Claymore2

I would suggest either a SCUBA Review or find an LSD that has a pool and rent an hour or so and ask to do a self guides review and practice your skills. If you are a new diver the time in the water helps you be more comfortable and confident in the water.

I DM SCUBA Reviews and classes for my LDS and find that an hour in the pool helps new/out of practice dives immensely with their skills and confidence.

I will go in and play and practice in the pool every couple of months during the winter, I live in Minnesota, just to keep my skills fresh.

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What dive operators do the cruise lines use, Royal Caribbean, in Nassau Bahamas and Philipsburg St. Maartin? Do they provide decent dives compared to a private operator? I would prefer to book on my own but with time constraints and my wife worrying about missing the ship departure I am looking for information on the cruise line operators.

Thanks for any information.

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All or almost all the cruise lines use Sand Dollar Sports. Big operator, BIG boats. They get you in and out in as little time and distance as possible. Not really a bad OP but there are many on the island that would give better service for lass money..

Ship arrival time and departure times are going to determine if you can use another OP. Almost all the am boats go out at about 8:00 am. Blue Angel had a 10:00 or 10:30 boat

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I just got back from our cruise and dives with Scuba Roatan.

Their prearranged transport was waiting outside the Mahogany Bay terminal gate as promised, it was a bit of a hike carrying all my gear. It was a 25 to 30 minute ride to the dive shop on the west side. The equipment I saw seemed to be fairly new and in good repair. The owner Amanda, it's appears to be family owed, was there to greet us and get us set up with any equipment we might need. This shop accepts CASH ONLY but they made that very clear when the reservation was made so it was not a problem to bring the cash.

The DM/Instructors setup and carried all the gear down to and into the boat. We had to wait for the boat to get back from the first dive with another group of cruise divers. After their surface interval at the dive shop our group of 3 divers and the first group of 5 or 6 divers went out to the 1st site of our two dives with Susan as the DM, there is no dock so you enter the boat by a wooden ladder over the side of the boat but if I can manage it at 68 it can't be to bad. It was well briefed and we were told what we may see. The entry into the water is back roll over the side of the boat which is very common on smaller boats.The dive was a nice slow dive with plenty of time to look around and enjoy the reef. It was kept to a max depth of 60 ft. At the end of the dive weight belts/weights are handed up to the boat captain and then BC's and tanks are handed up and then you remove your fins and enter the boat up the wooden ladder

Then to was back to the dive shop for the surface interval and the interesting exit from the boat.

During the SI the shop staff changed all the gear over to new tanks.

Then it was off to the second dive of the day. This dive was well briefed by Chris and was also nice slow dive with no rush to get finished. There were several small creatures that the DM's found that would be missed by most divers.

Then it was back to the shop where the staff hauled up and broke down all the gear.

The staff was very friendly and helpful and appeared to enjoy what they were doing. One of the advantages for me was that all the people I talked with spoke very good English with little or no accent which made communication in both directions easier.

I found this to be a very nice shop to dive with. There are very service oriented, friendly and want you to have a good experience with them.

If you do go off by your selves or even if you are on excursion and you are doing a shore entry in sand, shuffle you feet as you cross the sand between the shore and when you start snorkeling so that you do not step on a sting ray. If you shuffle the rays can feel you coming or you will nudge them as you shuffle and they will swim away. If you step on one it may feel threatend and use it's tail in defense.

I started diving at 60 also. I completed my DM last July at 67 so you could have some good years ahead. Of the places I have been diving in the Caribbean I can recommend 1 Cozumel, 2 Dominica, 3 Costa Maya and 4 Bonaire. I have been diving on several other Islands but do not consider them as good. For new divers diving with the cruise line dive operator is generally a good idea as these operators deal with a lot of new and vacation divers and have to have a good safety record because of the liability the cruise line may incur.

I will be diving with SCUBA Roatan on the 25th of March and post back when I can with a report.

I agree a Refresher before you leave would be a very good idea. For an inexperienced timid diver three years is to long without a refresher course. For an inexperienced diver one year is even questionable.

Many operators require dives within the last two years some are even going down to one.

In Cozumel the cruise line operator is Sand Dollar Sports and their main business is cruise lines and resorts. They have big boats (giant stride entry) and deal with new and inexperienced and vacation diver all the time.

I will go into the LDS and rent the pool for hour before I go on a winter trip just to get comfortable, have fun, and practice some skills. I have over 200 dives and am a DM but find that I enjoy the dives much more because I have had some recent practice and can relax more.

Don Fosters does a lot of the Cruise Lines. I was on a Carnival ship last year and they use Don Fosters. They didn't not seem like a bad operater kind of let me do my own thing and kept dives above 60', which is the standard on Grand Cayman.

The information I found is that it docks at the TMM International Pier. This pier is about a 10 or 15 minute taxi ride South of down town. This may change with the arrival date/time.

It depends. You are under the constraints of your ships arrival and departure times. I believe the ferry is about an hour each way with ticketing, getting on and getting off. The best bet may be for them to take the ferry over and spend the day in Coz. Then you do not have to worry about getting over to the mainland, getting back in time to board the ship. Your friends would not have a set time frame to arrive and depart the island.

Every time we have been to Cozumel we have been told not to rent scooters. There are way to many injuries on scooters. Stick with taxis, Jeeps, cars. The drivers on the islands tend to be a little or a lot crazy.

Being buddy less on a cruise is not unusual many people need buddies on the dive trips on cruises. My wife does not dive so I get insta-buddies all the time when we cruise.

I would suggest using the cruise line dive operator for any dives you do until you have sone experience. They tend to do easy dives because there clientele tends to be new/vacation divers. They may not be the best dives in the area but they will not be difficult dives.

