Diving in S. Caribbean on a 10 day cruise?

[bdshort]

Hi all! I will be on a cruise in April on the Carnival Elation. 10 days in the Southern Caribbean. The ports are: Start in San Juan, Barbados, Granada, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and ending in Jacksonville. The ship offers 4 diving shore excursions: A shore dive at Coki Point in St. Thomas, and 2 tank boat dives in St. Thomas, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts. Any thoughts on which areas offer the best diving? Based on the reviews on Carnival's website, I'm leaning towards St. Lucia, which is the most expensive, but has the most and best reviews. Are there good other options I should consider, independent of the cruise ship? Probably looking at only diving on one of the days since my wife is not a diver. I have some good warm water gear, but my thought is if I'm only going to be diving for one day, it's probably not worth dragging my gear with me?


I've been a member here for awhile, probably have a couple hundred dives under my belt, mostly in 2006-2008. Got kind of burned out on it, since I was diving in cold water nearly every week, but I'm starting to get the bug again. Luckily, I still have all my gear and can dive locally (cold water, drysuit) to warm up.

 

[diversteve]

IMO Coki Beach is a pass. It's pretty shallow and a marginal dive. There is one good area after the Coral World Inlet pipes to the right but that's about all we found. Also you're docking at Havensight east of town and it's a longer shuttle ride to the East End so depending on your time in port may be all you can do. If you do want to shore dive - it's about the only one on St. Thomas though.

One of the cruise operators is doesn't get the best reviews in our Cruise forum - IDK if it's Carnival's. Better choices would be Admiralty Dive or Blue Island Divers - both pick you up off the cruise dock - one by van, one by boat.
St. Thomas Scuba Diving - USVI Dive Center | Admiralty Dive Center
http://blueislanddivers.com/01_diving/CruiseShips.html

From what I've seen in videos, St. Lucia might be a better choice if you only get one. I've never been there. You might look for operator reviews here also - a quick search showed at least one trip report for your cruise recently. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cruises/ - they picked Blue Island.

 

[mi000ke]

I've done several 10 day Caribbean cruises. In most cases we always book a local dive outfit, not the cruise excursion. You will almost always get a better dive experience for less money. Once you know the port or ports you plan to dive at, just do your research on SB forum for good dive ops. I email the outfits to make sure they can accommodate the cruise schedule (most will even pick you up and drop you off by van or boat at the cruise dock, depending on where you are) and then we're set. Did a cruise last November and the only ports that overlap yours were Grenada (we had a great dive with Devotion2Ocean) and St. Thomas (another great dive with Diveaquamarine).

 

[Tool Belt]

We had a good dive with Admiralty in STT

 

[bdshort]

Looks like St. Kitts will be where I dive. DW booked a speedboat and beach/snorkel excursion in St. Lucia. Sent a message to Pro Divers St. Kitts to see about booking as a single diver.