Roatan Diving

[mrs. z]

DH is going to be doing a 2 tank dive thru Carnival in November with Pristine Bay Resort. Not much information is found. Has anyone dove with them and if so how was it? Thanks.

[Lefty Writer]

Strictly out of curiosity, why are y'all using a ship sponsored dive excursion instead of a private dive op? We prefer using private dive operators so we don't get stuck on a cattle boat. We used Subway Watersports the last December in Roatan and they were OK. I'm looking at either Bananarama or Barefoot Divers for our November trip, mainly because several of our dive club members said they were top notch dive ops.

[Middleager]

DH is going to be doing a 2 tank dive thru Carnival in November with Pristine Bay Resort. Not much information is found. Has anyone dove with them and if so how was it? Thanks.

I thought Carnival uses Anthony Keys Resort, which has received rave reviews. Don't know about this Pristine Bay Resort.

[Middleager]

Strictly out of curiosity, why are y'all using a ship sponsored dive excursion instead of a private dive op? We prefer using private dive operators so we don't get stuck on a cattle boat. We used Subway Watersports the last December in Roatan and they were OK. I'm looking at either Bananarama or Barefoot Divers for our November trip, mainly because several of our dive club members said they were top notch dive ops.

 

There are times it make sense to use ship sponsored trips. For example, in Belize, Hugh Parkey comes to the ship to get you, instead of you needing to take the long tender.

 

In Grand Turk, we didn't do the ship's excursion. Then I found out all 3 dive ops are on the same street, and they take turns being the ship's excursion op, depending on the line. The price actually comes out better when considering the cost of transportation. Next time I'll take the ship's excursion.

 

In Aruba, the ship's op also comes out cheaper, and when I used it, it was pretty good. We did go to the Atila wreck.

 

So after those experiences, I won't limit myself to not taking the ship's excursions, especially when it works out cheaper.

[Lefty Writer]

All good points, Middleager. I guess I'm just leery of getting on a cattle boat. We like private dive operators for the smaller number of divers. On many occasions, and I realize this was more luck than anything, my wife and I ended up being the only clients on the dive boat.

 

We also pay attention to total price, and if it's close, we'll go with a private operator when possible.

 

Yeah, it's a lonnnnng tender ride in Belize, but we were lucky enough to have FTTF with Carnival last time (and this upcoming time as well), so that's not an issue. We used Sea Sports Belize and loved 'em. We're gonna use them again in November.

[Laurie S.]

I've used Bananarama, Barefoot Divers, and Subway in Roatan. I prefer Subway because there is no charge for transportation, which makes it $20 cheaper than Barefoot. We also were allowed to go off and dive on our own, which Barefoot won't do. I liked Bananarama, but it's a long way there and on our way back the car broke down. The driver flagged down a taxi with other passengers in it and it was a LONG time back to the ship. I was getting very worried about missing the ship when the taxi driver started cruising and checking out the local hookers. Even one of the locals in the cab yelled at him.

[Lefty Writer]

I've used Bananarama, Barefoot Divers, and Subway in Roatan. I prefer Subway because there is no charge for transportation, which makes it $20 cheaper than Barefoot. We also were allowed to go off and dive on our own, which Barefoot won't do. I liked Bananarama, but it's a long way there and on our way back the car broke down. The driver flagged down a taxi with other passengers in it and it was a LONG time back to the ship. I was getting very worried about missing the ship when the taxi driver started cruising and checking out the local hookers. Even one of the locals in the cab yelled at him.

 

Wow, that makes me want to re-think about using Subway again. While we didn't have any specific negatives about them from our previous experience, they just seemed to be pretty disorganized. Several of our club members have used both Bananarama and Barefoot, so that's why I was considering them. I may just book with Subway again.

 

Hhhhmmmm......

 

:confused:

[Laurie S.]

We dove with them on two occasions on our B2B, and it was great both times. The reason we were allowed to go off on our own is that my fiance is an MSDT and I'm a DM.

[scorpluvsdolphins]

It costs more to dive privately in Roatan. I rarely use the ships excursion for obvious reasons.

But RCCL docks in Coxen which means $40 round trip and the time won't work for two dives. We get there at 10 and the dive is at 10:30 with a 25 minute drive. Next dive at 2:30. Since I am by myself it looks like I won't have an option.

Oh well. I would rather have a cattle boat dive than no dive at all.

:-(

 

 

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