Valor Western Caribbean 1/22 Report...

Here is my review of the diving off of the January 22-29 sailing of the Carnival Valor, calling at Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya.

This was a very interesting trip in that there was a lot of contrast in the dive operators that we used. Without further ado...

Our first stop was Tuesday morning in Grand Cayman. We had made arrangements to dive with Casey at Neptune Divers. Casey takes a max of eight divers, and due to one cancellation and a miscommunication, there were only six of us (myself and wystiria and four others from her group).

We got on an early tender, and met up at the tender terminal and walked a couple blocks to the bus stop next to the library. This was not only ostensibly cheaper ($2.50 USD per person) than catching a cab, it got us out of the huge Georgetown gridlock that occurs by the tender terminals when the ships are in town.

We took a cab to Sea Grape Beach on Seven Mile Beach, and we saw the Neptune Diver's boat backed up just a few yards offshore. One by one we waded close to the boat, then handed our gear to Casey at the back of the boat before timing our jump aboard to the small swells breaking on the beach.

After confirming that all were aboard Casey motored the craft towards deeper water, and introduced herself and gave us the rundown on the boat, it's facilities, etc. When she asked if there were any requests as far as dive sites, I indicated that if it were OK, I'd like to go to Trinity Caves. No one objected, so off we went.

There was another boat just finishing it's dive there, and the captain told Casey that the vis was kind of "iffy", so she waited until they left, then took a look herself. Since she could see the bottom from the boat, she decided that it was good enough (and it was).

The dive began with a series of swim throughs that exited out onto a wall which we followed back towards the boat. There were some stunning coral formations. I'd put the vis at about 60 ft. There was a hawksbill turtle that we encountered near the end of the dive. It didn't appear to be spooked, and in fact kind of hung around our group for several minutes.

During the surface interval Casey got a call from another diver, Shannon, who was also on our cruise. Shannon's arranged dive fell through (I think that the operator that was supposed to meet her had a medical emergency with his son, and couldn't get ahold of her) so they agreed that we'd go back to the beach to pick her up so that she couyld join us for the second dive.

Casey runs quite the self contained operation. In addition to piloting the boat, she is the divemaster on the dives with you, and answers the phone, takes reservations, etc. while on the boat. After Shannon boarded Casey asked what gear she needed, disappeared below for a minute, and came back with all of the necessary gear!

The second site we went to was a shallower dive at a place called Public Beach Reef. Basically a finger and groove site, again nice coral, and a lot of colorful tropicals. Casey got us back to the boat where, if we had air and bottom time left, we were free to hang out until we finished our dive.

After everyone had stowed their gear, Casey collected the $$ while taking us back to the beach (she was probably composing a poem in her head at the same time!). We were dropped off at the same place on the beach where we had boarded, then caught a bus/taxi back to the tender terminal (for about the same price as the public bus we rode out on, but we may have got the better rate because they needed the business and we knew how cheaply we could get back).

I would use Neptune Divers again, and every chance I get, I will!

Wednesday morning had us calling on Roatan. The ship did not arrive there until 11:00AM. Even though this port has a pier, the later arrival meant that everyone onboard had plenty of time to get ready, and all wanted to get off right away. Bottom line, be prepared for long lines disembarking in situtions like this.

We had the same group of divers scheduled, as well as the additions of Kevin, his wife Sue, and Sue's sister Linda, to dive with Subway Watersports. We were to meet Patrick at the hut just outside of the pier area. By the time I got there the rest of the group was assembled waiting for me.

As you can imagine the little two lane street in front of the pier was mobbed, with both vehicles and pedestrians. Eventually though our van arrived, and our group of nine divers, Patrick, the bus driver, and some guys that were doing a fishing excursion with Subway, all crowded aboard. The dive gear had to go in a seperate car since the van was so crowded.

