Diving at Princess Cays

[georoc01]

Has anyone done the single tank dive at Princess Cays yet? Its something new this year and having been to Cays a few times, looks like something new that would be fun.

[cruzegirl]

I was about to tell you that as of 1/2005, there was no snorkeling... But it sounds like they've added it to excursions. I would do it if I went there again. Not sure there is much to see though. I snorkeled there in 2005 and thought there was tons to see but now that I dive (which by the way Princess Cays was responsible for getting me to do, I loved snorkeling so much I had to get dive certified) I realize there wasn't all that much.... But I would still do it just to get wet and see what's there.....Report back to us ok?

[bruce-r]

I don't think I would expect all that much. If it is like typical cruise dive excursions it will be a shallow dive with limited bottom time.

[daldog]

Who knew? Checked my excursions list (we leave in two weeks) and sure enough ..... there it is. Not in the glitzy book, but it is on the printed list, which I never even looked at for Princess Cay. Wesbite only says they take you on a boat dive somewhere off Eleuthera, and it takes 2.5 hours. If I find out anything more on our trip, I'll post on return.

[S&M in Pgh]

As has been stated, it is a new offering. So I will reserve judgement. That said, I did the 1 tank dive off of Half Moon Cay (HAL's island) and while the fish life was not abundant, the reef and rock structures (including a couple neat swim-thrus) was nice. Its no Cozumel or Grand Cayman, but better than floating around on the surface like so much shark bait.

 

Mike

[ddgg]

I don't think I would expect all that much. If it is like typical cruise dive excursions it will be a shallow dive with limited bottom time.

 

My husband thought the same thing, especially since we would be flying within 24 hours. He hasn't dived in a long time, and was going to do a "refresher" before going on this cruise. We've never been to the Caymans, so we're doing Stingray City instead of him doing a diving excursion there. Advice from others is not to dive in Jamaica, and he doesn't feel experienced enough to do a drift dive in Cozumel. He has his open water card, but is inexperienced. He thought this might be a good dive for a "newbie diver", but when I went to the personalizer to reserve a spot for him, there was a notation (NOT in the brochure) that you must have at least 10 prior dives with at least 2 in the last 12 months. Now it looks like he won't get a chance to do any diving on this trip.

 

Has anyone done this dive since the last posts in August? What is it like?

[ellenh]

Hi everyone!

I tried to post this twice already today but the computer ate my notes so please excuse if this turns out to be a repeat repeat...

 

My husband and I just got off the Grand Princess and we did the dive at Princess Cays. I was initially a little leery about booking the dive since it was expensive and the prevailing wisdom seems to be that ship excursion dives are not the way to go. We ended up booking it because it was the only game in town and we wanted one last dive before heading back to our frozen northern habitat! Turns out we were pleasantly surprised--it was a really nice dive. It was the easiest of the dives we did on this cruise--40 feet maximum depth with little current and good visibility. The pace was leisurely without everyone seeming to be on top of each other and there was plenty to look at. We are novice divers (20-25 dives) so I'm not sure that this dive would be worthwhile for those seeking more challenging conditions, but for recreational divers like us it offered plenty of fun.

 

There were 8 divers from the ship. we took an early tender to Princess Cays and met the dive boat right off the tender. Ocean Fox Divers is the tour operator and provided the boat, dive guide, captain, one additional crew member and all equipment for those that needed it. Equipment was already set up for those who were using Ocean Fox's BCDs/regs but those of us providing our own did our own set-up--with help from the crew if needed. We were told that the water was "between 70 and 80 degrees" which sort of seemed like a big range (my computer said 78) and people wore everything from no exposure protection (she was freezing) to full wetsuits over dive skins. Most people seemed ok with 3mm shorties.

