Intro to Scuba: Better in Belize or Roatan?

[jjswim]

I'm booked on the Pearl leaving this weekend and love water activities. I'd like to try my hand at an intro to scuba as I've done snuba before, and it was a lot of fun, but am wondering if the diving would be better in Roatan or Belize.

 

The other option I'm entertaining for Belize is the excursion to snorkel at Ambergris Caye with a stop in San Pedro. What say you, Cruise Critics?

[ohio_cruiser]

I'm booked on the Pearl leaving this weekend and love water activities. I'd like to try my hand at an intro to scuba as I've done snuba before, and it was a lot of fun, but am wondering if the diving would be better in Roatan or Belize.

 

The other option I'm entertaining for Belize is the excursion to snorkel at Ambergris Caye with a stop in San Pedro. What say you, Cruise Critics?

 

jjswim,

I have cruised both Roatan and Belize twice in the last 3 years and are headed back on a cruise that leaves Dec. 21st. But this time we skip Roatan. Wife and I are very into snorkeling and did this at both places. I can only say we have snorkeled in many other places including, Hawaii, Cabo San Lucas and Caribbean and have found Belize to be one of the best so far. From this, I would recommend doing your intro to scuba in Belize. We will be in Belize on Dec 25th and plan on snorkeling again.

Have a great time!

Kevin

[GatorTom]

Where did you snorkel while in Belize? We'll be there on the 12/17 and would like snorkel. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Tecumseh]

I'm booked on the Pearl leaving this weekend and love water activities. I'd like to try my hand at an intro to scuba as I've done snuba before, and it was a lot of fun, but am wondering if the diving would be better in Roatan or Belize.

 

The other option I'm entertaining for Belize is the excursion to snorkel at Ambergris Caye with a stop in San Pedro. What say you, Cruise Critics?

 

jjswim: We will be going on the Pearl on January 18 and I had the same question in mind. Would you mind following up your trip with a review of your activity?

Thanks,

Mark

[ohio_cruiser]

jjswim: We will be going on the Pearl on January 18 and I had the same question in mind. Would you mind following up your trip with a review of your activity?

Thanks,

Mark

 

We booked our snorkel tour with Coral Breeze Tours and did the Stingray Alley Snorkeling & Caye Caulker Exploration (coralbreezetours.com). We saw a lot of "friendly" stingrays and colorful coral, schools of fish and a feisty eel. We also choose the with lunch option and it was good. The island of Caye Caulker is VERY peaceful. They pick you up right on the cruise ship tender pier (several snorkel tours don’t do this). The actual people who operated our tour were very professional. We will be back to Belize next week on Christmas and unfortunately this tour will not operate on this day.

Kevin

 

NCL Spirit - won't miss departure on Dec. 21, 2008

[bakerintn]

I don't think that there is much difference between Belize and Roatan as far as the reefs are concerned. The specific place where you dive will make a bigger difference. The more important thing to consider is the quality of the Scuba Experience operators, and I don't know how you can check that out. I have seen Scuba Experience lessons in a hotel pool, and I would not want to go in to open water with those students.

 

Sport Divers take several hours of classroom instruction, take written tests and have several hours of in-water instruction before getting their certification. I don't know how much you can expect to get in an hour or so of lessons. I recommend that you just enjoy the underwater experience and don't plan on learning much about Scuba.

 

But, either way you should have a great time checking out the under sea life.