As we made our way across the island, rain began to fall. When we got to Subway's marina we boarded a smallish boat, with some tanks in racks, some laying on the deck, etc. and crossed a canal to a complex where there was a gazebo we could get out of the rain long enough to fill out our paperwork, and for the divers that needed gear to get their's. The rental wetsuits looked pretty old and worn, and the BCs not much better. After a while we were told that our gear (and divemaster) had arrived and once again we got on the boat and crossed the canal to pick up our stuff and our dive leaders for the day.

Julian was the captain and Eileen the divemaster. We were told that there were some weight belts on the floor near the console and we could just take what we needed (I have an integrated weight BC, as did a couple of the others, so we were to just forage for the right amount of lead). The weights weren't marked, and Julian and Eilenn were a little unsure ("this one has a three on it, but it might be a two, or a four, or a five...").

We were given a cursory boat briefing then headed out to the first site. We were excited to find out that we were going to do our first dive at Mary's Place, one of Roatan's most famous dive sites. We were briefed on the history of the site, given the plan, and told to gear up. There wasn't room for everyone to enter at the same time so the word was, when you're ready, the pool's open, enter the water and meet on the bottom at the mooring line. Since I was ready, and eager to get out of the wind and rain chilled topside conditions, I did my backward roll, began my descent, and finned for the down line towards the bow of the boat.

Only I wasn't getting closer to the line, instead, it was getting further and further away. It didn't take long to realize that not only could I not reach the mooring line, I couldn't make my way back to the boat either. I managed to let Eileen know that I wasn't in trouble, but that I wasn't making any headway towards them (in the boat). She acknowledged, then told me to try and swim towards the boat - so I inflated my BC, rolled onto my back and kicked for all I was worth. Every once in a while I would look to see how I was doing, but never made up any ground. Then I noticed other divers getting back in the boat, and the ones that were in there had their gear off - I was afraid they were calling them all back because of me!

Turns out that the current was much too strong to dive there that day, and me and the few other "early entrants" were the guinea pigs! Only the two competitive smimmers were even able to get back to the line they threw out from the boat.

So...we went to another site, somebody's back porch, or front porch, or something like that. We all entered, but before we got to the wall I saw Eileen motioning, like waving "bye-bye" and doing a headcount, noticed that we were several divers short. Turns out a combination of fatigue, underweighting (gee - I wonder how that could have happened?), and equalizing problems made it hard for a few in the group to descend with the rest of us, so they returned to the boat - even though the rest of us were unaware of it.

The wall was very nice, and once we got down below 20 feet the surge that was fairly strong near the surface was not noticeable. Eileen didn't, in my opinion, do a very good job of watching the group. When Sue wanted to let her know that she had reached her half air point, Eileen was so far ahead of her that there was no way she could have told her. Fortunately, we had already turned the dive and were in shallower water. Just to be sure though I hung back with Sue and Linda since it was their first day of diving on the trip, they had some unfamiliar equipment on, and Kevin was one of the ones that did not complete the dive.

During the surface interval we had to try and find enough tanks so that everyone could dive again. There were almost enough on board. Unfortunately, some of them were leaking. Fortunately, Julian was resourceful enough to suggest that we (the paying customers) replace the O-rings on the hissing tanks with some of the ones on the tanks we'd just used. Fortunately someone in our group had the tool needed to do just that.

The second dive site was very similar to the first, it was at Jillian's Spot if I recall correctly. Julian told us that since we were so "far behind the curve" due to the rain and the aborted Mary's Place dive, and since we had a relatively short first dive, and since we could do this diver higher up on the wall, that we'd have a truncated surface interval (I mean who wants to be out in this bloody weather?).

Once again the topography of the dive site was fascinating, and we did see some nice marine life. I'm certain that it would have been much more bright and colorful had the sun been out, and the vis would have been better had it not been raining so much for the past few days, but it was still a nice dive. Eileen didn't even have to go to the boat early like she told us she might, due to her hissing tank!

We got back to the marina where the taxi van had returned, and we met up with the fishing crew (not only had they struck out, they may have been as wet as the divers) and crowded back into the van for the return trip to the ship. No car this time to haul the gear so we had it on our laps!

