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Norwegian Sea Cruise : Trip Report

The Diving in Cozumel

Ah, the diving... We definitely wanted to dive on this trip and even brought our own gear. However, the time constraints of the ship make diving from a cruise ship less than ideal. I know some people who try to make their own arrangements separately which I would not recommend if you really don't want to miss the diving. Even so, if you want a trip to just dive, do a live-a-board or a land based dive operator somewhere.

The diving in Cozumel was done through a shop called Snorkel Center and Diving. The ship docked at the pier right in downtown. There was a brief orientation in one of the lounges on the ship then we all went down to the pier together with snorklers and intro divers. Once on the pier we split up so it was only certified divers on our dive boat.

The operation was fairly organized and had decent gear available for rent. The boat however was a bit slow. It took nearly an hour for the boat with a dozen divers to get to Punta Tunich for the first dive, including a brief stop for more wetsuits.

Once at Punta Tunich we all got in the water and descended together. One divemaster lead and the other followed to make sure they didn't lose anyone. I would have much rather they split up the large group as a lot of people clustered at the front near the lead divemaster. I've seen this happen before a lot so I hung near the back taking my own sweet time and avoiding the collisions. This unfortunately meant I missed the pair of Spotted Eagle Rays that some in the front saw briefly before they swam away. The dive was as good as I remembered from my previous trips to Cozumel. The current was really moving as is typical at this site.

The second dive at Paradise Reef was a much slower pace and much shallower. The reef was a bit more sparse but there was still plenty to see. When we first descended there was a Frogfish but I never saw it since it hid deep in its hole by the time I got there. The rest of the dive was filled with the usual Parrotfish, Angelfish, Snapper, etc. Nothing special but a pleasant dive. Visibility was once again excellent so I hung out at the back and to the sides to avoid the cluster of divers at the front.

After the dive we got back to town with plenty of time to get a bite to eat and walk around town a little. I even had time to get my film developed at the 1 hour place on the main street.

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The Diving in Grand Cayman

The following morning we arrived in Grand Cayman shortly after noon. With a departure time of 6pm coupled with taking well over an HOUR to get off the ship to shore it left very little time to dive. Part of the problem is there is no pier in Grand Cayman. Instead all the cruise ships (five when we were there) anchor out in the bay and tenders zip between the ships and shore. Compounding the problem was that the tenders hold around 300 people each so you have to wait to get herded to the tender and once we got to shore there was further delay with traffic at the dock.

When we finally met up with Red Sail Watersports on shore they worked very hard to get us out to the dive sites as quickly as possible. They had spare gear on the large catamaran so they had an extra set of fins for me since one of my fins ripped in Cozumel. There was a short dive briefing after which the 10 divers split into two groups. Yippie!

The first dive was at Oro Verde Wall which was a simple wall dive near the Oro Verde wreck. The dive was nice with nearly no current. the divemaster lead us to the deeper sections first then turned around and led us back through the shallower sections of the wall. Due to our time constraints the operator limited our dive to a little over 30 minutes plus the mandatory 3 minute safety stop.

The second dive was at a nearby site called Lone Star Ledge which was chosen by the on-board videographer. Fortunately for this dive we were told about the site then left to dive it ourselves. Yippie! I led the group to the first of the two ledges (crevices with overhangs). On the way there we ran into a small Southern Stingray. Along the way we saw the usual Caribbean fish. The highlights include lots of Garden Eels far shallower than I've ever seen them before, a couple Lobsters and best of all a small Hawksbill Turtle just before ascending. This dive too had a time limit. Once on board the captain hurried us back to shore so we could make the last ferry back to the cruise ship.

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Next Section: Find out more about resources I used in planning this trip in the Reference Library.