Worth diving on cruise to San Juan, St Maarten, St Thomas, Samana?

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Hi,

Wife decided to take a breather from the nothing but dive trips and/or rocked 24/7 by liveaboards..thus deciding the next trip would be a cruise. Given that she wanted to go to one right in our city (NY), we are stuck with very limited choices of where we can go. The most diverse is the NCL 9 day from NYC to San Juan, St Maarten, St Thomas, Samana/DR (not surprising, very few ports of calls, given that most of our trip will be going from NY to the 1st/last island and back). If we flew to FL, we could have done the whole western Caribbean thing.

I know most of the islands don't offer diving (San Juan, Samana), but I am wondering how St Thomas & St Maarten would be. I read some review of those islands from here, but many are from newly certified or novice divers. If those destinations' dive sites are only so-so, it might not even be worth it to lug the gear onto the boat (although with no airline to fly, there is no need to only carry essential gears).

I read somewhat on St Maarten and the dive sites Moonhole and One Step Beyond sounds interesting. Moonhole is a crater with swimthrus and One Step Beyond is a double pinnacle (like Eye of the needle in Saba?). Does any dive ops guarantee that they will go to one of those dive sites? Or do they always take you to the generic cruise ship sites?

 

[00wabbit]

Have you been on a cruise before?

I did the cruise where we flew into San Juan then did the whole Caribbean for 7 days. My father in law paid for it.
If you are an adventurous explorer type I am not sure you will like being stuck on the boat for so long. We had 1 full day at sea. That boat starts to feel real small after a full day on board and you can't get off. Being on the boat that long from NY down there I don't think I could take it.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Yeah, I've done cruises before, either leaving FL where I reach a different destination everyday or from NY, where there are alot of sea days. Those sea days, I just keep myself busy with the gym and whatever is on the daily itinerary.

I did one or twice leaving from NY and my wife loves the convenience of it so much that the destination is a second factor (although it still matters, since she did not want to repeat the other itineraries leaving from NY which we did already).

I don't go dive on these cruises for ultimate diving, but for a sampler of what's offered. Some countries has interesting activities, but apparently, they are not near the cruise ports or the right time of the year (DR with its whale watching or cavern diving).

 

[diversteve]

One dive worth doing in St. Thomas would be the WiT Shoal - if you like wreck diving. It's 300' long and 90' deep. Admiralty Dive or Blue Island Divers will be better options than the cruise operator and both will pick you up. Cow and Calf Rocks is a good - but shallow (45') dive but it may not be done by dive operators from Charlotte Amalie as it's near the SE end of St. Thomas. The cruise shore excursion is to Coki Beach, personally I'd rather stay in town, it's shallow and not very interesting except one area to the east past Coral World.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Thanks. Wrecks are kind of OK. We would usually do that if we are doing more than a handful of dives in an area and/or if there are no interesting reefs to dive (left to dive). Although some wreck dives surprises us.

I guess the first thing is to find dive shops that are willing to cater to the cruise crowd and find out whether they will take us to the places we want.

 

[diversteve]

I've read somewhere that the cruise operator in St. Thomas is Underwater Safaris. IDK anything about them.

Check with St. Thomas Diving Club also, they're a short distance east of the port and may do more interesting dives nearby. St. Thomas Diving Club, Cruise Diving, a PADI 5 Star IDC They leave at 8:30 though so IDK if you can get there in time. We stayed on the East End so I'm not as familiar with cruise options from that area.

 

[00wabbit]

I went in July. The operator for carnival was Underwater Safaris. Super nice guys and they have a pretty nice pontoon boat that makes for a good dive platform. This was my first real open water dive. The dive was super easy. Vis was perfect and the depth was shallow. 45ft or so. There was a wreck of a 60's era cargo ship. It was pretty broken up from a hurricane. You can swim over the top and look down at the 2 engines because the deck was broken. There was a small coral wall and an eel garden where the small eels poke their heads out. For me it was perfect because it was zero stress. For a more expereinced diver or even if I went again I might find it pretty simple maybe even a little boring.

The negatives I had was that they put you on 72's and limited your bottom time to 35min then a 3min safety stop because they were on the clock to get back to the ship. The other dives I did with the ship at St Lucia nad St. Marteen put you on 80's and let you dive until one person was low (usually me) or they would send the low person up with another low person in the group and keep going. They would come back later than expected but we were usually back at the dock around 2ish. St. Marteen was Caribbean Dive College and St. Lucia was Iyanola Charters.

I've read somewhere that the cruise operator in St. Thomas is Underwater Safaris. IDK anything about them.

Check with St. Thomas Diving Club also, they're a short distance east of the port and may do more interesting dives nearby. St. Thomas Diving Club, Cruise Diving, a PADI 5 Star IDC They leave at 8:30 though so IDK if you can get there in time. We stayed on the East End so I'm not as familiar with cruise options from that area.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Our port time at St Thomas is 8am-5pm and St Maarten is 8AM-6pm, but I doubt anyone gets out before 8:30AM at best. St thomas dive club has the afternoon dive that comes back at 4:30AM, which is pretty tight. Got to see if they can get us on the morning dives.

Are these sites popular with divers at all? Any interesting or spectacular dives like walls, canyons?

 

[Johnmpcny]

Our port time at St Thomas is 8am-5pm and St Maarten is 8AM-6pm, but I doubt anyone gets out before 8:30AM at best. St thomas dive club has the afternoon dive that comes back at 4:30AM, which is pretty tight. Got to see if they can get us on the morning dives.

Are these sites popular with divers at all? Any interesting or spectacular dives like walls, canyons?

I am doing the same ports on the NCL Gem Dec. 22. Same as you my wife loves the convenience of it, as this Christmas cruise with 4 of us we save as much as were spending to cruise in airfares.

