Due to the short times in dock, typically 8am-5pm, there isn’t really time to both dive and experience much with my wife at a single island.
Actually, you have plenty of time to do both. Most dive operations want you there by 9am and have you back from a 2-tank dive by 1-2pm. We quite commonly dive, go back on the ship to freshen up and drop off our gear, and then go back ashore for several hours in the afternoon. The "official" ship's tours are likely gone by then but there's always a row of taxis happy to take you anywhere, including on a private tour whose length is controlled by your wallet. Some of our best island introductions have been with a 2-4 hour taxi ride where we say "Show us your island", agree on a price, and away we go. They'll stop where you want, etc. And the verbal intro along the way is every bit as good as the "official" tour guides.
Also: Most dive boats will take along a snorkler or even a non-diving spouse for a few extra bucks. Might be a good way to involve her, stay together, and perhaps gently ease her into the water over time.
So, which ports would you recommend a newbie diver like me dive at and which should I spend touring with my wife. If diving, what’s the recommended dive shop.
I'll try to provide LDS recommendations in a later reply.
LATER: See below!
The stops are:
St. Kitts- I am already set up to dive with Terry @ Pro-Dive.
We've found the diving off St. Kitts to be marginal. Always nice to be in the water, but lately we've been doing land based activities. They do have the world's best trained reef sharks, though. At least that's how it seemed to us. The DM said first one would come check us out, then come back with a couple of friends, then more, and we'd eventually have 8-12 sharks swimming around us. That's exactly what happened, so precise that when we surfaced I expected to see the boat captain holding a remote control!
The shuttle is long and winding, but SO worth it to dive at the Pitons. There's a dive called "Superman" and another one I can't remember where the colors are simply explosive. We have a favorite shop there that, at first glance, looks a bit sketchy but don't be deceived... the DM knows exactly what he's doing and where to go. One of our favorite locations in the Caribbean!
LATER: Recommended dive shop is Action Adventure Divers in Soufrière, divemaster Chester, aadivers.net, 758-459-5599 main, 758-485-1317 cell. They can arrange taxi to/from the cruise terminal. Takes an hour each way, 110% worth it for the scenery alone though there is a pretty trashed shantytown in the middle. The shuttle can be a bit rough on the squeamish - would be a great drive in one of our Lotus cars! But the diving... wow. We saw colors and life that we've never seen before or since. The dive boat looks questionable but they have this dialed in. My wife and our son's girlfriend were exchanging glances but at the end of the second dive both were ready to forget the cruise ship and just stay. We were hugging Chester like family when we left. On our short list of "places to spend at least a week of diving". After typing this I want to go back right now....
Cruise ship diving off Barbados is either the west coast (huge reefs full of life) or the south coast (which includes the marine park, all of which is mostly shallow sandy bottom). However, don't discount the south... you can visit 5+ wrecks in a single hour and that's where we saw our first seahorses - three on a single dive! Another of our favorite islands and we have a couple of LDS recommendations.
LATER: Recommended south coast dive shop is West Coast Dive Center (WSSC), westsidescuba.com, 246-262-1029, westsidescuba@gmail.com. Owner? Manager? is Peter Grannum, super nice and helpful, has personally picked us up at the cruise ship. If you can, dive with divemaster "RJ"... the man knows where everything is underwater. Short version of a long story: One day's first dive had an extremely irresponsible kid in his mid-20's (older than our son) who did everything RJ told us not to. Back on the dive boat that kid and his Dad were no longer in our group (might not have been in ANY group) which left just my son and me with RJ as our dedicated DM. I think he noticed that we were competent and obeyed his instructions during the first dive, because he came over and said "It's just the three of us now, so we're going to SEE SOME STUFF!" He took us to the marine park where the relatively shallow water made our tanks last forever and we went to wreck after wreck... seahorse after seahorse... my camera battery (fresh every tank) died in a single dive from all the photos. The best part? When we surfaced my son said to me "That's the best dive I've ever done" and we've been a lot of places together. He credited RJ's professionalism and bottomless knowledge of the area which gave him a ton of confidence so he could just relax and enjoy the dive. I tipped RJ more than any other DM ever, gave him every bit of cash I had, and wished I'd had more. Have I mentioned how much we like Peter and RJ? {grin}
Our recommended west coast dive shop - where we've been twice - has seen a dip in its ratings. Not sure if they've changed ownership or what. For our next visit this August we're trying Barbados Blue (info@divebarbadosblue.com, 246-434-5764) which comes well recommended and has so far been awesome setting up our visit. They're not up the west coast, more on the "corner" separating the two coasts, but they go in both directions. I'll post a trip report once we've seen how they are in real life.
St. Maarten - This sounds like a fun place to visit both nations on the island, so I am leaning toward not diving here.
You're not missing anything. Diving is fair at best, though the shop we've used was incredibly great with the newbies we had with us on that trip. Instead of diving, our favorite activity is helping to crew the America's Cup yachts for their morning and afternoon races in the bay. You can just go as a passenger but it's much more fun to crew. My wife runs one of the aft winches and I started calling her my "winch wench", and now the staff uses that term for people all the time!
There are two sides to this island. On the cruise port side it seems all the dive boats head out to Buck Island, about 30-40 minutes in a dive boat off the coast of St. Thomas. It's worth going once, or returning with newbies doing Discovery Dives, because they have some wrecks out there but they've been really torn up by storms over the years. Newbies get a better than usual DD because most DD's don't include wrecks, but for certified divers a single visit is enough. The opposite side of the island has some shallow stuff that, again, is worth seeing once. Coki Dive Shop is the place you want over there. We rented scooters and rode over on our own once. Be forewarned: The friendly locals say "Hi" by honking their cars at you and while we appreciated the sentiment, it was very nerve-wracking for my wife. She's never rented a scooter again.
LATER: Recommended dive shop right next to the cruise terminal is Underwater Adventures (340-774-3737, adventurescubaschool.com). Most recent office manager (as of 2023) was Danielle. This shop handles the "official excursions" from the cruise ships but I strongly recommend booking direct. You'll walk up to the dive boat and just mix in with the arranged groups. They take very good care of certified divers and newbies alike; they were one of the LDS's where my wife did DD's before she decided to get certified. Be sure to buy a spray bottle of their antifog solution, it's the best we've ever found worldwide.
Hope this helps!
, are doing a 11-day Viking cruise late November ‘24. I want to dive 2-3, maybe 4, of the stops. My quandary is which places to dive and which to spend the best shore time sight-seeing and doing land excursions with my wife. Due to the short times in dock, typically 8am-5pm, there isn’t really time to both dive and experience much with my wife at a single island.
This info is very helpful. Many thanks! I look forward to your update on Barbados Blue. Happy diving!
