My husband along with two friends are going on a Holland America cruise in March. We are all fairly new to scuba and plan to do as many dives as we can. The cruise line only offers one dive excursion (in St Thomas), but we'd like to dive as much as possible at these ports. If you have been on dives in these ports and have dive operators you'd recommend, please post them here for me. And if you have any input on what you thought of diving in the ports, please feel free to add that as well. Thanks!
Ports of Amber Cove, DR; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Philipsburg, St Maarten; and Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas best dive companies
- Thread starter MJWitt
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BigDaddyGlad
Contributor
That's not really a great itinerary for diving, unfortunately.
I've been to all of those ports a number of times. I've never gone diving in St. Thomas or San Juan.
Diving off a cruise ship and in St. Martin, I've used Discover Scuba Diving with Dive SInt Maarten.
I've been to all of those ports a number of times. I've never gone diving in St. Thomas or San Juan.
Diving off a cruise ship and in St. Martin, I've used Discover Scuba Diving with Dive SInt Maarten.
We figured St Maarten and St Thomas were good for diving, not so much the others, but weren't sure
I've been to both islands a half dozen times on a cruise ship, and I dive every time. The past several times we (my group) dived with Dive St Martin (in the link in the other post, above) and they have always been solid. As an added bonus, they are a short walk down the street from the cruise ship pier. The past couple times we've stopped at St Maarten, we've walked to the shop, did a two tank dive trip, had lunch, hopped the local bus out to Maho Beach, watched the planes land for a while, hopped the bus back into town, and then back to our ship in plenty of time before departure.
St Thomas... has been difficult. We're doing our next Caribbean cruise at the end of January and I was just this evening checking out options for St Thomas. To complicate matters, St Thomas has two cruise ports: Havensight and Crown Bay. Most dive ops will arrange some kind of transportation, but you'll find that doing some of the planning yourself will help a lot.
Our first few trips to St Thomas (a while ago... between 10 and 20 yrs), we dove with Blue Island Divers, and they completely spoiled us: the dive boat was small and they picked us up -- literally -- right next to the cruise ship (dropped us off there too). We were docked at Havensight, and the best dive sites -- along the southern edge of the island -- were right there. We had some very good dives there.
Unfortunately BI Divers is no more. On another trip, we went out with Admiralty Dive Center. They brought us to their shop, which is near the other cruise ship pier (at Crown Bay). Their shop is close to the best sites, along the south shore. (Our ship -- a Royal Caribbean -- will be docking at Crown Bay in January, so I'm looking to go out with Admiralty then. I just emailed them this evening.)
Our most recent stop at St Thomas... we went out with JJ Divers. They were fairly new at the time, but I recently checked out their website and it seems they offer the same thing we got. Which is why I won't go with them again. They were very enthusiastic, but their boat is docked at the east end of the island and they seem to stick to dive sites in that area, which are just not at all interesting. There have been very few times in my life that I've been bored while diving... but my dives with JJ Divers was certainly one of them. It seems they expect to cater to new and/or inexperienced divers, which just was not a fit for our group. After our dives, the crew was very excited: "WeRen'T tHoSe GREAT diVeS??!? WaSn'T tHaT aWeSoMe?!?" No, sorry. No. It just wasn't.
So definitely at St Thomas I suggest you find a shop (like Admiralty) that will get you to the sites on the southern shore.
Amber Cove: I've never been.
San Juan: been there many times, and have never thought about diving there. Unfortunately, the diving in Puerto Rico is either at the islands off the eastern end (Culebra, Vieques), the western end (Rincon... we stayed and dived there a few days), our the south-west (Parguera). Driving San Juan to Rincon is pretty easy, but takes about two hours... not enough time to get there, dive, and get back to your ship. My advice would be to skip the diving in San Juan, spend the day in the town, checking out the amazing history. (We usually take cruises that depart San Juan and head to the islands further south, so we have a couple days before and/or after the cruise to hang out in Puerto Rico.)
Hope this helps... let me know if you have more questions, need more detail.
St Thomas... has been difficult. We're doing our next Caribbean cruise at the end of January and I was just this evening checking out options for St Thomas. To complicate matters, St Thomas has two cruise ports: Havensight and Crown Bay. Most dive ops will arrange some kind of transportation, but you'll find that doing some of the planning yourself will help a lot.
Our first few trips to St Thomas (a while ago... between 10 and 20 yrs), we dove with Blue Island Divers, and they completely spoiled us: the dive boat was small and they picked us up -- literally -- right next to the cruise ship (dropped us off there too). We were docked at Havensight, and the best dive sites -- along the southern edge of the island -- were right there. We had some very good dives there.
Unfortunately BI Divers is no more. On another trip, we went out with Admiralty Dive Center. They brought us to their shop, which is near the other cruise ship pier (at Crown Bay). Their shop is close to the best sites, along the south shore. (Our ship -- a Royal Caribbean -- will be docking at Crown Bay in January, so I'm looking to go out with Admiralty then. I just emailed them this evening.)
Our most recent stop at St Thomas... we went out with JJ Divers. They were fairly new at the time, but I recently checked out their website and it seems they offer the same thing we got. Which is why I won't go with them again. They were very enthusiastic, but their boat is docked at the east end of the island and they seem to stick to dive sites in that area, which are just not at all interesting. There have been very few times in my life that I've been bored while diving... but my dives with JJ Divers was certainly one of them. It seems they expect to cater to new and/or inexperienced divers, which just was not a fit for our group. After our dives, the crew was very excited: "WeRen'T tHoSe GREAT diVeS??!? WaSn'T tHaT aWeSoMe?!?" No, sorry. No. It just wasn't.
So definitely at St Thomas I suggest you find a shop (like Admiralty) that will get you to the sites on the southern shore.
Amber Cove: I've never been.
San Juan: been there many times, and have never thought about diving there. Unfortunately, the diving in Puerto Rico is either at the islands off the eastern end (Culebra, Vieques), the western end (Rincon... we stayed and dived there a few days), our the south-west (Parguera). Driving San Juan to Rincon is pretty easy, but takes about two hours... not enough time to get there, dive, and get back to your ship. My advice would be to skip the diving in San Juan, spend the day in the town, checking out the amazing history. (We usually take cruises that depart San Juan and head to the islands further south, so we have a couple days before and/or after the cruise to hang out in Puerto Rico.)
Hope this helps... let me know if you have more questions, need more detail.
San Juan has Escambrón Marine Park. Scuba Dogs at Escambrón Marine Park is the local dive shop, our cruise had an excursion through them, but it looks like you can also easily book direct. It is practically in the city and only a couple minute cab ride from the port. It is a fairly small, shallow (~20 feet) lagoon with some artificial reefs. The visibility usually isn't great (~20 feet when we were there), but it has a small collection of the typical Caribbean marine life. It definitely isn't a destination dive, but if you're a beginner, already in port and want to dive as much as possible, it is worth the stop.
I dove with Scuba Dogs a few years ago. Their operation was good but the diving wasn't interesting. If you want to dive as much as possible on the cruise then they're fine, but San Juan (especially Old San Juan) has a lot of interesting things to do that are easily accessible and walkable. I agree with @yle that I'd skip diving in San Juan.
Note - if you or anyone else likes beaches, none of the beaches in front of the large high-rise hotels are private. They try to make it look that way but officially they're all public. I particularly enjoy getting a drink at the La Concha Renaissance Resort then going to the beach out front.
Note - if you or anyone else likes beaches, none of the beaches in front of the large high-rise hotels are private. They try to make it look that way but officially they're all public. I particularly enjoy getting a drink at the La Concha Renaissance Resort then going to the beach out front.
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