Dive operator - Blue Water Divers full :(

[cpayne]

My husband and 2 others are planning on diving in GT in Nov. Blue Water Divers is highly recommended on this site, but they are booked full the day we are in port.

 

I do not want to use Oasis as this is the operator the cruise ship uses.

 

I contacted Grand Turk Diving and they have openings. However, they require a 50% deposit up front (no problem, fair enough). My concern, though, is they charge 10% if the ship does not dock that day. They say this is to cover their bank processing fees. ??? This will be our 17th cruise, a wide variety of different types of tours over the years and have NEVER had any type of operator indicate they would charge us anything if the ship was unable to dock. Not comfortable using them.

 

Any other suggestions???

[topspot]

You would have had a portion of your deposit that was non-refundable if you booked with Blue Waters too. If you don't get any answers here, check with Mitch and BWD to see if he recommends another dive shop if he is all booked.

[092306]

Not sure when you are going but I recently dove with Oasis Divers. THey were great.

 

Now granted there were only me and another diver, but I thought they were fantastic. We dove the Tunnels and the Coral Gardens.

 

They gave us water to drink and some friut to eat. We had about a 40 minute surface interval.

 

Another thing that I liked is that its general proximity to the ship. We were always within sight of it. The shop is literally on the beach, and it was 10 minute ride to the first site then about a 15 minute ride to the second. It wasn't a 30 min ride to the shop then get on the boat.

 

Roger and Craig were great. They answered every question and went over what the dives would be and safety stops, hand signals, etc etc. We had plenty of bottom time. Basically, Roger said this id your dive,we'll do it our way. I even asked about nitrox and they said they had it and if I would have contacted them I could have gotten it.(for extra, of course) Stupid me. I recently got certified in it and never asked.

 

I would tell you to try the Oasis. On my cruise in St thomas 6 people dove, the next day in GT only 2 divers. I highly recommend them

[DEBnGAB]

You can also try Bohio Dive Resort...we used them for a Gibbs cay excursion and it was great. But they do snorkel and dive trips.

http://www.bohioresort.com/index.html

[theschwanz]

so cpayne, who did you dive with and was it good?

[cpayne]

We used Grand Turk Diving. They did a good job. There were 3 divers (2 VERY experienced) and 1 snorkeler in our group along with another couple and single person. The one thing our group considered "odd" was after the first dive we had to go back to the dive shop to load up for the 2nd dive. The 3 divers in our group had never experienced this. For a two tank dive the boat always goes out prepared for 2 tanks per person. This resulted in about a 10 min boat ride back to shore, 30 min wait and another 10 min boat ride back.

 

 

They offered water and fruit juices on the boat. Felt if they were going to take us back to shore and make us wait they could have offered some snacks (fruits, etc) to pass the time.

 

The diving itself was just ok. We were prepared for much better and all were disappointed. Not bad diving by any means. Just had expected much more from G Turk itself. Felt Cozumel, Caymen, etc is much better.

 

Would not hesitate to recommend this operator.

[theschwanz]

thanks for your info. strange about the "surface interval" will email them about that. too bad the diving was not the best. that's the most disappointing thing, but we'll still probably dive. thanks again.

[cpayne]

Definitely still worth diving in GT. I think our group was disappointed b/c over the years they had heard how GT was one of the more amazing diving locations out there. By no means was it not a good dive. Just not as amazing as they had anticipated.