How To Dive From Cruise Ships: A Primer

If you dive and your partner doesn’t, it’s not always easy to find a vacation destination that satisfies both of you. Adhering to the "Happy Wife, Happy Life" philosophy, I discovered that it’s quite easy for cruise ship passengers to arrange two-tank dives while visiting various ports of call, and still share quality time on the ship and on shore.

As a travel writer and scuba diver, I got wet last month while aboard the luxurious Sky Princess chugging through the Caribbean and Western Mexico with 3,700 passengers and 1,800 crew. Here’s how you can do it, too…
(NOTE: Various cruise companies operate out of New Zealand and Australia –– I’ve provided a list of them at the end of this article).

1. Book Your Two-Tank Dive ASAP With Word-of-Mouth Referrals.

My wife and I knew we were going to take this cruise back in July 2023 to celebrate her best friend’s milestone birthday with her husband and two other couples. Because one of those couples were divers, we booked the cruise, but a few months later, I wanted to arrange some dives with island operators in advance in three of the four ports during our seven-day journey.
Fortunately, my dive-buddies-to-be had been to Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras last June with their daughter for her PADI Open-Water Certification, so they spoke highly about Sun Divers Roatan. After I had a Zoom call with the co-owner, I was positive this was the right shop for our dives that day, so I booked my diving with them and paid in advance ($125 USD). Besides, they had been voted as the #1 dive shop on the West End and they have a policy of a maximum of six divers per each divemaster.

For Cozumel, Mexico, I first reached out to the dive resort where I’d stayed early last year with my dive club. Their email explained that their boats only left at 8:30am. Our ship was arriving at 9:00am and with 3,700 passengers disembarking around then, I didn’t think I could get there on time.
Before I had to start sorting through 250 other dive shops on the island, I luckily met a guy while we were vacationing in Southern Italy last fall. He highly recommended Papa Hog’s Scuba Emporium because he’d been diving with them for 20 years. One email is all it took to book two tanks for all three divers, with no deposit necessary.

Finally, for Costa Maya, Mexico, some of my dive club buddies had gone there seven years ago and one gave two thumbs up to Amigos Del Mar. They confirmed our arrival date and times in port via email, I paid $100 USD via the Wise mobile app, including gear, and we were set to go. My dive buddies required no deposit.

2. Be Extremely Flexible on Dive Days.

Our ship’s original itinerary showed us arriving in Cozumel on 19 February and Roatan on 20 February. But about three weeks before departure, those days got juggled because Roatan’s port was overbooked. So I emailed Sun Divers and Papa Hog’s about our revised schedules. Within a few hours, their Dive Shop Managers responded that they could accommodate our date switches.
For Roatan, we were booked for early afternoon dives because our ship didn’t dock until 10:00am. I was mildly concerned at first, but they assured we’d be back to our ship by 4:30pm, in plenty of time before the “All Aboard” call at 6:30pm for our departure.

Also, because strong northerly winds prevented diving in the usual spots that day, we were transported to the Sun Divers boat docked on the Southside of the island at 1:15pm for a two-tank dive in relatively calm waters. This was a very thoughtful switch by Sun Divers to proactively look out for their divers’ safety.

3. Know What And What Not to Pack.

On recent family vacations where I would only take a few dives, I’ve been bringing minimal gear: my prescription mask, snorkel, neoprene cap, handheld underwater camera, dive socks, logbook, C Card and DAN insurance card. I’ve been renting all the other gear and it’s usually just a slight upcharge at the destination vs. paying to ship a large gear suitcase in both directions.
Luckily, all three of the dive shops I contacted had gear available to rent –– full-length wet suits, BCs, weights, fins, regulators with gauges, and tanks –– for the same cost as their two-tank dives.

That meant I could travel lighter, but with plenty of room for a dress suit and button-down shirts for formal night, several pairs of slacks and shorts, golf and T-shirts, and all the other stuff one needs for warm weather, while bundling up to and from home.

4. Look For Boats With Small Groups for More Room.

In Roatan, the three of us from the ship were paired with two other divers (one ironically from the Sky Princess), a Divemaster and a boat Captain. Our ship had offered a two-tank dive with a more well-known dive shop, but I feared it would be packed with up to 16 divers. Fortunately, I was told it was only eight, but five was still a better number.

We were looking forward to diving along the MAR, the largest coral reef barrier in the Atlantic Ocean and the world's second largest. It spans more than 1,000 km along the coastlines of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, providing a home to more than two million seafaring inhabitants.

