2022 Cruise, St Croix, Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica & St Kitts, should I try to dive them all or are there other tours I should do?

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Cruise is in a few weeks, have researched on here, yet some posts are pre-covid.

In summary, the GF and I saw some recommend not to dive in St Lucia. Not sure what else to do. Wondering if there's other locations that we should skip and if so, what should we do instead? We're very active people but love scenic things that make us go "wow".

The other issue is finding availability, this cruise does NOT offer any ship diving tours. For Dominica, have tried 4 dive shops but all were booked solid that day, may just be SOL there.

For the other ports I have 3 ports where I located shops with availability and the other 3 ports I've emailed at least two shops and am awaiting reply to determine.
 
On a cruise stop in 2014 I did a 2-tank dive excursion booked privately with Scuba Steve's and liked it just fine. Given the estimated expenses of a dedicated dive trip to St. Lucia, that may well be the only diving I ever do there. Enjoyed it and no regrets. Back in 2006, on our honeymoon cruise did a rainforest hike there, and enjoyed that, too - very lush (didn't see wildlife, just vegetation, but a lot of it).

St. Croix has some good diving and I enjoyed it. It has other activities, but if there are no non-divers to entertain, I might go for diving there. It may seem a little 'sleepy' compared to some cruise ports, but is a beautiful island.

Antigua doesn't get much mention on ScubaBoard, but I have seen the topic brought up very sporadically. A cruise stop may not be the best way to blaze a trail. I'd do something else there.

Barbados gets mentioned in diving here once in awhile. Wife and I did a snorkel tour where they fed sea turtles on a catamaran back in 2006; rum punch was included and I thought 'the drunks' were hallucinating 'fairies' till I realized there were flying fish leaping out of the water and gliding in the distance. Might dive this one, simply because it's a place I might never go for a dedicated dive trip.

Never been to Grenada. It's well-spoken of on ScubaBoard, for topside and diving. I suggest reading some trip reports, and see what your excursion options are. If it appeals strongly and you think you want to go there for a dive trip, I'd do a topside excursion on the cruise. Enjoy something you otherwise might not.

Dominica - known for lush rain forest and some good diving. I'd be torn between a rainforest hike and diving. Here are some old threads I keep handy in case I ever get to go there:
Discussions of Dominica -
Dominica…everything I should know but don’t - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...minica-everything-i-should-know-but-dont.html
I was surprised by how nice the diving was in Dominica. Excellent! - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/le...rised-how-nice-diving-dominica-excellent.html
Dominica Recommendations? - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/494111-dominica-recommendations.html

St. Kitts - when I see it mentioned in trip reports, it's generally because someone took the Caribbean Explorer live-aboard, dove St. Kitts and Saba, and Saba was more dramatic and hogged the attention. Topside, St. Kitts is a pretty beautiful island. I've visited on a cruise stop, we hit Romney Manor and some 'great house,' and I paid for my daughter and I to pose with a pet monkey so I could get photos.

Either St. Lucia or Dominica could get you a nice rainforest hike, I think. I'd dive one or the other. Note: nobody who knows me would associate me with 'hiking,' but rainforests inspire me. Antigua I'd do something else. St. Croix I'd dive. Barbados I'd dive because I'd likely never get around to a dive trip there. Grenada I'd have to think about.
 
Great, thanks for the info!
 
On a cruise stop in 2014 I did a 2-tank dive excursion booked privately with Scuba Steve's and liked it just fine. Given the estimated expenses of a dedicated dive trip to St. Lucia, that may well be the only diving I ever do there. Enjoyed it and no regrets. Back in 2006, on our honeymoon cruise did a rainforest hike there, and enjoyed that, too - very lush (didn't see wildlife, just vegetation, but a lot of it).

St. Croix has some good diving and I enjoyed it. It has other activities, but if there are no non-divers to entertain, I might go for diving there. It may seem a little 'sleepy' compared to some cruise ports, but is a beautiful island.

Antigua doesn't get much mention on ScubaBoard, but I have seen the topic brought up very sporadically. A cruise stop may not be the best way to blaze a trail. I'd do something else there.