So far I have 2 ports booked.

San Jaun I booked with Karen on Christmas day for a shore dive and as we get in at 3 pm and out at 9pm 1 tank at 4pm and if it looks good to her a night dive. CARIBE-AQUATIC-ADVENTURES.COM I really liked talking with her and she see lots of sea life and good vis but not real a challenging dive site for this late in day dive. She dives at the old Normandie San Juan Hotel site and dives the Figure 8 and Horseshoe Reefs are 30 ft. high, right off the beach she said. 10 min and $10 taxi from the dock. She and her husban own the business for over 30 years.

On Samana I have not heard a lot good about the vis, but will dive with Manfred Kellermann [mailto:kawaballerer@yahoo.de] Hey a bad day diving is better than sitting a packaged tour.


Our boats are 6 Meter Boat with 75 HPOBe. When we have 5 or more Divers we Use a 9 Meter Boat with 200 HP Ob and with 10 Divers we use our Catamaran.
My Divemaster is a CMAS 3 star Diver or I also go with you. I am an CMAS Instructor.
The Visibility have around 10 meters and sometimes is Bad. We are searching other Dive places Outside the Bay, where the Visibility is better.
Inside we have a Wall to 100 Feet deep and a sunken Ferry Boat with 30 Feet Deep. This Wrack is full of Fish.
We can start directly when you come to Samana and we shore back after 4 ours.

www.ozeanic-caribbean.com Manfred

I have talked with Welcome to Dive In! Scuba Diving St Thomas US Virgin Islands ( USVI ). on St Thomas as I have been on the island I can drive there and do 2 tanks with them and get back no problem in the am with time to sit on their beach. They will hold for me a bit if I pre book and tell them what ship I am on. My wife says no she wants to retrace our honeymoon trek there I want to dive! It is on the far side of the island and where stayed sapphire beach, one of the nicest beaches on the island and not as crowded as Megan's bay. They also have best reef to snorkel there. My son and I will dive my Daughter will beach babe it and my wife is holding out on the diving to be with her.

Both St Thomas and St Martin also offer direct booking of 2 tank dives via NCL with pick up and drop off. So I can just do that but it costs more. I usually like to book my own with a smaller group as not so many newbie divers or rushing.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I am doing the same ports on the NCL Gem Dec. 22. Same as you my wife loves the convenience of it, as this Christmas cruise with 4 of us we save as much as were spending to cruise in airfares.

So far I have 2 ports booked.

San Jaun I booked with Karen on Christmas day for a shore dive and as we get in at 3 pm and out at 9pm 1 tank at 4pm and if it looks good to her a night dive. CARIBE-AQUATIC-ADVENTURES.COM I really liked talking with her and she see lots of sea life and good vis but not real a challenging dive site for this late in day dive. She dives at the old Normandie San Juan Hotel site and dives the Figure 8 and Horseshoe Reefs are 30 ft. high, right off the beach she said. 10 min and $10 taxi from the dock. She and her husban own the business for over 30 years.

On Samana I have not heard a lot good about the vis, but will dive with Manfred Kellermann [mailto:kawaballerer@yahoo.de] Hey a bad day diving is better than sitting a packaged tour.


Our boats are 6 Meter Boat with 75 HPOBe. When we have 5 or more Divers we Use a 9 Meter Boat with 200 HP Ob and with 10 Divers we use our Catamaran.
My Divemaster is a CMAS 3 star Diver or I also go with you. I am an CMAS Instructor.
The Visibility have around 10 meters and sometimes is Bad. We are searching other Dive places Outside the Bay, where the Visibility is better.
Inside we have a Wall to 100 Feet deep and a sunken Ferry Boat with 30 Feet Deep. This Wrack is full of Fish.
We can start directly when you come to Samana and we shore back after 4 ours.

www.ozeanic-caribbean.com Manfred

I have talked with Welcome to Dive In! Scuba Diving St Thomas US Virgin Islands ( USVI ). on St Thomas as I have been on the island I can drive there and do 2 tanks with them and get back no problem in the am with time to sit on their beach. They will hold for me a bit if I pre book and tell them what ship I am on. My wife says no she wants to retrace our honeymoon trek there I want to dive! It is on the far side of the island and where stayed sapphire beach, one of the nicest beaches on the island and not as crowded as Megan's bay. They also have best reef to snorkel there. My son and I will dive my Daughter will beach babe it and my wife is holding out on the diving to be with her.

Both St Thomas and St Martin also offer direct booking of 2 tank dives via NCL with pick up and drop off. So I can just do that but it costs more. I usually like to book my own with a smaller group as not so many newbie divers or rushing.

Boy, dive at all cost?

Didn't think about diving in San Juan, seem to have to go really out of the way to find an dive op, and their only dives being shore dives where the main attraction is feeding the fishes and the DM grabbing critters to show it to divers kind of indicates they are really catering to 1st time divers. Plus their price for shore dives seems to be pretty crazy. The night dive might be interesting, since the chance of doing that on cruises are rare.

As for Samana, that looks like total crap shoot. Maybe I'll email them and see how it is, given Samana doesn't seem to have anything much going on.

I remember doing dives at every stop in one of these early cruises I went. I found out there is diving in Key West, and I dove it. It was an unguided dive in barren land. This is a dive where you need a guide to find whatever life there is. And Costa Maya, a farming village where only crews from the ship came to the dive op. Diving wasn't bad (its right above belize, so its diving is like belize's dives from the mainland), but they were pretty lax on amenities, rules and safety.

I use to book thru the cruise, never knew how they were in relation to how the location really are until I booked thru them in Coz, then I realized the location they bring you is not the best example of what Coz is really like, and they might bring you there for their convenience.

Will have to make to look into the various ops and make a decision pretty soon since the cruise will be coming up.