Will be visiting Aruba, Bonaire, Dominica and Grenada on cruise Feb 10-15. Appreciate recommendations for dive operations that can accommodate cruise ship schedules. I am an experienced diver who dives Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Turks and Caicos twice a year.
Appreciate your recommendations.
Rich Hagelin
We dove in Aruba and Grenada, don't recall the dive operators but I wasn't overly impressed with the diving (bad vis, no life, few corals but it could have just been the site). In Grenada, we dove as an excursion from the cruise ship. Aruba- wasn't impressed with the diving there or the dive operator.
We visited Dominica last November and dove with Buddy Dive Dominica which is located very close to the cruise pier. Just take a right and head to the Fort Young hotel. They are on the lowest level, you'll see the dive dock and they are right there. I HIGHLY recommend them- outstanding staff, service and the DM's love diving so they're open to anything! We dove with them for 10 days and it was wonderful. The corals are lush, very healthy, and just amazingly pristine. Only advice, if the vis is low stay close to the DM since the reef is made up of pinnacles so you're not always going "straight". We arrived after the hurricane so vis wasn't great and not a lot of fish so it should be even better now
Lots of puffers, seems like its a huge breeding ground for them! I've dove almost every site in Bonaire and I have to say that I think Dominica beats Bonaire, hands down, for corals. Not many people go to Dominica since its hard to get to so the reefs are as beat up like some of Bonaire's sites.
Bonaire- we dive there every year and love it. I would suggest Dive Friends which is very close to the where the ship docks. Just take a right and its about a 5 minute walk. We dove with them as an excursion in 2005 and they were excellent. You can do a boat dive with them or shore dive the house reef. If you shore dive the house reef, you have to dive south away from the cruise ships. It's a decent dive even though the reef is a bit beat up. You can dive with Divi but the boats can get very crowded, particularly in February. So shore diving there is decent as well, same reef as Dive Friends. Buddy Dive and Captain Don's are also very good but you'd need to take a taxi to get there. I'd call ahead to get their schedule if you're interested in boat diving. Divi's boats leave at 8:00 a.m. and if busy, they have some leaving at 8:30 or 8:45 then the afternoon boats leave at 2:00 p.m.
If you can, try to dive the Salt Pier- spectacular site! If the boat gets in early and leaves late, it may not be a bad idea to rent a truck and do some shore diving if you have a buddy since its so easy. If you do, I think its easier to go South since you could do the Salt Pier and a few other sites (they're pretty close together) then hit Jibe City
Klein is also very good too, lots of great sites.
Enjoy your trip!!