Barbados gets mentioned in diving here once in awhile. Wife and I did a snorkel tour where they fed sea turtles on a catamaran back in 2006; rum punch was included and I thought 'the drunks' were hallucinating 'fairies' till I realized there were flying fish leaping out of the water and gliding in the distance. Might dive this one, simply because it's a place I might never go for a dedicated dive trip.

Never been to Grenada. It's well-spoken of on ScubaBoard, for topside and diving. I suggest reading some trip reports, and see what your excursion options are. If it appeals strongly and you think you want to go there for a dive trip, I'd do a topside excursion on the cruise. Enjoy something you otherwise might not.

Dominica - known for lush rain forest and some good diving. I'd be torn between a rainforest hike and diving. Here are some old threads I keep handy in case I ever get to go there:
Discussions of Dominica -
Dominica…everything I should know but don’t - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...minica-everything-i-should-know-but-dont.html
I was surprised by how nice the diving was in Dominica. Excellent! - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/le...rised-how-nice-diving-dominica-excellent.html
Dominica Recommendations? - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/494111-dominica-recommendations.html

St. Kitts - when I see it mentioned in trip reports, it's generally because someone took the Caribbean Explorer live-aboard, dove St. Kitts and Saba, and Saba was more dramatic and hogged the attention. Topside, St. Kitts is a pretty beautiful island. I've visited on a cruise stop, we hit Romney Manor and some 'great house,' and I paid for my daughter and I to pose with a pet monkey so I could get photos.

Either St. Lucia or Dominica could get you a nice rainforest hike, I think. I'd dive one or the other. Note: nobody who knows me would associate me with 'hiking,' but rainforests inspire me. Antigua I'd do something else. St. Croix I'd dive. Barbados I'd dive because I'd likely never get around to a dive trip there. Grenada I'd have to think about.
We dove Grenada off a cruise years ago, probably back in 2007. It was really good diving! I can't remember the dive ops for any of our cruise stops unfortunately. St. Lucia was a wonderful dive and like drrich2 says, I don't anticipate going there for a dedicated dive trip so I'd take advantage of a dive off a cruise. St. Kitts is poor for diving in my opinion. We were on the Explorer Ventures liveaboard from St. Maarten to St. Kitts, with the diving around Saba and a couple of days in St. Kitts. St. Kitts was not good diving in my opinion. A lot of garbage in the ocean. Saba was incredible and I wish EV would keep their temporary itinerary of doing round trip from St. Maarten with all the diving in Saba, but I'm told a lot of people want the St. Kitts experience. Probably bc they haven't done it before. I can't imagine anyone wanting to keep St.Kitts and not do all the diving around Saba, it was that much better.
 
If your port time allows you time to get to St. Lucia, Grenada, and Dominica in time to do your dive/dives and get back to the ship in plenty of time, I would do it. I dove with Aqaunauts in Grenada and had a great 1 tank reef dive, which was all we had time for with an early departure time. The wreck Bianca C is also at Grenada, but elected to do the shallower reef dive with my wife/dive buddy. Current was pretty brisk, to the point that all of my attempted photos were blurred. There was a dive op both at Anse Chastanet and Dominica, but did not have enough time to comfortably do a one tank boat dive from either location, but had a lot of fun snorkeling. We snorkeled at Dominica (Champagne Reef) and in St. Lucia (Anse Chastanet) and from what I saw of the close in reefs, diving would be very good. From talking to the dive op folks at Anse Chastanet, the current can get pretty sporty there as well if you get out past the close in house reef.
 
Sure, try to dive them all. That is if you’re not interested in any of the other stuff at each stop.
 
St. Croix - Easy to make a free U.S. phone call to schedule dives or get info. Cruise ship pier is in Frederiksted with a couple of dive shops at the end of the pier. Nep2une Scuba Nep2une Scuba – Small Group Diving At Its Best is great dive op. Limits diver to 6, so would need to contact in advance. Good chances they would take you to a wreck and a reef.
* I would recommend diving here but if you don't, an ATV tour is a great/fun way to see a part of the island.

