I'm relatively new to this board, OW certified last May, mostly lurking here and wanted to post my recent diving experience on Princess Cruises.
I dove on St.Thomas, St. Kitts, and Aruba. On all three islands, I used the cruise company's dive operators and found generally mixed experiences. Perhaps heresay but it seems Princess puts general guidelines and boundaries for participating island dive operators to follow. For example, a fellow diver mentioned 60 ft was the depth limit put on all cruise sponsored dives.
I brought all my equipment minus weights and tanks (of course). I'm glad that I did, I just had a high level of comfort using my own. Others on the ship used local island dive operators' equipment and it was perfectly fine, but they also had 10-20 years of diving and previously brought their own equipment and felt that bringing their own equipment was too much travel baggage. In retrospect, I might limit my equipment on future trips to regs, masks, suit dive computers, knives and gloves or some variation. Others had problems with their knives because they called attention to it but if you don't mention a thing about your knife as I did, crew didn't really take notice. Each time I passed the metal detector, I just grunted "Scuba gear", they acknowledged me and passed my equipment through with that consideration.
On St. Thomas, my 1st dive, used Cokie Beach Dive Club and decided to go on the non-certified dive with my nephew and niece since they are non-certified and felt that since this was my 1st caribbean dive experience, it would serve as a great refresher since the last time I dove was in November 2003. It was a single tank shore dive, temperature ~78F and actually ended being the best in vis for my three (3) caribbean dives, 30-40 feet. The coral was nice, not too colorful or plentiful but for my 1st dive, there was definitely plenty to see and had a great time.
On St. Kitts, dive operator was Dive St.Kitts and had a great time. Dive Operator was about 15 minutes from the ship. DM Kent took us out on a 2 tank dive. He's been on the island for the last 6 years originally from California, couldn't take diving in the cold temps anymore and ended on St.Kitts. The 1st dive was to the River Taw Wreck to a depth about 50 feet. Some coral but great wreck, while he didn't penetrate, he let people penetrate to their comfort level. Saw a barracuda and other fish. The 2nd dive called Broad Bar reef was spectacular. The coral was incredibly plenty with sponges, rock fish, rays and we went to 60 ft depth. The temperature was 79F and vis was about 20-40 feet at the reef.
On Aruba, used Red Sail Sports. I wouldn't recommend dive operator for a couple of reasons. They limited our two tank dives to 30 minutes each and filled tanks with hot air, our full tanks were at about 2800. 1st dive was at the Antilla Wreck, temperature 79F, to a depth of 59-62 feet, with visibilty about 15-20 feet. We penetrated the wreck, very cool, I wish I had a light but just going through the main ship hull was an excellent experience. I'm not sure why the vis was so bad at both sites but I assume current has much to do with it. There were 2 operators there and too many divers, we lost our dm a couple of times and ended going it alone with my buddy back to the boat. The 2nd dive was the Pedernales Wreck, depth about 20ft and visibility at about 20 ft. I ended up having 1600. When I go back, I'll look else where for a dive operator. If anyone has good recommendations...I think I saw some in threads somewhere...please elaborate in this thread.
In general, I wanted to dive on the other island ports, but with children in tow felt that 3 morning dives were enough for a 7 day cruise. If I had my druthers, I would prefer a week diving in Cozumel/Belize or if on another cruise, choose a longer cruise and dive 5 mornings using recommended local dive operators. I guess the only thing I can say is that using the cruise sponsored dive operators are sensitive to cruise embarkation timeframe and will get you back in time. However for most of my dives, I had enough time to waste and would rather have better diving than having limits (whatever they may be) set by the cruise line.
Hope this helps some others looking to dive with a cruise line.
dave
I dove on St.Thomas, St. Kitts, and Aruba. On all three islands, I used the cruise company's dive operators and found generally mixed experiences. Perhaps heresay but it seems Princess puts general guidelines and boundaries for participating island dive operators to follow. For example, a fellow diver mentioned 60 ft was the depth limit put on all cruise sponsored dives.
I brought all my equipment minus weights and tanks (of course). I'm glad that I did, I just had a high level of comfort using my own. Others on the ship used local island dive operators' equipment and it was perfectly fine, but they also had 10-20 years of diving and previously brought their own equipment and felt that bringing their own equipment was too much travel baggage. In retrospect, I might limit my equipment on future trips to regs, masks, suit dive computers, knives and gloves or some variation. Others had problems with their knives because they called attention to it but if you don't mention a thing about your knife as I did, crew didn't really take notice. Each time I passed the metal detector, I just grunted "Scuba gear", they acknowledged me and passed my equipment through with that consideration.
On St. Thomas, my 1st dive, used Cokie Beach Dive Club and decided to go on the non-certified dive with my nephew and niece since they are non-certified and felt that since this was my 1st caribbean dive experience, it would serve as a great refresher since the last time I dove was in November 2003. It was a single tank shore dive, temperature ~78F and actually ended being the best in vis for my three (3) caribbean dives, 30-40 feet. The coral was nice, not too colorful or plentiful but for my 1st dive, there was definitely plenty to see and had a great time.
On St. Kitts, dive operator was Dive St.Kitts and had a great time. Dive Operator was about 15 minutes from the ship. DM Kent took us out on a 2 tank dive. He's been on the island for the last 6 years originally from California, couldn't take diving in the cold temps anymore and ended on St.Kitts. The 1st dive was to the River Taw Wreck to a depth about 50 feet. Some coral but great wreck, while he didn't penetrate, he let people penetrate to their comfort level. Saw a barracuda and other fish. The 2nd dive called Broad Bar reef was spectacular. The coral was incredibly plenty with sponges, rock fish, rays and we went to 60 ft depth. The temperature was 79F and vis was about 20-40 feet at the reef.
On Aruba, used Red Sail Sports. I wouldn't recommend dive operator for a couple of reasons. They limited our two tank dives to 30 minutes each and filled tanks with hot air, our full tanks were at about 2800. 1st dive was at the Antilla Wreck, temperature 79F, to a depth of 59-62 feet, with visibilty about 15-20 feet. We penetrated the wreck, very cool, I wish I had a light but just going through the main ship hull was an excellent experience. I'm not sure why the vis was so bad at both sites but I assume current has much to do with it. There were 2 operators there and too many divers, we lost our dm a couple of times and ended going it alone with my buddy back to the boat. The 2nd dive was the Pedernales Wreck, depth about 20ft and visibility at about 20 ft. I ended up having 1600. When I go back, I'll look else where for a dive operator. If anyone has good recommendations...I think I saw some in threads somewhere...please elaborate in this thread.
In general, I wanted to dive on the other island ports, but with children in tow felt that 3 morning dives were enough for a 7 day cruise. If I had my druthers, I would prefer a week diving in Cozumel/Belize or if on another cruise, choose a longer cruise and dive 5 mornings using recommended local dive operators. I guess the only thing I can say is that using the cruise sponsored dive operators are sensitive to cruise embarkation timeframe and will get you back in time. However for most of my dives, I had enough time to waste and would rather have better diving than having limits (whatever they may be) set by the cruise line.
Hope this helps some others looking to dive with a cruise line.
dave
