RCCL dive belize & roatan through ship review anyone?

I would to hear any reviews of using the ship scuba excursions to Belize & Roatan.

we would normally use private but we carry some of our own gear so getting picked up at the ship in Belize sounds so much easier they tendering it all.

Roatan sounds like long drive & costs add up.

So really looking for what divers think??

Can't say for Belize, but in Roatan it's one place where the ship excursion is nothing to worry about, and has some advantages. Most of the lines (Certainly RCL, Celebrity and NCL) use Anthony's Key Resort. You cannot book dives there yourself, as they only do the cruise line bookings or their own guests. They have first rate DMs, service and equipment, and the diving is very good. The drive is about 20-30 minutes, and of course the ship's excursion includes this.

Harris

Denver, CO

I have read several recommendations for Barefoot Bay at Roatan. My daughter and son-in-law dove with them today so I'll report back when they return from their cruise.

I have scuba dived in Belize many times when NOT on a cruise and it was fantastic. Last March I was with a bunch of non-divers so we took the ship's snorkeling trip. Yes, we were picked up right at the ship, but you could not have squeezed one more person on the boat, it was so packed. As a result I'm really hesitant to try the ship's scuba diving excursion when I'm there in December. I will probably try Sea Sports Belize.

Actually, my daughter and son-in-law used Subway Watersports in Roatan earlier this month and had a fantastic experience. They have a dedicated dive boat for cruise ships, and since they were the only two divers, it was just them and the divemaster! They take a max of 10. They were really pleased with the company.

Definitely take the ship's excursion in Belize. They use Hugh Parkey, a very professional operation with big boats. They will divide you into a group of 6 by experience. We dove with Daniel and had a great time! It's just so much easier than messing with the tendering because they do pick you up at the ship. We also carry our own gear and have used Hugh Parkey many times. The dives tend to be a bit shorter (40-45 min) but the sites are good. Last time our group was mostly very experienced so we squeezed 55 minutes out of each dive.

Roatan we really liked Barefoot divers -- 10 minutes from Mahogany Bay. We were the only two on the boat with two dive masters and the captain. Needless to say it was awesome! We used Subway last fall and weren't as impressed, mainly because the sites had very few fish and it took a while to get to their shop. Plus, they were quite expensive in our opinion. If you are arriving in Coxen Hole in Roatan then one of the West End dive shops are an option as well. We have used the ship's excursion here (Anthony Keys) but we much prefer our own operator at this port. The dives were short and unimpressive IMHO.

Thank you for the review. That is what I've been waiting for. One it seemed easier using the ship's excursion in Belize as we also have our own gear and didn't want to deal with the tendering. So happy to hear that the dive went well.

Planning on taking the Roatan dive excursion but may have to think on changing to private.:rolleyes:

Thank you for the review. That is what I've been waiting for. One it seemed easier using the ship's excursion in Belize as we also have our own gear and didn't want to deal with the tendering. So happy to hear that the dive went well.

Planning on taking the Roatan dive excursion but may have to think on changing to private.:rolleyes:

One time we dove with the ship operator in Belize and it was great...professional crew, nice times, etc.

The last time we went it was a mess. The boat was packed. They attempted to divide folks by experience but it just didn't go well. Our group was the experienced group and we had one guy floating off like a kite with the poor DM having to drag him along. Luckily the hubby and I could spare some weight and the DM was able to somewhat keep him in check with the addit poundage.

Folks just seemed to be everywhere...we finally just became content tooling around under the boat looking at lots of cool little things while he delt with the mess.

So for us we are considering going with on of the land based operators if we end up cruising back to Belize. For now we have just tried to find differnt ports.

Sorry its not clearcut. If you had asked me a year or so ago, I would have said no brainer...go with the ship...but with the cost of that dive and the last experience :rolleyes: it might be worth going elsewhere...

there are good recommendations on here from folks that have done that...just really depends on your time in port.

Definitely take the ship's excursion in Belize. They use Hugh Parkey, a very professional operation with big boats. They will divide you into a group of 6 by experience. We dove with Daniel and had a great time! It's just so much easier than messing with the tendering because they do pick you up at the ship. We also carry our own gear and have used Hugh Parkey many times. The dives tend to be a bit shorter (40-45 min) but the sites are good. Last time our group was mostly very experienced so we squeezed 55 minutes out of each dive.

