Scuba diving in St. Thomas and St. Maarten ?

[smallchange]

We are a group of 4 experienced divers cruising on The Allure at the end of April.

What recommendations do you have for dive companies on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Maarten? We prefer to not book the ship's excursions.

[Loves_Dogs]

In St Thomas Admiralty Dive Center for sure. They are wonderful! Met us in their dive boat a short walk from the pier and dropped us back off. They are a lot of fun too.

 

http://www.admiraltydive.com/

Edited March 8, 2014 by Loves_Dogs

[Laurie S.]

I recommend Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas. Have dived with them twice and they are great! Went with Octopus Diving in St. Maarten. It wasn't great, partly because the owner was out of the country and the DMs were taking advantage of it. Diving was pretty poor, also. I had to struggle to get to a spot that was more than 25 feet deep. Might as well have been snorkeling.

[lunula]

We used Octopus Diving in St. Maarten and had a great time, though the diving definitely got more spectacular the further south we went. We didn't even bother in St. Thomas since we had so many friends tell us the diving wasn't great. We ended up going kayaking & snorkeling.

[compozer]

We dived with Blue Island Divers at Christmas and also last month.

Great guys to work with and lots of fun. They picked us up right in front of the ship. It was so nice not to have to take a taxi.

[092306]

I never dove in st marten, but in st Thomas, I tired using blue island divers, but they cancelled on me, and how they did it was a little messed up. We stopped in San Juan day before and I turned my cell phone on, I had a voicemail from them telling me a tropical storm was going to hit st Thomas, so my dive was cancelled. I went to the purser' s desk and asked about the storm, they looked at me like I was nuts. So I had to dive through the ship. It wasn't' bad, but I was annoyed at blue island divers. I called them when I got home, and they said that the dive was cancelled due to the people I was diving with cancelled, that they never said anything about a storm. So I played them the voice mail and wow, how fast that changed. If they told me the truth I wouldn't be as annoyed.

Try out coki beach dive. They do 2 tank dives and are cheaper the blue island. They will pick you up at the port and drop you off. Saw a lot of fish, turtles, crab, lobster, rays. Best pArt was it was a small group 4 divers, and great service. Gear was first rate and will ALWAYS use them from now on.

I might try blue island divers, but I'm really skeptical about them. I am a coki beach island person. Give them a try