Is there diving at Great Stirrup Cay (NCL private island)?

[leo]

Does anyone have any experience with Great Stirrup Cay? I'll have it as one of the ports-of-call on a cruise in January, and I'd love to do some diving or snorkelling. Typically, I'd never dive as part of an official excursion, and would only organize something on my own, ahead of time, with a private and nonsponsored op, but if Great Stirrup is a private island then I understand that wouldn't be an option.

I wonder if NCL offers any sponsored diving?

If not, I wonder if I can just access some reef on my own, maybe by renting a kayak, to just snorkel?

I've read some on the island by searching on google.com, but I'd love to hear a first-hand account(s) by any divers here on scubaboard.

Thanks!

 

[QLittlestar]

Leo
Did you go and what was it like? Was there diving?

 

[leo]

Wow, you must have done some searching to find this thread, huh?

We had a nice day at this stop. It's a super easy boat ride from the anchorage to the island. One the island, there are two locations of interest. The first is the area immediately to the left as entering the tendering area of the island. This area is super crowded, and has many "lifeguards" watching over. Thus, I assumed that the stupid orange vests would be required, so I didn't go into this area. That was probably a mistake, as I was told that many didn't wear the vests, and that while there were no great reefs there and almost all sand that there were the rare southern stingray and juvinelle tropicals.

The other area of interest is to hike on your own to the area to the right upon arriving. We ignored any boundry "fence" (it was poorly marked, even if marked at all - certainly no fence of any type) and hiked on rocks all the way to the tip of the island. There were numerous places to jump in and snorkel (not just at the one sandy area encountered) along the way. There was very clear water, rocks mixed with a little reef, not a great quantity to see but the best to be had and certainly worth it.

 

[QLittlestar]

Thanks for that! I will definitely look into it. I am setting up diving on each of the ports and just hoped we could dive that one too and not get stuck snorkeling with every one else. There is not alot of information about the cay and I am on SB alot anyway. Did you dive other islands? We have a place for St. Thomas and Samana, now we have to get one for Tortola. Maybe it is could we don't dive the last day so maybe we will head down to the keys for one more dive.

Do you dive in Miami? I have always wanted to go out to the boat house or whatever they are you see way out in the water off the beach.

Thanks for the info!

Q

 

[leo]

I dove St. Thomas and Tortola - but I read that Samana wasn't worth it.

For Samana we searched a lot of posts online (searched google) and found a taxi driver that met us at the port and took 10 of us to a beach about 1 hour away (I don't remember the name). The snorkeling was horrible, but it was a gorgeous beach, and there were no other RCL tourists there.

For St. Thomas I dove with a small six-pack type boat that met us at ship-side. We dove some shallow reefs just south of the port. Not the greatest, although there was a lot of diverse small life.

For Tortola I took a taxi about 20 minutes from port to a small dive op that took us to the Wreck of the Rhone. It's a good dive if it's your first and only day there.

There is no diving at SC - unless you bring your own equipment including full tanks... I recommend snorkeling with your own equipment (or don't do it at all), and going to the way left part of the island where you might only see a handful of others hiking. The hundreds of others will be staying in the tourist area where the crowds, food, vendors, and bars are.

 

[QLittlestar]

There is a dive shop on Samana called Pirates Cove. Do you really think it was not worth it because I could use that 100 bucks to go shopping? St. Thomas I am going with Admiralty and nothing yet for Tortola, but I told them I want something to knock our socks off. My friend will be newly certified (we go to Key Largo for checkouts when we arrive), so I want her to see what I love. I live in Cali now where divers here try to convince me to strap on a 7mm or drysuit and dive the cold waters, but I love the tropics having grown up in Florida. I guess I am spoiled, after the Caribbean, Florida, Thailand, I want the good stuff and great viz.

I think I will take your advice and snorkel SC as we will have our gear. I'm a big girl so I never leave home without it.

Was the trip an hour away on Samana worth it? Although we are just two women, that could be dangerous in DR. I told them I was a travel writer, so hopefully they would take us to the mind blowing spots. Thanks Leo for all of your info, this helps so much.

 

[leo]

Well, my first rule is do nothing with the official cruise line outfits, so I can't help you if they're are making any recommendations.

I also can't comment on diving in Samana, since I've never done it, but all my research (and I did a lot) indicated it wasn't any good, and I can say that I didn't see anything that looked like diving was even remotely possible or good, certainly no sight of reefs from where I was.

As for traveling around the country, and I'm a frequent international traveler - that part of DR would be so so so safe for you, you should have no fear. Other than the large cities, DR is so much safer than say a city in the U.S. I would totally take a taxi an hour away from the port if you have any international travel experience, hate the official cruise comany excursion options, and in general hate tourists. Do a google search, or wait, now I remember, go to cruisecritic.com - that's a great bulletin board for reading all kinds of personal reports from the same RCL cruise itineraries! Search Samana Beaches and you might find my posts, if I put them up?

Also, definitely DON"T go shopping in Samana - unless you're a tourist - it's nothing but fake port-type shops and such... there's no town at the port. If you don't go away in some taxi or something like that, then don't even go ashore - it's a total waste of a day unless you make something of it, as so many posters in cruisecritic mention.

Good luck.

 

[QLittlestar]

Leo we are on the same page! I have only done one other cruise and i did all of my excursions on my own. I did a round the world trip for a year getting back last year and I generally hate tourists, that is why I hate cruises. This is my friends dime and she wanted a cruise, so I am hoping to get her away from the sheep on the cruise for an adventurous good time. My first cruise was out of San Juan but it was fun to go to the different islands, so I know where I would come back to. And it was a great opportunity to pick up some cuban and guavaberry rum.

thanks again for all of your help. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

 

[Web Monkey]

Does anyone have any experience with Great Stirrup Cay? I'll have it as one of the ports-of-call on a cruise in January, and I'd love to do some diving or snorkelling. Typically, I'd never dive as part of an official excursion, and would only organize something on my own, ahead of time, with a private and nonsponsored op, but if Great Stirrup is a private island then I understand that wouldn't be an option.

I wonder if NCL offers any sponsored diving?

AFAIK, there's no diving there, although I've always been tempted to bring along a 40 Cu Ft tank for a nice shallow dive.

Terry

 

[leo]

AFAIK, there's no diving there, although I've always been tempted to bring along a 40 Cu Ft tank for a nice shallow dive.

Terry

Yes, from the view of the higher deck of the cruise ship which is tendered quite close to SC island (and the sister island next to it which is another RCL's island), there appears to be a ton of beautiful reef with crystal clear water in the area. There are other islands nearby, too, so I'm sure there's a dive op close enough to do a boat dive in the area -- but I have no idea how you would link up with them as NCL and RCL would never let such an op tender alongside the ship nor enter the private property waters of the islands (nor allow you to hike outside the private property area.

If your weather is nice, and sea conditions right, I think your snorkeling will be quite good - let us know.