A couple of months ago I started looking for a dive vacation for the family. We live in Denver and started diving last year. I saw some incredible airfare prices for St Thomas from Denver - $260 each. Considering I am paying for four divers, that was important. So I booked it without knowing anything about STT. All the divers I know had never been to STT. So, not being familiar with this site yet, I went online and started calling dive shops. We were getting my 20y/o daughter a referral open water cert and my 16y/o daughter, wife and I were getting our advanced certs. I was looking for a dive shop that would have two instructors for the four of us and would make me feel comfortable that I would not have to worry about anything. We hired Admiralty Dive Center. I was very impressed. After three days of diving, I always felt very safe, under great instruction, and entertained. Duane (DM) taught us how to look for the signs that there might be something lurking in the shadows. We saw countless lobsters, some squid, some eel, two octopus (octopi?) and tons of other notables that made our trip outstanding. We are still new to diving and are still learning everything. It may make me sound stupid, but we still need the additional instruction to know how to find all the interesting things at the dive sites. Duane made sure we received the individualized instruction that made our trip special. Also, props to the captain Fishbutt (John) for taking care of us. A couple of other points of note: Admiralty will pick up divers at the cruise ship docks and from the Marriott. Even with the personalized service, they were competitively priced for all the services that they provided. It takes a lot to impress me and I was very impressed.
As for the rest of STT, we were disappointed with the restaurants. Roberts was a rip-off. Gladys was good, but really slow. Hook, Line and Sinker overcooked all our burgers (how simple is that?). The only high spot was Fungis. The food was very reasonably priced (~$20 each), and very well prepared. The best beach we went to was Sapphire Beach. It had a huge beach with palm trees and a quarter of the whole beach was a reef that had wonderful fish, eel, etc. Overall it was a great vacation.
As for the rest of STT, we were disappointed with the restaurants. Roberts was a rip-off. Gladys was good, but really slow. Hook, Line and Sinker overcooked all our burgers (how simple is that?). The only high spot was Fungis. The food was very reasonably priced (~$20 each), and very well prepared. The best beach we went to was Sapphire Beach. It had a huge beach with palm trees and a quarter of the whole beach was a reef that had wonderful fish, eel, etc. Overall it was a great vacation.