scuba - Belize or Cozumel

[cobbmom123]

OK, all you divers out there, hubby may only be able to dive at one port on our upcoming cruise. Ideally, he wants to do Cozumel and Belize. However, if he could only do one - which one is best?

Also, we'd love some pictures from dive trips to these areas if anyone has any.

[092306]

I will admit I have never dove at Belize. I was going to and then found out that where the excursion goes is a very long boat ride to the dive site and there are better sites to dive in Belize then where the CARNIVAL excursion takes you to. Now in Cozumel diving is great. I have dove there twice and am going back to dive there again in March. The operator SANDDOLLAR SPORTS is really good.I know some people complain about them but i have found them to be a good operation. Now yes diving through the ship is cattle boat diving but on my recent trip to Cozumel there were 12 of us who dove. We were divided into two groups of 6. Each group had dive master and really it was fine. The excursion picks us up at the pier and it was like a 15-20 minute boat ride to the site. It was great. I absolutely love to dive in Cozumel. If I had to pick between the two i would do Cozumel. You could look up independent operators in Cozumel but I found with getting to and from plus rental equiptment it was actually cheaper to go through the ship. Hope this helps

[092306]

Oh yea I forgot to add this. On my last cruise on the VALOR some people I dove with used shoretrips.com to book a dive in Belize. It was a fly and dive. They loved it. They had to go to shore excursions desk to be one of the first to get off the ship. Beilze is a tender port and it is a long tender, about 20 mins or so. They showed they had purchased an airplane ticket and that was when they got the first tender. When they got to the dive site which was about a 10 min boat ride, they were in the water for about 5 mins and they saw sharks waiting for them. they didn't feed them or anything but they said it was a great expereince and they highly recommended it to me for the next time. I will still admit I LOVE COZUMEL

[gliner]

I have done both several times.

 

I would do Cozumel over Belize. Not because the diving is that much better, it is the same reef, but because the dive sites are much closer to the ship and you don't have to tender in like you do in Belize. If your husband is like me and only uses his own equipment, not having to tender in is a blessing.

[2112]

If you are diving from a cruise ship this becomes a very easy answer - Cozumel. The only way I would say the diving in Belize is better is if you were diving Lighthouse Reef, which you can't get to on a cruise ship visit. Cozumel has great diving within sight of your ship! In addition, Belize has better non-diving options than Cozumel.

[bruce-r]

If you are diving from a cruise ship this becomes a very easy answer - Cozumel. The only way I would say the diving in Belize is better is if you were diving Lighthouse Reef, which you can't get to on a cruise ship visit. Cozumel has great diving within sight of your ship! In addition, Belize has better non-diving options than Cozumel.

 

Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding we have a winner :cool:

 

And I would tell you to NOT use the ship's operator unless you want DH to have a follow the leader dive with predetermined bottom time.

 

If you want operator recommendations, we can help with those too.

[tombo]

All diving in Cozumel will be follow-the-leader diving as it is all drift diving. I do agree that Cozumel is the better choice if you can only dive one day on your cruise.

[PAcop141]

Im gonna have to go against the majority, I would chose Belize over cozumel. I arranged my own dive in belize through coral breeze tours, I believe they use hammerhead watersports for diving. I did a 2 tank dive out on the reef while the rest of the group I was with went to Bannister island. It was just me and the dive master so bottom time wasnt an issue. I will say the seas were a little rough while i was there so that made it interesting getting out to the reef :).

 

I have dove twice in cozumel and the diving is great, just thought Belize was better.