Mac is back

[mac66]

Cruising and diving that is. After a 2 year hiatus due to the virus took the family (wife, three adult children/spouse) on a RCI cruise to Coco Cay, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan. I was a little nervous diving again after such a long time. Hadn't dived in 2 years so in Roatan I did a discovery scuba class as a refresher with my kids and then we all dived the reef. I also dived Costa Maya. I had forgotten a few things but it came back pretty quickly.

We have a cruise in Feb with stops in St. Thomas and St. Maarten. That's a specialty cruise (Rock & Romance) so stops are limited. I've dived in St. Maarten but not in St. Thomas so I will try to get a dive in on ST. We also have a 12 night cruise in March. Southern Caribbean, 7 islands where we've never been before. I'm going to try and get in 3 or 4 dives. Got to spend some time with the wife who doesn't dive.

 

[drrich2]

Cruising and diving, two of my loves! Glad you get to go, and introduce your kids to it.

 

[mac66]

Actually the second time I've had them do a discovery dive. First time was in Feb 2019 in Cuarcao. They did a discovery while I dived. Second dive we all dived together which was fun. They are all in their 30s so not exactly kids. They all enjoyed it but none of them have had a chance to get certified.

 

[yle]

We have a cruise in Feb with stops in St. Thomas and St. Maarten. That's a specialty cruise (Rock & Romance) so stops are limited. I've dived in St. Maarten but not in St. Thomas so I will try to get a dive in on ST. We also have a 12 night cruise in March. Southern Caribbean, 7 islands where we've never been before. I'm going to try and get in 3 or 4 dives. Got to spend some time with the wife who doesn't dive.

The last cruise & dive trip we took was the beginning of February 2020... just weeks before everything was shut down. St Thomas was one of our stops, as it was for many previous cruise & dive trips going back to 2009.

In the early years, we dove with Blue Island Divers and they were great... small boat, crew that knew what they were doing. But since around 2015 it seems things changed on St Thomas... I guess dive ops were struggling financially, there were some mergers, a turnover of a lot of staff. In 2020 I found that Blue Island was gone and there were few options for dive ops. I went with a newish one... found that they were expensive and inexperienced.

Sharing this just to let you know that it might be difficult to find a dive op on St Thomas that has been around long enough to really understand the business, i.e. taking care of customers and that being a dive op isn't just about taking money and dropping people in the water so they can swim around. I'm sure the past 18 months haven't helped the situation either.

We've always dived the south side of the island, leaving from the cruise ship port at Havensight. But I've read that Coki Beach on the north side offers a decent shore diving experience. I might look into that next time we're there... I'd rather take myself diving for the cost of a tank rental than rely on an inexperienced dive op.

As for your March trip... you didn't list the islands, but St Lucia is easily #1 on my list of the islands in the S. Caribbean. We've done cruise ship diving there, as well as Barbados, St Kitts, Dominica and Antigua (and St Thomas, St Maarten.) The scenery and wildlife is just wonderful, and wreck of the Lesleen M is one of my favorites (and I've been to a lot of wrecks.) It's not that big, but everything about the wreck is just beautiful. I have no problem spending half of our dive time (one of our two dives...) just on that wreck.

I've never booked through the ship for our diving in the S Caribbean. If you want my two cents for dive op suggestions, just let me know.

 

[mac66]

In checking into it it appears that most private dive ops are off limits on most of the islands we are going to in March. (St. Croix, Barbados, St Kitts, Dominica , Antigua, Grenada, St. Lucia). I thought there was a dive through the ship on St. Croix but I can't find it anymore and there are no dives currently offered through the ship. I had 4 dives planned when we booked this trip 2 years ago. I did contact St. Crois Ultimate Blue Water Adventure (SCUBA) but haven't heard back from them after several emails.

Looking for a dive in St. Croix and would like at least two other dives. I'm open to suggestions.

In Feb, I booked through the ship to dive in St. Thomas.

 

[BigDaddyGlad]

I was on Celebrity Apex in November, and it appears as if (likely due to lower sailing capacities) the cruise lines have all pretty much canceled diving excursions. It does seem like RCL is still offering limited excursions off ships with on-board PADI-shops, but for the most part you'll need to find a local provider.

Getting dives done in November entailed a LOT of emailing/texting/coordination between the few divers on-board and the local shop. I was able to find a dive buddy through the roll call section on Cruise Critic.

I've got two cruises booked in 2022 (August & November), and I'm hoping we'll be through the worst of Omicron by that time.

 

[mwall04]

I did contact St. Crois Ultimate Blue Water Adventure (SCUBA) but haven't heard back from them after several emails.

Looking for a dive in St. Croix and would like at least two other dives. I'm open to suggestions.

I am surprised that SCUBA hasn't returned your emails, as they are usually very dependable. Just to double-check, here is SCUBA's contact info that I have: (340)-773-5994 info@stcroixscuba.com

A couple other dive shops are located within walking distance (SCUBA and Cane Bay Dive Shop literally across the street and Nep2une is one block away) from the cruise ship pier on St. Croix:
CANE BAY DIVE SHOP: (340)772-0715 canebaydiveshop@gmail.com
Nep2une Scuba Diving: (340)227-1915 N2ScubaSTX@gmail.com

Diving is business as usual here on St. Croix right now. Other than masks being required inside the dive shops (as well as all other businesses here), no other restrictions with diving.

 

[mac66]

I am surprised that SCUBA hasn't returned your emails, as they are usually very dependable. Just to double-check, here is SCUBA's contact info that I have: (340)-773-5994 info@stcroixscuba.com

A couple other dive shops are located within walking distance (SCUBA and Cane Bay Dive Shop literally across the street and Nep2une is one block away) from the cruise ship pier on St. Croix:
CANE BAY DIVE SHOP: (340)772-0715 canebaydiveshop@gmail.com
Nep2une Scuba Diving: (340)227-1915 N2ScubaSTX@gmail.com

Diving is business as usual here on St. Croix right now. Other than masks being required inside the dive shops (as well as all other businesses here), no other restrictions with diving.

When I first saw the cruise line scuba excursion I booked it while trying to get a hold of SCUBA. That was about 3 weeks ago. I'd since checked my "plan your cruise" page and it was gone which made me think that I was seeing things or misremembering. I had my wife check our credit card and sure enough it was charged but then refunded a couple weeks later. So I guess I wasn't crazy after all.

I heard back from SCUBA thanks to your link. I'm good to go in St. Croix.

Still looking for shops to dive in Barbados, St Kitts, Dominica , Antigua, Grenada, or St. Lucia. I would like to dive in at least 2 more places particularly St. Lucia.

 

[Brojas]

Who did you use for Roatan, Puerto Costa Maya, Coz, and Coco Cay cruise? I will be on the same itinerary in March.

 

[mac66]

We used Sun Divers in Roatan. Ended up canceling in Coz and Coco Cay was filled. Didn't dive in Costa Maya.

Was just recently (last week) on a cruise to St. Maarten and St. Thomas. didn't dive in St. Maarten but dived in St. Thomas through the ship (Celebrity).

Leaving for a 12 night cruise next Saturday, 7 island stops, diving on 4 of them. No cruise ship dives offered. The one that was offered in St. Croix was cancelled.