Cruising to St Thomas & St Maarten Next week

[harleyxx]

I am going on a cruise next week to St. Thomas & St. Maarten with Royal Carribean.
What can I expect from the Dive excursions available?

I am trying to decide if I should bring my gear or use theirs. They offer the option of packages with equipment & Without Equipment. If I use their equipment am I going to end up with crappy gear?

Is it worth the effort to bring my own?
If anyone has experienced the dive packages available from this cruise line I would greatly appreciate your opinions, advise.....ect. There is not much info available from their web site.

Since this will be my first saltwater dive I am looking forward to seeing some reefs.

 

[H2OU]

Cruise line rental gear. Ewwww.

 

[Vayu]

Bring your own...

 

[diversteve]

I think RCL does the Coki Beach experience. It's not a great dive, there's a lot that are better off St. Thomas. It's also a 1/2 hr. shuttle to the East End to dive there. But Coki Beach is shallow and would be an easy dive for your first experience dealing with ocean currents and it's a really easy beach entry. Just don't go past the intake pipes for "Coral World" the current goes ripping past there in the afternoon.

There was a recent post here about the lousy quality of the gear used by one of the operators there so you might want to bring your own.

Depending on your schedule, try booking with Blue Island Divers or Admiralty. BID will pick you up at the WICO dock, if your boat docks at Crown Bay, their diveshop is there. Both dive the better sites off St. Thomas.

 

[REII]

You will be much more comfortable diving with your own gear. The visability on the reefs in the islands should be excellent.

Enjoy.

TOM

 

[nineeightysix]

If you are on a Voyager class ship, they have an on-board dive shop that rents and sells (duty free) Aqua-lung, Seaquest and Suunto gear. You could end up with a Legend and Cobra rental if you get lucky. If you are going to use a wetsuit, definately bring your own as their suits were well worn...

On voyager class they tend to have better dive programs too.

On St. Maarten you can go with Dive Safari's right off the dock. I have done Anguilla only, but understand most of the decent St. Maarten diving is limited to wrecks.


Cheers

 

[harleyxx]

Man Thanks for all the quick responses! Thats why I love this site.
There will be 4 in our group. My 17 year old daughter will be my dive buddy. (Have to keep my eye on her....teenagers you know!) My brother & sister in law will be the other members of our group.
My Brother in law has the most experience, having taken his adv open water & resce course.
The rest of us just have our open water. Judging from all the responses so far, I think I will bring my own gear.
I am a little concerned about getting the weights right. During the open water training they did not really cover how to determine how much weight one needs. They just kind of sized us all up and stuffed the weights in the BC.

I'm 6'-0 & weigh in about 230-235. I will probably be using a jacket style BC, although my brother in law is trying to talk me into a Back plate and Wing.
I don't want it to be a problem once we are ready to dive.
If I use 8 lbs for fresh water, how much more should I figure for Salt water? I know this is a Newbie question and has probably been asked a million times, but I am ruunning out of time to get all my gear ready.
Thanks

 

[harleyxx]

Thanks. I am going on the Mariner of the Seas. I think that is a Voyager class ship.
I am bringing my wetsuit. it is a combination 3-5 Mil. I hope it won't be too warm.
I will definately check out the dive shops for my next trip. the rest of my group want to use the excursions provided by the cruise line this time.

 

[nineeightysix]

I'm slightly smaller than you and use a hybrid (Mares Dragon) BC, I use 12 lbs. in salt water.

Cheers

 

[PePaw]

If you still have your OW Manual, theres a section about weighting and the "eye level" test. Since you live in Daytona, wading out for a weight check prior to the cruise should be easy.
Have a great time.