Has anyone ever done the shoretrips fly and dive to ambergris caye?

[kthy66]

I would want more information - is this dive shop PADI certified?

Amazingly yes they are PADI certified.. I actually walked back to the dive shop later and looked again and they indeed do have a sign saying they are PADI certified.

 

And if there is an emergency (which it sounds like there could have been) are they properly equipped? Do they carry oxygen onboard?

I honestly do not know.

 

And I was told to always "plan your dive and dive your plan." Sounds like that was not followed if they were told they were going to 60ft and ended up going deeper.

They definitely did not follow the dive plan. They stated plainly in the briefing it would be a 60 foot dive. very scary.

[familyplanner]

Thank you so much for posting your review. Once again, the tour itself sounds fabulous. I'm still really pumped for this tour as a whole. However, the description of the dive sort of scares me. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that you gave us an honest review because it really gives us something to consider. But it makes me a little leary about doing this now. I have some physical limitations, so the 3-rung ladder on the dive boat intimidates me somewhat. But, more than anything, the idea of getting separated from the divemaster and trouble finding the ceiling to exit just scares me to death. I really don't like the idea of the dive op not gauging the experience level of the divers. That was one of my concerns from the beginning because we don't have much dive experience at all. I really don't blame your fiancee for deciding not to do the second dive. I would have done the same thing.

 

We're booked on our excursion through Shoretrips.com which I believe uses Eco Tours. I don't know if they will tell us which dive shop they'll be using. I emailed them some other questions because we were thinking about just doing the first dive and then touring around San Pedro before the flight back. They couldn't tell me what airline they use or really anything else about the tour. The answer was really more of the attitude "We plan everything and you don't need to worry about anything" so don't ask questions. I think I'm going to call them and see if I can find out what dive shop they use. By any chance, does your finance remember the name of the divemaster from Aqua Dives?

 

We used shoretrips and we dove with aqua divers. Our experience was the complete opposite of Kthy66. Our dive master if I remember right was Michael. We were the inexperienced divers and there were never more than 6 on the boat. I didn't find the ladder hard to climb up when I took my fins off and handed them up. We dove both times with extremely experienced divers (one was a divemaster and instructor) and they catered the dives to us the less experienced. We dove tacklebox, but we did not go through any tunnels. We were asked about the number of dives and how deep we had been. I think that if you communicate your level of experience you will not have a problem. I would not hestitate to dive with aqua dives again.

[kthy66]

I personally would be very hesitant to dive with Aqua Dives after reading the postings here. Sounds more like a dive shop that just wants to make the money taking cruise passengers out.

 

 

 

I would want more information - is this dive shop PADI certified? And if there is an emergency (which it sounds like there could have been) are they properly equipped? Do they carry oxygen onboard?

 

And I was told to always "plan your dive and dive your plan." Sounds like that was not followed if they were told they were going to 60ft and ended up going deeper.

 

Just thought I would put in my .02, since I would be very nervous in a situation like this and wouldn't want it to ruin my vacation with the constant thinking about it. :)

 

We used shoretrips and we dove with aqua divers. Our experience was the complete opposite of Kthy66. Our dive master if I remember right was Michael. We were the inexperienced divers and there were never more than 6 on the boat. I didn't find the ladder hard to climb up when I took my fins off and handed them up. We dove both times with extremely experienced divers (one was a divemaster and instructor) and they catered the dives to us the less experienced. We dove tacklebox, but we did not go through any tunnels. We were asked about the number of dives and how deep we had been. I think that if you communicate your level of experience you will not have a problem. I would not hestitate to dive with aqua dives again.

 

Well thats good.. It sounds like your dive master had his act together.. Glad they were good to you! A good dive experience really depends a lot on the dive master I believe. I'm thinking you probably used another boat for your dive if the ladder was not a difficulty. Either that or your rubber girl! ;)

[CaribQween]

Yes the dive master actually told the people on the boat that the profile was 60 feet... which surprised us since we expected a deeper profile for the first dive.

