Diving Roatan or Belize

[Monalis]

We are going on the NCL Dawn in December and plan in diving at just one of our ports. If you had to just pick one, which would you chose and would you prefer a private tour or go through the ship excursions (which is what we normally do)?

 

Some background: Both the husband and I have been certified for years, we have dove in Cozumel too many times, Grand Cayman a few times, Bimini once, and mostly out of Destin FL. Our ports for this cruise include Cozumel, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya. We have and normally bring most of our own gear, but with bringing 3 kids (and their parents) along this time we may have to leave most of the gear at home.

 

So what would you suggest?

[Laurie S.]

I've dived both places several times and I would go with Roatan. It's just a bit better than Belize. Definitely use a private operator. My favorite is Subway Watersports (best buy), but I also like Barefoot Divers and Bananarama.

[pamawi]

I prefer Roatan over Belize, but the cruise dive operator Anthony's Key Resort is top knotch. I went private once with Subway and they were good, but AKR is too. I have used them 4 times, and this past Christmas cruise I did their dolphin dive. There were only 4 divers on the boat.

[cruzbound]

Another one for Roatan. Great diving. We used Bananarama and the were excellent.

 

Happy diving!!!

[pamawi]

One good thing about diving in Belize with the ship is avoiding the long tender ride and long lines for the tender on shore because the dive boat picks you up and drops you off at the ship.

[Laurie S.]

That's only if you use the cruise ship excursion, which we did once to go to Teneriffe Atoll. The other times we used Seasports Belize and you have to walk about four blocks to their shop. I highly recommend them for diving.

[Monalis]

Thanks everyone... I think we've decided to go with Anthony's in Roatan. Mainly because we feel a bit better going with the cruise excursion (getting back on time) and we never did get to see the port area of Belize last time, our excursion went from the time we left till after we were suppose to be back.

 

Looking at Anthony's page actually gave us the idea to stay with them for our next vacation.

[pamawi]

I hope to go stay in Roatan for a week also and assumed I would want to stay at AKR but now leaning more towards Cocoview because of all the shore diving they are known for. You might want to compare them both. Both will send you a DVD and information packet.

 

If you don't have plans for Belize yet, cave tubing is popular and the ruins there can still be climbed last I heard from friends that did it a couple of years ago.

 

Laurie I am guessing you have had some bad cruise dive excursions the way you always steer people away from the ship dive excursions. I have used several of your private recommendations and were happy with them but have never been unhappy with the cruise dive excursions. Maybe I'm just not that picky and I'm willing to pay a little more for the convenience and piece of mind that the cruise dive excursions offer me. The cruise ship dive boats haven't been too crowded for me either but that may be due to when I travel and because you have talked most people into going private, so keep it up please.

[Laurie S.]

I've had a couple good ship's dives, but for the most part they were overcrowded and cost more. My fiance and I prefer private operators because it has always been a better experience and we have been allowed to go dive on our own (he's an MSDT and I'm a DM about to begin Instructor training). We don't have to surface when the airhogs run out of air and we can dive our own plan. Plus, as an underwater photographer, it is so much better to be away from a group.

 

I would say that if you're a new or beginner diver, you might be better off with a ship's excursion. But, again, not necessarily true in all cases.

[Laurie S.]

I wanted to add that I've had the very best and the very worst in cruise ship diving. The very best I've had was at Dreamtime in Costa Maya when I had the huge total of seven dives in my log. The DM was wonderful and he went as my buddy. There were four other divers with us. I was very upfront with my experience and he gave me the instructions that I needed on how to do a backroll and a drift dive for the first time. I had two great dives just because of him.

 

On that same cruise, I had one of the worst experiences at Don Foster's in Grand Cayman where they loaded more than 30 divers on the boat. They told me at the counter when I checked in that we would be going down to 80 feet. I expressed concern since I only was OW and had 11 dives at that point. The owner's comment was, "Oh, you're certified, so you can go that deep." Yeah, right. Well, I ended up going to 85 feet and had no problem, but there were way too many divers for being that deep and having several beginners with us.