5. Be Pampered With Award-Winning Service.

All three of our dive shops made it very easy to dive with them. Each of them carried all of our gear on-board, attached regulators to the tanks for both dives, helped us into and out of our gear before and after each dive, et.al.
At all the dive sites, their Divemaster's frequently checked our buoyancy, remaining air levels, and pointed out both big critters and small stuff. On each of the six dives, we spent nearly an hour with a maximum depth of 20 meters, viz of about 30 meters, surface and depth water temperatures of 27^o C., and very manageable current except for the first dive in Cozumel along the very popular Palancar Reef.

In Honduras, we saw many large sea fans, brittle stars in tube sponges, orange and green long-snout seahorses, a flamingo tongue snail, arrow crab, jawfish, lizard fish, a Caribbean reef squid, a spotted moray eel, brittle stars hiding in tube sponges, sea urchins, scorpionfish, snapper, grouper, and so many spiny crustaceans so that I called this site “Lobsterfest” in my logbook.

In Cozumel, there was a pretty swift current on our first dive, so we tried to stay near the bottom at 25 meters. During the 45-minute plunge and the next dive of 50 minutes with less current, we saw a big barracuda, many parrotfish, huge gray or yellow-blue angelfish, large schools of grunts and yellowtails, a Caribbean sea turtle the size of a VW Beetle, as well as many large pairs of Caribbean spiny lobsters. The reef had a very barren landscape at first, then got healthier as we drifted further along.

For the third day of diving, in Costa Maya, Mexico, our three scuba divers arrived at Amigos del Mar mid-morning. The Divemaster got us fitted for gear, and we waded into the warm Caribbean to a large panga. At both Tortuga (Turtle) and Cañones, we hovered at about 20 meters above a wall, again enjoying 27^o C. water temps, and visibility of up to 100 for 55 minutes. The Divemaster speared two poisonous Lionfish and tried to feed them to a large, free-swimming green moral eel, but he wasn’t hungry. At both sites, we saw many spotted eagle rays, huge Caribbean angelfish, and enjoyed less current than Cozumel.

6. Enjoy All of Your Ship’s Activities.

These ships are floating resorts. On the Sky Princess, we noticed that there was always something to do. Amenities included four pools, eight hot tubs, pickleball and basketball courts, a putting green, a fitness center, a spa, a library, an outdoor movie screen around the pools, boutique shops, a casino, Broadway-style entertainment, singers, comedians, magicians, guest lecturers, and so much more.

You’ll also never go hungry on a big ship. This one boasts three main dining rooms, three specialty restaurants, an all-day buffet, a hot dog/hamburger grill, several pizzerias, an international café, a wine bar, and 24-hour room service.

7. Then Book It All Again.

I was so pleased to experience great service and terrific diving at all three shops that I vow to come back – if not on a cruise ship, then to spend a week exploring Roatan, its hundreds of moored dive sites along the walls, and all around the island, especially its beautiful Caribbean reef squid.

They were my best choice in my search for “diving from a cruise ship” during my vacation, though Cozumel and Costa Maya were both quite good, too.

8. Check Out Cruises To and From New Zealand.

According to the 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report, the global cruise fleet is projected to grow by 43% by 2028. That’s over 60 new ships entering service for a fleet of 499 cruise ships globally, with passenger capacity estimated to grow from 26.5 million (double occupancy) to nearly 38 million by 2028.
So if you’re looking for trips from New Zealand to South Pacific destinations, you can choose from the following:

·     Captain Cook Cruises in Fiji – Only 114 passengers in 57 ocean view suites to New Caledonia and Vanuatu, starting in November 2023.

·     Blue Lagoon Cruises – Small ship cruising from Fiji with only 64 guests in 32 cabins and a private beach at the Blue Lagoon.

·     P&O Cruises from Auckland – Travel to and from Australia and New Zealand, Pacific Islands (Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and others), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore), Papua New Guinea (Alotau, Conflict Islands, Kiriwina Island, and Rabaul). Beginning in September 2023, the P&O Trattoria will replace a current ship, the 400 Grandi.

·     House of Travel – Features a host of ocean and river cruise lines to New Zealand, Australia, Pacific Islands, Antarctica, Europe, Asia, and The Americas. Includes Azamara, Avalon, Carnival, Cunard, Disney, Emerald, Holland America, Hurtigruten, MSC, Norwegian, Oceania, P&O, Ponant, Princess, Regent, Royal Caribbean, SeaDream, Silversea, Uncruise, Uniworld, Variety, Viking, and Virgin.

·     Princess Cruises / Aotearoa Cruises – Authentic experiences and extraordinary landscapes onboard New Zealand Cruises.