers. Really a first class operation. They have nice newer boats, limit divers to 8 per boat and really mean it when they say valet diving. Once we dropped our gear on deck, we didn't touch it again till we were back onshore - they even offered to clean it for us. And we were only day-diving with them - not staying at the resort.

With 300+ dives they could take you to Mary's Place - one of Roatan's top dives - right off the resort. I'd request it. It's a fairly new resort/diveop - in 2007 I watched them install their compressor. Good rental gear also - maybe Scubapro?

The Cay is nice also, nice beach, pool, a palapa just offshore and a good restaurant with an upstairs viewing deck - your g/f will be able to see your boat at Mary's Place from there.

If you're docking at Mahogany Bay - it's 5mins. away by cab.

 

[petsin]

I have just received another offer, sligthly cheaper from Subway Watersports operating from Turquoise Bay. The price is the same as Barefoot Divers ($90 for two tanks) but transport to/from the ship is included (with Barefoot it is extra $20). I am not sure which side of the island would be better since this is my first visit to Roatan (I am planning to come back later and stay a full week anyway) so what would you recommend to get the best on just a two tank dive. I guess Mary's Place is a no miss one, but anything similar in the north side?

 

[diversteve]

I have no experience with Subway other than what I've read here and on their website. I understand that there is some pristine diving on the NE where Turquoise Bay is located. We stayed in the West End so all of our north side diving was more centered in that area. The farthest east we went was Spooky Channel and Anthony's Key (Dolphins)

I just copied this from the Subway Watersports website:

We keep a boat on the South Side to dive Mary's Place Roatan's most famous dive site and to be able to take you diving 365 days a year.

So I don't know if that means they first shuttle you over to Turquoise Bay and then back to the South Side or if their cruise program is diving two sites in the Turquoise Bay area - my guess is that it's the latter.

The cruise dive op - Anthony's Key does that. They shuttle divers back and forth and do two average dives nearby. It's a 1/2 hr. to/from AKR - maybe farther to Turquoise Bay - IDK.

Turquoise Bay appears too far east to go to Spooky Channel, probably one of the other top 5 dives. At least I didn't see it listed.

So is it worth $20 to you to definitely dive the site that both diveops say is the most famous? It would be for me.

On our 2-tank at Barefoot, the 2nd dive was the Prince Albert wreck off Cocoview.

 

[petsin]

Thank you diversteve for the valuable input. I did have a great experience diving with Barefoot Divers in Roatan. See my trip report here.

I will definitively dive again with Barefoot divers.

Peter