Disney Booked Scuba Excursions

[TeeVeeTD]

My DD16 and I just returned from our Western Caribbean Fantasy cruise. We scuba dove in GC and planed on diving both Costa Maya and Cozumel.

Unfortunately, we were not able to dive CM or Cozumel. Disney used RedSail Sports in GC and they were great. We heard from other divers on the ship that they were not happy with the dive operator in Cozumel. When I discovered that DCL was using Sand Dollar Sports, I admit I was less than thrilled as I have read many poor reviews concerning them.

Because I did not dive them myself, I am not in position to complain to DCL about them. But, if any others have used them and were not happy with the experience, please make DCL aware of it. Disney runs too good of an operation to have their vendors not do a great job and they need to be aware of them.

Also if anyone has had a good experience with Sand Dollar please let me know. Maybe the reviews have been biased.

Thanks for listening to me.

 

[taswira]

Last May on our Fantasy cruise my husband did the 2-tank (advanced) dives through DCL port adventures in each of those locations. He thought Grand Cayman was okay but not great, Costa Maya was terrible (bad dive company combined with murky waters), but LOVED Cozumel and Sand Dollar Sports.

On his personal website he has a couple of professional videos of his Cozumel dives. Let me know if you'd like to see them and I'll PM you the link to the page they are on.

I imagine that as with everything else, opinions and experiences vary. And if you are asking about the "Discover Scuba" basic dives for inexperienced divers, I don't know anything about those.

 

[TeeVeeTD]

As I said I did not dive in Cozumel. I did not have any personal experience with Sand Dollar Sports. My discussion with a diver that did the dive matches a review I read elsewhere for Sand Dollar. Maybe it was a coincidence that the 2 reviews were similar. I am glad that you had a good experience.

We did have a good experience in Grand Cayman with Red Sail Sports. I have no qualms about recommending them.

We are returning to the Caribbean and I have not booked any dives as yet. We will, probably, be diving in St. Thomas and Cozumel. Last year we booked outside of Disney and used Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas and will absolutely dive with them again. We used Disney in both Costa Maya and Grand Cayman because of the short time in port.

I have read good reviews of Aldora divers in Cozumel and might give them a try.

Thanks for the reply and good information. These forums give us all an opportunity to teach and learn about traveling with DCL.

 

[asunutgirl]

Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas is an great operator. We dove with them in 2012 and will definitely dive with them in the future.

We have found that dive excursions through cruise lines are generally less than stellar. (We've done both DCL and other cruise lines.) In 2012, we booked our own dive excursions and had much better experiences than when booking through the cruise. Better service, smaller groups etc.

If you are looking for an operator in Cozumel, I would recommend Aqua Safari. It's been several years but our experience with them was very good. I've also heard good things about Dive Palancar.

If you are a scuba diver and haven't done a stay on either Cozumel or Grand Cayman, you are missing out. Both places have fabulous diving! Cozumel is cheaper and there isn't as much to do top-side if you are traveling with non divers. Grand Cayman is more expensive but has better top-side activities. I'm surprised your husband didn't love Grand Cayman. The diving there is amazing - some of my favorite ever.

 

[gruZ]

We booked through DCL for a Cozumel discover Scuba class. The cruise was about two weeks ago. While I'm certified no-one else in my family was, so we were looking for a scratch the surface (bad pun, sorry) type of experience.

I found Sand Dollar to be absolutely fine, and wouldn't hesitate to book through them again. I can't speak to a more typical (not Discover) type of excursion, but for what we wanted it was perfect. Some basic but good instruction, a total of about 35 minutes under, and a ratio of about 1 instructor to 4 students.

The entire family was very happy, and everyone said immediately upon surfacing they would love to do it again. As an aside, as we were leaving the facility (which is at Sunset Beach - a great little bar / grill with a wonderful view of the ocean), our instructor said that next time we were in Cozumel we should come and book outside of the ship - not including transportation it would be about half of what DCL charged.

If you have any more specific questions, let me know!