Antigua - Indigo Divers https://indigo-divers.com is located about 20 minutes from cruise ship pier in Jolly Harbor. Was there 2 weeks so hit several different sites. Not known as an exceptional diving spot but water is clear and there are fish and sharks to be seen.They take cruise ship people but you have to get your own transportation.
* Hired a taxi to take us on a sightseeing island tour, which is a pretty common thing to do. Made a couple of stops at some historic sites.

From my 2020 cruise ship research (just before pandemic):

Barbados - Cruise ship pier is in Bridgetown. Roger's Scuba Shack Home - Rogers Scuba Shack has free pickup/dropoff at pier. Majority of dive sites are in nearby Carlisle Bay (5-10 min. drive from pier.)
* Did a 5 ½ hr sea turtle snorkel with lunch here - one of the better catamaran/snorkel trips I've been on. There are several touristy sites to see in Barbados.

St. Lucia - Had scheduled a dive through the cruise ship (Carnival) and it was cancelled the day before. Cruise ship pier is in Castries. Dive shops and dive areas were not close. Scuba Steve's Diving Scuba Diving in St Lucia, Snorkeling in St. Lucia, Scuba Steve's Diving, PADI 5 STAR Dive Center, Rodney Bay and Dive Fair Helen St Lucia Diving - St Lucia Snorkeling - Dive Fair Helen pick up free at the pier. I think there may be a long drive to get to the dive boat/sites, but someone else will have to verify that.
* Again there are different touristy sites to see on this island.
** I'm pretty sure I scheduled a dive here because of SB members recommendations. So much depends on where an op takes you for the day.

St. Kitts - Cruise ship pier is Port Zante. Kenneth's Dive Center St. Kitts Kenneth's Dive Center | Scuba Diving, PADI Diving & Open Water Diving and Pro Divers https://prodiversstkitts.com are both a few minutes walk away.
* Did a rail and sail excursion here. Train ride is the big thing to do, but the sites along the way are underwhelming. The sail part just gets you back to the cruise ship. If I were to ever do a cruise again to this island, I would dive, not because diving is great (I can't say) but because topside activities are limited.
 
Cruise is in a few weeks, have researched on here, yet some posts are pre-covid.

In summary, the GF and I saw some recommend not to dive in St Lucia. Not sure what else to do. Wondering if there's other locations that we should skip and if so, what should we do instead? We're very active people but love scenic things that make us go "wow".
I've never dived St Croix.

I've dived Antigua and Dominica from a cruise ship just once each, many years ago. I recall Dominica was great, Antigua was okay.

I've dived St Lucia, St Kitts and Barbados many times from a cruise ship, with the last time February 2020 (just before everything shut down.) If I had to pick one from these three, St Lucia wins easily. We have dived with Dive Fair Helen every time. Their shop is a ways south of the cruise ship port in Castries, but they have always arranged our transportation (one time the dive boat picked us up at the cruise ship pier, the other times they picked us in a van.) I've never come close to having a problem getting back and forth to the ship. And underwater St Lucia is amazing.

Barbados... easy and quick cab ride from the cruise ship to the dive ops in Bridgetown. We've used a few different ops, but have settled on Roger's Scuba Shack for our last few trips there. Not much scenery underwater in Barbados. Edit: I just read jonhall's post above and it reminded me... Roger did pick us up from the cruise ship pier and drop us off. Taxis are readily available, and the ride is short, but Roger took care of us anyway.

St Kitts... we've used Pro Divers for most of our diving there. They're right next to the cruise ship pier... Auston (the owner) picks us up for the quick drive (it's close enough that we could really walk...) back to the shop and boat. We've always had good dives there... reef sharks come to mind. And the bulldozer.

I've never booked through the cruise ship, always booked directly with the dive shops. Let me know if you have any specific questions I can help with.
 
I did the same itinerary in March. It was a 12 night cruise hitting all the islands mentioned. My wife doesn't dive so I only did St. Kitts and St. Croix.

Used S.C.U.B.A. in St Criox, Pro Divers in St. Kitts. Both good dives. The ship had mechanical problems which resulted us getting to St. Croix about 2 pm, We had booked a 9 am dive. They put us on the afternoon boat.

There is more info and some pics of those dives in the Mac is Back thread on page 2
 
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