Cruise Diving

[Pisces Diver]

I will be going on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise with my non-diving teenage daughters in early December with ports of call on St. Thomas (11 a.m.-7 p.m.), Tortola (7 am-6 pm), St. Maarten (7am-6pm), and San Juan (7am-3pm), and will probably only get to dive at one of these locations. What are your recommendations for the best port to dive at, and which dive operators would you recommend? Thanks for your help!

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Of that list I have dived only St. Thomas. I can tell you that St. Thomas is average Caribbean diving. The dives won't be that deep and they will probably take you into or around the harbor. We dove the Navy barges sitting in the Charlotte Amalie harbor and it was a pretty good dive. I would do it again just to get wet.

 

[DiveMaven]

We did that exact itinerary last year and dove in both Tortola and St. Thomas. I would strongly recommend that you dive the RMS Rhone in Tortola. When you consider that the wreck is well over 100 years old, you'll marvel at the condition, particularly the bow which is still intact (partially). The prop is HUGE and it is easy to distinguish many of the different parts of the ship (the boiler, the masts, etc).

In St. Thomas we also dove the Navy Barges and a reef, both of which were really great. The Navy Barges were fun to swim through and explore, and the reef was in excellent condition with lots of coral and marine life.

We didn't dive St. Maarten because it isn't really known to be a good dive area. There's often strong ocean action and the diving can be dicey, so we spent the day on Orient Beach instead. I don't believe you can dive in San Juan either...at least I couldn't find a way in such a short time.

 

[Damselfish]

The better diving in PR is supposed to be away from San Juan. On that schedule I'd figure on the sightseeing thing there, like exploring the Old Port area and shopping.

 

[smokey braden]

pisces diver,
welcome to this board.
sounds like you and your daughters have planned a very nice trip.
you might want to consider tortola.
see if you can find an op that can put you on the rhone.
i find it to be a good dive.
there is a part of her in shallow water, so maybe your daughters could snorkle her while you dive her deeper sections.
regards,

 

[Pisces Diver]

Thanks for the advice, sounds like the Virgin Islands it is... what dive operators did you both use?

 

[Doc]

so maybe your daughters could snorkle her while you dive regards,

Excellent idea- get them involved!

On cruise ships they do all levels of dive education including resort course type intros.

Show them how cool this is!

 

[DiveMaven]

We dove with Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas and really liked them. I've heard good things about Admiralty Divers too. On Tortola, we hooked up with 2 other divers and booked a private charter with UBS Dive. Not only did it wind up being cheaper, but we actually got to dive our tanks and with only 4 people on the boat, it was a glorious day!

 

[Pisces Diver]

Did you find the other divers on the cruise, or at the dive shop? I checked out their website and it sounds great if you have a small group, expensive otherwise! It would be great to have the flexibility a small group offers. I'd love my daughters to try diving too once they are able to support the habit!

 

[CoyKoi]

My husband and I really love St Maarten, in large part because of Vinny, the manager of Dive Adventures at Pelican Marina on Simpson Bay (http://www.diveadventures-sxm.com). We've been 3 times at different times of the year and each time we've seen mostly calm seas and gorgeous days. The dive sites are very nice and <30 minutes from the dock. One of our favorites is the Porpoise tugboat, sitting upright in 100' 5 minutes from the dock. It has some cool swim throughs, tons of fish and the occaisional stingray in the sand. Vinny is a retired NYC detective and runs a very professional organization. Strongly recommend this outfit!