Who does Carnival use in Cozemel?

[TexasScubaGirl]

Hello everyone, I am new here so if I make a mistake, please forgive me:)

 

My husband and I are taking a cruise this Sept 19, from Galveston on the Elation, it's my third and his second. We will be stopping in Cozemel and since we are both divers we had planned on doing one of the diving excursions. But we also had considered venturing out on our own. I havent had very good luck finding out who Carnival uses for the dive trips so I was hoping that someone here could help us out.

Also, has anyone ventured out on there own and made dives that were not handled by Carnival? Can you give us some recommendations on people to use or places to go? I am a fairley new diver, not really looking for anything out of the range of "normal diving" but my husband is going into the Tech areas. He is Cavern certified now, and working on getting Full Cave.

What about Belize? We are planning on doing the Turneiff Atoll (sp??) there. Can anyone recommend any other dives that we might be able to do there??

 

Thanks for any help that you can give.

[sddiver]

Sand Dollar Sports handles most of the cruise ship excursions in Cozumel. Can you say Mooooooo! If your port time is not short there are a plethera of other ops to choose from.

Dive with Martin

Papa Hogs

Blue XTsea

Deep Blue

Blue Angel

 

Any of these shoudl be able to help you, they all have websites, do a search.

 

In Belize- Turneffe is the best diving available to cruisers. There are a limited number of ops there and even ops outside the cruise excursion charge as much money. Given the port logistics and tendering ect, you might be best served using the ships excursion there.

 

Have a great time

Rich

[scubajeff]

TexasScubaGirl,

 

I am sailing on the NCL Sea in Jan. and I had the same questions as you. I did a ton of researching here and on scubaboard.com

What I found from asking tons of questions:

1) Cozumel, the most recommended dive ops were Blue Angel and Eagle Ray Divers. After reading up on both ops, I booked with Eagle Ray Divers and they have been great communicating with me and getting everything set for our trip. I also heard good things about Blue Angel.

2) Belize. Dive with the ship excursion out to Turneffe Atoll. I checked with doing my own trip but without six people on the ship they won't go to the Atolls, instead they dive around Belize City which is good diving from what I hear but no where near as good as the Turneffe Atoll.

 

Hope this helps

[bruce-r]

Hello everyone, I am new here so if I make a mistake, please forgive me:)

 

My husband and I are taking a cruise this Sept 19, from Galveston on the Elation. Has anyone ventured out on there own and made dives that were not handled by Carnival? Can you give us some recommendations on people to use or places to go? What about Belize? We are planning on doing the Turneiff Atoll (sp??) there. Can anyone recommend any other dives that we might be able to do there??

 

Welcome to Cruisecritic

 

There are probably over 70 dive operators on Cozumel. In my opinion there are too many really good op's to spend your time and money going with the ship's excursion here. SD made some good recommendations, and I can also personally recommend Blue XT Sea as being a very good dive operator that is also cruiser friendly. I went out with them in March and would use them again, no problem. Lots of cruisers recommend Eagleraydivers, but personally, unless you are willing to share your trip with snorkelers, I would hesitate to use them. If you are wanting a mixed group of snorkelers/divers, both Eagleray and Blue Angel divers can accommdate you, as both offer the combo trip.

 

I haven't yet been to Belize, but seems to me that visiting there on a cruise it would just be a whole lot easier to go with the ships excursion and therefore worth the cost, unlike in Cozumel.

 

You can see my Cozumel underwater photo gallery, as well as my other cruise photos atbrobertson.org

 

Hope this helps

 

Have a dive circus

[Fila]

Yippy... Finally a question I can answer. Regarding the Belize question aboard Carnival, this is the response I received from the owner of Belize Dive Connection.

 

___________________________________

 

We will be using either our Pro 48 or our Newton 46 which does not have a pic on the website as yet but it also is well covered and with a head. You can see an example of the boat at http://www.newtonboats.com . We take a maximum of 24 persons and we will split them up in groups of 6-8 persons per dive master based upon experience and last time diving and such. Our staff will interview guests on the boat on the way to the dive site to get this info.

