Scuba on the Golden Recently?

[kitty555]

Did anyone do any of the Scuba trips on the Golden over the past few weeks on the Southern Cruise? If so, how was it? We are going Scuba diving in St. Lucia and Antigua. Any experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you

[surfnsun]

kitty555 - we went scuba diving on the Golden ending 5/9 in St. Thomas. It was my first time, so if your experienced my comments may sound silly. We purchased the Discover Scuba tour from the ship. They took us by van to Coki Beach (nice view of the port on the way). Obviously, this excursion was for new divers and my husband is very experienced, so he tolerated some of the training sessions but enjoyed the shallow dive as the visibility was outstanding (100 ft) and fish/coral was plenty. We only went to about 30 feet and the dive lasted 35 minutes...that was good enough for me! Had plenty of air in the end. Talked to another cruiser who did another tour offered same day for more experienced divers. He enjoyed it, although I don't remember the details...except, one other diver lost one of her very expensive diamond earrings on the dive that she'd just purchased from another island. Hard lesson the learn...remove all jewelry!

[kitty555]

Thank you for the reply. I can't believe someone would wear diamond earrings on a dive or even in the ocean. That's just crazy. so the people who do the dives on Princess are nice. I just wanted to make sure they were.

Thank you

[surfnsun]

Honestly, I found most cruisers nice...and IMO, anyone crazy enough to dive [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] are very cool [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]. Do they really have a choice???, either dive or stay on the beach/boat that got you there. It's not like they can complain through their mask [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] Enjoy!

[nreeder]

I just got off the Golden last Sunday and that week parallels your iteniary. I dove at all islands except for St. Maarten.

I only booked one dive through the ship (Antigua) and Princess cancelled that one! For St. Lucia, I booked via the Internet using SCUBA St. Lucia which is located at the Anse Chastenet resort in the southern part of the island. This is where the underwater National Park/Reserver is located, and both Sandal's and Dive Fair Helen came down there too, so it's the place to be.

My wife doesn't dive, but likes to snorkel. So we were taken aboard a boat that held three types of passengers: mountain bikers, snorkelers, and divers. The bikers and snorkelers were dropped off first after about a 45 minute ride that was enjoyable as you get to see the coastline. Then the divers were taken to the resorts dive shop and fitted out. The first dive was from the shore, and was fine. The second one after lunch was from a boat. We all had lunch in a pavillion back from the shore in the palm tree forest between dives and snorkels.

The snorkel beach was lovely with lounge chairs set up to sun bathe--however as you can read from the headlines, it was cloudy, but not rainy that day for us (rained elsewhere).

For Angtigua I had to scramble as I didn't get the notice that Princess cancelled the dive until I got on board in San Juan. I would recommend Dive Antigua at the Rex Halycon Cove resort. I actually didn't dive with him (a big Canadian guy), but he was also located at the same place as the operator I did dive with (with which I was also happy). Both boats left from the same place and went to the same place. When I was in Barbados and dove, they also recommended Dive Antigua.

Diving at both places was fine. The best diving from a picture taking point of view was actually St. Thomas where I used Chris Sawyer--a really first class operation, and the bottom is "lighter" and more colorful on the two small islands off St. Thomas that we dove in. He is about a half hour away from the dock at the old Renaissance Hotel, now renamed to something no Cab driver knows, but they know the Renaissance name/location!

Thanks
Norm

Norm and Maureen Reeder
NCL Sunward 1982,Eastern Carribbean, Sky Princess 1989, New England, Holland America Westerdam 1992, Panama Canal, Sun Princess 1996, Panama Canal, Rennaissance R-3 1999, Tahiti, Grand Princess, 2000 Mediterranean, Sea Princess 2001, Mexican Riviera, Grand Princess Oct 2002, Eastern and Western Carribbean, Tahitian Princess Sep, 2003, Golden Princess Southern Carribbean, May, 2004

[surfnsun]

Thanks Norm! Will remember your comments for the next trip! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[kitty555]

Hi.

Do you know why Princess canceled the dive in Angtigua? did you get a refund?

How did you do it last minute to get another dive?

We are also diving with Princess in St. Lucia. Do you think we made a bad choice by going with Princess?

This is our first dive after getting our C Card PADI certification so we thought it would be better just going with princess, but after hearing this I don't know.

Let me know what you think.

[nreeder]

They didn't tell us why it was cancelled, and the on board staff wasn't forthcoming, and neither would they recommend another SCUBA shop. They just told me to go to the Internet and type in SCUBA and Antigua and try from there--this (they didn't know)is after I was certified by their "new waves" program on Grand Princess two years ago. So I didn't think it was too helpful.

Since we knew after we boarded on Sunday the dive was cancelled, and Antigua wasn't until Thursday, I had time on the Internet to e-mail another dive place (kind of sight unseen, and no time to do any research, but it worked out great anyway).

For St. Lucia, from what I saw, there are only a couple of choices--Sandals (which I assume is for their hotel guests only), and Dive Fair Helen. I'm assuming Princess uses them, as they don't use SCUBA St. Lucia which I did--even though Princess did book to have passengers on our SCUBA St. Lucia boat for the mountain biking piece!

I booked my dives separately because I don't want to be on the "cattle boats" that I've seen especially in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. I wanted a smaller experience, which I did find on all of my dives.

They did refund the cancelled dive (as they would any tour that gets cancelled).

Thanks
Norm

Norm and Maureen Reeder
NCL Sunward 1982,Eastern Carribbean, Sky Princess 1989, New England, Holland America Westerdam 1992, Panama Canal, Sun Princess 1996, Panama Canal, Rennaissance R-3 1999, Tahiti, Grand Princess, 2000 Mediterranean, Sea Princess 2001, Mexican Riviera, Grand Princess Oct 2002, Eastern and Western Carribbean, Tahitian Princess Sep, 2003, Golden Princess Southern Carribbean, May, 2004

[kitty555]

Thank you for telling me all this. We're leaving in the morning and I'm glad I read this tonight. We wrote down the name of the place in Antigua and we will call them tomorrow. I just hope it's not too late to cancel with Princess for that dive. hopefully they let you cancel as soon as you board.

We hate the cattle drive too. We like to go on our own for most things.