Decisions, decisions! Where to dive on our Exotic Western Caribbean itin.

[bmsmith521]

I will be on the Carnival Dream - sailing 12/23. The ports of call are:

 

Nassau

Cozumel

Roatan

Belize

Costa Maya

 

I am looking to pick 2 dives during this cruise. I have seen and heard that Roatan ranks in the top 10 dive sites in the world, so I hate to not include that one, but which of the others would you experienced divers choose?

 

A little background...My DH and I only have only logged about 8 dives each. I am not sure if we are ready for drift dives. I hear Cozumel is awesome, but they are all drift dives...is this true? Oh, and we will have 2 other divers with us that have logged 50+ dives each, so we want them to enjoy themselves too. We are not interested in seeing sharks. I am a tad claustrophobic and am not good with going into wrecks, although my husband would love it (I even backed out of going into the Rhone last year - I started to go in and then bam! just flat stopped dead in the water - sorry babe :().

 

We are also not very fond of booking through the cruise lines because we would prefer to have the personal guided experience. So, do you have operators that you use in any of these ports that you highly recommend?

 

We have a total of 11 going on the cruise. We would LOVE to find a NICE charter boat that could accomodate all of us, including the divers and the non-divers. If anyone knows of anything, please, please let me know!

 

Thanks in advance!!

[Dive Master]

I was just in Jonesville this past weekend. I came up to watch the Wofford/ASU game with my brother, uncle and cousins.They are all ASU graduates----bad day to be a Terrier fan but we all enjoyed visiting with each other.

 

I have never dove Belize but I want too.

 

Nassau has some good diving but you would probalbly see Reef Sharks---I love diving with them but not everyone does.

 

Cozumel is one of my favorite places. Yes it is mostly drift diving but really no big deal.I would suggest con tacting Eagle Ray Divers about a trip for your group.Chellie and Antonio run a "mom/pop" operation and give great service. They often arrange dive and snorkel combo trips for groups.They have never let me down even when the ship cancelled the dive excursions.They have small groups and the DM will stay with you if you ask.

 

As far wreck penetration you are smart to stay out of them unless you have the proper gear and training.I have over 500 dives and I am very cautious with wrecks.I have read too many horror stories about the silt outs in wrecks and caves.Reminds me of a T-shirt at the local dive shop:

 

Even if I can't penetrate, I can always play around on the outside!

Who knew he was a Wreck Diver?

 

Enjoy your cruise and diving.

[bmsmith521]

What a small world! Jonesville is so small most people have never heard of it and to know you were just here LOL!

 

Thanks for the info! I have a couple of emails in to a few of the different companies I have read about elsewhere on this board.

[Dive Master]

What a small world! Jonesville is so small most people have never heard of it and to know you were just here LOL!

 

Thanks for the info! I have a couple of emails in to a few of the different companies I have read about elsewhere on this board.

 

 

I grew up in Jonesville.We moved to Elkin my freshman year in high school. My mother and brother still live there and my other brother lives in Clemmons.I come up to visit about 4 times per year---wish I could come more often. Is there any diving in the Jonesville area? I seem to remember some local quarries near Starmount. I feel fortunate to have beautiful Lake Jocassee 55 miles from my house---dive there most every weekend May through October.

[CruisinCoach]

My vote:

 

Roatan and Belize

[The Flying Pirate]

I vote Roatan and Cozumel, although I wouldn't miss diving in Belize either. Cozumel is excellent has has amazing visibility, drift diving is very easy even for a new diver. There are some nice wrecks. Belize is another spot that is on the do not miss list, the reefs are amazing and have less damage from Hurricanes than Cozumel. I wouldn't recommend the Blue Hole, since that is a deep dive. You have to go to 140 feet to see the caves which is very deep for new divers, they do it all the time but I have a hard time with Open Water divers with very few dives exceeding the recommended max depth for sport diving. After all PADI and NAUI both recommend a max depth of 60' until you are advanced open water trained.

 

I wouldn't penetrate wrecks unless you are trained and have a wreck reel with you. Sometimes the dive masters make very easy swim through penetrations like on the RMS Rhone, but if you tell them you are not comfortable they won't take you in those. When I was on the Rhone we had a couple people that were not comfortable so we skipped that part of the dive, so we missed the swim through but that gave us more time to enjoy the outside of the wreck.