Join DiveBuddy.com

Meet new scuba divers, maintain a virtual dive log, participate in our forum, share underwater photos, research dive sites and more. Members login here.

Scuba Forum
 
#4400
 Grand Cayman on a Royal Caribbean Cruise—what to expect
BeekeeperGreg - 1/05/2020 8:37 PM
Category: Travel
Replies: 3
We are venturing out of the NJ waters and doing a Dive with Royal Caribbean in Grand Cayman. The ship is Adventure of the Seas.
Does PADI offer courses for diving in Clear and warm waters—I am not sure how to dive in vis over 25’.

What dive sites do they hit and what kind of dives?
Should a bring a Sausage —Light—booties??
The Cruise boat doesn’t allow dive knife.

I am bringing a 3mm Farmer John and my wife will bring her 3mm, both of us are taking masks.

Greg and Rosie
#21082
LatitudeAdjustment - 1/11/2020 8:04 AM
Well the viz is going to ruin you!

The diveboat will go to the site suitable to the worst diver onboard. So if you are with a newbie you’ll get a shallow site the newbie crashing into can’t hurt :( If there are a lot of divers they might divide them up by experience.

Definitely bring the sausage, they require them and you know yours.

You’ll need the light if you’re doing a night dive but you won’t see more seahorses than in Shark River anywhere. On a day dive the light might come in handy looking in holes but I’ve only seen one swim thru in Cayman but there are wrecks. If you’re onboard with newbies they probably won’t take you inside wrecks.

Boots could feel better going up the dive ladder.

I did take a knife on a cruise in Greece, got a free ride in a police car to the ship from some guys with no sense of humor :(

3mil is what I always take and I only got frozen once by an upwelling :(

Have a good trip!
#2245
Subscribed
MDW - 2/12/2020 8:40 AM
With regard to the knife situation, may I recommend switching from a knife to some form of line cutter instead. A Z-knife or trauma shears will not be a problem for the ship security check and local island authorities and is a better solution for cutting entanglements underwater anyway (i.e. you can’t stab or cut yourself while trying to cut away that fishing line). I suggest switching to one of these for all your diving, not just from a cruise ship.
I also recommend taking your own regulators and gauges/computers if you have them. To me, it’s worth the extra luggage space to have something familiar keeping me alive. Even if the ship’s gear is new and in good shape, its still not the familiar gear you already know and trust.
#483
Subscribed
UnderwaterMartini - 3/01/2020 8:59 PM
I’d also take my own regs. I use a streamlined setup with necklace reg. Switching to rental junk is too much of a change for me to be comfortable. And too many rentals have beat up leaky hoses.

I bring all my own gear. Just need 8# of lead from the dive op if it’s drifty. 16# backplate and fins go in my luggage. Everything else goes in my carry on.

My knife is a steak knife with the tip cut off. Nobody, even RC’s scanners, has said anything about it. I might replace it with a DGX line cutter soon.