Caribbean Princess Dives

[Web Monkey]

We're just getting back from a St. Thomas / St. Maarten cruise on the Caribbean Princess, and I'm moderately disappointed and a little surprised.

I signed up for the "Advanced" SCUBA trip in St. Thomas. Got a warning on the dive description that it's an "Advanced Dive." The ship printed another warning on the ticket and additionally, send an actual 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper with another warning on it along with the ticket.

I figured "Cool. Maybe it won't be too crowded and will be an interesting dive".

Got off the ship, was met by a rep from the dive shop and directed to the shop. Waited in the shop. Waited in the shop some more. Waited a while longer.

Suddenly a mob of people showed up and we went down to the dive boat. Most of the people had rental gear with the required dangling pressure/depth gauges. They were apparently unaware of the various uses for pockets and clips.

I had brought a 19 cu ft pony because I never know who/if my buddy will be on the cattle boat dives. The boat crew spent a significant amount of time making cracks like "That's not a pony, that's a clydesdale! I was tempted to tell them to bite me, but decided not to bother.

Everybody in the water with their danglies! Nobody had buddies, which is just as well, since I suspect very few couldn have been much help anyway.

The "Advanced" dive turned out to be two "guided tours" in less than 60 feet that lasted just about 40 minutes each. Came up with over half a tank left on each dive, which really pissed me off, since the second dive "Navy Barges" was very cool and full of all sorts of great stuff. I would have liked to stay longer (a lot longer), however we were being herded around, and the DM wouldn't stop.

It's apparently a 40 minute tour regardless of how much air you have left.

The next day I signed up for a regular "Non-advanced" dive on St. Maarten.

The reef was very cool, however the seas were pretty rough. The DM led the group around on what looked like a really cool swim-through in a coral/rock formation. I went in a litttle way, then decided to back out and go over the top because the surge was pretty intense and I didn't want to damage the coral if I got knocked into it.

The we went to a small wreck (some sort of barge/freighter) that was also really cool. Saw some octopuses for the first time and a spotted ray. Vis was pretty bad.

DM kept looking around for the boat, then brought the group up way over 500 feet from the boat (lost?). It was a long swim back in rough seas. Again, it was a 40 minute dive, and then I'm back back on the boat with over half a tank.

One diver was bleeding very impressivly from his eye and nose. One of the crew, who had obviously used his x-ray (or MRI?) vision, blew him off and said "Probably just a sinus squeeze" Yeah it probably was, but maybe not.

Another diver got cut up badly, apparently on the coral, and was also bleeding impressivly. He was offered a band-aid.

Neither place had Nitrox or hyperfiltered air, even though I had requested it months ago, and again right before the trip (and I saw Nitrox tanks right in the shop in St. Thomas). Now I need to have my regs O2 cleaned again 8-(.

Went back to the ship and talked to the SCUBA manager and mentioned that the "Advanced" dive was nothing too exciting, and that the "non-advanced" dive was quite strenous and that they might want to change the description so new divers wouldn't get injured, and also that all the dives were way too short.

He wasn't impressed and spent a good deal of time explaining how they had to be "follow the leader" dives because of insurance problems. He wasn't able to explain why they had to be short and was very defensive about the descriptions, explaining that he's made thousands of dives and "they are what they are", and the divers are "on their own about calling the dive or not". I mentioned that brand new divers have nothing to compare it to, and typically don't have the confidence to call a dive. He wasn't impressed.

I won't be diving with Princess anymore, and probably won't be crusing with them either.

More on this later when it's not 35 cents/minute to use the computer.

 

[diveborg]

Bummer. I did like my Princess cruise and will eventually go with them again. I wouldn't use their dive excursions however, and I won't go on the eastern route either. There is much better diving on the western (except Jamaica) or southern cruises.

 

[newt]

Bummer. I did like my Princess cruise and will eventually go with them again. I wouldn't use their dive excursions however, and I won't go on the eastern route either. There is much better diving on the western (except Jamaica) or southern cruises.

I have cruised a couple of times on Princess. Do not use them to dive with. This next time I plan on setting up Dive Ops with private companies on the islands we go to. Yeah, they gave me the insurance crap too. I just think that they 1. Hire paranoid divemasters or 2. Hire lazy divemasters. But don't take my opinion, I would be willing to dive from the little docks they set up on the outside of the ship

 

[DiveMaven]

Wow, it's too bad you didn't book privately with Blue Island Divers on St. Thomas! Although the dives we did with them weren't "advanced" (Navy Barges being one of them), the Nitrox divers on our boat were permitted longer bottom times than those of us on air. They also did a follow the leader from one barge to the other so nobody would get lost, but had no problem with divers doing their own thing once on each barge.

