Grand Princess Diving

[deec]

If we opt to dive with ship excursions will someone from the ship be the dive master on each of the dives at different ports...that continuity would be nice and might make the extra cost of booking a ship's excursion rather than on our own worthwhile.

 

we a new divers and ports will be Costa Maya, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel

 

I think I know that is Belize we should select a ship's excursion because of slow tender issues.

 

anyother advice thoughts would be great!

[budaman]

We were on the Grand in Feb. and used the ship dives in Costa Maya & Belize. The instructor for the onboard dive classes would organize the dive group doing the ship dive, but once off the ship, the individual dive shops would have their divemasters. They use Dreamtime in Costa Maya and Hugh Parkey in Belize and both were good ops. Had 14 in Costa & we used 2 boats of 7 each and in Belize there were I believe 18 and they split us into 3 groups of 6...each with a DM. We set up a private dive in Cozumel with Dive w/Martin. The ship uses Divehouse I believe. Don't know about Roatan as this will be the first year the Grand goes there. Have fun!

 

Mike

 

www.homepage.mac.com/csealove/

[deec]

thanks for the help

were you happy with using the ship excursions or do you think booking on your own is safe too...there seems to be considerable difference in pricing

[budaman]

In Costa Maya & Belize, there is a very limited number of Dive shops available. There are some less expensive choices in Costa Maya, but we wanted to dive with Dreamtime because of their reputation and eco friendly operation, but they contracted with Princess which required using the ship. Most of the ops in Belize are very close in cost to the ship and with the ship excursion, they pick you up at the ship so you don't have to worry about tendering and making connections. In Cozumel, there are many reputable ops and it would be much cheaper booking on your own. We set up a private charter and it was $300 for up to 4 divers and they will furnish equipment if needed. Normal dives will be around $70 - 80 for a two tank. If you can get a couple from your rollcall to commit, you can do the private charter for around $75 each.

 

Mike

 

www.homepage.mac.com/csealove/

[deec]

thanks so much for the helpful info--

we may have enough divers in our group

my sister and her two teeneagers should get certified this fall ..that will be 6!

 

we are new divers so need to feel comfortable with the excursions and you have increased my comfort level considerably with recommendations and experience.

[billeelou]

the cost of Dreamtime and US(St Louis) owned, small groups, small boats and personalized attention. Dreamtime tends to be 35-45 people on one boat where THEY want to go. MayaPalms is a hidden jewel....give it a try and send me the difference$$$$:cool:

[billeelou]

both run excellent shops( the only two in belize city), again the Ships' deal is with Hugh and The independant is Seasports with Linda...again about 65% of the cost and highly recommended, by myself and tons of others....Don't like to be on a dive boat with the same number of Divers as in"OPEN WATER"?? ;) then go with the local/ independant.....

[budaman]

I have heard Maya Palms has a good operation and it will save you some money. However, the info on Dreamtime is inaccurate based on our diving experience. They do not have a boat that will hold that number of divers. They did have 3 boats that total might be able to get 30 on. The dive group from the Grand had 14 and they split us up on two boats with 7 per boat and we went to different sites.

 

The boat in Belize with Hugh Parkey was a different matter....and yes, there were a lot of us on that boat. They did split us into 3 groups and gave very good individual group briefings and head counts upon return...think they had all seen Open Water:D Smaller is definately better as long as the inconvenience doesn't make it a total hassle....diving is supposed to be fun. We were originally not diving and doing the Zipline excursion in Belize, but whenthey changed us to Playa del Carmen at the last minute, it enabled us to schedule the zipline there and make diving Belize possible, but too late to set up something on our own.

 

I have heard that there is now another PADI shop in Costa Maya. Might check that port forum for info.

 

Mike

 

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

[KaC-Cruiser]

Belize - we've gone out with both Seasport Belize (Independent) and Hugh Parkey (Ship excursion) and both were great. Seasport was a small 6 pack boat and very personal; Hugh Parkey's we took two large boats with a total of 46 divers, but both boats the diver were divided up by experience into groups of 6 - each with their own divemaster, briefing, etc. And we were not all on top of each other in the water.

 

Costa Maya - have only gone out with Dreamtime a few years back, and wasn't very impressed -the op was using a very old boat not set-up for diving, and the location we went to were very mediocre by Coz standards. The staff however was very nice. I understand things have gotten better, and they have a much better set-up going now ... all the reviews I've seen have been very good.

 

Cozumel - I always book independent here - pretty much with Scuba with Alison. She's a great DM-person-op owner & op - all rolled up in one. Has a very comfortable nice boat as well, and takes great care of us.

 

Roatan - if anyone knows who Princess will be using - I'd love to hear ... we haven't made plans yet for our December Grand cruise that will be stopping here.

[deec]

is it a hassle to leave the ship in Belize when not on a ship's excursion for diving...I think I read that tendering in that port was very slow and we would waste a lot of time....any thoughts?

 

we are new divers...did open water cert in Jamaica last Christmas and dove in Mexico in March.....and in our little Lake St. Clair in Michigan only 17 ft of water....so most anyghing is still awesome to us.

 

My sister and her teenagers will be even newer...certifying this fall.

 

thanks for all your great info

[KaC-Cruiser]

is it a hassle to leave the ship in Belize when not on a ship's excursion for diving...I think I read that tendering in that port was very slow and we would waste a lot of time....any thoughts?

 

we are new divers...did open water cert in Jamaica last Christmas and dove in Mexico in March.....and in our little Lake St. Clair in Michigan only 17 ft of water....so most anyghing is still awesome to us.

 

My sister and her teenagers will be even newer...certifying this fall.

 

thanks for all your great info

Belize was our first blue water dive - did all our training in a muddy lake in Texas. We used Seasport Belize that time, and had a blast. Partially it depends on how long you'll be in Belize - the first time it was a full day, so all the delays didn't have us panicing. We were several hours late anchoring there, and tenders were a zoo - but we had made sure to go & get an early number to get off, so we did okay - that was in 2002. in 2004 we were on Princess and only had a 1/2 day in port. We arrived late again, but we had booked the diving through the ship. Even then they said if we had been 15 minutes later, they would have cancelled as it would have been too dark for the 2nd dive. (And it almost was anyway!) I don't remember hearing about the tenders - we heard more about excursions cancelled since we arrived late.

 

I will say that in either case - Seasport Belize or Hugh Parkey - my experience has been that they both take excellent care of their divers. Seasport will likely have a shorter boat ride as they don't go too far, but Parkey's use big boats with an upper & lower deck - so the longer ride to the Atoll is very enjoyable. I think you'll have fun either way .........

[budaman]

Anytime you go into a tender port that doesn't use the ships boats, you run the risk of time issues based on number of ships in port, weather,and time of arrival and in Belize the port supplies the tenders. Since we were picked up on the boat for our dive, don't know what the situation in the morning was as for how long it took. There were 2 other ships there that day. When we returned from our dives, we cleaned up and caught a tender into Belize City to do some shopping and were able to walk right on a tender. That was around 2PM and then we caught the last tender back. I think many of the issues that gave Belize tendering a bad name was when the individuals that operate the tenders in Belize went on strike and created a mess. Each port will have dive operators that understand & cater to the cruise ship diver and adjust their dive times.......and then there are those that don't care and if you aren't there when their dives are scheduled, your out of luck.

 

Mike

 

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