Help with Carnival Jan 2013 - Grand Turk, Aruba, DR and Curacao

[Livestrong10]

Just moved to Charlotte, NC, got certified in Columbia, SC. Going on a cruise Jan 2013. Looking for places to dive or shops I should go through. The cruise line does offer some dive stuff, but I'd rather find a good shop and possibly get a better deal.
I'll be in Grand Turk, Aruba, Dominican Republic and Curacao.
This will be on a Carnival Cruise, 8 day cruise. Always looking for dive buddies as well. My friends that I'm going with are not certified and can't really do much in the scuba area.

TIA
Kris

 

[Livestrong10]

bump...anyone?

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Kris,
Welcome to the forum and NC. There are a lot of divers in this area and a few shops. this is a great forum but you might want to look at Scuba Diving in North Carolina. NC wreck diving, NC dive trips, Diving in NC. Two of the best shops, IMHO, is Divers Supply located in Pineville, NC and Welcome to Lake Jocassee Dive Shop, Salem, SC. You can PM me for places I do not think highly of but, I do no bashing in public unless warrented. Dive places include, the coast, Lake Jocassee (you need to look up this place in that it has great diving as well as history. i.e. ever seen a real graveyard underwater), the quarries maintained by Piedmont Diving Rescue Association , Blue Stone quarry and any of the lakes (but I don't dive the lakes other than Jocassee). Friends and I, like this weekend, go to the Cooper River for fossils and to Lake City Fla. for the caves. Please take care and see you underwater. Feel free to PM with questions and I will do my best to answer them.

 

[Skybadiver]

I highly recommend Ocean Encounters in Curacao. I dove with them during a cruise this past spring. Another thought on both Aruba and Curacao . . . the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) are known for their shore diving even more so than boat dives. It would be a mistake to rule that option out in either Aruba or Curacao. Ocean Encounters permits (and encourages) shore dives from their docks, and the folks who took them up on it seemed to have a great time. I obviously don't know what your boat diving experience is, but in most locations in the carribean, boat dives are DM lead (as opposed to the FL Keys, for example). As such, the typical arrangement is for a DM to take a group of 5 or 6 divers along for an underwater tour. No real need for a buddy in that case as you'll have 5 or 6 of them.

FWIW, I've done snorkel and SCUBA excursions with Carnival, and have found that their trips are better than other cruise lines.

Enjoy the trip!

---------- Post Merged at 11:47 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:43 PM ----------

Oh. One last point. The dives in the ABCs are typically pretty shallow. As boat operators generally limit dives to 45 minutes or so, you may find yourself surfacing with a ridiculous amount of air left in your tank. If you view that as a waste (I do!), you might consider doing some snorkeling too. There are a ton of critters in the shallows, it's much cheaper, and you can spend as much time as your time in port permits.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Sorry for the babbling but after I read Skybadiver's post I reread your post. I started out right but got side tracked. but Diver's suppy might be able to help with POC's ans shops. Sorry.

 

[jimbodives]

I agree with Skybadiver about Ocean Encounters in Curacao. I did my referral certification with them, a shore dive and a boat dive. Excellent dive shop and they have a few shops on the island.

 

[diversteve]

Atlantis also has a cruise dive program on Curacao. They're slightly closer to the port than Ocean Encounters. Atlantis Diving Curacao - Cruise ships

I thought Ocean Encounters was the Curacao Cruise operator. Their boat leaves at 8:30 - it's probably a 15min. ride from the port due to the congestion when your ship docks - plus you have to get thru Customs.

 

[Skybadiver]

I thought Ocean Encounters was the Curacao Cruise operator. QUOTE]

They very well may be. I booked with them directly. I don't recall if there were others from the cruise on the boat with us.

 

[rivers]

Blue water divers in grand turk

 

[Livestrong10]

Sorry for not having had a chance to respond. I will definitely check out the shops you guys have mentioned. I'm still new to diving, having only done 2 dives. Don't want to miss out on a great dive spot and regret it