Carnival Legend--need dive excursion advice...

[nancyb715]

Hi,

We are leaving on our first Carnival cruise in 8 days. We would like to scuba dive in Grand Cayman and Belize. Anyone have any advice? Should we book the excursion through Carnival or try a local dive shop? I'd love to hear your experience, either way.

We went in Barbados a couple years ago and it was a small group, relaxed and wonderful. Then St. Maarten and it was nice but a larger, crowded boat......more confusion and not as relaxed. We would love to have a smaller group so it's not so hectic. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[092306]

if you go to the SCUBA AND SNORKELING SECTION in the message boards, and ask your question, I am KNOW you will get alot of advice on this. BRUCE-R definitely knows his stuff(I think he has dove EVERYWHERE LOL). As do others I am sure. Your question may get answered here but it will DEFINITELY get answered there. Good Luck

[elcuchio24]

Depends what you want to do. If you are experienced and want a longer/2 tank dive than a non-ship escursion would probably be best. If you want a shorter, beginner type trip than a ship sponsered one would be fine. We did belize on a 1 tank dive, had a blast

[hoop4321]

last sept we did the Valor and went to grand cayman, cozumel, belize and roatan.....divers dream;) We booked our excursions through the boat for a few reasons....As a boat owner, i can tell you boats break down. I don't want to be stuck on a boat stranded in places that have a wall and nothing to anchor to. We have a now 14 yr old son, who is a new OW and we appreciated Carnivals hard deck of 80ft that it places on it's tour operators. We did not want our son to dive deeper, and did not want to stop the group from diving deeper. Most of the pretty stuff isn't so pretty past 90, and we figured we would not miss much. We dove every stop but Belize, and decided against it for a few reasons....did not want to get burned out on diving every port, the dive site is 2 hours away on boat, you don't even get to shore on Belize, the dive boat picks you up and drops you off at the cruise ship that is anchored off shore. The dives were all listed as advanced dives, and our son was again a new OW. Lastly, both my husband and I are dive masters. We have both rescued people while working. If you make a mistake, get in trouble and have to be rushed back to shore, 2 hours away is a long time to be fighting for life on a dive boat. It wasn't something that we wanted to risk right now, but when our son is on his own, we are coming back.:) I would recommend getting DAN before the trip if you do not already have it. FWIW, their trip insurance runs a bit less expensive than booking through the boat, and you have the DAN insurance for any type of injury while diving.

 

*While we were coming home from Cozumel, we rescued a group of 3 divers whose boat broke down. They were over the wall and unable to anchor. If you look at the pic i attached, you will see that the cover to the motor is off and their are dive tanks in the boat.

 

[tootsiescurly]

Avoid diving with the ship. There are some very good dive ops in Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Roatan. Scuba with Alison in Cozumel is the best!!! Grand Cayman has many good ops. I would avoid Subway in Roatan but there are several good ops there as well.