Southern Caribbean dive recommendations for wife and son, new to diving

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Huskita92

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Hello all, quick question. I have a few years under my belt, advanced open water certified. My wife and 11 year old son will be going through training and getting certified this spring. Excited and a bit nervous. We have a cruise planned for this July. Ports are St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Maarten. Any recommendations for dive outfits that will provide a well-monitored, fun and safe first few dives, adhering to depth limitations and the like? I really want them to see some fun stuff, and feel safe, and most importantly, want to KEEP DIVING! Thanks!
 
Consider paying the extra for a private guide for your 11 yr old. Have their sole goal be to keep the 11 yr old safe and happy. I did that with a 12 yr old some time back and was really glad I did.
I find St Maarten diving not worth the effort and would stick to other activities there. Cannot help you at the other locations.
 
Hello all, quick question. I have a few years under my belt, advanced open water certified. My wife and 11 year old son will be going through training and getting certified this spring. Excited and a bit nervous. We have a cruise planned for this July. Ports are St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Maarten. Any recommendations for dive outfits that will provide a well-monitored, fun and safe first few dives, adhering to depth limitations and the like? I really want them to see some fun stuff, and feel safe, and most importantly, want to KEEP DIVING! Thanks!

Yes, contact Dive St. Kitts. You can email them if calling is a problem.

They'll pick you up right in the cruise port area after you get off the ship (where the shops are), take you to their shop, get you setup with gear, and take you out to nice, quiet shallow reefs with tons of stuff to see.

The DM is awesome and the boat ride to the dive site is literally less than 2 minutes, and it's about 1/4 of the price the ship charges, for much better dives.

You can do as many or as few dives as you want, and when you're done (and feel like you're ready to go), they'll take you back to the ship. They don't have a mob of divers. It's entirely possible it will just be you guys and a few others.

It's all at your pace and is very relaxing. There's a nice bar/restaurant too, if you want to do another dive and your wife wants to just hang out and relax for a while.

Make sure that you mention that your wife and son are new. They have a very quiet protected lagoon where the DM can go over skills before the dive.

> St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Maarten.

I just did a very similar cruise. I'd skip diving on the other islands this time. they're likely to be too pressured or intense for first dives. However the snorkel excursions are a ton of fun and you'll all have a great time. Look for anything that has "catamaran <whatever> and snorkel" in the description.

flots.
 
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St. Thomas has some shallow diving that can be good. I've stopped at St. Lucia twice on cruises; 1st time we did a rain forest hike (nice, lush, be careful not to turn your ankle), 2nd time dove with Scuba Steve's (trip report), booked privately. My 2 dives both had max. depths deeper than 40 feet.

For the future, check out Key Largo. Trip report. Lots of shallow reef diving.

Richard.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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