Need Help Deciding which port to dive in on my Caribbean Cruise

[Angela!]

Hi There Everyone,

This may be a little early to ask about this, but I'd like to get started right away on reserving my shore excursions for my Southern Caribbean Cruise I'm taking in September 2009. I'm sailing with Royal Caribbean and I will be departing out of San Juan, PR. The ports of call that I will be visiting are Bridgetown Barbados, Castries, St. Lucia, St. John's Antigua, Philipsburg St. Maarten, and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Unfortunately after looking on Royal Caribbeans website for shore excursions I found that they only offer scuba excursions to 3 out of the 5 ports of call. The three I have to choose from are Phillipsburg St. Marteen, Bridgetown Barbados, and Castries St. Lucia. I know I have the option to book a scuba excursion with a company outside of the cruise line on these ports, but I would like to keep my excursions all booked with Royal Caribbean because they guarantee all of their excursions for any reason and won't leave you if your excursion runs over the time limit at the port.

This will be my first time visiting all of these ports of call except Phillipsburg St. Marteen which I visited this past summer on a different cruise. I didn't dive there, but I was most likely just going to do a day at the beach there like I did last time as I enjoyed that very much. But if it is the best port to dive in given my choices then I may reconsider diving there. I only want to do 1 day of diving so which ever port is the best for diving then that's where I will be booking my scuba excursion to.

So I need your help; If you had the option to dive in Phillipsburg St. Marteen, Bridgetown Barbados, or Castries St. Lucia which one would you choose????


Your opinion is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[coach87]

I would avoid diving in St Maarten. The current can be challenging.

Barbados would be my choice. Don't reserve your dive throught the ship. Do the reserving on your own. Here is a clip from another post. We dove with John Moore 4 years ago and had excellent service. He will pick you up outside the cruise terminal.

Regards,

Eric

My favorite dive ops is Dive Barbados LTD owned and operated by John and Mary Moore. I have said many times here on the board that John is an easy going , no nonsense kind of guy that is really great to dive with. John uses a small 6 pack style boat that can be challenging if it is full. I had recommended John to a couple on here once they were all upset you had to walk through the water and climb a ladder to get into the boat and jump off the boat and wade back to shore at the end. If you want frills and acres of room…..not for you. If you want a FULL tank of air and a great dive, a DM that can find every piece of life on the reef, then John will be the guy for you. I think his prices are amongst the most reasonable too.

 

[Rhone Man]

I have never dived any of those locales, so I can only repeat hearsay: St Martin and Barbados are not normally talked about in the same excited terms as other Caribbean dive destinations (nor is Antigua for that matter).

St Lucia is supposed to have good diving. I have never dived St Croix, but I hear that they have some excellent wall diving. And certainly on nautical charts, those walls look steep and deep.

 

[jamga02]

Hello! My wife and I went on a scuba cruise with Princess in early November 2008. We went to basically the same places you mentioned, except not St. Maarten. However, between St. Lucia and the US Virgin Islands, I believe St. Lucia was far better for diving! We have been to most of the Caribbean, and St. Lucia is not far behind Bonaire and Dominica for us. Lots of fish, great variety, and beautiful island. Saw my first frogfish there also.

I have been to the US Virgin Islands twice, and both times I was not very impressed. I'm sure there is better diving offered if you stay on the island, but that is not what you are comparing.

Hope this helps! John

 

[Angela!]

Thank you, this is very helpful!! I was starting to lean more toward St. Lucia anyway. I e-mailed my diving instructor to get his take on which port would be the best and he said St. Lucia as well. Yay, I can't wait!! I'm realativly new to diving and have only been certified for about a year. So far I've dove in Aruba and Curacao. Curacao was my favorite out of those too. I wonder in St. Lucia will be better??

 

[DivingPrincessE]

I haven't done any of the islands you mentioned but I've been diving off of cruise ships a few times in the last year...so I've researched a lot of the islands typically hit by cruise ships.

I've heard good things about St. Lucia, bad things about the diving in St. Maarten (but the island itself is beautiful-I stayed there for a week in 2007), and nothing about St. Croix.

 

[wreckchick]

St. Croix is hosting cruise ships this season for the first time since Hurricane Marilyn in 1995. The diving that the island is known for is Cane Bay Wall which is deep and spectacular according to rumor. I'm planning to go there to dive it myself one of these days!

The diving around the USVI is very different from spot to spot. Each island boasts a few signature dives plus a bunch of other ones. St. Thomas and St. John don't offer any wall diving because we don't have a wall, but the fish life is supposed to be more abundant here than in St. Croix.

Jamga, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your diving here, what island did you visit and what operator did you use?

Rachel

 

[Torontonian]

In the summer of 2007, we also had a S. Caribbean cruise and I dove while wife and friends snorkeled in all the 5 ports. The 3 that are the same are St. Lucia, Barbados, and Antigua.

St. Lucia had the best diving of the 3, especially if you can get near the pitons. We booked with Dive Fair Helen and requested Superman's Flight and did get there. Don't know who your ship contracts with in St. Lucia but most likely they won't go there. It's a nice drift dive and a bit of a ride south.

Barbados was ok. There were many wrecks and we did go to the most well known one, the Stav. There is one spot (front of the Sandy Lanes resort) for SI, where we snorkeled and saw lots of turtles.

In Antigua the better diving is in the south side (English Harbor), 1/2 hr from the port. Cruise ship excursions won't go there, but most likely some shallow dive closer to port. My diving at Antigua was better than in Barbados. But both are not bad.

We have -20 c weather in Toronto now, so any warm water diving, even if not very good, is still pretty good.