 

The dive site is about 15 minutes from Princess Cays and in view of the ship. We were briefed on the way there, so once we were on site we were able to get in the water pretty quickly--a good thing since the surface was choppy and we were really rolling. Because of the chop we all held the tow line until everyone was in the water then we all did a free descent together. Once off the surface the water was clear and calm and we descended to a sandy area on the bottom. From there it was just a short swim to the reef. Some people stayed right with the guide, who pointed out lots of creatures lurking in the crevices. We preferred hanging back a little since it's such a drag to be cropping other people's fins out of our underwater photos! :p

 

The reef was lovely. Although we didn't see some of the 5-star marine life we had seen earlier in the week at Cozumel and Grand Cayman (sharks, rays, eels, etc) there was a nice variety of coral and reef fish. We saw several very large lobsters and the biggest crab I've ever seen and probably more queen angelfish than I've seen in a single dive. The site is called either "boiling hole" or "boiling oil" which apparently derives from a hole where salt and fresh water meet to form a "boiling" effect. I had to to take their word for it--I saw the hole and missed the "boil" part. Nevertheless, the reef formations were beautiful and once everyone spread out a little it was possible to explore at our own pace.

 

About halfway through the dive I noticed a sea turtle swimming right towards me. I expected him to veer off course eventually since I've never had one actually approach me but this guy just came right up to me as I repeatedly snapped his picture. I was actually laughing through my regulator. This moment alone made the dive worthwhile.

 

In all we were down about 45 minutes. I would have loved to stay longer or do a second dive but there was no two-tank option and since we were flying out the next morning it was probably just as well that we were limited to one. As an added benefit we were entertained by a group of dolphins on our way back to Princess Cays.

 

The bottom line is that I would definitely do it again if I were in Princess Cays. It may have lacked the "wow" factor of Cozumel or Grand Cayman but if you want to get in another dive (and who doesn't?) I'm glad Princess provides the option. That said, it wouldn't be fair NOT to mention the negatives:

 

1--It's expensive!! I think $109 for a one tank dive is way out of line with what we've paid elsewhere, but since there is no competition either Princess or Ocean Fox(or both) has monopoly pricing power. A little competition would be a good thing!

 

2--The price is the same whether you rent their gear or bring your own. The New Waves guy on Grand Princess explained to us that it was the same as buying a big mac and not getting a discount if you have them hold the ketchup. Huh? That analogy didn't really work for me (but then again, I always eat the ketchup).

 

 

3--OK, this isn't really a deal-breaker but...Neither Ocean Fox nor Princess provided any fresh water to rinse the equipment--on the dive-boat or on shore. I'm surprised that Princess will promote the New Waves thing without making any accomodation at all for rinsing our gear. We were told to rinse it in our showers and hang it in our staterooms to dry. We used non-Princess dive operators in other ports and in all cases there was, at a minimum, a hose and dip tank on the shore to rinse the gear. How hard could it be to have a big tupperware tub (or something) with fresh water at Princess Cays so we could at least get the salt/sand off our stuff? (Hint: there actually IS a freshwater hose on Princess Cays but they won't tell you about it. It's about 30 feet inland from where you meet the dive boat. And the beach lounges make fine drying racks but don't expect the sun-bathers around you to be amused! ;)).

 

But really, those things didn't detract too much. It was worth it to me to pay the money and dive rather than sit with the hordes on shore wishing I was diving!

 

 

 

--Ellen

[psbtrvlr]

Hi everyone!

I tried to post this twice already today but the computer ate my notes so please excuse if this turns out to be a repeat repeat...

 

My husband and I just got off the Grand Princess and we did the dive at Princess Cays. I was initially a little leery about booking the dive since it was expensive and the prevailing wisdom seems to be that ship excursion dives are not the way to go. We ended up booking it because it was the only game in town and we wanted one last dive before heading back to our frozen northern habitat! Turns out we were pleasantly surprised--it was a really nice dive. It was the easiest of the dives we did on this cruise--40 feet maximum depth with little current and good visibility. The pace was leisurely without everyone seeming to be on top of each other and there was plenty to look at. We are novice divers (20-25 dives) so I'm not sure that this dive would be worthwhile for those seeking more challenging conditions, but for recreational divers like us it offered plenty of fun.

 

There were 8 divers from the ship. we took an early tender to Princess Cays and met the dive boat right off the tender. Ocean Fox Divers is the tour operator and provided the boat, dive guide, captain, one additional crew member and all equipment for those that needed it. Equipment was already set up for those who were using Ocean Fox's BCDs/regs but those of us providing our own did our own set-up--with help from the crew if needed. We were told that the water was "between 70 and 80 degrees" which sort of seemed like a big range (my computer said 78) and people wore everything from no exposure protection (she was freezing) to full wetsuits over dive skins. Most people seemed ok with 3mm shorties.