 

Roatan we really liked Barefoot divers -- 10 minutes from Mahogany Bay. We were the only two on the boat with two dive masters and the captain. Needless to say it was awesome! We used Subway last fall and weren't as impressed, mainly because the sites had very few fish and it took a while to get to their shop. Plus, they were quite expensive in our opinion. If you are arriving in Coxen Hole in Roatan then one of the West End dive shops are an option as well. We have used the ship's excursion here (Anthony Keys) but we much prefer our own operator at this port. The dives were short and unimpressive IMHO.

Subway is charging me $90 for two dives including transportation to and from the port. What does Barefoot charge?

As promised, a review of Subway Watersports scuba diving in Roatan: I was the only diver and was picked up at the ship in a van which took 40 minutes to get to their shop on the north shore. The van's driver was also the divemaster, who had just been certified a DM. The two of us took a five minute ride to the reef, and entered the water in a very strong current. He took off and I followed him, but the current was a real pain and I saw almost no fish. He never turned around to see how I was doing and finally I was able to catch up to him and point to the surface. I told him I was not enjoying swimming against the current and he said, "Yeah, it's really strong, we should have done a drift dive but it's too late for that." I said I was not fighting the current, I wasn't seeing much fish life or coral, and we needed to head back. We did, and still saw little along the way. For the second dive, we went through an amazing cavern in the reef - I mean into and along the inside of the reef for about 100 yards - which almost made up for the first dive. But I will not be using them again. Obviously that is not the best part of the reef.

I dive with the crew ship in Rotan.

I will not pay the hundred and $61 to dive in Belize with the crew ship

I'm trying to set up see sports Belize to see if I can dive in December with them.

If not I will get a private excursion maybe the cave tubing.

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I dive with the crew ship in Rotan.

I will not pay the hundred and $61 to dive in Belize with the crew ship

I'm trying to set up see sports Belize to see if I can dive in December with them.

If not I will get a private excursion maybe the cave tubing.

We used Sea Sports in Belize last year and had a couple of great dives. Small boat with 5 divers and one DM. Nice lunch provided during surface interval.

We dove with Anthony Key in Roatan off of the ship one time. The dives had a lot of coral, but few fish on that side. The last two times we went with Fantasy Island and Sun divers both of which were a much better experience than Anthony Key.

A nice thing about Fantasy Island is that you can do shore dives off of their gazebo to the Prince Albert wreck and the wall near the Coco View resort. This is important for new divers who may not be ready for more demanding dives.

On the last trip when we used Sun Divers, they actually repositioned their boat on the south side of the island as the sea conditions were rough on the north side by Anthony Key. According to one of our fellow passengers who did the Anthony Key excursion with the cruise ship said they were subjected to very rough conditions on that side of the island.

We've done Hugh Parkeys a couple of times off of the cruise ship and have found them to be ok. They actually brought the boat back to the resort between dives because one of the divers became seasick. One curious thing about their cruise ship excursion is the difference in price. Princess was charging 199 while Norweigan was only 119. Royal Caribbean was somewhere between.

For Belize, a few years ago we arranged an excursion that had us getting picked up at the port, to airport and flew to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. Had great diving/snorkeling there. It was cheaper than the cruise ship dive/snorkeling.

This part Aug. we went for cave-tubing and zipline in Belize and really enjoyed that too.

For Roatan, have heard good diving with ship's excursion using Anthony Key. The one problem was that you go to the resort only for the dives. As soon as the 2nd dive is finished, they bus you back to the ship.

We arranged privately with Maya Divers at the Maya Princess Resort. Got picked up at port, to the resort. Went to great diving. Lots of fish and healthy coral. More fish than anywhere else we dove (and we dove in many places). No big fish, but lots of small/medium fish. My daughter and I were the 2 divers, and my wife/son the 2 snorkelers.

We saw a lot of turtles, each with a few fish just under it. Forgot what they were called.

After the dives we could stay at the resort and lazy around at the beach for a few hours, before riding back to the ship. On the way, we passed the entrance to the big/long zipline ops (longer than those near the ship). We could've also go to ziplining, but decided we'll just enjoy the beach as we had ziplined in Belize already.

We'd do that again with Maya Divers. The ability to enjoy the beach rather than being herded right back to ship, was important for us.

Roatan--Anthony Key Resort and Belize--Hugh Parkey are both very good dive ops. Used them recently and have very good impression of both with good boats, crew, and dive locations. At Belize, it is particularly useful that the op picks you up at the ship, avoiding the tendering to and from ship to shore.

A bit off topic...

What's the story with the explosive crime (murders) on Roatan?

Everyone knows that Hondaras is the "murder capital of the world" and the US State dept issued a 2014 "Travel Warning" to avoid the area, but how much has really spilled over onto the island of Roatan?