New Cruise advice

[coach87]

Cruisers,

Looking for advice choosing a couple of dive locations during our upcoming cruise. These are all new islands for us. St Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, and Greneda.

I usually try to find a LDS not affiliated with the cruise line.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Coach

 

[Kryssa]

We're on a cruise in March that visits these ports and are diving in all but St. Kitts.

St. Croix- We are using St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventure
Dominica- We are using Nature Island Dive
Grenada- still undecided...

In St. Kitts, we charted a sailboat for a private family sail and snorkeling day. Some of my family doesn't dive.

 

[stcroixscuba]

Hiya Coach,

So you're ready to escape the balmy tropical temperatures of Boston huh?

From an earlier reply you'll see Kryssa is diving with us from a cruise ship stopping on St. Croix. By "US" I mean St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures. (Just to make sure I'm up front about having a vested interest here.....)

You are smart to book your diving independently of the ship as you’ll save money and have much better diving.

We have two custom dive boats available for you. Both are fully U.S. Coast Guard inspected vessels.

Our west end dive boat Scuba Dos departs from directly off of the cruise ship pier at 9:30am and 1:00pm for two tank dives along the west end wrecks and reefs.

Our north shore dive boat Reliance departs the Christiansted Boardwalk (about 30 minutes from the Pier) at 9:30a on cruise ship days for a two-tank dive trip along the wall and reefs. Shuttles to Christiansted from the ship typically run around $16. That trip returns around 1pm'ish which gives you plenty of time to get back to the ship.

A two-tank dive is $105 and that, of course, includes tanks and weights. Any additional dive gear that you may need is just $5 per piece.

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to let me know. We want to do whatever we can to help you plan a wonderful day of diving on St. Croix.

Capt. Ed

 

[divemaldives]

In St. Croix, I booked independently through N2 the Blue. Rates and staff were excellent. In Dominica, I contacted Dive Dominica (Castle Comfort Dive Lodge) as I had spent a week with them the year previously (2011) and had a great experience. I found that they were actually the contracted dive shop for the cruise line that day (Celebrity Cruise) so I went ahead and joined the cruise ship and had a great time! They actually remembered me, so they let me do my own thing and didn't babysit me. (They found three seahorses for me too!) I don't remember which dive shops I went with in Grenada and St. Kitts. I have been to both twice. Great experiences in Grenada, good and bad in St. Kitts. Have fun!!