Diving with 11 year old on a cruise

[heydn62]

My son and I just did a "discover scuba" class today and would like to become certified. The local dive shop does thier open water training in the Crystal River in Florida. Our first opportunity to dive after that may be on our Cruise in October that goes to Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It looks like the ship's excursions have a minimum age of 12. Can anyone recommend any dive operator that would be particularly good with rookie divers, one which will be 11? I'm thinking we will probably want to dive in Cozumel, but would consider the others as well. I know Labadee has only ship excursions, so we will probably snorkel there.

 

Bruce-r, I've seen your pictures with your daughter (I think) in Cozumel. Who did you use, and how did she like diving in general, and Cozumel in particular?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone with input.

[jdbmga]

Doug, I see you're in Conyers, GA. We are in Alpharetta, GA. My DH is certified and my kids and I are going to be taking a class in March locally to become certified. We will also be headed to Crystal Springs for our check out dives. We are going at the end of April.

 

I will be new to diving while on our cruise in July, same destinations as you, will we be on the Mariner, so I decided to do this dive trip in Grand Cayman since it's a shallow dive and the stingrays seem to be a "must see" in GC.

 

http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/StingrayCityScubaDiving.htm

[reddi]

Doug,

 

We have used Alison in Coz - I know she would be great with kids. DW, DS (age 13) & I are diving with her next month. Her site is scubawithalison.com

[bruce-r]

My son and I just did a "discover scuba" class today and would like to become certified. The local dive shop does thier open water training in the Crystal River in Florida. Our first opportunity to dive after that may be on our Cruise in October that goes to Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It looks like the ship's excursions have a minimum age of 12. Can anyone recommend any dive operator that would be particularly good with rookie divers, one which will be 11? I'm thinking we will probably want to dive in Cozumel, but would consider the others as well. I know Labadee has only ship excursions, so we will probably snorkel there.

Of your stops, the only two places I think are worth diving are Cozumel and Grand Cayman. For Grand Cayman I've used http://www.neptunesdivers.com I liked them. The shore diving is pretty good there too, so maybe a guided shore dive would be a good choice. I'd probably go to http://www.sunsethouse.com for a shore dive there. Eden Rock is another shore dive spot and it is closer to where the tenders dock. If you want to do something else, like a Stingray City trip in the morning, there might be time for your DS to do a one tank dive in the afternoon, depending on your departure time.

 

Bruce-r, I've seen your pictures with your daughter (I think) in Cozumel. Who did you use, and how did she like diving in general, and Cozumel in particular?

We used Christi's http://www.bluextseadiving.com Since your DS is under 12, Christi would require a private DM for your son. That would of course cost extra, but I think it would be worth the cost. Because of his age, your son shouldn't make any dives deeper than 60 ft. A private DW will look after him which is definitely a good thing since virtually all the diving in Cozumel is drift diving. Drift diving is fun and easy if you just go with the flow.

 

Alison is a good choice from all that I have read. When Christi is booked up, she recommends Alison. I don't think she'd send potential customers to someone who wasn't good.

 

Most of the small boat operators, like Christi and Alison, usually take their break between dives at one of the West side beach clubs. It might be possible for you to arrange to meet up with them. Many of the operators use Playa Palancar as their stop. Nice Place, not really fancy, no water toys, just a mostly quite, relaxing beach club.

[jetskier]

I also can say good things about Alison. She just got larger boat and is working on getting it outfitted.

Dave

[heydn62]

Doug, I see you're in Conyers, GA. We are in Alpharetta, GA. My DH is certified and my kids and I are going to be taking a class in March locally to become certified. We will also be headed to Crystal Springs for our check out dives. We are going at the end of April.

 

I will be new to diving while on our cruise in July, same destinations as you, will we be on the Mariner, so I decided to do this dive trip in Grand Cayman since it's a shallow dive and the stingrays seem to be a "must see" in GC.

 

http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/StingrayCityScubaDiving.htm

 

Thanks Debbie,

 

I'm hoping to do Crystal River in March. It looks like a lot of the Manatee head out to sea in April, although our dive instructor said he's never been there and NOT seen manatee, and I think they go year round. There's more info here if you're interested -

 

http://www.scubacrystalriver.com/manateefacts.html

 

I've snorkeled both the Caymans and Cozumel. I'll probably just do one dive excursion on the cruise, and Cozumel seems like it's probably the better of the two. Stingray city is shallow enough to where I think I'd prefer snorkeling to scuba there.

 

Of your stops, the only two places I think are worth diving are Cozumel and Grand Cayman. For Grand Cayman I've used www.neptunesdivers.com I liked them. The shore diving is pretty good there too, so maybe a guided shore dive would be a good choice. I'd probably go to www.sunsethouse.com for a shore dive there. Eden Rock is another shore dive spot and it is closer to where the tenders dock. If you want to do something else, like a Stingray City trip in the morning, there might be time for your DS to do a one tank dive in the afternoon, depending on your departure time.

 

 

Bruce - I've been following your posts here since before my first trip to Cozumel on a cruise about 2 years ago. I got good advice from you then and put a lot of stock in what you have to say. Cruise critic is great because of people like you.

 

And thank you to jetskier and reddi as well. :)