 

I really don't want to scare anyone but I needed to share our experience so someone doesn't end up in a dangerous situation. Thank goodness my fiance had the experience level needed to survive the dive!

I am sure there are lots of great dive shops on the island; we just would never refer anyone to Aqua divers. Very spooky experience for my fiance even with his dive experience.

 

A little more information on their dive boat.

To first enter the water they had to do the backwards roll off then to reboard the boat the dive ladder barely reached the top of the water and was supported by a boat bumper to give your fingers rooms underneath.. but once any weight was on the ladder the bumper was crushed so my fiance couldn't even get his fingers underneath to haul himself out of the water. :( He told me if I had been with him he doesn't think I would have been able to get myself out of the water.

 

All that aside.. We would definitely take the flight over to the island again.. it was awesome. :D

 

Kthy66, believe me, we are all thankful to you for putting your true experience (or fiance's) out here. At first, maybe I felt a little scared, but now I just feel cautious which is what we all need to feel in every dive situation. By you putting this post, it may help someone avoid an unsafe situation or honestly, it may save someone's life. It's certainly a heads-up for all of us in every dive situation we go into. If nothing else, it gets us talking about what we would do in the same situation and teaches us to have a plan. And it made me realize that booking through a tour company and not knowing anything about the actual dive shop we'd be diving with, is just not a good idea.

 

In addition, as I've checked into all of this since reading your post, I've realized that we are doing this in the most expensive way. We are booked through Shoretrips.com which books through Ecological Tours which then books with the dive ops. We can save a lot of money by going straight through Eco Tours ($159 versus $183 through Shoretrips.com) or we can save even more money by booking independently. And, booking independently gives us the opportunity to talk to the dive shop ahead of time, tell them our experience level, find out exactly what the dive profile will be, and even explain what happened to your fiance and try to make sure that something similar doesn't happen.

 

So, thank you again for your post. We hope everyone continues to post their true experiences/opinions. And whether we decide to dive Ambergris Caye or not, we're definitely going to do the flight over because that has always been what sounds like the best part of the whole excursion.

[CaribQween]

We used shoretrips and we dove with aqua divers. Our experience was the complete opposite of Kthy66. Our dive master if I remember right was Michael. We were the inexperienced divers and there were never more than 6 on the boat. I didn't find the ladder hard to climb up when I took my fins off and handed them up. We dove both times with extremely experienced divers (one was a divemaster and instructor) and they catered the dives to us the less experienced. We dove tacklebox, but we did not go through any tunnels. We were asked about the number of dives and how deep we had been. I think that if you communicate your level of experience you will not have a problem. I would not hestitate to dive with aqua dives again.

 

Laura,

 

Wow!! It sounds like you had a totally different experience than Kthy66's fiance. I'm wondering if maybe you had a different divemaster. That certainly makes the world of difference in how a dive is run. I'm not sure exactly what we're going to do yet, but if we keep our booking with Shoretrips.com and we get there and find we're with Aqua Dives, I would absolutely make sure to discuss all of the things you talked about so they know that we have very little experience and have concerns about doing things that are above our experience level. But, thank you for posting back with your experience with Aqua Dives. I was wondering who you dove with and knew you'd come on and tell us :).

[CaribQween]

Excellent info KTHY66,

We snorkel with eco tours next week off the Legend. I'm glad we decided just to snorkel now that I read your review. We wanted more time on Ambergris to check it out and that's why we're not diving. We're diving the next day on Roatan.

Michael..............

 

Michael,

 

