Sea Sports in Belize

Hi there,

We believe we have decided to use Sea Sports in Belize for our dive excursion in Belize. We are now trying to decide between doing one dive at Hol Chan and then a snorkel with the rays and sharks OR a two-tank dive on the Belize barrier reef. If anyone has any recommendations we would really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks, cruzbound

I've done their two-tank dive on the barrier reef twice and loved it both times.

Here is a vote for Sea Sports. My DSs and I (12 & 15 at the time) dove with them last year. Great service, never felt rushed, and great diving! The dive master was great and really made friends with my two DS. Both of them had a great time.:)

Must admit that Belieze is the one dive excusion that we did with Carnival due to the tendering. But it was an awesome set of dives with groups of about 4 per DM. I really enjoyed it!

Just thought I would pass on the info. Good diving to you!!

I've done both Sea Sports and the cruise ship 2 tank excursion. They were both great except that Sea Sports got us back late after the last tender time. Fortunately there was a big line of people waiting for the tender so we didn't get left behind. They probably know this happens all the time and aren't too concerned if you get back a bit late. We were getting concerned but they assured us it wouldn't be a problem. The convenience of being pick up and dropped off at the ship by the ship excursion makes it much better to me. For sea sports you have to haul your gear a ways through a not so good area of town.

Belize is one of our favorite places and the last time we were there we took the water taxi out to Caye Caulker to snorkel with Mario. Be prepared to be on Island time ,because when we got there Mario had said he would be there to meet us and he wasn't ,but everyone knows him and they sent us back to his office. I don't know if he forgot we were coming but he took awhile to get things together ,which we felt did cut into our snorkeling time a little. He was trying to get another family who had been staying on the island to another island and we had to wait until he got everything organized. But it was beautiful ,really is a little piece of paradise. Ambergris Caye is another spot ,but is a little further away. You just have to watch the time.

Must admit that Belieze is the one dive excusion that we did with Carnival due to the tendering. But it was an awesome set of dives with groups of about 4 per DM. I really enjoyed it!

 

Just thought I would pass on the info. Good diving to you!!

We are thinking of doing a Dive on the next trip out and they have Turneffe Atoll currently listed as the dive - Was that the same one you did? Went on SB and the reviews indicated a big boat of 25 divers. What did you have on the excursion?

Thanks

We did the Carnival Turneffe Atoll dive trip in January. The DM with Seasports, who we dove with in December on our B2B, recommended that we do that one with the ship. Seasports can't pick you up at the ship and there boats are much smaller and slower.

There probably were about 20 divers on the boat, but because my boyfriend is a master instructor and I'm a DM in training, they let us go do our own thing and we had two great dives.

We really enjoyed our time with Seasports Belize - the only problem was seven divers, four of us were there right when they opened. The other three came later so we got to sit around waiting for them AND THEN two out of the three that came later forgot their dive cards on the cruise ship and Seasports tried to find their certification online and had no luck so then we had to wait for these two divers to do a mini-course for the dive guides so they could dive. Personally I think Seasports should have told them sorry but I am sure they wanted to keep their customers happy. I just had to keep reminding myself we were on island time and to relax. Out of the three ports we went to, I would rate the diving in Belize as third (which really surprised me because when we have snorkeled there it has bee great). Roatan was the best and Cozumel the second best. All in all, the dive guides were great and keep us entertained and the shop was awesome to deal with before the excursion (very informative).

We are thinking of doing a Dive on the next trip out and they have Turneffe Atoll currently listed as the dive - Was that the same one you did? Went on SB and the reviews indicated a big boat of 25 divers. What did you have on the excursion?

 

Thanks

I dove Belize through the ship last month. It was listed as Turneffe Atoll and the ship used Hank Parkeys. Although we were on a Norwegian ship, I think all of them use Hank Parkey for their scuba excursions.

We dove four groups of 7 off of one boat. We all dove from the same spot, only in different directions from the boat. They actually had 2 Norwegian cruise ships excursions on the same dive boat. It was pretty frustrating and kind of reminded me of Walmart at 5 o'clock underwater. Way too many people for my liking. And it was pretty much just 2 flat reef dives without much structure or fish, although there were admittedly nice sponges and vegetation.

For 150 bucks though, it paled in comparison to the 80 dollar dive in costa maya the day before.

Costa Maya pics

Compared to Belize

Oh, and the Costa Maya scuba was booked online through CostamayatoursDOTcom and it was just me and the divemaster. The people that booked costa maya through the ship, had their dives cancelled due to rough seas, but Gorge waited until after lunch and it calmed down enough for us to get our dives in. Bucanero del Caribe is a great dive operator.

Thanks for the information - it is pretty pricey and with the tendering we wanted to avoid going into port and scheduling our own. We have done Roatan and Cozumel and were looking forward to diving in Belize. Have some time to decide - anyone do West End Divers?

Seasports Belize is a topnotch dive operator, and if you decide to dive with them, I am sure you will be well taken care of. Because so much of your experience is dependent on factors like weather and visibility, I don't doubt others have had better luck than I have diving in the offshore reefs outside Belize City. Unfortunately, two times was enough for us - I wasn't too impressed with the dives. The last time we were on a cruise that called on Belize, we flew over to Ambergris Caye and went diving there instead. It was so much better for nearly the same cost, that I am taking my dive group there next year.

You can only make this work if you are in Belize at least till 5pm. It means heading over to shore on the first tender with security officers. But it's really not as much of a hassle as it sounds. The 500 ft low altitude 15 min flight is amazing, and not all that expensive - Tropic Air and Maya Air both go there from the municipal airport (5 min by cab from the tender pier) in Belize City. There are many dive operators there that will bundle the flight and diving for you, and pick you up at the airport. However, you can walk to most dive operators from the airport. And you will be back in time to have lunch on the island before you head back to Belize City.

This is but one more option to those who want to go diving in Belize.

Good Luck!

Suzi