Belize port review - dive with ship's tour

[stingraynz]

BELIZE CITY, BELIZE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15TH 2004

 

ARRIVE-ANCHOR 8AM LAST TENDER LEAVES AT 4:30PM SAIL AWAY AT 5PM

 

353.6 nautical miles from Roatan (interesting how that was the same figure given from Cayman to Roatan! I’m now questioning their validity)

 

Belize has a lot of reefs along the coast. It makes up part of the second largest barrier reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Therefore when the ship is at anchor, you can barely see Belize. Huge speed boat type tenders whisk you in and it still takes about 20 minutes.

 

These factors made the decision to choose the ship’s excursion easier. Again we took the certified scuba excursion. They pick you up right at the ship and you are then on your way to the dive shop. We also knew the ship used Huge Parkey’s Belize Dive Connection and we really enjoyed it. The excursion was to the Turneffe Atoll which was an hour boat ride from the ship. The weather wasn’t completely cooperating as a cold front came into Miami the day we left and seemed to follow us for the entire cruise. If the weather was better the boat ride to the Atolls would have been glorious, but for us it was windy but fun!

 

Just as the day before we had two boats (pro 48s), they were big, fast and very comfortable. It was the kind of dive day I love. Lots of crew looking after you a beautiful, comfortable boat with lots of space for everyone and everyone’s stuff. They even put on your fin’s for you when you approached the platform with your tank on…I loved that!

 

On our boat there was about 15 divers plus the crew so we went out with three groups of six. Our dive leader ‘Phil’ was excellent and very excited about showing us good stuff.

 

The first dive site was called Jojo’s split named after a favorite spot of Hugh’s son Jojo. This was a big wall drop we went 75 feet for 45 minutes. At the end of the dive there were three huge black grouper feeding in the currents.

 

They let us stay down as long as our air allowed and we didn’t all ascend when the first person ran low, they went back to the boat alone. However, we did one who sucked up air really fast (there’s always one) it seemed just a few minutes into the dive he was already at 1500 psi. Phil was a little pissed because he wanted to take us further down to this coral formation and we had to stay closer to the boat them expected, but this was safer and was not the fault of the dive op. I am commenting on this because I know there are a lot of questions regarding does the whole group have to ascend when the first person runs out of air and Hugh Parkey’s dive op DMs would swing around to the boat when someone was running low but the others still continued.

 

The second dive was named after a woman who was the wife of a resort owner her name was Lee Ellen. They told us she returned from a trip ‘enhanced’. The dive site was called ‘LeeEllen’s melons’ this was because there were numerous round barrel sponges. OK guys – very funny!

This dive was 60 feet for 45 minutes. We saw a southern stingray in the sand. This dive was also along a beautiful wall drop.

 

Hugh Parkey's Belize Dive Connection

PO Box 1818

Belize City, Belize, Central America

Tel: 501-223-4526 Toll Free: (888) 223-5403 -Fax: 501-227-8808

E-mail: hugh@belizediving.com

 

After our great dives and a nice (but windy) ride back to the ship, we had just enough time to at least take the tender in and back. We dumped off our gear and headed for the tenders. It was great, we were the only passengers going into town. Belize was the gem of the trip. I loved it so much I would seriously consider living there. The people were warm and friendly and they seemed to say ‘comeback to Belize and stay for a longer vacation’ that seemed to be their national slogan, but it was very welcoming. We bought some t-shirts and the requisite trinkets right there at the small market at the pier. Belize City looked like a nice size and I thought the pier and bay area was very pretty with a lot more tourist infrastructure than I was expecting. Of course the outer islands, cays & reefs are the real jewels of Belize. The other ships in port with us were the Carnival Legend, Splendour Of The Seas & NCL Sea.