Western Caribean and a couple of new divers

[Toni0620]

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.

 

[Damselfish]

I would dive in Grand Cayman or Coz. (Personally I would probably try and do Coz simply because I've dove Cayman a lot but haven't dove in Coz.)

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.

 

[Doc]

Good logic, Damselfish. I would vote for StingRay City (GC).

I would also suggest that you stick with what the ship is offering for dive ops. As self proclaimed "Newbies" (and we all are to a certain extent), you'll best be handled by dive ops that cater to cruise ship divers. You'll find that they are more attentive and the process is well laid out and easy breezy.

As far as "the Best Reef to see" contest, don't worry, at this stage- you'll see plenty enough!

Go, have fun, but talk your spouses into a Discover SCUBA course on the cruise ship. What you are learning about, you'll want to share!

 

[Toni0620]

Roatan Man you really think we should book through the ship. I thought they were bigger groups so less attention. I have never been diving or on a cruise so this is really a question.

 

[diveborg]

I am of a different opinion. I think you should make your own arrangements.

Another thing to consider is a combo dive/snorkel trip. If you are a mixed group of divers/non-divers this would enable you to stay together. Blue Angel offers a combo snorkel/dive trip that departs later in the morning that would work with a cruisers later arrival time.

In Grand Cayman www.neptunesdivers.com is a good choice, even for newbies. They do guided dives if you want and they have a max of 8 divers on their boat.

 

[tstormdiver]

I liked Grand Cayman. I did a resort course there while on a cruise and that's how I got hooked on diving. To me anywhere warm & clear is much better than cold dank quarries.

 

[pleasan7]

Hi
I have cruised many times and tried to dive at least one stop each time. I will be on the Miracle at the end of August. I plan to dive with Eagle Ray Divers. I missed the last time because of weather and she quickly returned my deposit. I plan to post a review when I return.
Good luck on your trip,
Carol Shaffer

http://www.eagleraydivers.com

 

[diversteve]

I'd agree with Cayman as a good choice. A lot of Coz diving is drift diving which is probably not the best for new divers. My friend lives in Belize and even he dives only out on the Cays - which I'm not sure are doable on a cruise schedule.

Red Sail is the designated diveop for several of the cruise lines on Cayman, not sure if Carnival is one of them. They segregate their island based dive operations from their cruise operations since a lot more cruise divers tend to be new/less experienced. So they typically pick sites that are good but shallower - a lot of Cayman 1st dives are deep off the wall if you're staying/diving there.

A good site if you have a choice would be Aquarium, thousands of fish, some excellent coral formations and it's only about 45' to the bottom. Stingray City would be a memorable second dive, they say it's the most fun you can have in 15' of water. If your cruiseline offers a trip there, make sure it's to Stingray City and not Sandbar, Sandbar is for snorkelers, people who want to stand up in the water, SRC is for divers.
They're very near each other but completely different experiences.

If you wanted to shoredive on your own, Eden Rock is walking distance from where the cruise ship tender will drop you off. It's not the best Cayman has to offer since it does get a lot of cruise traffic, but it's shallow with easy access.

I'd also recommend contacting Casey at Neptune Divers and see what she can work out, they do pickups also - as do most diveops on Cayman.

One last consideration, if you book through the cruiseline, although it's more expensive, theoretically they won't sail until you return - in case of diveboat problems or traffic on Seven Mile Beach - a lot of the diveops go out of marinas that are north of Georgetown.

 

[chuck e]

We did a Carnival west Caribbean last year and dove all ports. Hugh Parkley is the ship's operator in Belize and they pick you up on the boat and take you to Turniffe (very nice). It wasn't crowded. I think more people are into eating and drinking than diving on cruises. We made our own arrangements at the other ports. Choices will depend on the cruise boat's schedule and local dive op's schedule. We could not fit in a boat dive in Grand Cayman, so we did 2 shore dives with Dive Tek near the turtle farm (great dives!). We dove with Dive with Alison in Coz who accomodated our afternoon arrival. We dove with a very small group off a 6 pack and one of the divers was recent OW. Alison was very good leading him around.

 

[Puck]

I am of a different opinion. I think you should make your own arrangements.

Another thing to consider is a combo dive/snorkel trip. If you are a mixed group of divers/non-divers this would enable you to stay together. Blue Angel offers a combo snorkel/dive trip that departs later in the morning that would work with a cruisers later arrival time.

In Grand Cayman www.neptunesdivers.com is a good choice, even for newbies. They do guided dives if you want and they have a max of 8 divers on their boat.

I would have said to book your own thin too, but that was before I tried diving while on a cruise. My friend had booked the dives through the ship for us, and I razzed him a bit, saying that I would be taking care of this at the remaining stops. We had been re-routed to Nassau instead of Hati, so it was a bonus dive day anyway.

Dive was fine, not a private charter, but not a cattle boat either. On diver went solo and too deep. He had drifted well away from the group and was about 30 seconds from being left behind if not for a dilligent roll-call/head count by one of the crew. The captain cruised over to get him, the crew got him aboard and on O2, while the monitored him for any problems. He was fine (we saw him on the cruise many times after, and he had been checked out by the ships doctor), but all of that took time and we had already spent too much time at the site.

Needless to say, we got back to the dock late, by the time everyone had their gear off and loaded on the bus, we were overdue for our departure. Our driver did his best Dale Earnhardt impression and got us back to the ship. No customs check, we were waived through the gates and up the ramp to the ship. I didn't make it to my cabin before the shp was sailing out of port.

At least from what I was told, had we not booked through the ship, we would have been left to fend for ourselves.

I will never try to mix a cruise with a dive trip again, and this is just one of the reasons. I hope my story was illustrative. What some passengers did was tag along with us to the dive op, then negotiated a better rate for the dive and had the best of both worlds since we all had to get back to the ship, but they cut out the middleman.