St. Thomas or St. Maarten? Help!

[ashevegas]

My wife and I just booked a Disney cruise that will be in St. Maarten on March 6th and St. Thomas on the 7th.
I don't want to book a dive with the Disney folks so I'm looking for operators on each island AND your opinion as to which island you think has better diving.
I'm a certified diver, and I love diving but I've only been diving 10 or so times.
I've always found the dive community to be close knit and very helpful so thanks in advance.

 

[DaleHall]

I dove with Dive Safaris in St. Maarten in Sept 05. Great time and really good folks... Sorry, can't help you with St. Thomas. The wife made me go shopping with her there.

Actually, now that I think about it, my avatar is a "Self portrait" we took of ourselves while standing on the pier in St. Thomas waiting for our Parasail excursion. Dang.. I need a vacation.

 

[ronbeau]

My wife and I just booked a Disney cruise that will be in St. Maarten on March 6th and St. Thomas on the 7th.
I don't want to book a dive with the Disney folks so I'm looking for operators on each island AND your opinion as to which island you think has better diving.
I'm a certified diver, and I love diving but I've only been diving 10 or so times.
I've always found the dive community to be close knit and very helpful so thanks in advance.

Whatever you do don't let the cruise ship book you on a dive at Coki beach in St. Thomas. Carnival did that on a cruise I was on and called it a "5 star one tank dive".

What a joke. It was a shore dive that cost as much as a two-tank boat dive.

You had to fight your way through all of the snorkelers from the cruise ships to get to depth.

In other words, don't waste your money on Coki beach.

 

[DiveMaven]

From all the information I could gather before our cruise a couple of years ago, we decided not to waste our time diving on St. Maarten. Turned out to be a good choice as the seas were up and the folks we spoke with later said it was a "barf fest" on the dive boat and the dive sites were pretty bad.

On St. Thomas we dove with Blue Island Divers and recommend them highly. You can request where you want to dive and they actually listen!! Another good op is Admiralty Dive. They both pick you up in their boats directly in front of your cruise ship at the dock and drop you at the same location, so it's very convenient.

 

[CAPNVINNY]

here's Admiralty's web site
www.admiraltydive.com

good people,you'll like them

 

[PNW Dive Girl]

I second Admiralty Dive in St Thomas!

 

[ashevegas]

Thanks to everyone. Yesterday I booked my dive with Admiralty. I can't wait to get wet!
Thanks again.

 

[diveborg]

Thanks to everyone. Yesterday I booked my dive with Admiralty. I can't wait to get wet!
Thanks again.

You won't regret your choice. I went with them in December and had a very nice time. I took These Photos