dive excursions

Anyone know, on average how many divers are on a carnival sponsored cruise?

Some cruise itineraries are more dive friendly than others. So numbers will vary depending upon where you go and port times. But as generalization...not too many divers compared to the number of folks on each cruise.

At the time of year we cruise-usually May and the week after thanksgiving, there are very few divers on board. If we use the ships excursions it is usually only 4-5 max. Except for Roatan, where the ships excursion always seems full.

I am sure there are more divers at busier times of the year. I just haven't seen it myself.

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If i remember correctly, the last time I dove Cozumel, there were 2 groups of 6. Very nice dive.:)

DH just went diving in GT and it was 6 divers total.

Maybe they have changed things since the last time I booked a dive via Carnival, but last time I visited GT there were at least 20 people on the dive boat. Ugh!

We used the Carnival dive excursion in Belize because of logisitics. There were 25-30 people. They were 2 of the worst dives I have ever been on. Last trip to the Western Caribbean we skipped diving in Belize because of our horrible experience!!!

We do about 50-50 on ship vs independent dive ops.

From recent cruise dives through the ship:

GT - 3 divers

Freeport - 5 divers

DR- 4 divers

Roatan - 15 split between 2 DMs

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Ok :( We'll be in Belize on 1/1/15 .... having a hard time finding a dive shop open that day, and we were looking at doing a carnival sponsored dive. I've heard they aren't that great, so we may look at doing something else!

Thanks all!

We used the Carnival dive excursion in Belize because of logisitics. There were 25-30 people. They were 2 of the worst dives I have ever been on. Last trip to the Western Caribbean we skipped diving in Belize because of our horrible experience!!!

I've heard that Belize is supposed to be one of the best dive locations on the planet, but it looks like it's awkward to get to from a cruise (since you have to take a small plane to the dive sites) so I understand wanting to book with the cruise line to make sure you get back in time.

Did something happen or did you not care for the people running the excursion or was it the travel involved? Just curious, one of my cruises next year is going there and I wanted to dive but........

I've heard that Belize is supposed to be one of the best dive locations on the planet, but it looks like it's awkward to get to from a cruise (since you have to take a small plane to the dive sites) so I understand wanting to book with the cruise line to make sure you get back in time.

 

Did something happen or did you not care for the people running the excursion or was it the travel involved? Just curious, one of my cruises next year is going there and I wanted to dive but........

From all my research Belize is an amazing place to dive. Sadly most cruise trips can't make it to the really good spots. Even some of the dive shops I contacted said they can't reach the good spots with cruise ship passengers. We are diving off ship excursions in Roatan (sun divers) and Cozumel we will be using Allison.

I've heard that Belize is supposed to be one of the best dive locations on the planet, but it looks like it's awkward to get to from a cruise (since you have to take a small plane to the dive sites) so I understand wanting to book with the cruise line to make sure you get back in time.

 

Did something happen or did you not care for the people running the excursion or was it the travel involved? Just curious, one of my cruises next year is going there and I wanted to dive but........

The dive sites Hugh Parkey's, the company the cruise ships use, take you to are not very good. Grand Cayman and Cozumel were better. We did not dive with the ship in these locations.

From all my research Belize is an amazing place to dive. Sadly most cruise trips can't make it to the really good spots. Even some of the dive shops I contacted said they can't reach the good spots with cruise ship passengers. We are diving off ship excursions in Roatan (sun divers) and Cozumel we will be using Allison.

Allison is absolutely the best!!!

Anyone know, on average how many divers are on a carnival sponsored cruise?

The only Carnival dive excursion we have been on was in Belize. There was 23 divers split in 3 groups. Did not enjoy the dive at all. Way too crowded and sites were pretty bad.

Thanks to everyone for the information. Sounds like I need to book with Allison in Cozumel and skip diving Belize until it's my non-cruise vacation destination :)

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I've heard that Belize is supposed to be one of the best dive locations on the planet, but it looks like it's awkward to get to from a cruise (since you have to take a small plane to the dive sites) so I understand wanting to book with the cruise line to make sure you get back in time.

 

Did something happen or did you not care for the people running the excursion or was it the travel involved? Just curious, one of my cruises next year is going there and I wanted to dive but........

Inexperienced divers - one diver was not paying attention, nearly slammed me very hard into the bottom. Hugh Parkey's who is the dive op for cruise ships does not take you to the best dive sites because of time. Cozumel was far superior. People knocking over barrel sponges. Using dive knives to cut coral. It was very disappointing. Made me realize why reefs are dying. Also, thought that based on the level of experience of the divers they were taking people too deep without paying attention to time.