Detailed dive port Information and pricing is below. To obtain the link to the group's secure online booking engine, please contact Suzi, the Group Leader. Please note the ala carte pricing for individual ports - most in the group will purchase one of three dive packages.
Dive Package A $400pp
Tortola Dominica Barbados
Dive Package B $300pp
St. Lucia Bonaire Curacao
Dive Package C $700pp
All Six Ports of Call
St. Thomas
Monday, February 20, 2012
Port 7:00am-6:00pm
Independent Shore Diving
$10/Tank w/o equipment
Max Depth 60 Feet
Dive Appropriate for all Levels of Certification
Mike and I (your group leader) will be heading to Coki Beach to do some shore diving while in St. Thomas. Coki Beach is about a 15 minute cab ride from Havensight Pier and 30 minutes from Crown Bay; at this time, I do not know which pier the Caribbean Princess will dock. Our intention is to walk off the ship and take a cab to Coki Beach, rent a couple of tanks and dive from shore before the area gets inundated with cruise passengers. We are doing this on our own, so divers in the group are welcome to join us; all we ask is you dive with a buddy.
We have been shore diving at Coki Beach many, many times; definitely the best time to get there is early in the morning while conditions are the most favorable. The dive hut now has a permanent location at the entrance of Coral World, where you can rent tanks for $10 - they also have rental gear. We plan to get off the ship at 7am and be back on the Caribbean Princess in time for lunch. If you would like to join us, please email me, the group leader at
2012scubacruise@gmail.com so I can add you to the "dive list". If a few divers in the group go with us, we can split the cost of transportation.
Coki Beach is located on a sheltered cove next to Coral World. After suiting up, you simply enter the water from the beach, swim out a short distance and go down. The deepest part of the dive, if you lay down on the sand is around 55-60 feet. There is a nice reef there (it's protected, thanks to Coral World) so there's a lot of fish. In some respects, I think it's as good as many boat dives we have done in St. Thomas (with the exception of a few dive sites), so if you are wondering if it's worth getting up early in the morning to go diving here, the answer is YES!
You don't have to get up early and go diving with us - since we are in St. Thomas all day, you can go any time on your own. But if you do go later, please note that by 11am, there tends to be more chop on the water and the visibility tends to go down hill around that time. Another issue to contend with are all the cruise passengers that flock to Coki Beach (on tours and on their own), making time spent above and below the water more of a hassle.
If it's been a while since you last dove, you may want to go to get wet in St. Thomas. The beauty of shore diving at a location like Coki Beach is you can ease yourself back into diving before our boat dives - taking time to check your weights and buoyancy, work on your air consumption and figure out how to use your new dive gear. Even if you don't go with us, please consider doing a one tank dive from shore. Divers interested in tagging along with us are welcome; just remember, you are shore diving on your own. I don't mind playing "follow the leader", but you are on your own if you have to come up early!
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Port 8:00am-6:00pm
2 Tank Boat Dive/Wreck of the Rhone
$140pp
Max Depth 60 Feet
Dive Appropriate for all Levels of Certification
We will be diving with Blue Water Divers, located in the Nanny Cay Resort & Marina, about 15 minutes from the ship. The price for these two tank dives in Tortola includes round-trip transfers. The group will be met on the dock by a dive shop representative who will take them to a pre-paid van or cab to the Marina. The Wreck of the Rhone is the dive site that has been requested. This dive site will have a few swim-throughs, but it is appropriate for all levels of certification. The wreck is in three sections off Black Rock Point, Salt Island, lying at depths between 25 to 80ft.
The first dive will be on the bow section; the second dive will take us to the stern section. As you know the Wreck of the Rhone has been featured in most, if not all scuba magazines as well as on National Geographic, BBC, and The Travel Channel. And of course, there is the movie "The Deep", which put this dive site on the map. I encourage all divers to check out the numerous YouTube videos out there from people who filmed their dives to get an idea of what this dive is all about. On a more personal note, this was among the first dives I did as an open water certified diver, so the Wreck of the Rhone will always be a special dive site to me. As a newly certified diver back then, I recall the first dive to be challenging, since it was here I did my first swim-through! But short of that experience, and all the anxiety that goes with it, I considered it a "piece of cake". And just so you know, 2012 will be the fourth time I will be diving the wreck of the Rhone.
Dominica
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Port 8:00am-5:00pm
2 Tank Boat Dive/Deep Wall Drift Dive
$140pp
Max Depth 100 Feet
Dive most Appropriate for Advanced Open Water Certified Divers or
50+ Logged Dives
We will be diving with Nature Island Dive. The price for these two tank boat dives includes round-trip transfers. We will be met at the port and transported to the dive shop in Soufriere. This dive operator has two small dive boats and one larger one. Depending on our numbers,we may be split into two dive boat groups. Our request to have us all together in a larger dive boat has been noted, but not confirmed. Pricing for our multiple port dive package is now available. We are scheduled to do two tank dives at the Marine Reserve including the Pinnacles as requested.
