Do You Dive Before You Cruise?

[divinmule]

So as we are getting ready for our upcoming dive down Rainbow River on our way to our cruise on the Legend out of Tampa...I just wondered how many other folks are as addicted as us and schedule a dive trip on the way to the dive trip? :rolleyes::D

 

We did this two years ago and loved it. Since we were driving and had our own gear and the ship didn't leave till Sunday...we figured why miss a chance to dive.

 

Makes it a bit tricky getting everything dried enough..but we take different wetsuits and usually everything else is dry enough to pack the next morning.

[Laurie S.]

Kind of hard doing that when you fly in. ;)

 

But if I could, I would!

[Capt_BJ]

when you live in diving country you don't worry about 'one more dive'

 

for many of my cruises I'd dove the weekend b4!

 

it is all about picking where you live (and what your minimum diving levels are!)

[divinmule]

when you live in diving country you don't worry about 'one more dive'

 

for many of my cruises I'd dove the weekend b4!

 

it is all about picking where you live (and what your minimum diving levels are!)

 

Yeah, so true. Maybe some day it will be in dive country.:D

 

But For now I've spent almost 20 years developing my clients in this neck of the woods. So until its time to retire.....I guess I'll just have to live with the "lets try to squeeze in one more dive mentality.";)

[divinmule]

Kind of hard doing that when you fly in. ;)

 

But if I could, I would!

 

Yeah that makes it tuff.

We are doing a cruise out of San Juan in August and I am debating that very thing right now. Trying to decide if its worth it to get a taxi and head for a dive the morning before the cruise leaves. But the airline flight schedule may make that difficult.

Then again the hubbie has never seen the Biobay in San Juan....so maybe it would be a good time to see that.:D

[Laurie S.]

Sounds like fun to me! When a friend and I did a 10-day French Polynesian cruise, we flew in three days early in order to dive more. The first day onboard the ship was docked in Tahiti, so we arranged for the dive operator to come meet us and we dove again while everyone else was unpacking and checking out the ship. We had a lot more fun than they did!

[Kryssa]

Yeah that makes it tuff.

We are doing a cruise out of San Juan in August and I am debating that very thing right now. Trying to decide if its worth it to get a taxi and head for a dive the morning before the cruise leaves. But the airline flight schedule may make that difficult.

Then again the hubbie has never seen the Biobay in San Juan....so maybe it would be a good time to see that.:D

 

We thought about this but it sounds like the diving near San Juan isn't that great and we didn't want to go far from port on embarkation day.

[Middleager]

So as we are getting ready for our upcoming dive down Rainbow River on our way to our cruise on the Legend out of Tampa

 

I tried to arrange more diving, just before going on a cruise ship. Rainbow River was great. Very easy relaxed shallow drift diving, in crystal clear water. I tried to make the trip last, by stopping at the bottom often. But still went by fast.

 

We are doing a cruise out of San Juan in August and I am debating that very thing right now. Trying to decide if its worth it to get a taxi and head for a dive the morning before the cruise leaves. But the airline flight schedule may make that difficult.

Then again the hubbie has never seen the Biobay in San Juan....so maybe it would be a good time to see that.:D

There isn't good diving near San Juan. Last time we did a S Caribbean cruise, we flew to PR for 6 days before. Spent the first 2 days in Old San Juan. One night went to La Fajardo, took a quick cat to Vieques Island for the bio bay tour there. The bio bay there is much better.

 

We then went south to La Parquera to dive/snorkel there for 2 days. Also rented a small boat, to tour around, including some other small islands nearby. Then spent 2 more days at Rincon, with a dive/snorkel trip to Desecheo Island. On the last day, went to the Aricebo Observatory in the morning, before boarding the ship at San Juan in the afternoon.

 

So yes, we try to get to the port city a few days before the cruise, and tour around the area, and get more diving/snorkeling if possible.

[Talisker92]

Just a warning-if you are going to dive before a flight make sure enough time has elapsed to get the Nitrogen out of your system. Airplane cabins are pressurized to about6600 feet!.

[sckal]

Yeah, so true. Maybe some day it will be in dive country.:D

 

But For now I've spent almost 20 years developing my clients in this neck of the woods. So until its time to retire.....I guess I'll just have to live with the "lets try to squeeze in one more dive mentality.";)

 

 

I did a 2 tank discover scuba dive in November in St. Thomas. Even though I kept trying to equalize the pressure my right ear never unplugged from the first dive. I had a harder time equalizing the pressure in that ear as I descended for the second dive. After the dive it took 2 weeks for my right ear to completely unplug ( I didn't fly home, I drove so no airplane pressurization involved). I am crazy about diving, not certified only discover, but now am afraid to go again.

Any thoughts/ideas on what I should do? Would earplugs help this at all if I were to go again? Thanks for any ideas/thoughts from ceritified divers!

[divinmule]

I did a 2 tank discover scuba dive in November in St. Thomas. Even though I kept trying to equalize the pressure my right ear never unplugged from the first dive. I had a harder time equalizing the pressure in that ear as I descended for the second dive. After the dive it took 2 weeks for my right ear to completely unplug ( I didn't fly home, I drove so no airplane pressurization involved). I am crazy about diving, not certified only discover, but now am afraid to go again.

Any thoughts/ideas on what I should do? Would earplugs help this at all if I were to go again? Thanks for any ideas/thoughts from ceritified divers!

 

Find ya a good dive shop close to home and talk with them about getting certified. You maybe surprised and find that with training and control you may have no problem with clearing.

 

Maybe you forced things a bit too much the first dive and created some inflammation (easy to do when everything is so new), or prehaps you had a bit of sinus pressure that was exaccerbated by the first dive and then resulted in you being unable to clear. There are lots of possibilities.

 

If ya found it to be a recurring issue, then certainly getting things evaluated by an ENT maybe helpful. But I would give it a try again before I discounted diving. Just do it in a controlled environment with someone that can help you work thru the issue.

 

Good luck and have fun learning to dive!!!:D