Scuba excursions via cruise lines

[Murrhers]

My DH and I just got scuba certified. We signed up for a dive via the cruise line excursion. DOes anyone have any experience with these types of dives? I'm a little apprehensive as this will be my first OW ocean dive.

 

Thanks!

[092306]

It depends on who you ask.

I have used the cruise line excursions and I have never had a bad expereince. Yes, using the cruise line you do tend to have "cattle boat" experience. That means alot of people and depending on who the first one to run out of air will determine your bottom time. So, if that doesn't bother you then I say try it. I don't bring my own gear due to flying to the embarkation port. Like I said I never had a problem. SI are at their shops. All do safety stops on the dives. Granted this is my own expereince. I have dove in ST Thomas, Cozumel, Roatan. Diving in Caozumel is fantastic. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT

[Califcat]

DOes anyone have any experience with these types of dives? I'm a little apprehensive as this will be my first OW ocean dive.

 

Thanks!

 

I have been diving for almost 17 years....I just did my first cruise ship SCUBA excursions through Carnival a few months ago....You didn't say whom your cruise is with but, if you are taking a Carnival ship you can read my experience on the carnival website under SCUBA and snorkling reviews.

 

Have no worries. I didn't experience any cattle boats or bad experience. There was another couple that dove all with me all week. They had never dove in the OW either. They felt more comfortable hiring a private dive master on their first dive of the week. So they went off by themselves with their own hired DM guide. The rest of us went in smaller groups...no larger then 10 people. Usually 20 to a boat split into groups. They saw a shark and we didn't. So you might look into that.

 

RELAX and enjoy diving.....You'll be fine after you get that first dive under your belt. The instructors on the cruise ship excursions are extremely helpful and will set your mind at ease. Don't be afraid to tell people it's your first open water dive. Other divers will keep an eye out for you along with your dive buddy.

 

I already booked a second cruise for this Oct and plan to dive each of the 5 ports.

 

See you at the bottom!

[tarheelkate]

Typically the cruise ship dives are pretty crowded and full of beginners, so you won't be alone :) I recommend that once you've gone with the cruise ship once or twice, try booking a dive with a local shop in the next port. I typically research all the shops in a port and read all their reviews, then contact them before i go. This way, I pay about 25% less for the dive, and there are usually only 4-5 other divers in the boat with me. This means the divers are usually more experienced. While it may make you less apprehensive to dive with a bunch of newbies, I always preferred diving with a smaller more experienced group. Plus, the dive master is able to give you more individual attention.

 

But as for tips... take as much of your own gear as possible... mask, fins, booties, snorkel, etc... that way you won't have to wonder what shape you're gear will be in. YOu'll know exactly how hard you have to work in your own fins and you'll be confident that your mask won't leak. If your gear is familiar, then that's one less thing to worry about.

 

Stick close to the dive masters... they dive the same spots all the time, so they know exactly where all the good sea life is. They can point out a seahorse that even a seasoned diver would be sure to miss.

 

Lastly, relax and have fun! and don't forget your c-card! (i like to scan mine into my email, so i'm covered in case i lose it).

[Miguel59]

I feel these operators are fine. They cater to the public every other day when a cruise ship is not in port. They are professional. I don't find them that crowded because not a lot of people on the cruise are diving. The one advantage as you probably already know is you won't be left behind if you are late by going thru the cruise line. My experience has been they are divide the group up & take you down in a small group, divemaster guided.

[gargoyle999]

DW and I just started our open water course tonight! I'm planning on booking with the ship in Cozumel and Grand Turk. Primarily because it will be our first dives after getting certified and I just don't want the extra hassle of arranging transportation and having to worry at all about getting back to the ship.

 

Normally I book independent excursions but for me I felt this was a good time to pay a few dollars more and just make it easy.

 

I'm glad to read a few comments from more experienced divers not just flat out bashing doing a dive excursion through the ship! :)

[scubadiver888]

My DH and I just got scuba certified. We signed up for a dive via the cruise line excursion. DOes anyone have any experience with these types of dives? I'm a little apprehensive as this will be my first OW ocean dive.

 

Thanks!

 

Murrhers,

 

How much you will enjoy a cruise ship scuba excursion is relative to your experience. For cruise ships excursions the pros and cons are:

 

PROS

------

- Everything is taken care of for you.

- Cruise ship guarantees a minimum standard for equipment, skills, etc.

- If the dive operator is delayed the ship will wait for you.

- The dive operators are highly experienced at dealing with new (i.e. nervous) divers.

 

CONS

------

- There are usually more divers than if you booked a private excursion.

- The dive ends when the first person runs low on air.

- The locations they take you to are not always the best locations.

- You never get the option to dive with Nitrox.

 

Basically, if I was to go diving with a private operator, they wouldn't worry as much of me getting into trouble and needing help. I would not have trouble with my buoyancy and therefore would be careful about damaging the environment. On the other hand, a new diver might have trouble with buoyancy and accidently damage the environment. Thus they are not going to take you to the most pristine reef. On a private excursion everyone would go out in pairs and the dive operator would leave when everyone gets back. If you run low on air, you go back to the dive operator by yourself and wait for the other divers. I have seen new divers who run out of air in 30 minutes. I would typically stay out for 90 minutes.

