Grand Princess Dive Excursions Review

[vespa134]

We dove (thru Princess) at all four ports.

 

Costa Maya:

Can't remember the name of the dive shop but its run by some Austrailians and is a 15-20 minute open air bus ride (or truck ride in our case) from the port. New, but small boat. Rental equipment & air tanks look realtively new. Boat was an dual outboard type with a bimini top. Water entry/exit was from the side and not the aft of the boat. The dive masters were friendly and adequate. Excellent coral formations but we did not see much wildlife. I would probably skip the Costa Maya dive due to the following: (1) Dive shop to far away from port and hauling your gear (we brought our own gear) is too far to carry down the peir, through the shops, to the taxi area and back again. (2) boat is too small for two tanks each...had to return to the dive shop for tanks before the second dive. (3) This dive cost $149 per person. (4) Water entry onto the boat is a pain. (5) transportation from the port to the dive shop was very "rustic".

 

Belize:

This dive was everything we had hoped. The dive boat picks you up at the GP like a tender. The dive boat was new and was the big, typical dive boat with aft water entry/exit w/good latters. The dive shop was Hugh Parkley (or something like that...I have thier card at home) and was a 15-minute boat ride from the GP. Divemasters were execellent. Coral and marinelife are excellent. I HIGHLY recommend this excursion thru Princess. I will dive here again and with this dive shop.

 

Grand Cayman:

North wall and Stingray city dive

Tendering was not too bad here as they use both princess and local tenders and we were on a "Princess" booked excursion with a priority exit. I don't remember the name of the dive shop. Boats & equipment were good but not new. Boat was the typical large dive boat with good aft latters. Crew and dive masters were friendly and helpful. This was good dive and the north wall was excellent. We had never done the stingray thing so we were excited to try it. It's one of those things you should do at least once but I think I would use that 2nd tank to dive the wall again in the future. People saw a hammer head shark at about 110ft off the north wall. Overall a good dive.

 

Cozumel:

Used a local tender that was huge and air conditioned. The peir is totally destroyed. Had to haul our gear from the tender through the shops to the taxi area. Boarded an air conditioned bus for a very short trip (5 minutes) to the marina to hop aboard the dive boats. The dive shop used by Princess is "The Dive House". The dive equipment was very very very OLD including the air tanks. Air tanks did not have service stickers (I thought this was a PADI approved dive shop??). In their defense, there were a very very few new BCDs. The boats were old but were in generally good condition. Staff was friendly and experienced with drift diving (i.e. boat was always waiting for us when we popped up). The hurricane flattened any coral that was loose or sticking too far up and covered the entire reef in white sand. Marine life was very easy to see against the white background. I don't know if the marine life was displaced or what but we saw lobsters out walking about, morey eels free swimming, turtles, nurse shark, eagle rays, and many other large fish. This was a very fun dive because of all the wildlife but it was very sad to compare this part of the reef to that in Belize and Costa Maya. Overall this was a good dive but the rental equipment and air tanks looked a little scary.

[PescadoAmarillo]

What an awesome review! Thanks for taking the time to post it. Do you remember, was the Majahual dive shop called Blue Ha? I concur...it is tough to use your own dive equipment in that port, hauling through that little resort area to a communal taxi is difficult at best.

 

So horribly sorry to hear of the reef damage at Cozumel. I suspect it will take years to recover, and that has been our favorite Caribbean dive location for years, a quick direct flight and lots of good all inclusives. I was sick when the hurricane just parked over the channel there and churned for hours and hours, and knew it had to be devastating the reef. Do you recall what reefs you dove there, and what depths (I'm wondering if Palancar and Maracaibo were as damaged as the reefs a bit further north)?

[vespa134]

Majahual:

I think the dive shop was "Dreamtime" which I think I read somewhere is a.k.a. Blue Ha. So it may be the same shop.

 

Cozumel:

 

We dove near porta maya...the cruise ships were still within sight, although they were very tiny...

 

I think the two reefs were, Santa Rosa and Las Palmas, with Las Palmas being directly infront of the "Dive House" shop. The large and abundant (and easy to see) marinelife more than made up for the lack of beautiful coral. The reef is still there but it's covered with sand...

[billeelou]

thanks for the reortsthanks esp. for the report on Parkeys

I am going on the same cruise on the 21st but will do either Dive with Martin or Aqua del Mar in Coz....and the Sunset house or Edenrock in Cayman...but Mayahual may not be a stop as the cruise this week did Playa del Carmen not Majahual ...not sure if its perm.

 

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the report , it really does help

[Stevesan]

Cozumel:

Used a local tender that was huge and air conditioned. The peir is totally destroyed. Had to haul our gear from the tender through the shops to the taxi area. Boarded an air conditioned bus for a very short trip (5 minutes) to the marina to hop aboard the dive boats. The dive shop used by Princess is "The Dive House". The dive equipment was very very very OLD including the air tanks. Air tanks did not have service stickers (I thought this was a PADI approved dive shop??). In their defense, there were a very very few new BCDs. The boats were old but were in generally good condition. Staff was friendly and experienced with drift diving (i.e. boat was always waiting for us when we popped up). The hurricane flattened any coral that was loose or sticking too far up and covered the entire reef in white sand. Marine life was very easy to see against the white background. I don't know if the marine life was displaced or what but we saw lobsters out walking about, morey eels free swimming, turtles, nurse shark, eagle rays, and many other large fish. This was a very fun dive because of all the wildlife but it was very sad to compare this part of the reef to that in Belize and Costa Maya. Overall this was a good dive but the rental equipment and air tanks looked a little scary.

 

Do you recall the name of the reef? I've booked a trip that includes both Palancar and Columbia. I did so assuming these deeper reefs suffered relatively minor damage. I'm aware that the near shore reefs such as Dzul Ha experienced extreme damage.

 

BTW - the next time you're in Coz you might give Eagle Ray Divers a try.

 

Thanks for your review.

[vespa134]

Reef in Cozumel was (1) the Santa Rosa wall & (2) Las Palmas