Claymore2

It may be different aboard ship but most electrical codes require a 3 prong grounded extension cord and usually power cords, if there is any exposed metal on the appliance, in commercial settings. every time we have gotten a cord from the ship it has been a 3 conductor cord. It is a safety and fire issue.

Of the stops mentioned I would recommend Dominica and Sint Maarten. I have been diving in Dominica, Sint Maarten and St Croix but not Grenada. Dominica is noted for it’s wall diving.

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I bring all my own gear except for tanks and weights. I have a set of gear that is used primarily for travel diving. I can pack everything, BC, regs, computer, small camera, mask, beanie, and 3mil shorty, but my fins in one carry on. I was on a boat from a major dive operator on one of the Caribbean islands that had multiple problems with their rental gear so I bring my own since it doesn’t require another checked bag.

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Snorkeling in Cozumel is not the best in the Caribbean. The reefs tend to be farther out and currents can be problem out on the reefs. I am not familiar with the snorkeling in Belize. Roatan is probably the best bet.

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We will never sail on the Vista again! Of all the ships we have been on 15+ dating back to the Celebration and all the major lines in the Caribbean the Vista has to be the worst ship we have ever been on. I expect a Cruise ship to have class and style, the vista has neither. For the most part it is a floating mid-class hotel. It was designed to maximize profit and minimize expense. The dining room was the biggest let down. If you did not sign up early enough to get seating in the main dinning room, which is about a about a third the size of the general dining room. There was a 250 person waiting list the first night for seating in the main dinning room. If you didn’t get seating in the main dinning room you had to use the get number and wait dinning room you were basically eating at a mid class restaurant most nights. No table cloth, folded napkin, extra flat wear or china. The service was very hit or miss, some night it was good and some nights it was very bad. One of the reasons we go on cruses is to have a week of being in world class hotel, great service, great ambiance, great food. The Vista provided none of those. We were on the Oasis of the Seas the year before and t about a third the size of the general dining rooms difference was night and day. The Oasis of the Seas was a joy to be on, just to be on the ship. The Vista was just a way to get from one place to another and was not a very big part of enjoying the cruise.

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I will be in Amber Cove on Holland America and it appears that HA does not offer diving at any of the ports on this itinerary, maybe none of their Caribbean Itinerary’s. It looks like I will be finding my own operators in Amber Cove and Sint Maarten. Sint Maarten will be easy there are several right near the cruise ship pier.

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I believe Sand Dollar has the contract with all the cruise lines in Cozumel. Booking your own dives will generally get you better dives but the logistics of finding a good operator that has a boat going out when you can get to them and then get back by all aboard time can be a challenge.

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Is there a Dive operator that services the Cruise ship port at Amber Cove? Maybe out of Puerto Plata?

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Cozumel, Dominica, Costa Maya, Roatan, Sint Maarten are all good from my experience Cozumel being the best. I was not impressed with Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire. This from a cruise ship which can be a very different experience than a vacation at a given location. Cruise ship dive operators tend not to give you the best diving and dives at a given port.

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I bring almost ALL my own gear. BC, Regs, Computer, mask, small camera, shorty wetsuit and fins, operators provide weights and tanks. I can get it all in one carry-on except for the fins, to long. I do have a very compact BC that is easy to disassemble for travel . We normally have a Balcony so drying gear isn't usually an issue.

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KathiB I was talking to the owner of Blue XT Sea this weekend and she said they would run a an afternoon boat for 2 people. It may be worth looking into

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Probably a money issue Carnival wants to pay less and Stuart Cove's wants more. The cruise lines make money on both ends of excursions. They charge above the going rate and pay the excursion operators maybe 75% of their normal rate.

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I believe Stuart Cove's is the only operator on Nassau. They a a good big operation. I dove with them a couple of years ago off of the Oasis of the sea and they did a good job. I was not overly impressed by the dive sites. One was near their shark feeding station and the other was a couple ships they sunk to sort of do some wreck dives. I like Big coral and wall dives so this was a little blah.

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I used Dreamtime Dive Center several years ago and they seemed to be a good operator then.

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Arranging your own dive trip in Coz can be a little difficult as most of the dive ops boats go out at about 8:00am which is to early to get to the operators shop by the time you get off the ship and to the operators boat. The non cruise ship excursion boats can not dock at the cruise ship pier to pick you up. Blue Angel used to have a boat that went out at 10:30am. Scuba With Alison may be another option. If you can get enough divers to fill a boat many of the operators will arrange for a boat for your group on your schedule. Blue X Ta Sea is a full service operator and Dive with Martin has been good.

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I used Scuba Roatan a couple of years ago and they were a good operator. They Arranged transport, pickup off the pier grounds, to their shop on the West end and back to the port, at my cost. Full Service operator, carried and set up all gear and went back to the shop for the SI. We had to wade out to the boat climb the boat ladder to get into the boat and down the ladder and back in to shore as there was no dock/pier, if this 68 year old man can manage it can't be to bad.

When your ship dock and leaves is a big factor in getting your own dive operator. Most of the operators boats go out at about 8:00am so if your ship doe not disembark passengers in time for you to get off the boat and get to the operates site by the time the boat goes out you are out of luck. It is a fairly good walk just to get off the Carnival property to get a cab to the operate location.The only operator that can pick you up at the ships pier is Sand Dollar.

