Scuba - excursion vs. independent?

[jaime1]

My husband & I are booked on the Zuiderdam, and plan on going diving in Tortola and Nassau. We're debating whether we should go with the ship's excursions or book it on our own. With the "excursion" route, the pros are convenience & knowing that we're not going to miss the ship by returning late; the cons are the relative cost and the possibility of crowded boats & less exciting dive sites. (The "independent" route is the opposite, in terms of pros & cons.) As divers, I'd rate us as intermediate-level - we've been diving for 2 years and have done about 60 dives in both tropical and cold (NY) water.

 

Has anyone dove either of these islands as a HAL excursion, and if so, how was it (in terms of crowds and dive site)? Alternately, has anyone arranged dives on their own at these islands from a cruise? If so, with which dive operator, and would you recommend them?

 

This will be my first HAL cruise, and my first of any kind as a diver (it's been about 5 years since my last cruise.)

 

Thanks in advance.

[MetathoraX]

jaime,

 

Try posting this topic in the Ports of Call section under Nassau or Tortola, it's more likely to get more responses since it will cover every cruise ship that goes to those ports. I would prefer private (not ship related) excursions because usaually you get a better price and it costs less.

[Lill]

We always book our dives on our own. There is a scuba board here on CC where you can get suggestions on which shops to go with. :)

[kryos]

We always book our dives on our own. There is a scuba board here on CC where you can get suggestions on which shops to go with. :)

I can't speak for these two particular ports, but on my last cruise (through Princess) I booked my own dives by necessity and was glad I did. I couldn't go with the ship's excursion because I was doing open water dives for my SCUBA certification, so I booked them on my own, with guidance from the dive shop that I did my classroom and pool work here at home. I was glad I did. The ship's excursions in both ports (St. Thomas and St. Maarten) took place on a "party boat." There must have been 25 or more divers on each boat ... we passed them as we headed out to sea. The boats I was on had four and six divers respectively ... much more relaxed and much more individual attention, even for the experienced divers.

 

Of course, on these dives, I had one-on-one attention with an instructor and I realize I'm not always gonna have that on future dives. But at my experience level, I would prefer not to be one of a huge group.

 

After that experience, I will always book independent excursions for SCUBA and will ask about the number of divers per boat and per dive master. I spoke to my instructor about this after my dives and he told me that the vast majority of people who dive on vacation are not regular divers at home (my situation). Many of them live in places where there are simply not that many diving opportunities in their local area. So, a good shop will make sure there are not too many people on the boat so that the dives can be conducted safely and everyone will have adequate supervision for their experience level.

 

As for missing the ship using an independent excursion, I can't imagine this happening. Unless your ship is leaving port very early, you will be done and off that dive boat hours before you have to be back on the ship. In St. Maarten, where I actually got signed off for certification, I took my instructors out for a drink at a nice restaurant right at the pier. After they had to leave, I decided to have lunch ... spent several hours there ... and still was back on the ship a couple of hours before sailing. A two-tank dive only takes a couple of hours.

 

Blue skies and have fun ...

 

--rita

[Eileen G]

We didn't dive either of these islands but we just dove with Hal on Cozumel and Grand Caymen. We were on the Zaandam 03/12/05 and had never been on a cruise in the carribean before. Our ship left Cozumel at 2 so we didn't want to risk missing the boat. The cozumel dive was the best dive we have ever been on. They picked us up at the cruise pier, all the equipment was already in the boat and we were in the water by 8 AM. There were only 8 divers and the divemaster was top notch.We dove the Santa Rosa Wall which is one of the best dive sights in Cozumel. We were dropped off back at the boat had lunch and still had time to see a little of Cozumel. Our Grand Caymen dive had only 10 people on the boat. It was not as perfect as our Cozumel dive as the reef suffered much damage in the hurricane. We also had to go to the dive shop, get our dive gear and get on the boat. We felt both dives were well worth the extra money over trying to find an independent dive excurision. Of course each cruise is different depending on the number of divers that sign up.

[Tarkus]

for my upcoming (28-May) cruise on the zuiderdam i had wanted to use stuart cove in nassau... so when i discovered they were under contract with hal i just went ahead and booked through the cruiseline.

 

also, they're the only game in town on hmc, so they got the nod there... and because it's just me i ignored advice from the scuba forum (that ubs is THE dive shop in tortola) and booked two tanks on the rhone through hal as well.

 

that said, i went with blue island divers for st. thomas after reading countless cattle boat descriptions about hal's designated operator there.

 

btw, you probably would get more helpful comments by posting this in the scuba forum - where more divers would read and reply.

[jaime1]

Thanks to all, for both the advise and pointing me to the "scuba" forum.

 

Tarkus - it sounds like yours is the same itinerary we'll be on. Would you mind posting an update when you get back, so I can hear what you thought of the HAL operators? (Our cruise isn't till 12/30, so I've got lots of time to debate with myself over which way we're going to go on this...)

[Tarkus]

will do (i write pretty extensive cruise & diving reviews for my personal website, so it's no prob whatsoever cut-n-pasting those writings here).

[richnorto]

We just got back from Tortola amd other diving sites on our cruise. We walked to the Ferry from the boat and spent $110.00 for 3 adults and 2 kids for ferry and taxi both ways to the baths. We had great snorkling and the return taxi drivers are there when they say they will be - lots off them. No worries, as there is a crowd waiting to return with you. Have fun. The rocks and snorkling are great!:)

[kryos]

...that said, i went with blue island divers for st. thomas after reading countless cattle boat descriptions about hal's designated operator there.

That's exactly who I used for my first two open water dives. I had a top notch instructor (Ian, I believe his name was) and there were only four divers (including myself) on the boat. As we headed out to sea, we passed another dive boat which our captain told us was the one used by the cruise ships for their excursions. It was a mob scene ... easily 25 divers or more packed on there. I shuddered to think ...

 

When we got to our first dive site, Ian told the other folks what our game plan was ... he and I had to do a few required drills down at the bottom first, and then we were gonna go on a tour. He invited the other divers to feel free to join us. The one single diver did, but I believe the other two wanted to take some photos and went their own way. It was a great pair of dives and the quality of the one-on-one instruction left me with the confidence to finish up the program the next day in St. Maarten. I would have gladly done all four certification dives with Ian, and I had plenty of time to do two additional dives, but unfortunately PADI rules prohibit this.

 

In St. Maarten I went with SCUBAFun. They were located one pier over from where the cruise ship docked. An easy walk. This dive boat was smaller, but we had, I believe, six divers onboard, including one instructor and a dive master. The thing I liked about their boat was that it was semi-rigid and was of the type where you do a roll backward entry into the water. The thought of doing one of these scared the crap out of me, but I actually found it to be 10 times easier that maneuvering to the back of the boat, with fins ... a heavy tank and weightbelt on ... to do the giant stride entry.

 

I got signed off for my C card in St. Maarten and I hope to get back to both of these islands at some point soon so that I can dive with those outfits again.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita