How do you arrange Scuba Dives?

[Waterskier1]

I just got an email from HAL, cancelling their only sucba dive offered on a 10-day Panama Canal cruise. They said they will no longer be offering certified scuba dives. I had previously sent email requests to about 8-10 Dive operations on Aruba, requesting info on a Saturday afternoon dive (the ship doesn't arrive until 1:00 PM) and have only received 2 responses, one saying they don't have any Saturday afternoon dives. I didn't think it would be this hard to find a certified diver excursion in the Caribbean. On my previous cruises, I had no problems finding excursions. Have things changed in the cruiseline scuba arena in the last year?

[cal2632]

The late arrival time could be a problem. Did you try Pelican in Aruba?

[Capt_BJ]

The late arrival time could be a problem. Did you try Pelican in Aruba?

 

Concur - most scheduled afternoon trips are going to leave 1ish, not unique to Aruba...and you'll miss it. Unfortunetly I'm not aware of any decent shore dives in Aruba - all mine were from a boat. But in some places, a good shore option provides the schedule flex'bility u need.....

 

Sorry 'bout that

[Jacqueline]

Well.once you google or reseach all the options there is not much to do other than find another excursion. or better yet spend the day onboard.

I have dived once and sat out once at Aruba. Not sure about this coming year...

Frankly, I found the dive site to be to crowded there ! Every boat seems to go to the same wreck.

[Waterskier1]

Yes, I could stay on the ship, or find another non-diving excursion, but the point of this cruise was to go scuba diving. If they had told me that there were going to be no scuba tours before I purchased this cruise, I would have going to a different cruiseline. I never dreamed they would do this.

 

I also find it quite disturbing that only 3 of the 12 scuba operators I sent email to bothered to answer. I resent email to those other 9 just in case they didn't get the first. I'll choose some sort of scuba trip, but the main point of this was to let others know about HAL, and also to see if anyone had recommendations in contacting a reliable operator.

 

Thanks to all to responded.

[Jacqueline]

My guess is what others have said...the arrival time doesn't coincide with the one o'clock departure of almost all dive boats everywhere.

Can you find any other divers on your sailing thru your roll call ? Perhaps you could charter something.

I didn't mean to seem unsympathetic. I would be dissapointed also. Someday we should all just go on a liveaboard...

[SantaAna,CA]

Hi! Not sure if this will help, but on my April Caribbean cruise with Seabourn, I went online ahead of time and found scuba shops in all the ports I was going to visit and contacted them, making reservations ahead of time. Word to the wise: there is a Marigot in both St. Martin and St. Lucia; I stupidly didn't notice and waited on the dock in St. Martin for a boat that was on another island *rolling eyeballs*.

 

I am about to embark on another cruise, southern Caribbean this time, and I've also made dive reservations online. And this time I DO get to St. Lucia!

 

Best wishes,

 

Jane :)

[Waterskier1]

Hi all, and thanks for all the responses. I have booked a 1-Tank dive with Searuba for the afternoon I arrive in Aruba. They will try to fit in a 2-Tank dive for me, depending on logistics. No one offered an afternoon and night dive. It is hard to get an afternoon dive in, when the ship doesn't arrive until 1:00 PM and it's also on a Saturday. I didn't realize that many dive shops take the weekends off, or just work in their retail stores and don't do diving on weekends.

 

Of course, there is no way to book outside the cruiseline on Half Moon Cay, since that is their private island.

 

Also, I had to send a second notice to 8 of the 10 operators on Aruba, and then I still never got a response from 4. I don't know if they were booked, don't work weekends, weren't looking to schedule a single scuba diver, or what, but they didn't bother to respond. And a couple of them were highly rated in a scuba dive web site. Maybe they aren't looking for Cruise ship clients, but rather week long visitors who will be taking several dive with them.