How bad is it?

[nrh322]

We're thinking about booking scuba shore excursions (Cayman and Coz)through our cruise ship. I've heard the cattle boat horror stories and wanted to know from people if it's as bad as all that. I've been diving for about a zillion years and prefer not to get kicked in the head, but this is only our second cruise and we have a high level of what if the ship leaves without us paranoia that makes us want to cough up the extra dough for the ship sponsored excursions.

[Stevesan]

If the ship's dive trips are so bad, why book them? There are first rate operators at both GC and Coz. Go independent. It will likely be cheaper and in smaller groups.

[nrh322]

Hey Steve,

 

Maybe I didn't make my question clear...

 

I'm not sure if the ship's dive trips are bad or not. I've never been on them and have only heard rumors to that effect.

 

This is only my second cruise. I am much less concerned about saving a few dollars on excursions than I am about getting caught out on a dive boat and not making it back to the ship in time.

 

Granted, this is a family vacation, not a dive trip so it's not that big a deal one way or another.

 

Thanks, Naomi (also from Houston BTW)

[georoc01]

This is a hard question to answer, it really depends on who you have on the boat.

 

On my last cruise, we certainly had the cattle feeling in Roatan. Probably 100 divers split into four groups, two open water, 1 dolphin dive and 1 discovery dive. We had 28 people on the boat with 3 dive masters. It was pretty rough.

 

In Coz, we had 16 divers with 2 dive masters. They staggered us in 2 groups and since there were four of us diving together, it was great.

 

And the people I talked to who do this on a regular basis said our groups were much larger than normal.

 

So it really depends on the cruise. I prefer to book through the cruise at ports I'm not familiar with. After 3 trips to coz, I think I would probably find a private dm. But that's me.

[budaman]

I've done ship dives, made my own reservations with shops and set up private charters. Except for the charters, it is pretty much luck of the draw. I've gone out on boats with 20+ and not had any issues and on ones with 6 and been kicked, banged into coral & such. It is all up to who is on the boat with you and you really don't have much control over that. A good operator will try to split the group up by skill level as much as possible to keep less skilled divers away from the more advanced. I usually call the cruise line to find out who they use at each port.....which RCI & Princess have been responsive to giving. Then I do research on the operator through various scuba forums before I rule the ship's dive operator out.

 

The two ports you will be visiting have numerous dive shops close to the piers and the dive sites are also close, so I wouldn't be too worried about not getting back to the ship on time if you do decide to book independently.

 

Mike

[jetskier]

I have always booked through the independants instead of the cruiselines. I try to find someone who is using a 6-pack boat that way you are not crowded. Cozumel we have used scubawithalison.com Have not been to Grand Caymen yet.

Dave

[nrh322]

Hey everyone... Thanks for the information. It's good to know that I can contact the cruise ship to find out who they use. I hadn't thought about that. I have a lot of experience diving in both of these spots. The only reason I want to book through the ship is paranoia - like I said. We're bringing the kids with us on this trip and they don't have passports. The idea of missing the ship is horrifying to me and I've been on enough late running dive boats to have it be a cause for concern. At least if I can call the operators directly, I'll have a shot at being able to split off from the herd during dives. Maybe I'll even get really lucky and it will be an operator I know! :) Thanks again.

[mielyse]

We always book seperately from the ship and have never had a problem. We use dependable operators. The operators that service the ships will not let you book with them because they are contracted with them. The only one that we go on through the ship is Hugh Parkey's Belize Dive Connection. They are a extremely solid operation and they pick you up and drop you off at the ship, your own private tender if you will.

[hcw80]

We're thinking about booking scuba shore excursions (Cayman and Coz)through our cruise ship. I've heard the cattle boat horror stories and wanted to know from people if it's as bad as all that. I've been diving for about a zillion years and prefer not to get kicked in the head, but this is only our second cruise and we have a high level of what if the ship leaves without us paranoia that makes us want to cough up the extra dough for the ship sponsored excursions.

 

I tend to be a little paranoid about this too, so I usually book with the cruise line. Glad I did last time, because we had 10 minutes before the ship sailed and if they hadn't talked to the gate agent at the port, we might have been stuck in the line to get back to the cruise ships (about 5 or 6 of them use the same entry port) That was much cheaper than finding my own way back. I also was lucky to live on a tropical island for a number of years, and I know that Island time can extend dive boat time.

 

The only time I was on a cattle boat was in St. Thomas. They not only picked up our ship (about 6 divers - not bad at all) but they stopped at 3 other cruise ships and had ride alongs. :mad: Not only that, they had three dive boats from the same company going to the same area at the same time. Wrote a nasty note on the cruise comment card about that. Horrible. So much turbulance from other divers you could hardly see anything.

 

Had a great time off Playa del Carmen. Small Mexican dive shop that had a total of 8 divers and the Shore Excursion Officer from the ship. They felt it best to break that group into two boats. So it was a total of 4 divers, the dive master and a photographer who went with us on the first tank and stayed in the area and picked up the other boat for the second dive.

 

Good Luck.

Heather

[nrh322]

Hey Heather... Thanks! It sounds like you've been pretty lucky for the most part. Keep your fingers crossed for us! Ciao..