Blue angel used to run a 10:00am boat. The other problem you may run into is this is the busy season and some may booked up.

Sand Dollar is not bad they are used to new/inexperienced diver and vacation divers. They pick sites that are well suited to new/inexperienced diver for safety reasons and general ease of keeping track of divers. They have big boats with lots of divers and do not take the cruise ship excursions very far or for very long. They have a financial interest in getting your two dives as close as possible and in as short a time as possible. As cruise ship passenger you pay the cruise line more than the going rate for a 2 tank dive, they take a good chunk for their profit, and the cruise line pays Sand Dollar less than the going rate because of the guarantee of having customers regularly.

The Open Water portion of the certification can be done through the Universal Referral dives and can be done in two different ports, I did my certification dives that way. Your sons age may be a problem but the dives he would be doing are for certification not recreational dives so the age issue may not apply. You would have to either arrange for a shop to provide an instructor to run the certification dives in 2 ports through the cruise ship operator or arrange your own operator. Either way you still have to pay the certification fees to the shops. I believe the there are only 2 operates on Nassau, Stuart Coves and one other, the cruise line uses Stuart Coves. I can't Make any recommendation for St Thomas. In Philipsburg the Cruise line uses Scuba Fun and there is another operator just down the way from the pier called Octopus Diving, I may dive with them on the 6th.

You should try and get the checkout dives arranged as soon as possible as getting everything arranged can be a lot of back and forth.

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Snorkeling in Cozumel from the beach is not the best. There are not to many good beaches in Cozumel and to get out to where the best snorkeling is puts you in the boat traffic lanes and the current there can move you quite a ways from where you entered.

I believe there are some places close to the pier in Costa Maya where you could snorkel from the beach. From what I remember it was nice sand beaches and sandy bottom out a ways.

Roatan has some good snorkeling but I am not sure if any of it is near the ports

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Of the 4 stops mentioned I would rate Cozumel as the best then Roatan and Costa Maya then Belize for diving from a cruise. The best diving in Belize is a long boat ride from Belize City where the cruise ships anchor. I love the drift diving and BIG coral in Cozumel. The dive operator that the cruise lines in Roatan is Anthony's Key Resort and from my one experience with them I would never dive with them again. If the time in Cozumel works you may want to book your dive through a private operator to get better dives.

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If you are experiencing migraine headaches one of the best sources of information on dive related medicine is to call Divers Alert Network at 1-800-446-2671 M-F 8:30am - 5:00pm ET. They have a better understanding of the physiology of diving on the body than most MDs. They can also recommend an MD in your area is familiar with dive medicine.

If you do the onboard certification class for an Open Water Diver and it follows the standard form you will need 2 days for the class room and the confined water dives and 2 days, 4 or 5 dives, open water dives. It is a lot of time for a cruise. If you want to enjoy scuba get certified before you go if you can. You will have more time on the cruise and you will enjoy diving more because you will not be spending most of you dives going through training. Another option to get certified is to do the Open Water I, class room and confined water, portion of the certification and do the Open Water portion of the certification thru a Universal Referrals on the cruise.

As you mentioned a Discover Scuba dive is reasonable a alternative to find out if you really like scuba without spending a lot of time away from the wife and doing others things in the ports.

I did the Universal Referral on a cruise and my wife wasn't happy about me being gone on two mornings in port on the cruise. I still try to get 2 or 4 dives in on each cruise.[emoji3]

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If you are not certified divers you would do a Discover Scuba dive. You will get some simple instruction on how to use the equipment and how to do the dive. Then an Instructor or Divemaster will take you out and do simple shallow dive under their supervision.

If you want to do an regular scuba dive you would need to get certified first. This generally involves 2 days of class room and 2 days of confined water dive classes, it often is done in one weekend. Then you have to do 4 or 5 open water dives, generally done over 2 days, to get certified. You can do the class room and confined water portions at home and then do the open water portions at home if you live where it is warm year round or you can do them in 2 ports on the cruise if you live in a cold climate area. Doing them on the cruise will take most of the day in port.

I did my open water certification dives while on a cruise 9 years ago and now I dive in one or two ports on each cruise.

I Hope this helps.

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Cozumel hands down. Then Grand Cayman for me. I have never dove Belize or Montego Bay but Jamaica is not noted for it's diving and In Belize it is a long ass boat ride from the ship to the best diving in the Kay's.

In Cozumel I love the big coral and easy drift diving. The visibility is some of the best in the Caribbean. If you are using the cruise line dive operator in Cozumel the sites they take you to are considered easy dives because they have to many new/vacation divers and have so many divers on the boat. They are not bad dives but there are others that are better but are farther away and/or are more difficult so the operator, for time and fuel constraints does not go to these.

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In Cozumel the biggest problem in finding a dive operator is which pier you dock at and arrival departure times. Private operators are not allowed to pick up at the cruise ship piers so you have to go to them or arrange a boat pickup off the grounds, they can not pick you up in a car you have to take a taxi to their location.

Most of the operators boats go out at about 8:00am and then an afternoon boat. If you have 4 or more divers you may be able to get your own boat. Blue Angel has a 10.30am boat and will take you to some of the southern sites.

February, March and April are busy months and some of the operators get booked up early.

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