which ships - night diving

[Trekker954]

Bonaire is suppose to be superb for night scuba diving. any others? and the most important questions which cruise ships go there and overnight?

I've been on four cruises and none stayed overnight.

thoughts

[scubaran]

Hi,

 

Sorry, night diving doesn't seem to be that popular in the Caribbean. Even if you are in a port until late, most shops do night diving on a "demand basis". I know we were in Tortola in Nov on Holland until 11pm but the local dive shops didn't offer night diving. Even when I've stayed on an island for a week with a request to be notified if a night dive was on, so far none has come through for me. If you're in a group of divers on a ship you might be able to book a "twilight or night dive" but otherwise I'm afraid you might just be out of luck (and I love to night dive too!).

 

Randall

[Capt_BJ]

Hi,

 

Sorry, night diving doesn't seem to be that popular in the Caribbean. Even if you are in a port until late, most shops do night diving on a "demand basis". I know we were in Tortola in Nov on Holland until 11pm but the local dive shops didn't offer night diving. Even when I've stayed on an island for a week with a request to be notified if a night dive was on, so far none has come through for me. If you're in a group of divers on a ship you might be able to book a "twilight or night dive" but otherwise I'm afraid you might just be out of luck (and I love to night dive too!).

 

Randall

 

Well I'd say it a little different. In my experience making week at a time dive trips to Cayman, Brac, Bonaire, Coz, and having visited for shorter periods most other diving islands down there as part of my job I'd say night diving is popular and abundant....but not as a boat trip...as shore diving. Few operators want to run their boat at night. Altho on most 7 day excursions I've taken, there will be one night boat operation a week, if it gets enuf reserved spots.

 

I like to dive from Sunset House and it is the great diving right off their pier for night dives that places this on the top of my list. In Bonaire, most diving is shore diving anyway (the boats mostly go to the same sites you can drive to) so again, nite shore is an option. Where I usually stay on Brac, they run a once a week nite shore dive via bus to another site on the island....but no boat operations.

 

I don't know anyone who routinely takes out a nite trip to "the wall" in CI or Coz ... frankly that would be a high risk evolution for any but the most experienced divers. If you get sep' from the group at nite you can have a much more serious problem than during the day..... nite drift diving in Coz ... there's one for the insurance rates:eek:

 

Even on cruises that really cater to diving - Princess did at one time, and WindStar was excellent prior to their recent changes - I don't recall there ever being a ship excursion nite dive.... I don't know any cruise ship that stays in GC past dark (that may even be a port regulation); nor any that overnite in Bonaire.

 

Face it, you just need to expand your vacation options a book a week at Sunset House or one of the places in Bon' then you can dive every nite! Or try a liveaboard....but that's a far cry from a cruise ship...

[Trekker954]

I sort of assumed that would be the case. So if that is, what it is, the smart option should be save up, fly to Australia and stay a week.

[gmcrow]

Stuart Cove's does night diving for groups of 7 (which is usually easy for them to put together with on-island divers), and some of RCCL's ships stay in Nassau until midnight. It's not Bonaire, but it's not bad either.