You have to tell us all about your snorkel excursion in Shark Ray Alley when you get back. In checking out our other options for Ambergris Caye, we looked up the excursion you're doing and it sounds so cool. Now, we're torn as what to do. I had never actually looked into it before. I knew that Shoretrips.com offered just the flight over to Ambergris Caye, so I was thinking that you were doing the same thing only through Eco Tours. I didn't realize that your excursion included a snorkel/encounter with Stingrays and Nurse Sharks in Shark Ray Alley. We really wanted to do Stingray City at Grand Cayman, but we couldn't find a way to schedule it with our dives. Now seeing this, we're considering doing it instead of diving. And it isn't because of the post by Kthy66. After reading your posts about touring around San Pedro and Ambergris Caye in the golf cart, we decided we wanted to switch to just one dive so we'd have the rest of the day to rent a cart and go sightseeing. But, then we started thinking about what a hassle it would be hauling all of our diving equipment all over the island with us and in and out of all of the stores, restaurants, etc. That just seemed like a huge hassle to us. So we honestly considered not diving at all there and just doing the flight over and back. Now that we've seen the Snorkel at Shark Ray Alley through Eco Tours, we've started considering just canceling our Shoretrips excursion and booking that. We're just not sure if we'll be sorry that we missed diving there. Like I've said before, we've been wondering if we were a little overly ambitious in booking dive excursions for 3 out of the 4 ports plus diving pre-cruise in Crystal River (being afraid that we would be so wiped out that it would put a damper on our cruise). This might be a happy alternative. So, please, give us a quick review of the snorkel portion of the tour also. Have a great cruise!!!

[kthy66]

In addition, as I've checked into all of this since reading your post, I've realized that we are doing this in the most expensive way. We are booked through Shoretrips.com which books through Ecological Tours which then books with the dive ops. We can save a lot of money by going straight through Eco Tours ($159 versus $183 through Shoretrips.com) or we can save even more money by booking independently. And, booking independently gives us the opportunity to talk to the dive shop ahead of time, tell them our experience level, find out exactly what the dive profile will be, and even explain what happened to your fiance and try to make sure that something similar doesn't happen.

Yes you are absolutely right.. I found out the week before we left how shoretrips operated so I did some digging and cancelled with shoretrips and went direct through Eco Tours saving $$.. and I must say Eco Tours was fantastic. The only bad part of the trip was the dive unfortunately. My fiance did say it was beautiful and the sharks were amazing but the dive operators left much to be desired.

 

So, thank you again for your post. We hope everyone continues to post their true experiences/opinions. And whether we decide to dive Ambergris Caye or not, we're definitely going to do the flight over because that has always been what sounds like the best part of the whole excursion.

You're very welcome.. I didn't want to come off as being a complainer.. I just wanted to make sure others considering this tour be aware and be safe.

and YES the plane ride was fantastic! :D

[mdrobtx]

Michele, I wouldn't get all caught up in trying to dive every place that people say is the "greatest" in the Caribbean. I've dove all over the Caribbean the last 15 yrs and there are many, many places that offer excellent diving and many claim it's a don't miss dive site. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all start to seem very similar after awhile.

We did the shark/ray alley snorkel off Caulker Caye a few years ago and rented a golf cart for the rest of the afternoon. We had a couple of local kids jump on the back of the golf cart and give us a complete tour of their Caye. It was fun. We're hoping to do the same on Ambergris. We'll get our dive in on Roatan.

[mdrobtx]

Ok, did the Ambergris Caye snorkel/dive excursion with ecotoursbelize. Fantastic trip, in fact probably one of the best excursions we've ever done. BOOK IT!.

Sitting in the aiport in Tampa. I will give a full review with pics and video next week sometime.

Michael...................

[Friscorays]

....I will give a full review with pics and video next week sometime.

Michael...................

 

I'm looking forward to it. Was it just you and your wife? Did you dive and she snorkeled? Did you have any trouble catching an early tender? What did you do between diving and snorkeling? Were you back in plenty of time to re-board the ship?

 

I almost forgot potentially the most important question. How was the diving?

[mdrobtx]

I'm looking forward to it. Was it just you and your wife? Did you dive and she snorkeled? Did you have any trouble catching an early tender? What did you do between diving and snorkeling? Were you back in plenty of time to re-board the ship?

 

I almost forgot potentially the most important question. How was the diving?

 

I will post a full review with videos in a few days. Everything was perfect. They hand walk you over there and back. No time problems or anything.

We snorkeled but the snorkeling was way better than the diving on Roatan the next day.

I've dove all over the Caribbean and the snorkeling was the best I'd ever experienced. I jumped in waist deep water and immediately saw a green turtle and ray. Even had the oppurtunity to jump in the water with a pod of dolphins as we were cruising between snorkel sites.