 

As a new diver I went on cruise ship shore excursions and had a great time. At first, I was the guy who ran low on air and ended the dive. After a while, I would still have 1000+ PSI left. Last cruise ship excursion I went on I have 1800 PSI left because someone else ran low on air. I now book private excursions if I can find them.

 

At some point you will be at a point were the negative things everyone here is talking about will be true for you. As a new diver, you should at least give cruise ship excursions a try. You will probably enjoy them more than the stress of trying to book your own excursion.

[Califcat]

I have seen a lot of posters saying that on a cruise ship dive that after the first person in a group runs out of air, all other divers must abort the dive.

 

I have only dove from one cruise ship, but did 8 dives, and of those not once did we abort our dive due to someone running out of air. Four times, it was my dive buddy that ran out of air and I signaled him I would stay with the group and he aborted solo (I watched him surface, then continued on)....so in my very limited experience with cruise ship dive excursions I can say this is not always the case. I felt the bottom time on all my dives was quite normal according to our depth...some were 80 feet dives.

[Capt_BJ]

so in my very limited experience with cruise ship dive excursions I can say this is not always the case.

 

Thank you for an honest perspective

 

I've been diving for 40 years, during more than 30 cruises and for 30 years working in the Carib' while my work left me in the islands with nothing to do but dive (poor me huh?) I offer these points to ponder:

 

- some cruises have many young newly certified divers and the excursions fill quickly to capacity. On most of my cruises on 'other than party hearty' lines there are a small number of divers, often experienced, and our excursion is leisurely. Most of my cruise line dives have had fewer than a dozen divers. There is a demographic aspect here of who cruises where and on which lines.....

 

- on one line they divided the divers into groups of 6 and we were assigned to a Zodiak for all the dives during the cruise. We didn't use outside help at all. Research Research Research .... no this was not a dive liveaboard ... but not a main line cruise line either ... but a line still operating. RESEARCH

 

- all rise at the first low air is a sign of a poor dive operator and most lines will quickly dump any operator who does this from the obvious dis-satisified customer feedback. And BTW, I've never seen it happen - all rise that is. Rather I've seen dive masters allow obviously minimally qualified divers surface alone from 90 feet in the currents of Cozumel making me wonder if there was another search and rescue case on their way up....

 

IMHO - 9 times out of 10 ... or maybe 99 out of 100 is a better metric, you are gonna be very very happy with the cruise line excursion ESPECIALLY as a newly certified diver.

 

Don't take this wrong but they assume you don't remember ANYTHING from your course and will watch you like a hawk and do as much as they can for you.

 

Experienced divers slap their hands .... stay away from my gear bucko .... I want it set up MY way.

[Murrhers]

Well, we did do our first ocean dive last week. The dive operator in Bermuda that was booked through HAL was Fantasea Diving. There were 12 divers, and they divided us up into 2 groups. There were experienced divers, then 2 people who did their check out dives at that time, then me & DH. We went to 2 shipwrecks, about 30 feet each. The dive master I was with did keep an eye on everyone, and I felt all in the group kept an eye on us as well. It was a very good experience, and I felt very comfortable. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Thanks for everyone who responded to my initial post. Your input helped me feel at ease!:)

[Califcat]

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Thanks for everyone who responded to my initial post. Your input helped me feel at ease!:)

 

You're welcome and I am glad you were put at ease.....now that you have that under your belt....go and explore more of the vast oceans we have here on earth!

 

I am so glad you had a great experience! See, you had 12 divers....and they still split you into two groups......NO cattle boat:D and to top if off....your first open water dive was a ship wreck...how cool is that!!

[Carl2860]

Califcat

I see you are on the Emerald on 10-19-2010, I have booked the Emerald of 10-19-2011 as it is doing the Southern Medely and the stops are great for diving.

I spent one entire week diving Dominica and it was great, also dove St Martin and St Thomas and Gran Turk off Princess in 2008.

 

This ship will also stop in Granada and also Aruba and Bonaire.

 

Last year did not cruise but spent one entire week at the Little Cayman Beach Resort diving the Bloody Bay wall- aewsome.

 

Need a dive buddy for the cruise next October, been diving since Sept 1968

[Capt_BJ]

glad you had a good time and things worked out for you. you also experienced another important thing to remember in the future: you had two very enjoyable dives at 30 feet... deeper is not always better...

 

time to start planning the next dive . . .

[Califcat]

Califcat

Need a dive buddy for the cruise next October, been diving since Sept 1968

 

I just might....I will have to look into booking that cruise. I really wanted to do the Southern Caribbean this time around...almost had it booked...but all the people in our group all wanted to do the eastern caribbean. I was even more bummed when I found out hardly any Scuba was offered on the Eastern Caribbean. Being a "Single" I don't like to venture off alone if I can help it....but it looks like I will have to find some one on this cruise to buddy around with on the islands that don't offer SCUBA.

 

I have been diving since March 1993.....I just got back into diving after the sudden passing of my husband and dive buddy in 2003....:(....I sure missed it. Hopefully we can met up on a cruise some day....always nice to know someone will be diving with you before you go.