 

We pick up alongside the Inspiration at 8:15AM Ship time. I am not certain but I think the charge is $ 145 w/out equipment and $ 165 w/ equipment.

Since we are under contract to provide this service to Carnival we are unable to book divers direct.

 

We do not serve lunch but we do serve fruits, sweet buns, chips & salsa, sodas and water. Fruits include watermelon, pineapple, oranges.

 

We do have space available to store bags under the seats on both boats. We do not put snorkelers on the boat with divers. Only on a very rare occasion do we have a non-cruise ship diver on board with our Cruise Ship passengers.

 

Our dive shop is located at the Radisson Fort George Hotel and on occasion they will have 1 diver to go out so if all the spaces are not taken by Carnival we might add on a diver.

 

Our profile typically consists of a planned multi-level dive with an average max depth on dive one of 60-65 ft. for 45-50 minutes. After the surface interval and change of dive site the second dive is generally planned for 50-60 ft. for 40-45 minutes depending on the max profile for dive one. If a member of a group consumes air faster TYPICALLY the DM will get them back to the area under the boat signal for them to do their safety stop, ensure they are comfortable and okay and then will stay below with the rest of the group while watching that diver ascend to the boat.

 

I hope that I was able to answer all of your questions but if I missed anything please don't hesitate to let us know so we can follow up with you and we look forward to seeing you in September.

 

Have fun and dive safe,

 

Teresa Parkey

__________________________________

 

I think Carnival charges a tad bit more than what was mentioned above but Hugh Parkey's Dive Connection seems to come highly recommended.

 

Added bonus they pick you up and drop you off right at the boat. No tendering means a lot to me.

[Perrys100]

I will always suggest Aldora Divers in Cozumel. Thay are great. They have a web site www.aldora.com They use steel tanks REALLY BIG tanks. Alot of bottom time. Great boats, great gear and great dive masters. I have over 100 logged dives in Cozumel with 80 or more with aldora they have been great with aldora.

 

If aldora is booked or you perfer a slow boat experience and small tanks try Scuba shack. I dove with them on my first few trips to the island. One trip aldora was unable to accomodate us and we dove with PAUL he is next to the aqurio restaurant and they were very good to us too.

[Cruiseresq]

We just got back from cruisin on the Glory. They used Sand Dollar. We also experienced diving with Aqua World 2 yrs ago (much pricier...) anyway, we dove the Santa Rosa wall first and Paradise Reef. I did run out of air on the first dive (I started with 3100)...so Dh and I had to come up early without any help. :p

Their equipment was aweful and old. We did not bring our own equipment (big mistake), so we rented the fins, mask, bc, and regulator. The fins I wore were too tight, were old and gave me blisters. Also, the mask was cheap and they did not even have snorkels! :mad:

ok, so that was the downside. material goods aside, we had a terrific and experienced dive master who led us through some caves. It was amazing. :D

 

this tour cost us $99 with equipment. It was an additional $10 for a wet suit (you do not need this in Carib, the ocean is 84 degrees F).

 

Thanks for those of you that have posted all the links. DH and I are thinking of going back to Cozumel just to dive. Any tips/recs on resorts, etc?

 

Thanks,

AML

[jtsocal]

Hi, just want to say I use ERD each time I am in Cozumel, Antonio and Chellie are the best, and they have a great crew. They are never in a hurry, are patient if you have new divers, and you never have to deal with boatloads of divers. I personally have never had more than 4 other divers in a group. They won't disappoint, highly recommended, I feel like I am family when diving with them. Happy diving!!!!

[Porchbeers]

Personally, my wife and I use Deep Blue Cozumel for our diving when in the area. We have used them our previous two trips and plan to use them again next year. They are fantastic. Just visit their site at http://www.deepbluecozumel.com and mark your email attention Debbie. They are a fantastic dive operations and our family and friends love them as well.