Western Caribean and a couple of new divers

[hdcline]

I am planning a trip to the Western Caribbean on Carnival with my DH and some friends in late November. We will probably only be able to get one dive in. (MY DH does not dive.) So, I was wondering what your thoughts were on whom and where I should choose for a couple of newbie’s to diving. My friend and I will be going diving while our DH's fish.

My choices are
Grand Cayman 7-4
Cozmel 9-6
Belize 8-5
Costa Maya 8-5

I am looking for a good dive with a good charter that will remember we are new. We will get our OW in late JULY.

I would recommend Grand Cayman for a couple of reasons. I dove Cozumel and Grand Cayman both in July from a cruise ship. I do recommend you book your own dive because you will be diving with a much smaller crowd than you would if booking through the cruise line. A few years back when my son and I were beginners we booked with Nepturesdivers. We were the only two they took out, which made for great dives. I also would recommend Cozumel but the problem we had on our last cruise where the ship docked at 8:00 but our ship was the unluckly one and had to tender due to the pier being taken out due to the hurricane, which delayed our getting off the ship until around 9:30. We dove with papahogs and they set us up for an afternoon dive and made sure we got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. If you book on your own the cost is about half as what the cruise line will charge. As someone else said, in Cozumel you will have to deal with a fairly strong current making most dives drift dives.
One thing I do recommend no matter who you book with make sure you let them know your experience.
Enjoy your dives no matter where you dive.

 

[Jay_SMART_Diver]

Belize can be great, but the best diving is a distance from Belize City. Given the logistics there, going with the ships dive arrangements would be best. But since there's some neat and different stuff to do with non-divers in Belize you might want to try something else there instead.

I was on a Norwegian cruise last year that stopped in Belize, I would suggest doing a snorkeling excursion, the really good diving in Belize is too far for the operators to get to with the cruise ship time constraints. The snorkeling close to Belize City was great, shallow reefs with lots of marine life. I used Sea Sports Belize Great people and operation, small fast boat and they dropped us off at our Cruise ship when we were done, so we had time to drop gear shower and make it back to the tourist village for some shopping.

 

[diverrick]

Some advice from someone who has done that before...
Make sure you have alternates available, and make sure you take a contact number with you, as the cruise ships do not always go where they said they were taking you. You could get caught with a cancellation fee if you cannot get ahold of them soon enough. You can call from the ship.
As for Beleze? I would skip diving there, as it IS a very far ride out to be relistic, as mentioned in an earlier post and the Dive op mention was the one I used also. They don't go all the way out, and the reefs were not very good where we were taken. Grand Caymen is a must do destination we dove right near the ship at Eden Rock, which is right near where the ship normally moores. Sunset house is also fairly close too.
Cozumel is also a good choice. I can't speak of Costa Maya as I have never been there yet. Oh yeh... Book your own trip it'll be better diving and cheaper than going through the cruis ship folks.

 

[Toni0620]

Thanks everyone for the input. I can not wait. I am thinking I am going to dive Grand Caymen or Costa Maya, but am still looking into dive ops. I will let everyone know how it goes.

 

[BurBunny]

Toni, while the diving is good from Costa Maya, I'd recommend as new divers going with the ship's excursions there. Unless you go out with Maya Ha (can't remember if that's their new or old name), the other ops there are more basic, with back roll entries and not as many facilities on the boats (ask specifically if they have O2, for example). This is definitely a developing port, without all the support for vendors yet.

I think you'll love diving Grand Cayman.