Can't comment much about booking again with Princess for the cruise part since we usually cruise with Celebrity, but I can say that we didn't dive enough on our Christmas cruise, so we're booked on a Nekton cruise next! If I come home saying I didn't do enough diving after THAT trip, I'm in serious trouble. <ha ha ha>

 

[caymaniac]

Wow, it's too bad you didn't book privately with Blue Island Divers on St. Thomas! Although the dives we did with them weren't "advanced" (Navy Barges being one of them), the Nitrox divers on our boat were permitted longer bottom times than those of us on air. They also did a follow the leader from one barge to the other so nobody would get lost, but had no problem with divers doing their own thing once on each barge.

Can't comment much about booking again with Princess for the cruise part since we usually cruise with Celebrity, but I can say that we didn't dive enough on our Christmas cruise, so we're booked on a Nekton cruise next! If I come home saying I didn't do enough diving after THAT trip, I'm in serious trouble. <ha ha ha>

Well, who did you dive with on St. Maarten? I'm booked with Blue Island Divers (ST. Thomas), and had an e-mail this morning from Scuba Fun on St. Maarten but don't know who is worthy to book with there.

 

[foneguy]

hey web monkey,how did you find out who the dive operator was from princess? i booked with them for cozumel, mainly being my first time on a cruise, but i want to contact them. how did you get that info? when i call the cruise line the girl on the phone says she did not know and to check with the pursur's desk, by then my questions won't matter much.

 

[Web Monkey]

The one on St. Maarten was "Dive Safaris"

I actually had a couple of nice (although short) dives, but I think the guy bleeding from his eye and nose, and the other guy who shredded his leg on the coral might have different opinions.

In one sense, it's not the dive operator's problem, since everybody on the boat was certified. However, in reality, a reasonable person can't expect to take a diver who has had maybe 7 lifetime dives, and drop them into rough, low-vis open water, and expect them to be able to do swim-throughs in sharp confined spaces and controlled, slow free ascents.

Terry

Well, who did you dive with on St. Maarten? I'm booked with Blue Island Divers (ST. Thomas), and had an e-mail this morning from Scuba Fun on St. Maarten but don't know who is worthy to book with there.

 

[Web Monkey]

The only way I found out was to go on the dive.

Princess owns or has an arrangement with "New Wave" scuba, but I beleive this is only for the on-ship 3-day "We hope you don't kill yourself" OW class. The actual OW dives seem to be handled by independent operators, and they wouldn't tell me who they were beforehand.

Terry

hey web monkey,how did you find out who the dive operator was from princess? i booked with them for cozumel, mainly being my first time on a cruise, but i want to contact them. how did you get that info? when i call the cruise line the girl on the phone says she did not know and to check with the pursur's desk, by then my questions won't matter much.

 

[Web Monkey]

I really liked the Navy Barges. I wasn't looking for "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea", I was just hoping to be able to dive with a buddy and stay under until we needed to surface.

The "follow the leader until someone hits 1000 PSI dives" were disappointing because they were short, not because of what we saw.

Terry

Wow, it's too bad you didn't book privately with Blue Island Divers on St. Thomas! Although the dives we did with them weren't "advanced" (Navy Barges being one of them), the Nitrox divers on our boat were permitted longer bottom times than those of us on air. They also did a follow the leader from one barge to the other so nobody would get lost, but had no problem with divers doing their own thing once on each barge.

 

[Donna]

We were on the Golden Princess Dec 12 and Booked their dives. At Barbados the ladder broke on the dive boat and they tied it up with a weight belt. Also you had to carry your gear out over your head and walk out to the boat in water up to our chest. (I'm 5-9). One of the divers that had been on the cruise the week before, said if you signed up for the advanced dive in St. Thomas -- cancel, it is not a advanced dive. That was the only reason we signed up for that one so we canceled St. Thomas. But at St. Lucia Princess had actually contracted with Sandals Resort and their dive boat picked us up. I was so thrilled, since in March last year we had stayed at Sandals Grande St. Lucia and loved it.