Non princess diving trips - serious divers

[diversteve]

My wife and 2 children will be on our now yearly winter cruise in December. We are all fairly serious divers with 50+ dives a piece (my son and I will be pushing 100 by then.) I'm too lazy now to take dedicated dive vacations, but we do dive at each reasonable port.

 

On Princess in the past we have just used the Princess trips. This time we will dive Cayman, Cozumel, and Roatan. We have all dived Cayman and Cozumel a number of times. Do any serious divers out there go with local providers? I assume they are a bit cheaper, but I am frankly more interested in better operations and more experienced divers along on the trip.

[tootsiescurly]

We never dive with the ship in Grand Cayman, Cozumel or Roatan. My husband has been certified since 1978 and I have been certified since 2001. We prefer dive ops who do not take more than 8-10 people per boat. Not into cattle boats!!!

 

We use Cayman Diving School in Grand Cayman - last time it was only the 2 of us for no extra charge.

 

Scuba with Alison is our favorite in Cozumel. She is the BEST!!!

 

We used Subway Water Sports in Roatan. It is a good operation, however when we were there in Nov 2008 we felt they used poor judgement in choosing dive sites. The weather was rainy and windy with swells of at least 3-4 feet at times. The boat ride to the dive site made me sea sick. Having grown up on sail boats I very rarely get seasick. The surge and current were strong. Needless to say it was not fun! Regulator was knocked out of my mouth several times and had to clear my mask several times. We went to this dive site because people who had spent the week diving with Subway had been unable to dive that side of the island all week. It was their last day of diving. We had booked a private dive and ended up diving with 6 other people, although we had our own divemaster in training. She was inexperienced.

 

There are many good dive ops in all of these places. They are very willing to accomodate cruise ship passengers, making sure you get back to your ship on time.

[sddiver]

Especially in Cozumel. It would help to know you port times as that limits your options. The cruise ship contractors are OK if you are a newbie, but once your expectations grow they essentially suck. Stick with the 6pack boat operators.

Any from this list in Cozumel should work just fine.

 

Blue Magic Scuba

Aldora Divers

Blue XtSea

Deep Blue

Blue Angel

Dive with Martin

 

Have a great time.

 

Rich

[texswamper]

I agree with the previous poster concerning Subway Watersports in Roatan. My husband and I went diving with them in December 08. Frankly, it's a long cab ride to their shop and we found we were diving with 2 divers staying on the island who are regulars for their shop. But, they had 2 students who had terrible buoyancy skills, etc and they had at least 4 divemasters in training. Frankly, we felt like they weren't all that interested in making our dive experience in Roatan a great one. We also had high swells and rain, but fortunately no seasickness! We will return to Roatan sometime, but will definitely use another operator. JMHO

[bruce-r]

Especially in Cozumel. It would help to know you port times as that limits your options. The cruise ship contractors are OK if you are a newbie, but once your expectations grow they essentially suck. Stick with the 6pack boat operators.

Any from this list in Cozumel should work just fine.

 

Blue Magic Scuba

Aldora Divers

Blue XTSea my personal favorite

Deep Blue

Blue Angel

Dive with Martin

 

Scuba with Alison I agree with this suggestion too

 

Have a great time.

 

Rich

 

I'd also add to that list:

http://www.scubatony.com

http://www.living-underwater.com/

 

For Grand Cayman, you have a couple of choices:

 

Boat dive with http://www.neptunesdivers.com

 

OR you could choose to do some shore diving. Since there are 2 of you, you won't need to worry about finding a buddy. You could still hire a guide, but you'd probably be fine just talking to the people at the dive shop for directions. I'd go to http://www.sunsethouse.com , rent gear there, and do their house shore dive.

 

As for being too lazy for dedicated dive trips, HUH? Scuba diving while on a cruise is much more labor intensive than say going to Cozumel for a week of diving. Most of the dive ops there take care of your gear for you. You only handle it when you drop it off at their shop the evening before you start diving.

 

The easiest diving you can do is from a liveaboard.

[BuzzF117]

My wife and 2 children will be on our now yearly winter cruise in December. We are all fairly serious divers with 50+ dives a piece (my son and I will be pushing 100 by then.) I'm too lazy now to take dedicated dive vacations, but we do dive at each reasonable port.

 

On Princess in the past we have just used the Princess trips. This time we will dive Cayman, Cozumel, and Roatan. We have all dived Cayman and Cozumel a number of times. Do any serious divers out there go with local providers? I assume they are a bit cheaper, but I am frankly more interested in better operations and more experienced divers along on the trip.

 

Which cruise are you going on we are booked on the Dec 5 out of FLL on Princess and would prefer using smaller boats and not doing the cattle boat dives also

[diversteve]

Thanks Folks,

 

I have used a number of private operators (5 or 6) in Cozumel, and never had a bad experience. For that matter, the ships operators were also good. Cayman was good from the ship the 2 times we done it. Bonaire (where I have been on a dive only vacation as well) was not impressive. I think since Bonaire has such a wonderful rep for easy great diving, the novices come out, and the cruise ship is aware of that. Instead of going on a certified divers trip, one would think you were on check out dives. If anyone has any suggestions for Roatan other than staying away from the one mentioned, I would be grateful.

 

Buzz, we are going on the Dec 19 cruise - sorry we won't see you. As for dedicated diving vacations, I like the idea of going to a few places and just don't want to dive 3 times a day for 6 days. Of course, no one makes you, but I always felt silly going to a single destination like Bonaire, and not diving to the max. I just get tired from diving itself (I was certified long before Nitrox and other mixed gasses were popular, and my wife and I were very devoted for the few years before children. Then didn't dive for another 18 years.) Now both kids are divers, my son is VERY serious, and we enjoy going as a family. Liveaboards sound great (my son spent last august and will spend this august on one in the BVI), but I would get seasick. Anyway, six dives off a very comfortable cruise ship is kind of my 50 year old idea of a liveaboard.

 

Thanks for the info, and I'll check into the operations you mention.

 

Steve

[Sailfish]

I lead Cruise Critic's annual Scuba Cruise - we charter a dive boat and go diving in each port of call. If you'd like info on the June 2010 cruise, you can email me for more info.

 

This year's group is closed, but I can add you onto our 2010 email list. Feel free to visit this year's group forum to see what we are all about. I lead one dive group a year for Cruise Critic - it's a fun group and both divers and non-divers alike have a great time.