Tell the dive operator that you are a NEW diver. You can try and find a buddy on the dive boat or the DM may buddy up solo divers. When you have a buddy discus what your expectations of them are, stick close, check in with you regularly ect. If your buddy blows you off on the first dive tell the DM or Captain you want another buddy and why, you have the right to expect a buddy who is responsible. Remember your TRAINING. Try not to get buddied up with a photographer or videographer, they tend to get lost in the shot and forget their buddy. Sometimes an experienced diver will take noobie under their wing. Stick close to the DM if possible. Just remember the DM in not your your buddy, unless that is the arrangement, his/her job is to lead the dive and watch over all the divers.

Listen to the dive briefing and do not be afraid to ask questions.

If you are uncomfortable doing something on the dive you should not have to do it, dive whin your training and comfort zone. If you are not comfortable doing a swim-though go over it, stay shallower if the depth is uncomfortable etc.

I would agree Grand Cayman and/or Cozumel. My personal choice is Cozumel. I like the big coral and drift diving in Coz. If you use cruise operators it will probably be Don Fosters in Grand Cayman and Sand Dollar Sports in Cozumel. I have dove with both and both are decent operators that cater to the new/vacation divers with large boats with 8-10 + divers in the boats when they work for the cruise lines. Booking your own dives can be difficult if you get into port after 7:00am as the boats usually go out between 7:00 and 8:00 and you will generally have to arrange transport to the dive shop, non cruise operators can not use the cruise pier.

In general the cruise dive ops use sites that are close to the ship and do easy dives so that they don't have to spend much travel time and can get the boat back out later.

In the southern Caribbean I have been diving on cruises in Aruba. Bonaire, Curaçao and Dominica.

Personally I thought Dominica was the best of the four.

Dominica's coral seemed to be in great shape. I saw lots of spotted eels in the coral quite bit of small things like fire worms. The two dive sites I dove there were L'Abym and Champagne, volcanic gases bubbling out of the bottom.

In Aruba and Curaçao I thought the coral was not in great shape. Bonaire did not impress me but I like BIG coral and walls.

Your mileage may vary and your tastes may be different.

For the most part I have not had a bad dive in the Caribbean, warm clear water with pretty coral and fish, because my home diving is in Minnesota in a Dy suit and low vis and COLD water.

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Who you use as Dive operator depends on several factors.

1 ship arrival time can affect securing you own dive operator. Late arrival means that most of the operators boats have gone out already as the boats go out between 7:00 am to 9:00 am. You maybe able to find an operator with a late boat. Just because your ship is supposed to dock at say 8:00 am you may not be able to make a 9:00 am boat if the ship is late, you get delayed disembarking and/ finding transport/travel time. You may find afternoon dives with one of the operators.

2 You will have to arrange transport to and from the operators shop/boat, taxi, walk, arrange pickup, at your expense. The cruise lines will not let non-cruise excursions use the pier

3 the divers on your boat maybe more experienced divers and you may end up on dives that you are not comfortable with or are beyond your experience level.

4 if you secure your own dives and there is a problem with transport, boat ect. and you get held up and can not get back by departure time the ship will WILL NOT wait for you.

The operators the cruise lines use are geared to new/inexperienced divers. They will take you to sites that are not difficult, they use the most common denominator for their dives.

I was diving in Curaçao a couple of years ago. I had to book on my own as the cruise line offered no diving excursion there, maybe because I was one of the younger persons on board at 67.

I was not impressed with the diving as the reefs have been over fished, the coral is not healthy and I like BIG coral and walls.

Granted just about any Caribbean dive is better than a dive in Minnesota.

This was not a cruise ship operator. They picked me up at the end of the pier and drove me to their shop to get what gear was needed and picked up another diver, so it was 2 divers and a dive master. The dives were good, the DiveMaster was knowledgable end could find some of the difficult things to see, sea horses, stone fish, ect.

I was in Roatan 3 or 4 years ago on a cruise and the cruise line used Anthony Key for their operator. as On operator it was not pretty. The dives started with not not going to the their resort for the dive but boarded a boat to dive on the bay side of the island, bad weather on the other side of the island, it was rainy and rough.

First thing to go wrong was a bad reg so we had to go to shore to get it fixed (no just in case spare reg, remember that.)

Second thing to go wrong we came up from the first dive to do out surface interval and one of the divers said that the depth gauge on the regs they proved did not work. A DiveMaster looked at it shrugged and walked away. I gave the lady the spare depth gauge I carry in my BC pocket, that solved that problem.

Third thing to go wrong was they did not have enough full tanks to go around. We had to wait 45 minutes to an hour for them to bring a boat around with a fill tank on it to fill the empty/under filled tanks.

When we got back I posted the review on the cruise lines web site and with in 24 hours they had pulled it.

The interesting thing about this excursion was that the activities director for the cruise ship and the owner of dive operator we were going to dive with Costa Maya were on the the dives.

Your mileage may vary and I have heard some good thing about the operator but I will be leery of them if I were to dive with them again.

Have you considered doing SCUBA Review or a self guided SCUBA TuneUP at a local dive operator before you leave and then dive in all the the ports. That may be a simpler cheaper and easier solution than trying the get in a "practice dive" in a port on the cruise.

I was in the same boat last year, could not find a dive OP that ran boats that late. I contacted Christ at Blue XT-SEA and she was able to recommend some OPs that may run later boats.

I believe that SandDollar Sports is the OP for Carnival. They are the usual cruise ship OP, big boats, dives close to the ship (Paradise Reef, Santa Rosa Wall). Catering to new/vacation divers. They try to get their dives in as quickly and as close to the ship as possible. They get paid less than their normal 2 dive rate by the Cruise line and the cruise line adds a profit top.