Dive cruise ship Caribbean

[saska.m]

Hi!

I am new here, but i would really need your help.
I would like to go to Caribbean and take a dive cruise. I am a specialist in wreck diving, so i would like to take a cruise that can do as many wreck dives as possible. I would like to visit Aruba, Netherland Antilles, Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Puerto Rico, Martinuque...
If anyone has any other ideas for good wrecks i would like to know.
Anyway, i want to ask you guys if anyone did something like this and if you have any advices? I am planing to go with someone that dosent dive, so she would like to walk arund the islands while i dive. Or do you have any other ideas how it is possible to travel around the Caribbean? I was looking at the flights and they are expencive, so i am looking for new options. So cruise looked good?
Please i need some help!

Thank you so much!!!

Saša

 

[saska.m]

Anyone, please help!!!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I did a cruise there years ago... the ship put into most of the places you talk about for one day. A number of them had shore excursions that included diving. The diving was certainly not the focus. I suppose it is possible to keep the lady entertained on other excursions while you dive but if you are a serious diver you may not find you are happy with the limited options offered by the cruise ships.. but I figured at least this is a response of a kind...

You may want to look in the buddy finder for buddies in the areas you are thinking of and try to set something up that way ... worth a try maybe

Good luck

 

[RJP]

There are only a few good wreck dives in the Caribbean. Fewer still that would appeal to someone who's a wreck diver - speaking as one myself. Further, those few are scattered among disparate islands. Rhone in BVI, Bianca C in Grenada, etc... (google "Caribbean Wreck Diving")

I'm not knowledgeable about various cruise offerings, but the likelihood of finding a cruise that would string those specific dive destination together is probably very low. Further, the type of diving you get to do from a cruise ship is limited at best.... "hurry off the boat, hurry to the dock, hurry to the dive site, hurry in the water, see the wreck, hurry back to the dock, hurry back to the ship..." You'll be dealing with vacation divers who want to take a look at the outside of some intact boat that was scuttled and laid on the bottom 10yrs ago to enable cruiseship divers to say they dove a wreck. You won't be allowed to penetrate or spend much time on the wreck at all.

Long story short, cruising is not a great way to dive the Caribbean, much less if you want to focus on wreck specifically.

 

[saska.m]

Guys thank you so much. RJP, how did you travel in the Caribbean? I thought that there is a diving boat in the Caribbean that only takes divers around. They have this in Truck Lagoon and all over Philippines where i usually dive. So i thought that something like this exists in Caribbean?
How is it with the wrecks in the Key West and around there? Are they ok? How is it with the oil spill?

Thank you again for all your responses!

 

[Coralcop]

saska, what you are wanting is a liveaboard. But, the Caribbean is a sea, not a Lagoon such as Truk, and liveaboards cover a relatively small area. So, first you must search for an area you want to dive, then check if any liveaboards dive that area. I dont know of any that specialize in wrecks, but you can find some that hit reefs and wrecks in that area. I did Blackbeards several years ago in the central Bahamas and we did several wrecks and many reefs in the week that we dove. The Keys by the way, have many wrecks and many operators that will take you to them. That area is probably best dived by staying in the middle to upper keys and going out with the local operators. Most of the Keys wrecks are relatively close to shore and are easily accessible by the dive boats as a two or three tank day trip. Oil has not affected the Keys yet by the grace of God

 

[LynnB]

Since I don't know where you are located it is hard to say...
Cruises are a good value but when you start adding on dive trips to it it tend to get pricey. You will pay around 100+ if you book through ship.
I agree with Coralcop that the keys have great wreck dives. Most are off of Key Largo which is the upper key. We have been there lots of times and did our dives with Rainbow Reef. There are about 4 hotels there on the marina.
We are close enought that we can drive it in 8 hrs. If you go to RR website you can do packages through them. Since the other person does not dive they could snorkel, fish or just hang out.
You can do a day trip down to Key West which is always fun.
Good luck,,,

 

[diversteve]

One option might be to go to St. Thomas (land-based) for a few days. The two dive ops based in Charlotte Amalie - Admiralty and Blue Island Divers have access to quite a few wrecks just south of there. St. Thomas is also a major cruise origination point and there are cruises from there that do stop at some of the other locations you mentioned but just for one day at each place. Blue Island mentions doing on-going work to find new wrecks to dive.
St Thomas Scuba Trips - USVI Dive Packages
Blue Island Divers Dive SItes

Then take the ferry over to the BVI's (1-2 hrs. depending on the boat) and spend a few days diving there, the Rhone is one of the signature dives in the Cariibbean and the Chikuizen is another good wreck. There's enough other wrecks that DiveBVI has hosted a wreck week. I'm not a wreck diver but I enjoyed the Rhone dives. The movie The Deep was filmed there.
http://www.divebvi.com/dive-sites/rms-rhone/
http://www.divebvi.com/dive-sites/chikuzen/

Or go to Bermuda, there's about 400 wrecks there.
The Bermuda Shipwreck Expo Directory Capt. Dan Berg's Guide to Shipwrecks information

 

[eagleman13148]

Hello to all..I am a new diver..Just got my C-card and have only had 4 Dives. We are going on a cruise in September and have a chance to dive in Coco Cay. The Dive would be with the dive crew from Royal Caribbean..has anyone had any dive experience with Royal Caribbean. My thoughts are that....

a. any dive time I would benefit from because its more experience
b. my "dive buddy" would be going with us so it would be good for us to dive more together
c. Its on vacation and the water and experience would be awesome.

any input would be helpful

 

[LynnB]

I would say go for it! If you can get in dives why not?