Need Nassau Bahamas Scuba near the cruise dock (arrive at 1pm)

[robstrash]

My wife and I will be on the Carnival Celebration and will be in Nassau next Tuesday (09Nov). The problem is that we don't arrive until 1pm (but stay until midnight). All the scuba places pick up at noon or earlier as they are apparantly 40 minute drive away.

 

Does anyone know of a scuba place that's near the cruise ships? We would like to do a 2 tank afternoon dive. We just emailed the Bahama Divers as they have a 2pm, but not sure how far it is. Also, it's only a 1 tank dive and we really want to get a 2 tank in since we have all afternoon/night in port. We would even do a night dive, but most places you have to call that day and see if 6 people total are interested.

 

So, if anyone has used a place that's near the cruise ships, please let me know their name, web site (or phone or whatever you have). I am leaving Friday night so need it soon if you have it.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Rob

[Hilary]

Is the ship offering a dive excursion? That might be your best (and only) way of diving in Nassau. I believe that Carnival uses Nassau Scuba Centre, which according to folks on this board, is a good op.

[robstrash]

According to the excursions listed on the Carnival dive site under MY RESERVATIONS, no Dive excursions are offered in Nassau. :(

[Hilary]

Oooh, that stinks. Same thing happened to us for our upcoming cruise, but since we dock at 7am, we have plenty of time to catch the shuttle. Have you contacted Stuart Cove or Nassau Scuba Centre? It might be worth your time to see if they can help you out since it's a normally scheduled cruise.

[robstrash]

Yep, emailed all of them and they said no. Also contacted another (forgot which one) and am waiting to hear back from Bahama Divers.

 

It's frustrating as we get 10 hours in port, but we still can't do any diving. Oh well, whatcha gonna do :(

[Hilary]

Oh that really stinks. :-( Hopefully you can find someone who will take you out on a private dive excursion for a reasonable cost. Someone around here must have an idea..... Come on people, anyone know a dive op that does private charters?

[mzhibbs]

I need some help here too. I will be there next Oct. on the Mariner of the Sea arriving at 8am and leaving a 2pm. The ship is no longer offering a diving excursion! :( We already have plans for other two ports so this was going to be our only diving spot.

[szdiver]

We are going on HA Zuiderdam in January, 2005. The ship offers a dive with Stuart Cove, but I like Nassau Scuba Centre better, so I emailed them and I have an afternoon wreck dive fixed up with them for myself. They were more than glad to help me. I cannot believe that they turned anyone down, unless they were totally booked up. Good luck with a dive.

[robstrash]

We finally did get ahold of Bahama Divers (http://www.bahamadivers.com) as they had an afternoon dive that we could make. It was about $10 cab ride for 2 down to the shop - maybe 10 minute drive and a free shuttle back near the cruise ship (he dropped us off a few blocks away, which was fine for shopping but we had all our equipment).

 

There were quite a bit of new people and snorkelers. The dive site was rather shallow, but they didn't mind you going off by yourself. Wife and I went off and did the dive by ourself. Had some decent coral and a wreck during the shallow dive (maybe 25 ft max, about 12 ft avg). However, we saw one of the biggest lobsters we've ever seen hiding under the wreck. He was HUGE!!

 

The diver operation was fine. No complaints as they seemed confident and knew what they were doing. It was a shallow dive and only 1 tank, but I thought it was better than nothing.