St Thomas dive vacation - Admiralty

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cobaum

New
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
Denver
# of dives
25 - 49
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. Robert’s was a rip-off. Glady’s was good, but really slow. Hook, Line and Sinker overcooked all our burgers (how simple is that?). The only high spot was Fungi’s. 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.
 
I'm heading there in May and booked with Admiralty based on other good reviews from SBers. Were you able to get by without car rental, we're staying at the Inn at Villa Olga, walking distance to dive op.
 
cobaum,
welcome to this board.
thank you for the trip report.
where y'all diving next?
regards,
 
RJ - We stayed out by Red Hook, so we needed a car rental. The taxis are more like busses and they are a per person charge. There were four of us and would have cost a bundle in taxi fare. There are no real beaches within walking distance of the dive shop that I know of, so you might want to figure out your beach situation if you want beach time.

SB - Don't know yet. We are a once a year diving family so we have a little time yet to plan the next trip. A friend offered his timeshare in Kauai for Christmas. Now I have to find out if there is any diving there and how much it costs to fly there over the holidays.
 
Just got back from STT, where I dove with Admiralty DC as well. The price was outstanding and the service was amazing!! I hadn't dove in almost four year, yet I felt completely safe in the water with these instructors. John "Fishbutt" and Dwane were great!!! They really looked out for me and made my trip to St Thomas a wonderful experience!!! If anyone is heading there I have to agree with Cobaum, Go See Admiralty first!!!!!
 
I just saw McLovin made a post. It reminded me that I forgot to mention that three of us were got our advanced cert and one got an open water cert. Duane went online with PADI while we were getting out gear together and gave us a print out showing that it was all completed. We got our new cards by mail a week or two later. No need to worry about whether they actually turn everything in for your cert. Again - impressed.
 
RumJunkie
I too stayed at the Villa Olga and dove with Admiralty in January. I and two dive buddies didn't rent a car, but made friends with a taxi driver named Vince (local # 3404736362, tell him Paul and Dave sent you) that made getting around easy. It's about a 45-second walk to the dive boat from Villa Olga, and a 10-minute walk to the dive shop in the Windward Passage Hotel. Depending on how much island-seeing you want to do, a $10-$15 round trip taxi ride once or twice a day may be better/cheaper than a car. If you're diving in the morning, I'd recommend catching a ride in the afternoon to Bolongo Bay Resort, a partner hotel to the Villa Olga with a great beach atmosphere, poolside bar, and beach "toys" like a Sunfish sailboat and paddle boats you can use for free if you tell them you're staying at the Villa Olga.
Tell Duane and Laura "hey" from Dave and Mimi if you can remember. Have a great trip!
 
RumJunkie
I too stayed at the Villa Olga and dove with Admiralty in January. I and two dive buddies didn't rent a car, but made friends with a taxi driver named Vince (local # 3404736362, tell him Paul and Dave sent you) that made getting around easy. It's about a 45-second walk to the dive boat from Villa Olga, and a 10-minute walk to the dive shop in the Windward Passage Hotel. Depending on how much island-seeing you want to do, a $10-$15 round trip taxi ride once or twice a day may be better/cheaper than a car. If you're diving in the morning, I'd recommend catching a ride in the afternoon to Bolongo Bay Resort, a partner hotel to the Villa Olga with a great beach atmosphere, poolside bar, and beach "toys" like a Sunfish sailboat and paddle boats you can use for free if you tell them you're staying at the Villa Olga.
Tell Duane and Laura "hey" from Dave and Mimi if you can remember. Have a great trip!
Thanks for the valuable info. I'm def going to give Vince a call and check out Bolongo Bay. A 45 second walk....wow, that just made my evening!
 
We dove with Admiralty for several days in April. It was the highlight of our trip. We should have spent more time diving with them.
 
We just came back from a trip to STT and had a great time. Renting a car was very helpful, but you could get around without one if you plan ahead. We stayed on the south side of the island at Bluebeard's Beach Club. We dove with Saint Thomas Diving Club and Red Hook Dive Center. STDC mostly dives the south side of the island - our dives were split between reefs and wrecks. RHDC mostly dives the east side of the island and we dove reefs with them. There is some over lap between the two. Both of them were great operations and we would dive with them again - absolutely no negative experiences with either one.

Hope you have a great trip.
 

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