Cruise Ship diving in Cozumel

[tomatt]

howdy,

a group of us our going on a cruise in july and hitting cozumel. my wife and i are really into diving and are trying to decide if we should book diving through the cruise ship or do it on our own beforehand with a local shop in cozumel.

 

in the past we have seen the packed cruise ship dive boats and always said we don't want to end up on one of those. but we are not sure how easy it is to get to the dive shops from where the ships port. we are docked from 7a-10p so i am not really worried about being out to late and missing our ship.

 

any suggestions?

 

thanks for you help!:)

[Merion_Mom]

Tom, this is one issue that you can easily research on another part of these message boards. There are people on the Cozumel port-of-call board who are very knowledgeable and generous with that knowledge.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

 

In particular, check out the sticky at the top of the page.

[wrp96]

You may also want to post your question on the Scuba and Snorkeling board. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40

[cjmcgree]

This could be helpful. I spent a week in Coz last spring. We booked a day of snorkeling with an American who lives there, named Betsy. She is more of a diver but accommodated us. She was very knowledgeable and we had a great trip. It was just our group of 5, Betsy, the captain and his assistant.

 

Here is her website:

http://www.geocities.com/scubabetsy/

 

In case it helps....

[Dreamin]

We have use http://www.eagleraydivers.com twice now. They are great and give you the personal attention and extra care with small groups (once just 3 of us! and the other time 5! Antonio and Chellie worked with us as far as our arrival time and were real easy to deal with. You can either bring your own equipment or rent theirs. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[DesertArtist]

If you decide to book through the ship I suggest you do it ASAP in advance. We sailed the western Caribbean on Explorer for Thanksgiving and we wanted to drift dive in Cozumel. I tried to book through RC on line and it would not let me. I called them directly and was told they only allow about 25 % to book on line - the rest is held for on board booking. We did not want to miss out totally so we made advance reservations through Scuba Tony ( a former LA cop turned dive master in Coz ) We got his name from the ports of call board.

 

Long story short - we met him at the harbor that morning and were told that the waters were so rough they were not allowing any boats out of the harbor. The weather did get better mid-day and boats were finally allowed out but we had missed our opportunity.

 

We thougt we would try to dive at our next port of call Grand Caymen. Unfortunately the weather was so bad we skipped that port and headed home. Hope you have better luck than we did.

[Eileen G]

We dove with RCCL this past Nov in Coz. and everything went very well. It did not cost much more than the local dive shops. Since we didn't know if or where we would dock and we were in port from 10 to 8 we thought we would just go with the ship. Also it seemed like the local dive shops wanted the money up front and if the ship missed the port you were out of luck. The dive boat was large and we had 15 people. They divided us into two groups, experienced and nonexperienced, and each group dove seperatly with a dive master. We had about 40 min. bottom time both dives. It was a well run organization.

[Eileen G]

We dove with RCCL this past Nov in Coz. and everything went very well. It did not cost much more than the local dive shops. Since we didn't know if or where we would dock and we were in port from 10 to 8 we thought we would just go with the ship. Also it seemed like the local dive shops wanted the money up front and if the ship missed the port you were out of luck. The dive boat was large and we had 15 people. They divided us into two groups, experienced and nonexperienced, and each group dove seperatly with a dive master. We had about 40 min. bottom time both dives. It was a well run organization.

[tomatt]

thanks for all of responses! i have also mentioned something in the scuba board as well.

 

i have looked at a few dive shops and they look good, but from what i hear it might be better to go with the ship incase it's late or something comes up, then i am not out a lot of cash.

 

thanks again!

[skypilotks]

Very easy to get taxi to any of the Dive Ops!! We ALWAYS book our own dives in every port we go to! Had RCCI's excursion screw us out of a Belize dive 3yrs ago and started booking own after that and they did us a favor, cause we have never been on a dive with more then 7people since, and 4 of those have been us!! In The Coz, we use Papa Hoggs and REALLY enjoy diving with them!! Have you ever done drift diving?? You just kind float there, and the reefs go by you!! :-) Have fun!!

And BTW most Dive Ops have it that unless you just don't want to show-up, then they won't charge you! Meaning if you CAN"T make it for the dive because of ship issues, they won't charge you!

[Dreamin]

Agreed - we have had to put a small refundable deposit up, but that's it. And if we weren't able to make it (weather, ship delays, etc) then no charge. Definately the way to go! I wouldn't hesitate to go with a recommended local dive shop for a better deal and a better dive!