Cruise ship diving

I'm going to Bermuda on a Royal Caribbean ship. I cannot find any pricing
info ($$ for 2-tank dives + gear rental.) I know that local dive operators
would be better and less crowded, but the ship docks at the Dockyards, so I
would need to take a ferry to Hamilton... Any thoughts?

Tomek

Tomasz Szczudlo wrote:

> I'm going to Bermuda on a Royal Caribbean ship. I cannot find any pricing
> info ($$ for 2-tank dives + gear rental.) I know that local dive operators
> would be better and less crowded, but the ship docks at the Dockyards, so I
> would need to take a ferry to Hamilton... Any thoughts?
>
> Tomek
>
Never been on a cruise ship, but I came within a hair of buying
an operation that survived on cruise ship biz.

Cruise ships have deals with local operators, and you pay on the
ship. Most of the operators that serve the cruise lines are OK,
but real cattle-boat oriented.

Unaffiliated local operators are usually pretty close to the
cruise ship charges, and some will pick you up at the ship
(after all, they don't have to kick anything back to the cruise
line). One problem with an unaffiliated operation is timing:
make sure you will be back to the ship before it leaves!

m

Tomasz Szczudlo wrote:
> I'm going to Bermuda on a Royal Caribbean ship. I cannot find any pricing
> info ($$ for 2-tank dives + gear rental.) I know that local dive operators
> would be better and less crowded, but the ship docks at the Dockyards, so I
> would need to take a ferry to Hamilton... Any thoughts?
>
> Tomek
>

I am not familiar with Bermuda, but my thoughts are if you aren't with
the area sometimes it is better to book thru RC. I have done it both
ways. If you book thru RC and go with them - you are assured of getting
back on cruise ship. If you book your own you may not get back. Please
verify the difference between local time and ship time.

Booking thru the cruise line may leave you on a cattle boat, and a dive
shop that rushes you thru 2 dives. Booking on your own gives you a
little more leeway. The price difference is negligible from my little
experience.

Gat'rBait wrote:
> In Ketchikan I did a one on one dive with the dive master through
> a little hole in the wall shop. Gear was brand new, I took my own
mask.

I am fairly new in diving, and went to rec.scuba.locations to try to
learn a few things from the folks posting there. But after reading
a long thread there for a few days, in which I thought all but about
three of the posters in the last 150 posts were insane, and asked
them if it was like that all the time.

Some of the same folks I had thought were insane came back to make a
few remarks which I couldn't understand at all, and then they stopped
talking altogether.

I am glad to find scuba discussion here, even if it's about cruise
ship diving which I have never done.

Did you have to dive with a wet suit in Ketchikan? What was the
visibility like? Are you allowed to carry guns while you dive there,
in case you are threatened by some polar bear?


> In
> Juneau I waited until I got off the ship and went to a local broker
who put
> 6 of us on a boat that would easily handle 12 - 15. All the dives
were
> similar, No cattle boats.
>
> Gat'r

That's nice, Gat'r. Please tell us more. I really don't like warm
water diving in places like Florida where nearly all of the dive boats
are cattle boats. Will I need a wet suit to dive in Juneau in the
summer?

DF

"DF" wrote

> Some of the same folks I had thought were insane came back to make a
> few remarks which I couldn't understand at all, and then they stopped
> talking altogether.

Nobody stopped talking. We just stopped talking to you.

"Tomasz Szczudlo" <tomek747@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:BE37A7EC.57EB%tomek747@earthlink.net...
> I'm going to Bermuda on a Royal Caribbean ship. I cannot find any pricing
> info ($$ for 2-tank dives + gear rental.) I know that local dive operators
> would be better and less crowded, but the ship docks at the Dockyards, so
> I
> would need to take a ferry to Hamilton... Any thoughts?
>
> Tomek
>
The only cruise I have been on was a 10 day Alaskan Inside Passage with
Carnival. I booked ALL my dives and excursions online with private
charters. In Ketchikan I did a one on one dive with the dive master through
a little hole in the wall shop. Gear was brand new, I took my own mask. In
Juneau I waited until I got off the ship and went to a local broker who put
6 of us on a boat that would easily handle 12 - 15. All the dives were
similar, No cattle boats.

Gat'r

> I was working on an HTML document and had OE up in another window... Seems
> kind of quiet here tonight... Of course, there still could be noise coming
> from all the anonymous cowards that get blocked by my killfile list, but
> they don't count anyway...

Nope, just quiet and about to get quieter. I'm ready to give sleep another
try.

The weekend dives worked out quite well. The seas were calm, the current
was mild and the water wasn't so cold that I needed more than the 3mm suit I
had. At various times, Rick, Curtis and Popeye spent an evening with the
Bells. By now, Rick and Curtis are home for sure. Popeye's close if he's
not there already.

The one thing you can say about the Spiegel Grove is "it's big." Those that
say it's as interesting laying on its side as it would be upright are, at
best, mistaken. At worst, they're trying to lessen the impact of the
mistake that landed the ship on its side. You just don't get the feel of
diving on a ship. Regardless, we all had a good time diving and
socializing. Too bad you didn't make it down.

So much for rec.scuba tonight. I'm off to bed . . . again.

Lee

"Lee Bell" wrote ...
> Nope, just quiet and about to get quieter. I'm ready to give sleep
another
> try.

I'm about finished with this document... I'm up to around 22 pages printed
out, I think...

> The one thing you can say about the Spiegel Grove is "it's big." Those
that
> say it's as interesting laying on its side as it would be upright are, at
> best, mistaken.

The layout of a ship can be confusing enough when it is upright dry...
Putting it on it's side and making it wet is not going to make it any easier
to get around... Sounds kind of like getting around ship after coming back
aboard completely shit-faced after hitting port... Even when tied up to the
dock, those ladders sure do seem to go at odd angles...

> Regardless, we all had a good time diving and
> socializing. Too bad you didn't make it down.

I just got back from Washington... I'm tired of travelling for awhile...
While up there, I ended up driving over 1000 miles...

I put in a claim to the TSA and Delta for my 11 rounds of Federal Hydroshock
..45 ACP that got confiscated because of Seattle's leftist misinterpretation
of the rules... Very unlikely I'll ever see those 11 rounds again...

"chilly" wrote

> I'm sure we'd speak to ole DF again, if he weren't such an obvious troll.

I was so sure you were going to end that sentence with "DF" instead of
"obvious troll."

"Lee Bell" <leebell@ix.remove.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:alBQd.2207$9J5.409@newsread2.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
> "DF" wrote
>
> > Some of the same folks I had thought were insane came back to make a
> > few remarks which I couldn't understand at all, and then they stopped
> > talking altogether.
>
> Nobody stopped talking. We just stopped talking to you.

:^)

I'm sure we'd speak to ole DF again, if he weren't such an obvious troll.