SCUBA Ports - Which ports are best?
Jan 13th, 2004, 01:10 PM
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SCUBA Ports - Which ports are best?
Love to dive, love to cruise to numerous ports where we can do this. Also, love to book our own plans outside of the ship excursions.
Last year we cruised and dove in Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Thinking of doing Southern/Eastern Caribbean this year. Can any divers out there recommend the MUST-see dive ports in these areas?
The night dive in Cozumel was outstanding, so it would be hard to beat it!!!
Any help is appreciated.
Last year we cruised and dove in Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Thinking of doing Southern/Eastern Caribbean this year. Can any divers out there recommend the MUST-see dive ports in these areas?
The night dive in Cozumel was outstanding, so it would be hard to beat it!!!
Any help is appreciated.
Jan 15th, 2004, 01:31 AM
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Hi. I'm cruising and stopping at Belize City, Grand Cayman and Cozumel on RC. They're all day stops. I dive, and want to pick one place to do a single or two tank dive. Any suggestions of which stop is best? Did you do dives with folks other than the ships excursions? Any other excursions that you really liked in the Western Carib, whether ship or external to cruise line?
Jan 15th, 2004, 09:03 AM
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Out of the places we dove, I think Cozumel was the most amazing. We booked with a company outside of the ship called Albatros Charters (http://www.albatroscharters.com) and they were great. For a GREAT deal (I think we paid less than $300 for 2 people) we (and just we, there was no one else there to crowd us, so we could go where WE wanted to!) went on 2 deep drift dives (down to 100 feet!!!), went deep sea fishing for an hour, and then went on a third night dive to 30 feet, which was hands down my favorite. Our guide even through in snacks throughout the day, tshirts, and Coronas (when we were done diving of course!). We couldn't have planned our time in Cozumel better. Oh, and though touristy, the nachos at Senor Frogs are VERY good.
And I mistakenly said that we dove Grand Cayman - that was the initial plan, but we did not, though I would definitely go back to do that. I kept hearing before getting there how great Stingray City was, and that it was a definite must-see. So we booked with an external company, who offered the same as the ship excursion, but $10/person cheaper and a less-crowded boat. THEN, our boat got into port two hours late, and we missed our van to our excursion, so we thought we were out of luck. But we weren't - there are plenty of places at the docks that will take you on this excursion - it is the most popular. We ended up finding one right there on Church Street (same price as the one we first booked) AND they tossed a rum cake into the deal! And it was SO worth skipping diving, if you can believe that. These creatures are amazing! We had a lot of fun.
My boyfriend also chose to do the Atlantis Submarine dive that went down 800 feet. I thought he was crazy, and I have better things to spend $300 on, like shopping! But he thought it was unique and he had some very odd pictures from the dark depths!
I could write pages about how great the diving was in Cozumel!
I hope this helped a little!
And I mistakenly said that we dove Grand Cayman - that was the initial plan, but we did not, though I would definitely go back to do that. I kept hearing before getting there how great Stingray City was, and that it was a definite must-see. So we booked with an external company, who offered the same as the ship excursion, but $10/person cheaper and a less-crowded boat. THEN, our boat got into port two hours late, and we missed our van to our excursion, so we thought we were out of luck. But we weren't - there are plenty of places at the docks that will take you on this excursion - it is the most popular. We ended up finding one right there on Church Street (same price as the one we first booked) AND they tossed a rum cake into the deal! And it was SO worth skipping diving, if you can believe that. These creatures are amazing! We had a lot of fun.
My boyfriend also chose to do the Atlantis Submarine dive that went down 800 feet. I thought he was crazy, and I have better things to spend $300 on, like shopping! But he thought it was unique and he had some very odd pictures from the dark depths!
I could write pages about how great the diving was in Cozumel!
I hope this helped a little!
Jan 15th, 2004, 07:30 PM
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This helped TONS! Basically, sounds to me like Stingray City is the way to go for Cayman. I'll go through the ship since it's a family vacation and it's something everyone'd like to do, and Mum's a bit of a nervous nelly booking external excursions.
I will also look into Albatross for myself, but will only be able to do day dives since I think we are only in Cozumel from about 7 or 9am to 6pm.
Any other thoughts you have would be great, but this was really helpful!
Cheers
I will also look into Albatross for myself, but will only be able to do day dives since I think we are only in Cozumel from about 7 or 9am to 6pm.
Any other thoughts you have would be great, but this was really helpful!
Cheers