When we were here a few years ago, Dominica was among the best dives we did all cruise; gin-clear water, lots of sea life and amazing terrain. The closest dive sites to compare it to is in St. Lucia at Superman's Flight. Both dive sites in Dominica can be prone to strong current and you can expect to max out during the first dive at over 100 feet, so they are considered to be advanced dive sites. We recommend divers be AOW certified or have over 50 logged dives because of the depth of these dive sites.
Barbados
Friday, February 24, 2012
Port 8:00am-5:00pm
2 Tank Boat Dive/Reef and/or Wreck
$140pp
Max Depth 60 Feet
Dive Appropriate for all Levels of Certification
We will again be returning to dive with Andrew at Eco Dive Barbados I was so happy we were able to get Andrew! The price for two tanks includes round-trip transfers. The group is expected to walk off the ship around 8am and meet up with the owner of the dive shop who will have pre-paid taxi's waiting for the group. We will leave it up to Andrew, an accomplished UW photographer, to decide where we will dive in 2012. The plan is to do two reef dives, possibly a wall.
Andrew's dive boat is not the most comfortable, but he is by far our favorite dive master! You will be asked to suit up at the dive shop and leave everything else locked up in the store. It may get a little crowded, but we always end up with amazing dives. The dives in Barbados tend to be shallow, have excellent visibility and youll always see at least one sea turtle. The reefs are teaming with life, so our photographers tend to leave Barbados with excellent photos. The dives here are appropriate for all levels of certification. That said, Andrew is very strict more so than most about divers watching their buoyancy and air consumption. He believes in going slow, making the most of our bottom time, so if you have issues with air consumption, you will need to make sure you dive above the group .
St. Lucia
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Port 9:00am-6:00pm
2 Tank Boat Dive/Deep Wall Drift Dive
$130pp
Max Depth 100 Feet
Dive most Appropriate for Advanced Open Water Certified Divers or
50+ Logged Dives
The Pitons are back by popular demand! Yes, we are heading back to Supermans Flight in 2012! This is not only the best dive in St. Lucia, but due to the depth and strong current, most dive shops will NOT take you here from a cruise. We are indeed very lucky to be able to dive here again this year. The price for two tanks includes round-trip transfers.
We will be diving with Scuba Steve whose dive boat will be waiting for us in the marina. The group is expected to walk off the ship around 9am and head over to the Marina where we will board the dive boat and be on our way. Our dive itinerary will take us south of Castries and down to the Marine Reserve and Soufriere by the world famous twin mountain peaks of Gros and Petit Piton. Superman's Flight will be our first dive. Please note that this dive site is prone to strong current, like those you see in Cozumel. The last time we dove here, there was not much current to speak of at Supermans Flight, but the second dive was a tad wicked. Similar to Dominica, we recommend AOW certification for this port.
Grenada
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Port 7:00am-2:00pm
1 or 2 Tank Boat Dives - depending on location of dive operation.
$TBA
This is NOT part of the dive package - Mike and Suzi as well as a few other divers are planning to go diving on their own. If you are interested, please add your name to the Grenada List. This port is good for all certification levels.
Bonaire
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Port 12:00noon-7:00pm
1Tank Boat Dive/Unlimited Shore Diving
$80pp
Max Depth 60 Feet
Dive Appropriate for all Levels of Certification
Divi Dive Bonaire will be the dive operation we will be using. They are located right outside the cruise terminal area, at the Divi Flamingo Resort. We will walk off the ship and head over to the dive shop on foot. There we will get a dive briefing before boarding the dive boat and heading over to Kelin Bonaire. The island is but 15 minutes away, so we should be in the water a little after 1pm. After our one tank dive, we will return to the resort, where we can dive from shore on our own for a few hours.
Curacao
Friday, March 2, 2012
Port 7:00am-5:00pm
2 Tank Boat Dive/Unlimited Shore Diving at Resort
$110pp
Max Depth 60 Feet
Dive Appropriate for all Levels of Certification
We will be diving with Caribbean Sea Sports at the Marriott; The price for two tanks includes round-trip transfers. We will be met by a dive shop representative at the pier who will walk us over to pre-paid cabs that will take us over to the resort which is said to be about 5 minutes away. The price of the dives include unlimited shore diving. No dive sites have been requested; if you have a preference, please email the group leader.