Would I use Subway Watersports again? Probably not. In all fairness to them, a lot of the little annoyances would have been much more tolerable with better weather, which of course they can't control, but the weights and tanks (one of our group couldn't do the second dive at all because, even with the repairs they were short a tank) are things they should have done a better job with.

Dive day three, Thursday, found us steaming into, or should I say anchoring off of, Belize. Christy (wystiria) and crew had other plans today so they would not be diving. Since I usually prefer to avoid the cattleboat syndrome you find on the ship's excursions, I had, on recommendations from the CruiseCritic Scuba & Snorkeling board, contacted Sea Sports Belize and let them know that I would like to dive with them if they had three others to make up their four diver minimum. As it turned out they had been contacted by a group of three that were on my ship, so we had a foursome. It wasn't until the day before, on Roatan, that I found out that the others would be Kevin, Sue, and Linda.

We exited the tender and easily found the dive shop (yes - an honest to goodness dive shop!) a short walk from the tourist village that you tender in to. We filled out our paperwork, then went to a room where there were four tanks set up, and weight belts on the floor next them. The rental gear that some of the others were using looked to be in excellent condition. They asked us to set up our gear there, so that they would know that we were familiar with how to do that. While we were again in the showroom/office part of the shop, one of the staffers took our gear and loaded it on the boat. We met our DM for the day, Valentine, our captain Paul, and Nazza, who acted like a second DM, although the first dive was her fish ID specialty dive, which completed her Master Scuba Diver training!

It was a fairly long boat ride to the barrier reef, but Valentine was all too happy to answer any and all questions about Belize, both onshore and off, and before we knew it we were on a section of the reef known as The Gallows, and entered the water at a site known as The Lounge. Once again, the reef formations were spectacular. The vis, probably in the 50-60 foot range was reduced due to a lot of run off from the river after several days of heavy rain on the mainland. Valentine is an excellent DM. He not only kept a watchful eye on all of the divers, he was constantly pointing out sea life to us and writing down their names on his "magic" slate.

For the surface interval we went to a small island wher there is a fish camp. They had brought a cooler with sandwiches, chips, and soda that we enjoyed at a picnic table while we asked more questions. We spent a good half hour or more on the island after we had finished eating, then got back in the boat and went to the next dive site, Shark's Tooth, on the same Gallows section of the reef.

Once more a very enjoyable dive - and we also had a hawsbill turtle that hung around us while we completed our safety stop. On the ride back we squirted water on Nazza to celebrate her new certification, and generally had a great time laughing and joking with the crew. Thet had planned to take us directly back to the tourist village, but I wanted to buy something from the dive shop, and the other three wanted to leave their gear there while they shopped on the street, so we all went back to the shop. While Kevin, Sue, and Linda shopped, the SSB staff rinsed their gear for them!

Would I use this shop again? Absolutely!!

Friday, the last dive day (and final port of call for this cruise), was originally scheduled for Cozumel, but had been changed about a month prior to the cruise to Costa Maya. I was somewhat heartbroken to lose the Cozumel stop, because that is one of my favorite dive destinations. I had been to Costa Maya once before, and had a very nice and relaxing day at the beach there, but knew little about the diving there.

I did a search and found contact info for a few dive operators in the Mahuhaul area, and sent them emails to find out if we could secure reservations for our group. I heard back from someone at DreamTimeDiving and let wystiria know and forwarded the contact info to her. She contacted them, found out that we could dive with them, but she also asked if there was anything they knew about that the non-divers in our group(s) could do.

It turns out that since between us we had close to forty people, they offered us a "beach party". For a very reasonable fee ($22 US) they would provide round trip transportation, the use of their beach and facilities (indoor bathrooms, fresh water shower, beach chairs, shady and/or sunny spots), lunch, water, and soft drinks. For an extra fee you could do their two boat ride snorkel trip to a reef, or a two-tank dive trip. So we counted heads, tallied up who wanted to do what, and made reservations.

