Need a bit of advice: diving Dominica and St Croix from cruise ship

[yle]

After a six year hiatus (our last cruise was February 2020...) my family and I will be island hopping in the southern Caribbean this February once again. I've been to St Thomas, St Maarten, St Lucia, St Kitts, Barbados a bunch of times. But this time we're stopping at St Croix, where I've never been, and Dominica, where I've been once nearly 20 years ago.

Naturally, we're looking to dive and it's my job to set up the diving for the group. I'm running into a little difficulty and I could really use some advice.

Dominica: it seems Dive Dominica is the only dive op within reasonable distance of the cruise ship pier, but their website says explicitly that they will not book cruise ship passengers. It instead directs us to book through the ship excursions... but my ship has no scuba excursion. I suspect this policy is because they contract with the cruise lines for their "whale and dolphin sightseeing" excursion, and they'd rather fill that boat. And they've likely had trouble with cruise ship passengers arriving late, after the dive boat has left. But... does anyone have direct experience as a cruise ship passenger diving with Dive Dominica?

St Croix: the best I can tell, the cruise ships park at the pier on the west end, i.e. Frederiksted, but the most interesting dive sites are along the north shore. I've found there are dive ops near the ship pier that offer boat dives to the sites on the west end... but they really seem lacking. So I was thinking a better plan is to rent a car at the pier (I just reserved it today), drive to Cane Bay (Google says its 11 miles and 25 minutes), rent tanks from the shop there, and do a couple relaxing shore dives. We'll be in port 8 hours, so we should have plenty of time for the roundtrip drive, dive-SI-dive, and a but of lunch.

Advice? Critique? Thanks in advance!

 

[Wants2divemore]

I was just in St. Croix on June at a cruise ship stop. You're correct that they dock in Frederiksted. I dove with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures (their shop is right at the end of the pier) and had a good 2 dives. My trip report is below.

Never having been to St. Croix before, I can't comment on how the dive sites on the north shore are, but I thought things were fine on the west end.

It all comes down to how much risk you want to take for the better diving on the north shore. If you run into any problems with the car rental, an accident, etc., you run the small risk of being left behind if you miss the cruise ship departure (remember that typically you need to be on board 30 minutes before the listed departure). I've been on a lot of cruises (and dove on most of them) and unfortunately seen a few people left behind. Make sure everyone in your group takes their passport (the original, not just a copy) so that you can book a flight off the island if necessary.

If you do decide to dive in Frederiksted, I've also read a lot of good things about Nep2une Divers.

Trip Report Thread 'Frederiksted, St. Croix - St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures'

Jun 17, 2025

I was in Frederiksted, St. Croix for the first time on a cruise stop and did a 2-tank dive with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures (SCUBA) in Frederiksted. They have a 2-tank cruise special where they adjust starting time to ship arrival time. I generally try to avoid cruise ship packages or excursions if possible but they only offer the cruise ship dive package from their Frederiksted location on days when cruise ships are in port.

TLDR: Good operation, good dives, would use again.

LOCATION: Right outside cruise pier, 2 minute walk from end of pier

CHECK-IN: Easy as they already...

• Wants2divemore
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Lesser Antilles

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[Living4Experiences]

I don't have experience with diving in Dominica, but I have been to St. Croix a couple of times on a cruise ship stop and also stayed on the island for a week for diving. St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures does a good job with cruise ship passengers. Having a rental car during my week-long stay in May a couple of years ago, I have dived from Frederiksted and Christiansted. I was rather disappointed with the diving at Cane Bay and didn't really think it was worth the time and effort to get over there to dive. Like the rest of the Caribbean, St. Croix has seen a bit of deterioration in their reef.

Depending on what month you take your cruise, December through February has the Christmas Winds in St. Croix and Cane Bay can be blown out, but Frederiksted is not affected as much.

If you do rent a car, read the contract, because when I rented, they told me that flat tires are not included for roadside assistance. This is because the roads are so very poor with huge, deep potholes. It took me 40 minutes to get over there while driving in a zigzag to avoid the potholes. Once you arrive, the parking is challenging, and I parked a few blocks away from the marina. No fun on a hot day when you're hauling your dive gear.