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Dive Review of Blue Water Divers and Watersports/Royal Caribbean Cruise in
Bermuda

Blue Water Divers and Watersports/Royal Caribbean Cruise, Jun, 2008,

by Jon, MD, USA (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports). Report 4288.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 2 stars
Comments I set up this two tank dive as an excursion with Royal Carribean. Price was $150 for a two tank dive. This included transportation to and from dive shop. Decided to go this way because excursion guarnteed that the cruise ship would not leave port without you. The shop is located in a small harbor cove. The shop is adeqaute size and offers rental gear. Gear is a normally high bermudian price. Boat was a standard size dive boat. Dive master advised that boat was Coast Guard approved and had O2, life jackets, and proper radio equiptment. Dive briefing was done before we left the dock. DM was direct and to the point, with some humor mixed in. Check off sheet was completed going in and coming out of the water.
First dive was on patch reef in approx. 40 feet of water. Seas were calm and vis was about 50 to 75 feet. NO BIG FISH at all, NO grouper or barcuda. DM expained that heavy fishing took place for years. There were a ton of Sgt. Majors. I did see an octupus about the sixe of a basketball. Got to see him change colors, swim along the bottom and crawl the coral head. Dive was lesiurly paced and non guided.
Second dive was on the wreck MONTANA. This was pretty cool. It is an old paddle wheel steamer that was a highly sucessful civil war blockade runner. Sank in Dec. 1863 on a shallow reef. She lies in 30 feet of water and is partially intact. Navigating the wreck was no problem and had little to no current. Partially intact, gave me the oppurtunity to swim into the ship in some areas. Huge steam boiler and pddle wheel frames vissible. Wreck had alot of growth, with an abundance of small fish. Bonus, very close to the Montana was another wreck that ran aground trying to avoid the Montana. This wreck was full of concrete and had a ton of glass bottles. You can easily explore both wreck due to the shallow depths. You could easily make out the pillars of concrete that have now become artifical reefs. Glass bottles cover the ocean floor and make for good photo ops. However, all of Bermuda is a protected area therefore, the bottles can't be removed from the sea. All in all, plesurable easy begginner dives. The boat crew was not very attentitive to expeirence divers but I think that is because they had enough "cruise ship" divers to worry about. Boat crew was not pushy about tips and provided a small tip jar in the shop after the trip. Bonus shop provided certificate of wreck, sponsered by Bermuda wreck diving program.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Riveria Mia, Cozumel, Florida Keys, Morehead City, Bahamas.
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm, no currents
Water Temp 80-80°F / 27-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions 1 hr time limit, back on the boat 500PSI.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 2 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars Shore Facilities 2 stars
UW Photo Comments Boat had small camera bucket. Dive Master did give camera bucket instructions during briefing. Boat was not set up with a dry table, but understandable being a day boat.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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