 

So, you roll the dice and hope you get a good operation when you accept the ship's excursion. The absolute worst we ever had was in Grand Turk with Oasis Divers. We went with them because we had an early departure and they were less expensive than the private operator. They were absolutely horrible, and about 10 days later, they were responsible for the death of a Discover Scuba student in their care. We weren't surprised when we heard that news.

 

I also can recommend the Teneriffe Atoll ship's dive in Belize. We did that one because the DM from Seasports Belize even recommended it due to the distance involved. SB's panga would have taken way too long for the roundtrip.

 

We're doing another ship's dive in Puerto Vallarta in a couple weeks. We have to, because the arrival time of our ship doesn't allow us to use the private operators. But, it sounds like it will be a good dive.

[pamawi]

Glad we have this tool and SB to research the dive ops. I'm sure someone with your level of experience is going to seek out the op that gives you the max bottom time. I have average SAC rate but often dive with less experienced buddies and inta-buddies that have to surface sooner so that has never been an issue for me. The main thing that would draw me to a private op is the ability to spend some time at their resort to enjoy their beach and restaurant but often there isn't time for that anyway especially if a long drive is involved. I think I have read that Banarama in Roatan does that but not sure. If so I might try them next time to see some dive sites on a different part of the island.

[Monalis]

We usually go with the cruise excursions, simply because we thankfully haven't had a "bad" experience yet. We've had some not so great ones, but we are fairly laid back and I don't have a bunch of dives under my belt. I just want to get in the water and see pretty and interesting things. We only get to dive once a year or so now a days, so we make the most of it.

 

We also go on cruises during the way off season.. the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so there really aren't alot of us diving. Our last dive we got really lucky and our dive operator hand picked 6 of us out of the 20+ that were diving and we went off on our own and let us dive where we wanted to. (probably because we all brought most of our own equipment and had more experience than the other divers and all 6 of us had dove Cozumel numerous times)

 

We like the security of booking through the ship since every dive we have gone on has gotten us back to the ship *after* we were suppose to onboard. This time especially since we'll be sailing with family and not alone.

[Laurie S.]

Bananarama is great, if you're looking for beach time. You walk off the beach to get in their boat, and then the surface interval is at the beach, and it's a really nice beach. There is at least one restaurant there, too.

[wantocruisemore]

I can agree that Bananarama is a great beach. Clear water, soft sand, sandy bottom. There's no good place to snorkel on beach but do have boats to take you out. Also, in alternative could walk down toward tabyana and iguana wall where people snorkel from shore. Just watch out for boats.

[Capt_BJ]

I hope to go stay in Roatan for a week also and assumed I would want to stay at AKR but now leaning more towards Cocoview because of all the shore diving they are known for. You might want to compare them both.

 

If you are going for a week of diving on Roatan I HIGHLY recommend CocoView. You won't see much mention of them here because they do not entertain day visitors ... nor run ship excursions. They are an island off the island ... you fly to Roatan and then take a boat out to CocoView. dd was a summer intern there last summer - under water research under auspice of University of 'Bama and sponsored by CocoView .. 6 weeks diving 4 to 6 times each day. Nice people, GREAT shore diving in addition to the boat trips ....

 

these are shore dive pic's

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2014 by Capt_BJ

[pamawi]

I just noticed you are from Montgomery. So am I. This is Pam Williamson. Do I know you? Did you get certified thru Adv Sports?

[bowbiter]

Belize is my absolute favorite dive spot. I've done the fly and dive twice to Ambergris Caye through Aqua Scuba in San Pedro. You typically do one reef five and one nurse shark dive. This past November we saw sea turtles, moorey eels, lion fish, etc. The flight over is very scenic as well.

