Sandals St. Lucia?

[dogvet]

Anyone with any positive or negative experiences diving with Sandals St. Lucia. We are going there in Janaury for our weddingmoon. Diving is free but would we be better off paying to dive with a different company?

 

[Scubagal]

Anyone with any positive or negative experiences diving with Sandals St. Lucia. We are going there in Janaury for our weddingmoon. Diving is free but would we be better off paying to dive with a different company?

We stayed at Sandals Grande St. Lucia 3 years ago and went diving with them. While I think St. Lucia is an excellent place for a Weddingmoon, I will say that Sandals caters to the lowest denominator regard the diving. Meaning, if you're looking for long bottom times, dive masters that let you dive your profile, etc., you need to find someone else to dive with. I've heard good things about Dive Fair Helen.

I wrote a trip report with a few pictures from our trip to St. Lucia if you're interested, here's the link: St. Lucia Trip Report.

 

[RV]

I got married there in '99, it was great.. get room 150.. we were at the golf one (Grand in think) At the time, the dive ops were also great.. but, scubagal may be right.. can't say...

 

[divekraz]

We went to St. Lucia Golf and Spa just when they were building the Grande which is by the Pinnacles. Everything is provided for you and the boat is only for Sandals people. I brought our own gear. Your driven by van to the boat which was a nice boat. A dm leads and another follows the group so you don't have alot of freedom to do your own profiles but they do have 2 dives each morning. You can also take a trip for a extra charge to dive in Martinque. I thought for the service, food, activities, grounds, etc. it was well worth the price we paid. I really can't say anything negative about the facility. we had a room at the top of the hill, overlooking the villas and ocean. It had a jacuzzi, sitting room, 4 poster bed and was great, I've stayed at 5 different Sandals and thought St lucia golf & spa was the best.

 

[Scuba Monster]

I went March 2005 and dove with Sandals Regency, St. Lucia. We had a wonderful time and diving was good - the dive site Superman's Fly was my favorite! However, since our Sandals trip, I have dove other places in the Caribbean that have much better dive operations. At Sandals much of the equipment was in need of repair ... mouth pieces were missing or bitten off, bcd's didn't inflate, o-rings needed to be replaced, etc. Despite the equipment malfunctions, we just checked our gear (as we do before every dive) and replaced what was faulty. I have no complaints about the boats or dive masters. The dive masters like you to "follow the leader." But I am still fairly new to diving (50+ dives now), so I am okay with a conservative profile.

Which Sandals are you staying at on St. Lucia?

Happy weddingmoon! St. Lucia is a great island ... you'll enjoy it.

 

[dogvet]

We are going to the Sandals Halycon. I figured that it was in the middle of the other 2 sandals resorts so we could easily transfer inbetween. I spend too much time on trip adviser and have read negatives and positives about all three. It seems like the friendlest staff is at the Halycon. We are pretty easy to please. Give me an ocean I can swim/dive in and friendly staff at the swim up bar and I am happy.

I think I was spoiled getting my PADI certification and snorkeling tons in Curacao last year. The only thing that turned me off that island was the smell of the oil refinery!!!I have only done 12 dives so I don't mind being babysat at this point.

 

[Scuba Monster]

When we were at the Regency March 2004, the Regency and Halcyon divers dove together. They put you on a bus in the morning which took you down to a dock near to the location where the cruise ships come in. If you decided to find another dive shop, you will still be driving. At the Grand, the dive boats leave from the resort. But one of our friends, who has done both resorts, thought that the actual diving was better at from the Regency and Halycon. As I mentioned earlier, I have no complaints about the dive boats or the dive masters. If the system is the same and if he is still there, Michael was our favorite dive master. Be sure to really inspect your equipment, if you are renting. Since our visit, I have traveled to resorts with better operations. However, those are resorts that cater to mostly divers. Sandals has a variety of activies and definately has the swim up bar covered. I have nothing but good memories about our Sandals experience, including diving.

By the way, where did you stay in Curacao?

 

[TracyKent]

My wife and I honeymooned at the Grande St Lucian and will happily go back. We did some morning dives with the resort and they are quite guided, but they were our first dives after certification, so it was fine. The resort itself is why we went. A week of being waited on hand and foot at one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Diving or not, I'll be back.

 

[dogvet]

We stayed at the Hilton in Curacao but did our certification at the house reef with the Marriot next door!!! Had a great instructer called Candy!!!

 

[jchull]

Did our weddingmoon at Sandals Halcyon last May. Resort and food were great. Halcyon is smaller, and more quaint, but you can spend all the time you want at the fancier resorts without paying more. We were resort divers at the time, so I can't say much about how the divemasters treat divers with a c-card. We used the resort equipment and did not have any problems. We had lots of fun and have talked about going back...