Gumbalimba AND diving???

[mermaid diver]

If we book Gumbalimba, has anyone walked over to Bananarama and done a 1 tank scuba dive? It's supposed to be 1/4 mi away. Accurate??? Easy walk carrying 50 pounds of equipment? I'm thinking we could use Carnival transportation, see the Gumba Park, go next door and dive, and then come back with Carnival transportation. Will it work? Time in port is supposed to be noon - 7pm (ship time) on Carnival Valor sailing 3/29/09. Does Gumba really close at 4pm now even if the ship is in port later? Anyone know what time the last bus might be back to the ship from Gumba?

[mermaid diver]

Since I'm getting no responses, I'm guessing this hasn't been done before??? Well, I'm gonna try it and I'll let you know how it works out when I get back. Seems the best way to give DH something to do on land while I'm underwater... I hope. I really hope they aren't kidding when they say 1/4 mi walk cause I'm NOT looking forward to that. Stay tuned...

[scuba214]

Mermaid Diver, I would love to hear about your experience. I am sailing on the Valor in Sept. From what I can tell island time will be 10:00 to 5:00, I think they are two hours ahead of us. Bananarama's one tank dive leaves at 2:00, island time. I also want to do their one tank dive, but am a little worried about getting back on time. The dive would leave at 4 ship time and hopefully be back no later than 5:30. This would give us an hour to get back to the ship. Please post your review when you get back, and have a great trip!:D

[mermaid diver]

Ship time, we will be in port from noon-7pm, which is 10am-5pm local time. So theoretically, I could make the second morning dive (11am) at Foster's or the afternoon dive (1:30pm) at Bananarama. However, both would be pushing it to use the Carnival transportation to and from Gumbalimba. Ticket says first bus leaves port between 10:45 & 11:15. Last bus leaves Gumba at 3:30pm. I've decided to pay it safe and forgo diving at this stop. I'll be heading to Fins and Flippers with the rest of the CC group onboard. All of this hassle just wasn't making sense for a 1 tank dive!!!

[WCSSARDIVER]

Mermaid Diver, I would love to hear about your experience. I am sailing on the Valor in Sept. From what I can tell island time will be 10:00 to 5:00, I think they are two hours ahead of us. Bananarama's one tank dive leaves at 2:00, island time. I also want to do their one tank dive, but am a little worried about getting back on time. The dive would leave at 4 ship time and hopefully be back no later than 5:30. This would give us an hour to get back to the ship. Please post your review when you get back, and have a great trip!:D

 

Hey scuba214 we are sailing on the Valor in Sept. also the 6-13. we are planing to dive in all the ports it would be great to find out as much info as possible.

[scuba214]

WCSSADIVER, we sail on the 27th. It's just me and my DH, he is not a diver. I hope to dive at two of the ports. I'd really like to dive in Roatan and Belize because I have not dove at either before. However, this ship time thing is a little confusing. I have dove at Eden Rock in Grand Caymen and a couple of different places in Coz.

 

Mermaid Diver have a great time at Fins and Flippers. The snorkeling looks really nice there.

[Waterskier1]

Hey scuba214 we are sailing on the Valor in Sept. also the 6-13. we are planing to dive in all the ports it would be great to find out as much info as possible.

 

Hey WCSSARDIVER, I'm also on the Valor 6-13 Sep and plan on diving all the ports. My preference would be to not use the cruise cattle boats also. I'm looking into options also.

[mermaid diver]

Mermaid Diver have a great time at Fins and Flippers. The snorkeling looks really nice there.

 

Actually the snorkeling was not that good. There must have been baby jellyfish in the water. We never actually saw any but felt little stings pretty frequenty. Also, there were rocks that were pretty shallow so you really had to keep your knees right up at the surface. We were nervous about sand fleas due to an incident several years ago so we pulled the lounge chairs right into the water a few inches and just sat back with a few drinks. Lovely day anyway. Now I guess this is a Carnival owned island. Gone are the days of a $20 private island. :(