The Trade Winds Cruise club is a timeshare boat that offers diving to its passengers. They have cruises in Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands. I'm wondering if anyone has been on one of these cruises, and if so, what they thought of the on-board diving program.
Well, if you keep in mind this is NOT a live aboard specifically for diving it is a good experience. We went in August to BVI and during our one week trip had 4 chances to dive. My one complaint was that it was pricey (75.00 extra)for a one tank dive, but I think it is inclusive for thier members (I went thru RCI exchange). Also if you are a member you can get a bunch of divers together and basically make it a dive oriented trip. If you charter the whole boat, 4 to 5 couples, they will do whatever you want.
The dive masters mostly let you do what you want and there is only a rough bottom time. You are pretty much on your own getting your gear together, tank assembled etc. If you are a new or fairly inexperienced diver this might not be the right venue, if you love snorkeling as well as diving or your partner is only a snorkeler than this might be. There is snorkeling, ,snorkeling, snorkeling available basically whenever the boat isn't moving, they even offered a night snorkel which was cool (no night dive available)
Keep in mind that it varies per boat and captain and I am sure location. They don't set a dive plan really but they did tell me prior there would be 3-4 opportunities to dive and they held up their promise even on the immediate heels of hurricane Dean!
The cabins are very small so go with someone you really like! The food, staff are all amazing and make for an all around great time with nice variation of sailing, mooring,diving, snorkeling,fishing and island hopping.
If you are a hard core diver looking for a dive vacation this probably isn't it, BUT if you are one of us "regular" divers that enjoys tiny secluded vacation Islands + diving I could recommend it. I have never been on a true live aboard for diving so I cannot compare the two for you I can only tell you about cruise club trip.
If you have any other questions or I overlooked something specific feel free to PM oer repost
