new to diving and to cruising - any suggestions

[honeymoon heaven]

Hi everyone,

 

Not only am I new to diving, and somewhat to cruising (only cruised with my parents before - now i'm branching out), i'm also new to posting on cruise critic, so hope I do this right.

 

i am cruising with my soon to be husband august 23, 2008 on the Glory. We were certified last summer and only have done pool/lake dives. I have looked at booking off the ship as well as on the ship. We would like to dive in Roatan for sure. I also wanted to dive in Freeport, but have found very few review, and there is no dive through the ship?

 

So my questions are the following:

 

As new divers/cruisers would it be better to book through Carnival for Roatan?

 

Will the ship's excursion likely be very busy in august or not so much?

 

Does anyone know the maximum number that Carnival has going at a time (per dive master)?

 

Anyone had experiences with diving in Freeport? Especially with Karen from Sunnodyssey.com?

 

Would we be better off snorkeling in Freeport and if so should we do a ship or independent excursion?

 

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Thanks

[cruzegirl]

Hi everyone,

 

Not only am I new to diving, and somewhat to cruising (only cruised with my parents before - now i'm branching out), i'm also new to posting on cruise critic, so hope I do this right.

 

i am cruising with my soon to be husband august 23, 2008 on the Glory. We were certified last summer and only have done pool/lake dives. I have looked at booking off the ship as well as on the ship. We would like to dive in Roatan for sure. I also wanted to dive in Freeport, but have found very few review, and there is no dive through the ship?

 

So my questions are the following:

 

As new divers/cruisers would it be better to book through Carnival for Roatan?

 

Will the ship's excursion likely be very busy in august or not so much?

 

Does anyone know the maximum number that Carnival has going at a time (per dive master)?

 

Anyone had experiences with diving in Freeport? Especially with Karen from Sunnodyssey.com?

 

Would we be better off snorkeling in Freeport and if so should we do a ship or independent excursion?

 

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Thanks

 

Hi HH,

Welcome to CC and good job on posting. And congrats on your engagement and impending wedding......:D

 

What are all the ports your going to?? Wondering if there might be better diving ports that Freeport. I have not been but have heard it's not as nice as other areas.

As far as diving from the ship or private excursions, it's toss up. When I first got cert. in 2005, I went to Hawaii on a ship. I was a intermediate cruiser but a newer diver. I booked the ships excursion in Maui. It was with LaHaina divers. While I like them alot as a dive shop and would recommend them and use them again, as a cruise ship excursion, it was nuts. Too many people, too many mixed levels. They had beginners with snorklers and adv. divers. And mainly the dive spots were chosen based on the newbies. So those of us with more experience were bored and it wasn't that great of dives. I can say that now as I have more dives under my belt. At the time I didn't want to admit it was dull.....lol......

But also, you have the comfort in using a cruise ships dive excursions that the dive shop WILL be on time in getting you back to the ship. And if they are late, they have to wait or make arrangements to get you to the ship. That is worth alot in comfort.

You might check with the dive shop in Roatan. Find out what time the dive would be in relation to how long you'll be in the port. If your dive is in the morning and your there until 5 or 6 p.m., I would go with a private excursion. The other benefit of a private excursion is that you "usually" have a smaller group and it can be arranged to your level of diving and comfort.

[3boyzmom]

My understanding is that Carnival uses Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan for their dive operator. If so, they are a well-respected dive op, and you should have a great time.

 

We have booked dives through the ship, and independently, and it depends more on who the cruiseline uses than it does that it's independent vs. cruiseline. You could ask the excursions desk if the snorkelers are on the same excursion- though I haven't seen that before.

 

While we were in Tortola, we booked independently. While everything worked out just fine, our excursion was running late- we were the last remaining boat at the dive site. The crew was just kinda' lax when it came to timelines (which, by the way, is common in the Caribbean- they call it "island time.") I was VERY nervous we wouldn't get back in time. If I had booked through the ship, this would never have been a consideration.

 

Have fun!

[rsldonk]

I booked through Carnival mostly because at the time I didn't have a lot of my own gear like regulators and a BC, and that was included in their price. I thought it was pretty good as far as the diving both in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Both operations ran fairly well and we had enough time for some shopping and stuff when we were done diving.

 

Booking independent, just check what's included for the price. If you have to get a lot of equipment, it may not be any cheaper than what you would have with the cruise line, which is what I found. Also, because of when ships get into port, at least in our case in Grand Cayman, a lot of independent shops would not work with our schedule as their scheduled dives left before we even got into port.

 

As for either place, my buddy just got back from Roatan and love it. Said it was second only to Fiji for places he's been.

[gmcrow]

We like Las Rocas on Roatan. They will pick you up, the group will be small, and you get really personal attention.

http://www.cruisedivers.blogpost.com

[bruce-r]

As for either place, my buddy just got back from Roatan and love it. Said it was second only to Fiji for places he's been.

Fiji diving is so much better than any diving I've done anywhere in the Caribbean. You can't really fairly compare Fiji diving to the Caribbean.

[scubadiver888]

Welcome to CruiseCritic,

 

I, personally, go on vacation to relax. If you don't book through the ship you risk the ship leaving without you, the dive op might cancel if they don't have enough divers, it could be worse than the ship excursion.

 

As a new diver I was happy with the dive excursions the ship provided. They were new and interesting. I didn't have to worry about being the only novice, pain in the *ss diver. The ship would wait for me if the excursion was late. It was very relaxing.

 

If you have never been to these ports, you might find the dive operators cannot pick you up at the dock (security issues) so you need to get a cab to the dive shop. Plus you have to arrange a cab back to the boat.

 

The ship has rules the dive operators must stick to or they lose the contract. They cannot have too many divers to dive master, they have to keep it safe. If you book privately they might assign 12 divers to one DM or they might take you out in rough seas.

 

You can call Carnival to confirm this but I believe Anthony Keys Resorts will handle the dives in Roatan. They are a good dive op. I'd dive with them.

 

I don't know how busy the dive excursions will be in august but what they will do is split you into multiple groups. That is, if there are 16 divers, they will contract two dive trips at the same time (the people the ship contracts tend to have multiple dive boats). So you would be on a boat with 7 other divers and 8 divers would be on a different boat.

 

I don't know what Carnival's rules are for how many divers to DM but you can call them and ask. I'm sure Carnival would be happy to let you know.

 

Darrell

[honeymoon heaven]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I did decide to go through Carnival this time. I think it will be better if i'm not worrying about getting back to the ship the whole time. Next time we cruise I'll try and book independently depending on our experience in August.

 

Thanks!

[Dgonza]

I have always booked independently and have never had a problem. Not even a close call. I typcially find it cheaper to book my own excursions rather than use the ships excursions.