Much more later after we get home.............

[CaribQween]

Ok, did the Ambergris Caye snorkel/dive excursion with ecotoursbelize. Fantastic trip, in fact probably one of the best excursions we've ever done. BOOK IT!.

Sitting in the aiport in Tampa. I will give a full review with pics and video next week sometime.

Michael...................

 

Michael, Wow, it sounds like you really enjoyed the tour. I know you're going to post your review next week, but we just wondered if you could tell us a little bit about whether you rented the golf cart and if there was much for you to actually see around the island. We're going to book independently so we can choose the dive shop we use and so we have a little more time on the island. We're just torn between spending more time in the water leaving just about an hour or so for touring, or spending a short time snorkeling and then touring the island the rest of the day. I've researched this relentlessly and can't really find much on whether you can really see much that way (besides San Pedro).

 

Also, when you actually do your review, what dive op did you end up with and how were they, what locations did you actually snorkel, and did you see any/many nurse sharks? Thanks so much in advance. We're really looking forward to your review.

[mdrobtx]

Only had an hour after snorkeling to get a bite to eat so we didn't get to rent a golf cart. Next time we will take a later flight back.

We didn't really have a lot of time to check out anything but food. A couple we met on the snorkel tour turned us onto a deli that we had to walk a couple of blocks in town to get to. San Pedro has a character all it's own and the people we met on the street while asking directions were all very nice.

[CaribQween]

Only had an hour after snorkeling to get a bite to eat so we didn't get to rent a golf cart. Next time we will take a later flight back.

We didn't really have a lot of time to check out anything but food. A couple we met on the snorkel tour turned us onto a deli that we had to walk a couple of blocks in town to get to. San Pedro has a character all it's own and the people we met on the street while asking directions were all very nice.

 

Thanks Michael. We appreciate you taking the time to answer back. We know you had a long day of traveling. We had wondered if that might not be the case with timing because when we called and talked to EcoTours, they said we would only have an hour or less before heading to the airport for the flight back. We'll be talking a later flight so we'll just rent a cart and head out to see what there is. We'll just make it an adventure. We're definitely excited after hearing how great the snorkeling was there. We can't wait. Twenty-six days and counting :D.

[mdrobtx]

Thanks Michael. We appreciate you taking the time to answer back. We know you had a long day of traveling. We had wondered if that might not be the case with timing because when we called and talked to EcoTours, they said we would only have an hour or less before heading to the airport for the flight back. We'll be talking a later flight so we'll just rent a cart and head out to see what there is. We'll just make it an adventure. We're definitely excited after hearing how great the snorkeling was there. We can't wait. Twenty-six days and counting :D.

Ok just got the videos and pics uploaded to the net so I'll be starting to get the review together either today or tomorrow.

We work nights so it's back to work tonight to start saving for another adventure.

[mdrobtx]

Ok, hope this link works. This is the videos I took with a little Kodak Zi8 hand held. Once you click on the link all 15 videos will automatically play back to back.

I was going to include these with the text review and still pics but this will give you a little insight to what goes on.

I'll work on the text and still pics today and tomorrow.

 

 

[kthy66]

Thanks for posting! Brings back great memories of a fun flight!

[mdrobtx]

Ok, here is the promised review of the Ambergris Caye excursion. If you’d like more specific info on Carnivals tendering process, email me.

A rep from ecotours was right there at the pier to meet us holding a placard with our names on it. This started the process of hand walking us through the day. Never felt concerned or worried that things would not go right. All the persons we delt with with ecotours were very polite and friendly. The tender arrived at Termial 4 right across from the Wet Lizard. Ecotours office was located at Termianl 1, maybe a 100 yd walk. We filled out the paper work there to include our flight and snorkel vouchers and paid for the excursion except for the $10 marine park fee. We were then walked outside to catch a cab to the airport. An ecotours rep rode with us and it was a 7 minute ride. He walked us inside and checked us in and were put on the 8:30 am local time flight. No passports were needed. Didn’t look at our ID’s or check our luggage. We brought full bottles of water in our carry on.

