Are Carnival and Royal no longer offering Scuba Excursions?

[mojomanny]

I just found this in a post in the last 24 hours:

 

"We just got back from a Carnival cruise and our scuba excursion was cancelled. The Shore Excursion Desk said that the cancellations were fleet-wide due to some insurance requirements.  They were not sure if scuba would be offered in the future."

Response from someone on a Trans-Pacific Royal cruise:
"We asked on board at the start of our cruise and were told they arent offering scuba excursions as there is too much risk and insurance too high. They said they may still offer them on carribean ships, namely oasis class, where they have a master diver onboard." 

 

This could explain the lack of Scuba Excursions on my up coming three cruises.  Only one has a Scuba excursion and which has been listed as "sold out" almost since it was listed.

 

Here is a link to the thread:

 

[bruzin_for_a_cruizin]

I hadn't heard that, but it wouldn't surprise me. Liability claims are rampant and I'm sure the costs of insurance make these excursions unprofitable.

 

Personally, I have been booking fewer and fewer dives through the cruise lines. In just about every port you can find a quality, small-group operation which will cater to the later arrival in port of the cruise ship. 

 

Just ask here, and there's bound to be someone who can recommend an excellent dive shop in pretty much any port. Harris (@omeinv) is a forum treasure, for one!

[mac66]

I have two upcoming cruises, one in Nov, one in Feb. I have ship dives booked on both of them. However out of 3 ports on one, and 4 ports on the other, they were only offering one dive per cruise.

 

I've been on cruises where there has been a ship dive in every port.

[OhioScubaGirl]

It’s really disappointing. I prefer to book excursions with Carnival for a number of reasons. Nassau and Grand Turk no longer have Carnival scuba excursions for my cruise next month. 

[CascaisCruiser]

We've cruised 3x post pandemic on Carnival (Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, Roatan) and have another booked for March (Bonaire and Aruba).  There have been no scuba excursions on any of the cruises.  But we did find great local companies to dive with in each port.

[mac66]

Our RCL cruise to the ABCs at the end of this month has one ship dive excursion in Aruba. It also happens to be the the cheapest I could find. No dives offered in Bonaire or Curacao so I booked private dives.

[gmerick]

Pre-Covid there were usually 3 SCUBA shore excursions on a 11-day five island cruise.  Post Covid before full ship occupancy usually one, and that one was cancelled half the time.  Quantum and Oasis class ships that offer SCUBA classes on board will almost always have two 2-tank shore excursions as this is what is required to complete the certification, although with reduced occupancy, filling the class has been hit and miss.  

At no time in the past 3 years have I not been able to schedule all 5 islands on an 11-day cruise through combining ship excursions and independent operators.  YMMV, just put a bit of effort into pre-planning, and hope for more ship sponsored excursions as things ramp up.

[uamchris]

On 11/10/2022 at 8:51 PM, CascaisCruiser said:

We've cruised 3x post pandemic on Carnival (Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, Roatan) and have another booked for March (Bonaire and Aruba).  There have been no scuba excursions on any of the cruises.  But we did find great local companies to dive with in each port.

Same.  We've done three post pandemic cruises and non have offer scuba excursions. Two were on ships that I have done them from in the past.  Booking local is super easy though.

[ABQrobin]

Carnival now has some scuba excursions, but not all they used to have.  I think eventually they will bring them back afterall.  

[mac66]

Our Feb 2023 cruise to Coz, Costa Maya, Roatan and Belize has one dive excursion in Coz. Our Dec 2019 cruise to the same places had ship dives in Coz, CM and Roatan.

[Dane Mom 01]

On 10/18/2022 at 9:59 AM, mojomanny said:

I just found this in a post in the last 24 hours:

 

"We just got back from a Carnival cruise and our scuba excursion was cancelled. The Shore Excursion Desk said that the cancellations were fleet-wide due to some insurance requirements.  They were not sure if scuba would be offered in the future."

Response from someone on a Trans-Pacific Royal cruise:
"We asked on board at the start of our cruise and were told they arent offering scuba excursions as there is too much risk and insurance too high. They said they may still offer them on carribean ships, namely oasis class, where they have a master diver onboard." 

 

This could explain the lack of Scuba Excursions on my up coming three cruises.  Only one has a Scuba excursion and which has been listed as "sold out" almost since it was listed.

 

Here is a link to the thread:

 

 

[Dane Mom 01]

Our scuba excursion on RC Oasis has been cancelled as was our last scuba excursion with Norwegian.  It will definitely decrease our future cruising because we'll have to go to resorts where we can dive.  Bummer.  Any advice for dive shops in St. Maarten, San Juan, or St. Thomas?

Edited December 21, 2022 by Dane Mom 01

[omeinv]

Just a couple weeks ago I dove with Dive St. Maarten, which is sort of the reincarnation of what used to be Octopus Diving SXM. 

 

The day I was there the conditions weren't great with a fair amount of current, and fairly murky water.  The location is good, at Bobby's Marina, which is reachable by either a vary short cab ride, a 20 minute walk, or the water taxi.  If you take the water taxi make sure you tell them you want to go to Bobby's Marina, as only the small boat goes there.  Their website is https://www.divesintmaarten.com/.

 

St. Thomas I don't have a good recommendation for. There really isn't any diving worth talking about in the San Juan area.

 

Harris

Denver, CO