Scuba Cruise of a Lifetime :)

[booknerd2011]

We loved octopus diving in St Maarten.

 

We loved loved loved dive st Kitts.

 

We also loved blue island divers in St Thomas

 

 

In St Lucia we booked through the cruise line. I believe they booked through iyanola divers. I was not impressed. Our boat ride was over 40 minutes from the cruise ship. The boat was not a good boat for it. He took us on 2 dives. The second dive he had us swim through such a strong current that most people came up with under 500 psi... And some had under 200. He told us it would be a drift dive, which is fine, but we couldn't get through the current. Also, we were so late getting back to the ship we didn't have time to do anything else... And this was supposed to be a 4 hour excursion. We were gone closer to 7. They spent a lot of time educating us on the underwater wildlife that we would we.

[TreeCity]

Does anyone have a dive operator recommend for St Lucia?

[snoozcroozr]

Does anyone have a dive operator recommend for St Lucia?

 

Dive Fair Helen supposedly take you to the close and far reefs in the south for one price:

 

http://www.divefairhelen.com/st-lucia-shore-excursions.htm

 

Scuba Steve's Diving charges alot more for dives in the southern part of the marine park, but if you just want to dive the closer reefs, they are a little cheaper:

 

http://www.scubastevesdiving.com/cruise-ship-specials

 

 

I couldn't get any of them to pick me up since it was a saturday and that seems to be the day when vacationers comes and leave the island. We vacationed in St Lucia before and when we dove on our first day, which was saturday, the boat was literally empty. I thought that was going to be the norm, but then sunday came and we starting having at least 10 ppl on board. That was good for me because I got to chose which reef to dive on the dives I was scheduled for for the whole week.

 

For the crooze stop on saturday, some other diver asked around in the tour area and one of the boat hawkers agreed to take us on a dive trip instead of whatever they were planning to get tourist to do (probably snorkeling, beach by boat, etc).

Edited December 22, 2015 by snoozcroozr

[TreeCity]

Thanks for the info. I looked at both and can't decide. Anyone have experience with either Dive Fair Helen or Scuba Steve?

[divinmule]

St. Lucia that ships operator did an outstanding job and we had a much smaller group than Scuba Steve and hour plus bottom times...must dive...Superman's flight.

Barbados...Emotive Barbados was outstanding!

Cozumel...we love Aldora. Great bottom times...great rates

Your trip sounds amazing!

[divinmule]

Sorry... stupid autocorrect. .. Ecodive Barbados with Andrew.

[chadbeck]

Thanks for the info. I looked at both and can't decide. Anyone have experience with either Dive Fair Helen or Scuba Steve?

 

 

I haven't used Helen but have used Steve a few times. With Steve you have two options the first is a good bit cheaper but you have a lot more divers, the second is a more expensive but only 8 divers with 2 guides. For me I'll always pay more for a smaller group and prefer not to book ops that take more than 8-10 at a time. Mainly because of photography reasons. All that said if you don't care about the number of people on a charter go the cheaper route or with the ship it would probably be the about the same experience.

[divinmule]

Scuba Steve lost my business when they stated they do not refund your money if the ship does not dock.

I even emailed to confirm that was their policy. They confirmed it. I was amazed we dive off cruise ships regularly and this was the first to ever have that policy.

[chadbeck]

Scuba Steve lost my business when they stated they do not refund your money if the ship does not dock.

I even emailed to confirm that was their policy. They confirmed it. I was amazed we dive off cruise ships regularly and this was the first to ever have that policy.

 

Thats insane and I wouldn't book with anyone that told me that either. I've used them twice now and using them a third time coming up in a couple of weeks and they haven't even required a cc# or a deposit on any of my trips.

[breanne.wieler]

St Lucia - Iyanola Dive Ventures with Curtis John. Did 2 drift dives around the Pitons. (don't be afraid of the drift! It's easy and fun!! Never did one before but it was fantastic and not hard or scary at all!) It has been my favourite dive so far. Loved it. $125/person, but he picks up at the cruise pier for a rather long boat ride to the Pitons (hence the $125 price tag - it's a bit of a long ride. Pleasant though.)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[chadbeck]

St Lucia - Iyanola Dive Ventures with Curtis John. Did 2 drift dives around the Pitons. (don't be afraid of the drift! It's easy and fun!! Never did one before but it was fantastic and not hard or scary at all!) It has been my favourite dive so far. Loved it. $125/person, but he picks up at the cruise pier for a rather long boat ride to the Pitons (hence the $125 price tag - it's a bit of a long ride. Pleasant though.)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I agree. Drift diving is one of my favorite things. So easy. A lot of people get scared from the word current but when done right it takes almost no effort from the diver.

 

I'm sure one of the dives you did was Supermans flight which is a great dive and probably the best one in St. Lucia.

[Claymore2]

In Cozumel the biggest problem in finding a dive operator is which pier you dock at and arrival departure times. Private operators are not allowed to pick up at the cruise ship piers so you have to go to them or arrange a boat pickup off the grounds, they can not pick you up in a car you have to take a taxi to their location.

Most of the operators boats go out at about 8:00am and then an afternoon boat. If you have 4 or more divers you may be able to get your own boat. Blue Angel has a 10.30am boat and will take you to some of the southern sites.

February, March and April are busy months and some of the operators get booked up early.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Host Star]

Hi all!

 

Hubby and I are going on three back-to-back cruises, and we want to scuba dive most of them!

 

Cruise ports are:

Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Belize, Cozumel, St Thomas, St Kitts, and St Maarten.

 

So far I think we have Aruba, Bonaire, St Kitts, and St Thomas covered for dive operators.

 

1) Suggestions for good dive operators for Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Belize, Cozumel, and St Maarten would be much appreciated.

 

2) Are there any "don't bother" locations or any "must dive" locations? So far we are considering Bonaire our "must dive". Everything else is up in the air.

 

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Hubby and I are extremely excited - we have only been able to dive cold, murky (boring) water so far, so we're looking forward to beautiful Caribbean water!!

 

Breanne

Manitoba, Canada.

belize, st. Lucia and Cozumel would be high on my list