 

The dive site is about 15 minutes from Princess Cays and in view of the ship. We were briefed on the way there, so once we were on site we were able to get in the water pretty quickly--a good thing since the surface was choppy and we were really rolling. Because of the chop we all held the tow line until everyone was in the water then we all did a free descent together. Once off the surface the water was clear and calm and we descended to a sandy area on the bottom. From there it was just a short swim to the reef. Some people stayed right with the guide, who pointed out lots of creatures lurking in the crevices. We preferred hanging back a little since it's such a drag to be cropping other people's fins out of our underwater photos! :p

 

The reef was lovely. Although we didn't see some of the 5-star marine life we had seen earlier in the week at Cozumel and Grand Cayman (sharks, rays, eels, etc) there was a nice variety of coral and reef fish. We saw several very large lobsters and the biggest crab I've ever seen and probably more queen angelfish than I've seen in a single dive. The site is called either "boiling hole" or "boiling oil" which apparently derives from a hole where salt and fresh water meet to form a "boiling" effect. I had to to take their word for it--I saw the hole and missed the "boil" part. Nevertheless, the reef formations were beautiful and once everyone spread out a little it was possible to explore at our own pace.

 

About halfway through the dive I noticed a sea turtle swimming right towards me. I expected him to veer off course eventually since I've never had one actually approach me but this guy just came right up to me as I repeatedly snapped his picture. I was actually laughing through my regulator. This moment alone made the dive worthwhile.

 

In all we were down about 45 minutes. I would have loved to stay longer or do a second dive but there was no two-tank option and since we were flying out the next morning it was probably just as well that we were limited to one. As an added benefit we were entertained by a group of dolphins on our way back to Princess Cays.

 

The bottom line is that I would definitely do it again if I were in Princess Cays. It may have lacked the "wow" factor of Cozumel or Grand Cayman but if you want to get in another dive (and who doesn't?) I'm glad Princess provides the option. That said, it wouldn't be fair NOT to mention the negatives:

 

1--It's expensive!! I think $109 for a one tank dive is way out of line with what we've paid elsewhere, but since there is no competition either Princess or Ocean Fox(or both) has monopoly pricing power. A little competition would be a good thing!

 

2--The price is the same whether you rent their gear or bring your own. The New Waves guy on Grand Princess explained to us that it was the same as buying a big mac and not getting a discount if you have them hold the ketchup. Huh? That analogy didn't really work for me (but then again, I always eat the ketchup).

 

 

3--OK, this isn't really a deal-breaker but...Neither Ocean Fox nor Princess provided any fresh water to rinse the equipment--on the dive-boat or on shore. I'm surprised that Princess will promote the New Waves thing without making any accomodation at all for rinsing our gear. We were told to rinse it in our showers and hang it in our staterooms to dry. We used non-Princess dive operators in other ports and in all cases there was, at a minimum, a hose and dip tank on the shore to rinse the gear. How hard could it be to have a big tupperware tub (or something) with fresh water at Princess Cays so we could at least get the salt/sand off our stuff? (Hint: there actually IS a freshwater hose on Princess Cays but they won't tell you about it. It's about 30 feet inland from where you meet the dive boat. And the beach lounges make fine drying racks but don't expect the sun-bathers around you to be amused! ;)).

 

But really, those things didn't detract too much. It was worth it to me to pay the money and dive rather than sit with the hordes on shore wishing I was diving!

 

 

 

--Ellen

 

 

Thank you for the detailed review.

[w&k]

I appreciate you posting your experience - I'm usually a RCCL cruiser, but may get to Princess one of these days.

 

Wendy

[bruce-r]

I appreciate you posting your experience - I'm usually a RCCL cruiser, but may get to Princess one of these days.

 

Wendy

 

Wendy, I'm pretty sure you'd enjoy Princess. I know I did.

 

ellenh, Thank you very much for posting the report about your Princess Cay dive experience.