Family is going on a cruise, I get to dive once help me pick the island

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azstinger11

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Location
San Diego, CA
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My family is taking a cruise to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St Marteen early next year. It's a family reunion type of cruise and they have asked that I limit our (Wife and I) diving to one of the islands and the other two will be for more family events (most of the family has younger kids and we are the only divers of the lot), which is fair and I'm not complaining.

Any advice on which of those stops would be best for a dive and dash cruise dive? Any of those places have must dive things that could be done during a cruise stop? We haven't been to any of those islands before so it's all new to us.

Obviously, any dive operator recommendations would also be great!
 
My family is taking a cruise to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St Marteen early next year. It's a family reunion type of cruise and they have asked that I limit our (Wife and I) diving to one of the islands and the other two will be for more family events (most of the family has younger kids and we are the only divers of the lot), which is fair and I'm not complaining.

Any advice on which of those stops would be best for a dive and dash cruise dive? Any of those places have must dive things that could be done during a cruise stop? We haven't been to any of those islands before so it's all new to us.

Obviously, any dive operator recommendations would also be great!

Where in the Bahamas will you be stopping?
 
Where in the Bahamas will you be stopping?

Nassau, Bahamas, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, & Philipsburg, St. Maarten
 
Unless they were paying for the vacation i would tell them to take a hike. It's your vacation, most of the time is spent on a boat ride between islands then a few hours of excitement then back to a boat ride. But that's just me, vacations are me and my wife's time to have fun and reconnect, family and friend's time together are just bonus points. So I say dive every island, take pics and let them live vicariously from your adventures.
 
Unless they were paying for the vacation i would tell them to take a hike. It's your vacation, most of the time is spent on a boat ride between islands then a few hours of excitement then back to a boat ride. But that's just me, vacations are me and my wife's time to have fun and reconnect, family and friend's time together are just bonus points. So I say dive every island, take pics and let them live vicariously from your adventures.

They aren’t paying 100% of it but are heavily subsidizing it. Big cruises aren’t our typical vacation, so they offered as a way to make it more enticing it for us.
 
Nassau choices are either Stuart Cove's or Bahama Divers. Cove's will pickup outside the cruise terminal for the 45ish minute ride to their location. Bahama Divers is 10mins by cab.

Stuart Cove's | Nassau Bahamas Aqua Adventures - Stuart Cove's
Scuba Diving in The Bahamas - Bahama Divers since 1967

Two options in Charlotte Amalie are Blue Island Divers or Admiralty Dive. BID picks up via boat off the cruise dock, Admiralty by van. BID has an interactive dive site map on their site - lots of wrecks south of town.

St. Thomas scuba diving
Scuba Diving St Thomas | Charlotte Amalie | Admiralty Dive Center

More non-dive stuff to do in Nassau, the port is basically downtown and also the ferry next door goes to the Atlantis Megaresort - you can buy a day pass for many of the tours/activities.Cable Beach the other direction is a nice one for the non-divers but can be crowded - lots of high-rise hotels.

I personally found Charlotte Amalie kind of old and tacky - the WICO dock has it's own mall but downtown is maybe 10 mins away.

Arguably the diving is better in Nassau..

No idea about St. Maarten..
 
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Nassau, Bahamas, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, & Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Of those 3 destinations, Nassau has the best reputation for diving. We have done diving trips from Nassau although not recently, but the diving was good and we frequently saw Reef Sharks on dives.
 
Admiralty Dive Center in St. Thomas makes diving really fun and easy. They pick you up at your cruise port and bring you back. The team is pretty awesome
 
I think all 3 would be OK. I would maybe dive the middle stop so I would be with family the first stop and last stop. If I was choosing one, I would pick the one that I would not likely get to visit again.
Nassau, Bahamas, it has a hotel with an aquarium with more animals than you would see diving.
 
They aren’t paying 100% of it but are heavily subsidizing it. Big cruises aren’t our typical vacation, so they offered as a way to make it more enticing it for us.

I'm open to offers of adoption if they're looking for another child to take on cruises. Who wouldn't want to adopt a loveable 51 year old orphan...

Enjoy the trip, and post what you found during the experience!
 

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