Rhapsody Shore Ex for Scuba Diving

[juliejoe]

We'll be on the Rhapsody 11/27 for a family reunion. On the RCCL website, the scuba excursions for Cozumel & Grand Cayman say they are only available for certain ships, and the Rhapsody is not one of them. :confused: They don't have any Jamaica excursions up yet.

 

My son is recently certified and wants to dive in Cozumel, Grand Cayman and/or Jamaica. Since he is fairly new to diving - would it be best for him to go with an organized tour from the ship? Does RCCL offer scuba excursions from the Rhapsody?

 

Thanks!

Julie

[juliejoe]

Still hoping for an answer to this........

[keeper236]

From my past experience the Rhapsody offered snorkle, snuba and scuba excersions. I know the Enchantment offered a scuba certification course in the ships pool (one of the boys at our dinner table took the class) but the Rhapsody did not.

[Sports Mama]

Julie,

 

I did not book the scuba shore excursions from RCCL when we cruised, I researched and booked shore excursions on my own. If I remember correctly they offer scuba excursions for Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I have used Eagle Ray Divers (www.eagleraydivers.com) in Cozumel for my family's scuba diving excursion. If some of your family wants to dive and others want to snorkel they will take you at the same time. I have used them twice and loved them both times. They come highly recommended by a lot of people on this board. I have also used Native Way Watersports in Grand Cayman for a snorkeling excursion (they have also come highly recommended by some people on this board). I am not sure what their web address is but if you will do a general web search you will find them. Some people do not like to book their own shore excursions, but I have never had a problem with them. I would just make sure I did my research on the different companies and check the shore excursion board too. Usually there are less people and you get better service when you book on your own. A lot of times you can find these excursions for cheaper on you own too.

 

I wished I could go again soon, but we are going to have to wait a little while longer. :(

 

Happy Cruising,

Sports Mama

[juliejoe]

Thank you Sports Mama,

 

My son is recently certified and the only diver in our group for a family reunion cruise the end of November.

 

I will pass this information along to him! Just thought a shore excursion dive might be better since he won't have a diving buddy.

 

Julie

[budaman]

Evening Julie.....

 

We were on the Rhapsody in April....you will love her!

 

On to your question. RCI uses Red Sail Sports in Grand Cayman and Sand Dollar in Cozumel. We did the ship excursion in Grand Cayman and Red Sail did a good job. In Cozumel, we did a private charter using Dive w/Martin and it was excellent. Since your son is newly certified and diving on his own, he will probably be more comforatble using the ships excursion. He might check with your M&M group and see if any are divers. If he can get together 4-6 folks, a charter is not only more pleasurable, but would probably be less expensive. I have pictures from Cozumel and a video from Cayman at the link below.

 

Mike

 

http://www.homepage.mac.com/csealove/

[SnakeBitten]

Sand Dollar Sports handles most of the Scuba charters for the cruise ships, so you could email them direct. They use large boats, thus many divers. I like small dive boats, just my preference. All the dive ops mentioned above are very reputable. Tell the dive op that your son is a newbie, so they don't take him to an advanced site. I use Edmundo at Cha Cha Cha, very personalized service. Enjoy! :D SB

[bubbles1993]

I have to second Eagle Ray Divers. We dove with them back in April and Antonio and Chellie were GREAT. We had five in our group + Antonio and he watched us all very closely! I don't think it would be an issue with your son not having a buddy if he dives with Eagle Ray. Also, the taxi ride is fairly short from the terminal to the dive boat.

[eguiney]

I also recommend Eagle Ray in Cozumel. Hhopefully they came thru Emily OK. They are great especially if part of your party wants to snorkle. You might also want to go over to the SCUBA board and check out some of their threads as well as the Cozumel and Grand Cayman Port of Calls threads.