Evaluating Cruise Deals

After you've narrowed down your search to just a few potential cruises it's time to evaluate the price against the value. Here are some questions to ask yourself. 1. How much money can you afford to spend on this trip? If you only take one vacation each year then your "splurge" factor may be higher than mine. We are fortunate to have almost six weeks of vacation each year so if we keep our costs down we can afford more trips. If you can afford it, a Windstar or Regent cruise offers some excellent itineraries for divers. Because the ships are smaller they can get into more remote ports like Bequia or Jost Van Dyke. However the cost is higher than say a Princess or Carnival cruise. For many of us that means the diving better be amazing and available at every port!

Which brings us to our next question, 2. How much diving does each cruise offer? We are avid divers so we want to get at least four dive days in each seven day cruise. A cruise that offers six dive opportunities is even sweeter, so we may be willing to pay more for it. Even if you don't plan to dive more than two or three days you'll want to make sure you're diving in the best spots you can. A cruise that stops in San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten isn't as attractive as one that stop in Dominica, St.Lucia and Barbados because the diving won't be nearly as good.

Just to give you an idea based on rates from one cruise discounter, the cost for an inside cabin April 17 on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas is $545 with five dive ports. Just a week later on April 25th the Carnival Victory is $439 for an inside cabin and the itinerary includes six potential dive ports. Of course there are many non-diving reasons to choose one cruise over another. Personally, I want the most and best diving for the buck so that is how we evaluate the cost of a cruise.

Finally, question number 3. How much will it cost to upgrade to a balcony? If you are taking your own gear (something we'll discuss in the next post) then a balcony gives you a place to store your gear. Dive gear can get very stinky after several days of diving so if the cost for a balcony is reasonable then choose the balcony. If you plan to rent all your gear then the decision to upgrade may be based on other reasons (like saving enough to pay for another cruise in the fall!).

Other cruise divers may have their own criteria for evaluating cruise value and if so feel free to comment. Bottoms up!

Evaluating Cruise Deals

Choosing the Right Cruise for Diving

If your spouse is set on a Caribbean cruise and you were hoping for a week of diving in Bonaire take heart. You can dive and cruise but it takes some careful planning. It's true that you may get in more diving on a land-based vacation, but if the weather turns foul you are stuck in the same spot all week. The great advantage of cruise ship diving is that every day you wake up to new weather conditions. If one port is wiped out the chances are good that your next port will be just fine for diving.

Your first step in planning a cruise/dive vacation is to consider which cruise to take. Some itineraries are more conducive to diving than others. Additionally, some cruise lines are more "diver friendly" so check out the shore excursions before you book. Note the times the ship is in port. If the ship is only in a port five hours your chances of getting in some diving are greatly reduced. Check out the Cruise Critic forum on diving (http://www.cruisecritic.com) and see what others have said about diving in various ports. The time and money required to get to the dive shop at some ports may be prohibitive.

I love diving from cruise ships because I have been able to dive in some remote locations that would cost too much to fly into and stay. For example, St. Lucia has some lovely diving, but the cost to fly into St. Lucia, and the cost of lodging is much higher than what you'll pay to cruise to St. Lucia. Another advantage of cruise ship diving is that you can check out dive locations without risking a week's vacation as well as your hard-earned vacation dollars. If a port you visit has some nice diving then you can plan on returning at a later date for a land-based vacation.

For Caribbean cruising many of the ports are well worth diving. My favorites include Dominica, Grenada, Barbados and St. Croix in the Eastern Caribbean. The western Caribbean holds such delights as Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Southern Caribbean cruises often stop at Aruba, Bonaire and/or Curacao -- all very nice dive spots. The added advantage to some of these ports is that shore diving is possible, which means you save money on the cost of diving. We'll talk more about the diving at each port in a later post.

Once you know which ports you want to visit you can start watching for a deal on cruises going to those ports. In my next post I'll discuss how to weigh the cost of a cruise against the value to you as a diver. It's not always the cheapest cruise that wins your vote, but rather the cruise that offers the right balance of convenience, time in port, overall itinerary and the best diving opportunities. Until then, bottoms up!

Choosing the Right Cruise for Diving