The flight left pretty much on time. It was with Maya Island Air and the aircraft was a Cessna Caravan with the capability of 12 passengers. There was only 5 of us onboard. It was a 14 minute flight.

Termianl in Belize City

As soon as we landed and approached the airport terminal/shack a rep from Aqua Dives was there to walk us over to the dive shop. It’s about a two hundred yd walk to the beach. We paid our $10 marine park fee and got our equipment and were off. There was only one other couple with us. Our first stop was Hol Chan. Immediately after entering the waist deep water I saw a turtle and a ray. Within a few more minutes we say many fish, nurse sharks and two moray eels. We spent about 30 minutes here but could have spent much longer if we’d wanted. The dive master was very leinent about time. Also he was very knowledgeable and professional. But…the water was so freakin cold my wife couldn’t feel her hands and the other womans lips were blue. Of course this was unusual and was because of the extreme arctic cold front that came down from Canada and froze everyone in the states and even cooled the Caribbean considerably. Our next stop was shark ray alley. While traveling there, we ran into a pod of dolphin. A rare occurance in the shallow reef area our dive master told us. He pulled right up to them and for 5 or 6 minutes we had a great photo and video ops. Our dive master encouraged us to jump in with them but then we’d missed the photos and videos. Besides they were moving pretty fast and I figured you’d only have a few seconds at most before they were out of sight or touch. It was a very exciting experience. Once at shark ray alley we immediately found the nurse sharks. Not many rays. Our dive master actually caught a 5ft nurse shark by hand and we were all able to touch and hold it. Once again we were allowed to snorkel as long as we’d liked but because of the cold water, we only lasted about 30 minutes.

Aqua Dives dive boats

Our snorkel boat and the couple we snorkeled with

Shawna and the dolphins

Aqua Dives on shore operations and dive shop.

Ok continue on the next post. Not allowed anymore pics on this one.

[mdrobtx]

whoops that didn't work. Try again

[mdrobtx]

. Once back on shore we walked down Front street and found a great little local deli and had a couple of Belikens along with stewed chicken, rice and beans. We only had an hour before the flight back. It was shceduled for 1pm local time. We got back at the pier at 1:30 and the ships tender didn’t leave till 3pm. These are all local times and NOT ship time. We could have easily taken the 2 pm flight back and got an extra hour on the island. We checked in at the airport and the same non-security took place. Observed a couple of dogs, a bicyclist and a golf cart go down the runway and into the neighborhood next door to the airstrip. Flight back was only 3 of us and very beautiful.

I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone who loves to snorkel. I’v dove and snorkeled all over the Caribbean and it was in the top 5 snorkeling I’ve done. Really isn’t necessary to dive. The dephth didn’t look over 30 to 40 feet and several dive operations were diving right below us and the only difference was they were breathing under water.

Ecotours Belize informed me they’d been doing this since 1999 and never had a problem with cruise ship passengers making it to the ship in time.

Any questions, let me know.

Walking from the airport to the dive shop

Front Street on Ambergris

Our plane back

Baggage claim the Ambergris Caye

[Friscorays]

MDRObTx,

 

Thank you for the review from your neighbor to the East. I found it very helpful.

 

John

[kthy66]

 

That boarding ladder is so much better than the one on my fiance's boat! It was only two rungs :(

I'm happy to hear you had a better experience with Aqua Dives. Maybe we are just spoiled diving with the bigger outfits scattered around the Caribbean.

[mdrobtx]

Yes we had a good experience with Aqua Dives. In fact I was impressed with our dive masters knowledge and experience.

[familyplanner]

Thanks for the great review, pictures and video it brought back so many great memories. It's really too bad the water was cold, because I have such fond memories of the warm water and sun. :)

[mdrobtx]

Thanks for the great review, pictures and video it brought back so many great memories. It's really too bad the water was cold, because I have such fond memories of the warm water and sun. :)

 

Your welcome.

 

Hey CaribQueen and King, did you get to see the review and videos?