 

I have also gone diving in roatan with bananarama. That was nice but Belize us better.

 

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[pamawi]

How did the timing work out flying in addition to tender rides and a 2 tank trip? I did a regular 2 tank from Seasports Belize and didn't make it back in time, but fortunately there was still a long tender line, so I didn't get left by the ship.

[Monalis]

I just noticed you are from Montgomery. So am I. This is Pam Williamson. Do I know you? Did you get certified thru Adv Sports?

 

Well I actually live a little bit east of Montgomery, and your name doesn't ring any bells. I actually got my cert between 2 places, my classes at Divers Supply in Macon GA and did my Open Water dives through Emerald Coast Scuba in Destin FL. Though we do, do some shopping at Adv Sports.

[bowbiter]

How did the timing work out flying in addition to tender rides and a 2 tank trip? I did a regular 2 tank from Seasports Belize and didn't make it back in time, but fortunately there was still a long tender line, so I didn't get left by the ship.

 

This past year we had a 930am flight (arrived at 8) and 330 return flight (last tender at 5) and were fine. Had lunch over there too. The year before that we took the 1030 flight and 230 (4pm last tender) return. That was a bit tighter but we left an hour later than expected because the person I went with did not follow me off the ship like he was supposed to (and got stuck in the tender line). And that time we booked through ecobelize (vs direct through aquascuba) and they forgot to pick us up from the airport. We ended up waiting a while and getting to port at 4 but the long line saved us. Still had time to buy Momo's chocolate too :)

 

The municipal airstrip is only 5-10 min away from the port and flight is about 20 min. The flight doesn't go high so it isn't a risk w diving.

 

I have always been able to get tender tickets for boat 1 (after NCL stuff). Just get in line early. Sometimes they actually start giving away the tickets earlier than announced. Although next time I can just use priority tender status.

 

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Edited February 1, 2014 by bowbiter

[bowbiter]

Oh and dive sites for aqua scuba are oblly a 5-10 min boat ride away from the shop. I would guess the one near the cruise port would have to travel further. Surface time is spent near the shop.

 

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[taymiss2]

You all sound knowledgeable about diving in roatan so would like your opinion. We will be in Roatan in March during a cruise. My 16 year old daughter and her 16 year old friend took scuba as their P.E. class last semester. They did their open water dive in a lake and got certified in October. They definitely want to Scuba during our cruise I am trying to figure out the safest, most professional dive shop for them to use in Roatan. I called the instructor who taught their Scuba class. She recommended Anthony's Key or infinity. If we go with AK we can only book through the cruiseline. It is 149 through NCL. So much more expensive than booking directly some where else. If AK is the safest way to go I will pay every penny but if Infinity, BananaRama etc are equally professional I would rather not do a ship excursion.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Sorry if I hijacked this thread. :)

Edited February 4, 2014 by taymiss2

[Armedaneian]

I can agree that Bananarama is a great beach. Clear water, soft sand, sandy bottom. There's no good place to snorkel on beach but do have boats to take you out. Also, in alternative could walk down toward tabyana and iguana wall where people snorkel from shore. Just watch out for boats.

 

That's funny... I go to Bananarama because it has such good snorkeling right from the beach! Whether you walk to the other side of the water-taxi dock, or just hop right in, West Bay Beach has awesome from-shore snorkeling! :cool:

[SunSoakedSeahawk]

Anyone on here experienced the Shark Dive in Roatan? I am very interested but it seems rather mixed reviews. I contacted them directly and they are open to cruise divers but I am still leery. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Worst case I will probably just book the 2 tank dive with Carnival out of Belize.

[cruzbound]

taymiss2,

We used Bananarama for diving about three years ago and they were great and very safety conscious. We were with our friend who like to wander off a bit and the instructor was very aware of this and would keep and eye on him and reign him back in. They were very good and I am sure they will take care of your daughter and her friend.

 

Have fun!

 

cruzbound