We were very fired about trying something new after reading the glowing reports on TA, well, we didn't have the same experience. We all have extensive snorkel experience so we were ready to go the next step towards scuba, but hold on to that thought. We should have figured it out when the boat picks you up at the dock near the Disney cruise ship, but again hold that thought. Of the 35 on board, probably 30 came off the ship, and were given a full safety briefing for 20 minutes, we got a 5-10 minute review with another scuba guide who would be our underwater leader. The equipment was all first rate, and a lot of time is spent while cruising to the dive site trying on equipment..etc. Needless to say of a 4-5 hr outing, we were in the water maybe 2 hrs, and that's being nice. You spend a lot of time watching others being outfitted and trained while you could be in the water at dive site snorkeling and after killing time we basically abandoned ship so we could snorkel, and maybe see something in the water. Well, the crew/capt. pick the dive site, and since we were close to shore the water is murky and not a lot to see. If you are expecting Nassau, Bermuda, or clear water reefs/coral you will be disappointed. Again I understand this depends on wx, but there just wasnt anything to see especially when your expectations have been raised and when you hear from locals there are indeed some great dive sites but alas farther out.
Now the snuba part of the day, as you are cruising out to the dive site the guides do try to ascertain various guests level of swimming or diving skills i guess to group like kind levels of divers together. Once we were in the water after our guide unfortunately hit our son in the head with a pulley from the ship putting the rafts in the water, we were a party of three guided to our raft with our respective breathing tubes, and another party of three also guided to there raft, the rafts are connected and then you are to swim under water to follow your guide to dive site. Great concept but we (my wife and I) spent the next thirty minutes untangled our breathing tubes and having to pull the rafts behind us and couldnt swim out to our guide as the group behind us on their raft was having problems, and basically just floating in the water as we basically pulled them around the dive site. Not a fun/memorable experience for us or certainly the Snuba staff on the boat as we made clear to them when we resurfaced. We did talk with the cruise guide on the boat, and heard from Josh at Snuba corporate that same day and did receive a partial refund and invitation to return on the house.