The plan was for the divers to meet our ride at the taxi stand near the pier, and the rest of the group to follow an hour later. At least that's what we thought. We all walked right by Chris who was out on the pier, and we didn't find each other until 45 minutes after we were supposed to meet. By that time some of the second wave had begun showing up. It kind of made everyone a little uneasy about how this was all going to work out.

We rounded up the dive crew and took a van do the dive shop, which was a little further down the beach from where the others would be going. To be honest I wasn't overwhelmed by my first impression. After all this is a rather undeveloped area so the dive shop and facilities weren't what you'd see back some, like the one in Belize was the day before. But we gradually came to feel little by little more at ease and were soon doing all of the things you always do - filling out the paperwork, showing your c-card, telling them how much weight you need (they even wrote down what increments you wanted it in, whether you needed a belt or had an integrated BC!) and so on.

The boat was tied up on the beach right in front of the shop. There was another couple from the ship diving, but since they weren't part of our group they had a different divemaster. We had Ricardo as the DM for us, and Davi(sp?) filming the dive for us in case we wanted to buy the DVD later.

The diving here was incredible! Obviously these reefs are a part of the same reef system as Cozumel's, but, just as obviously, they have not been dived on nearly as much, by several orders of magnitude! The reefs look pristine, especially considering that they are not part of a marine sanctuary.

Since it was a little choppy and windy outside we did the surface interval back at the dive shop, where we got to preview the unedited film of the dive and snack on fresh fruit.

We did our first dive at a site called Cabanas, and the second on ???? (I don't remember - perhaps wystiria will help me out here). Nice big underwater "mountains" with interesting "valleys" here and there. Saw the biggest porcupine fish I've ever seen, and he was with one that may have been the second biggest!

After we returned to shore we rinsed our gear in the rinse tanks by the shop, then walked down the road to where all of our non-diving friends were hanging out. Even though I had an awesome time diving, I was hoping that the experience for the rest of the group was satisfactory. I should never have worried! My wife said that the snorkeling was great and everyone was raving about the food.

They have a young Argentine, Pablo, who is the chef at their resort. We had homemade pizzas, potato salad, guacamole, salsa and chips, shishkabobs, and other delicious treats he had been preparing for the last two days!

Anytime anyone was ready to go back to the pier or to the ship Chris called a cab and paid the driver (since round trip transportation was part of the deal) - this allowed some of us to stay right up until the last minute, and others to go shop, or go back to the air conditioned ship.

A fellow that was staying at the resort said that from his first day there he had felt like a family member, and not like a customer, and in the few short hours I spent there, I have to say that I felt the same way.

Would I go back and use Dreamtime again? Do you have to ask?

Augie, Thanks for such an amazingly detailed review. Very well written and nice of you to take the time for that. I will be in GC next week and it was nice to hear the details......sounds like you had a lot of great dives on your trip.

Hey Augie - fabulous review :) I am still working on my pieces - I wonder if I shoudl even place the scube bits here or not becasue yours sounds just like mine with very few variations *grin*

Oh and just for the record - if any of you get to dive with augie jump at that chance *smile* as a newish diver (14 dives logged - cert last may) he was really helpful to have around plus he is super chill which after my crazy swim in roatan was very appreciative!! Oh and yes I was one of the 2 that swam back to the boat.......what a work out!

once I have my reviews done - I will see if there is anything different and post those bits :)

C

Great review! Sounds like Roataan was an experience to be missed. We are for sure diving Mahahual and Cozumel. Haven't decided on Belize yet. In Mahahual we are going with Dreamtime and have had many conversations with Martin....says he will be in town that day and is going to dive with us....really looking forward to meeting him.

Cozumel will be with Dive w/Martin. Used them last April with the family and this trip will be wife & I and one more from the cruise I recruited. Personalized dive for less than the ship.....gotta love it!

Mike

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