What Gear Do We Take?

Flight restrictions on weight and dimensions of luggage have forced many cruise divers to choose between traveling with scuba gear or traveling with extra clothing. We choose gear. Here's what we cruise with for diving:
Regs
Fins
Masks
Booties
Wet suits
Defogger
Spare mask & fin straps
Snorkels
Two 4D flash lights
Orange inflatable safety buoy
Two nylon & mesh gear back packs
Camera & housing
Two swim suits each
Flip flops
Two fleece lined wind breakers
Sun screen
Sun glasses
Travel hair brush

You can see that most of the list is comfort oriented. We see no reason to endure discomfort when we dive, thus the wetsuits, fins with booties, and wind breakers. If temperatures require, I also take a fleece lined dive skin to add on the second dive. We travel with our own regs partly for comfort and partly for safety. We have custom fitted mouth pieces for comfort and every time we dive with an unknown operator we are already putting our lives in their hands on so many levels, so using our own regs adds one layer of safety to the dive.

We rent BC's, weights, belts, and tanks.

It seems like quite a lot to travel with, but as an example, we just completed a 14 day cruise using only two large rolling suitcases, two hanging bags, and a carry-on item each- all within the weight restrictions. And I actually commented during the trip that I had packed too much--I took shoes that I did not need, one dress that never left the hanger, and too many pairs of shorts.

If all of that is more than you want to take, you could pair it down to the mask, snorkel, & fins. The advantage to that is having the ability to find your own beach and snorkel spot in non-diving ports, without having to pay rental fees. We recently enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of snorkeling on St. Kitts for only the price of a cab ride and rental of a pair of beach chairs.