Scuba in St. Marteen from Beyond 3/5/23

[industrious95]

Our March 5th Beyond cruise doesn't include a scuba excursion for the stops in St. Marteen or Puerto Plata, so I'm trying to make my own arrangements.

 

In St Marteen, the dive shops I find on line say to check in at the Simpson Bay Resort shop at 8:15 or the DIVI shop at 8:30.   Is that possible, being that the cruise itinerary has the ship arriving in St. Marteen at 8:00am?    I've never been to St. Marteen before and never been on Celebrity before, so don't know how easy it is to get off the ship, or how easy it is to find a cab at the cruise terminal.  I assume there's a lot of passengers disembarking with ships excursions plus early birds who can't wait to get off.

 

Thanks

Edited February 2, 2023 by industrious95

[Essiesmom]

Have you looked on the Ports of Call boards for your ports, and on the RollCall for your sailing? Folks there might have suggestions.  There is also a board for Scuba and Snorkeling under Special Interest cruising.  EM

[mahdnc]

That timing seems very tight although DIVI may be do-able.  There is no guarantee that the ship will be docked at precisely 8 am and there is a delay in getting the ship cleared by Immigration before you can get off.

 

I would suggest that you email the dive shop and explain your situation and see what they say.  My family and I have done a lot of dives on our Celebrity cruises.  We find that many of the small dive operators in the Caribbean will work with your cruise ship schedule.  Some of the bigger shops are going to be inflexible and if you can't make it in time, they will not wait for you.  

 

Getting off the ship is pretty quick since you should be docked.  The pier area is very commercial (stores, shops) and pretty large.  Getting a taxi is not difficult but you have to walk a ways before you get to the taxis.  The drive to DIVI or Simpsons Bay will take a while (15-20 minutes) and is traffic dependent. Again, I would contact them to see what they have to say.  If they cannot accommodate you, don't give up and keep looking. 

 

Although we have done a lot of diving, we have not done it at St Maarten and so I don't have any specific dive shop recommendations to give you.  Good luck.

 

Lionfish hunting in Aruba, Jan 2019

Edited February 2, 2023 by mahdnc

[PKB]

We have used Ocean Explorers the two times we dove at St. Maarten.  Wonderful crew and very attentive and safe.  They picked us up at the designated place for private transportation and returned us afterward.  You have to walk all the way through to the other end of the shopping area, 10-15 minutes.  Fabulous experiences.

Edited February 2, 2023 by PKB

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, industrious95 said:

Our March 5th Beyond cruise doesn't include a scuba excursion for the stops in St. Marteen or Puerto Plata, so I'm trying to make my own arrangements.

 

In St Marteen, the dive shops I find on line say to check in at the Simpson Bay Resort shop at 8:15 or the DIVI shop at 8:30.   Is that possible, being that the cruise itinerary has the ship arriving in St. Marteen at 8:00am?    I've never been to St. Marteen before and never been on Celebrity before, so don't know how easy it is to get off the ship, or how easy it is to find a cab at the cruise terminal.  I assume there's a lot of passengers disembarking with ships excursions plus early birds who can't wait to get off.

 

Thanks

 

Some dive shops are "cruise friendly" by offering transportation even if its against taxi rules, allow you to "check in" online and offer refunds if the ship arrives late or not at all.  Other shops, often located in resorts, can be far more rigid...Example we've personally experienced, we're told the dive boat leaves at 830am with or without us, we have to figure out transportation (can be more expensive than the dive) and unless we cancel within 48 hours of the dive, no refunds even if the ship arrives late.  Occasionally, at certain ports those are the only way to dive

[industrious95]

Thanks to all for your advice. 

PKB - thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into Ocean Explorers. 

[SnorkelAway]

Just to add to advice above, call the dive shop after looking online and talk to them about possibilities.  Confirm conversation - if you book - with emails both immediately and day before you arrive on island.  Dive shop people almost certainly speak fluent english - easy to just call and talk.

[Clubber]

We did a 2 tank dive with Dive Sint Maarten last week.  They are at Bobby's marina which is a short walk from the cruise pier.   We showed up at 8:30am to get our gear and the boat left about 9am.   Easy to do from cruise ship.  Both dives were great.  They guides were very nice and helpful.   We booked online.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Clubber

[Kwilson51]

We are on The Reflection New Years Eve.  Eastern Caribbean….looking for the best place to dive.  Would love any info y’all have on private companies/islands you dove.

Thanks a bunch.

Kim.

 

[mahdnc]

@Kwilson51,

 

Your cruise is stopping at San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Tortola, and Dominican Republic.

 

Of those ports, we have only dove at St. Thomas back in 2014.  I initially tried to book our dives with St. Thomas Diving Club.  Unfortunately they said that our cruise ship schedule at St Thomas (8am-5pm) was not compatible with their morning or afternoon dive trips.

 

We ended up booking our dives with Aqua Marine Dive Center.  That worked out very well and I highly recommend them. 

 

Eclipse was stuck having to anchor at Charlotte Amalie that day (6 cruise ships scheduled with pier capacity for 5) and so it was a tender port which made it more complicated to meet up with Aqua Marine's shuttle which was scheduled to pick us up at Havensight cruise terminal.  We ended up needing to take a cab to get to Havensight.  

 

I would imagine that the diving would be excellent at Tortola which we have never been.

 

Eclipse anchored at Charlotte Amalie on Jan 8, 2014.

Edited March 23, 2023 by mahdnc

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 2/2/2023 at 3:40 PM, industrious95 said:

Thanks to all for your advice. 

PKB - thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into Ocean Explorers. 

 

St Martin, both go to the exact same dive sites

Ocean explorer = transportation, they do offer it for $16/person

Dive Sint Maarten = walking distance

 

For St Thomas:

Ship tour, you do walk from the ship to the dive boat but it'll be two shallow dives usually with lots of beginners and students.  Probably won't dive deeper than 35'; doubtful you see anything special

JJ divers, does require transportation for $10/person but you'll see lot of harmless black tip reef sharks

[NutsAboutGolf]

So just wanted to communicate 

On 2/2/2023 at 2:54 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Some dive shops are "cruise friendly" by offering transportation even if its against taxi rules, allow you to "check in" online and offer refunds if the ship arrives late or not at all.  Other shops, often located in resorts, can be far more rigid...Example we've personally experienced, we're told the dive boat leaves at 830am with or without us, we have to figure out transportation (can be more expensive than the dive) and unless we cancel within 48 hours of the dive, no refunds even if the ship arrives late.  Occasionally, at certain ports those are the only way to dive

 

Just wanted to add to this as this just happened to us in Puerto Vallarta.  Ship arrived an hour late, dive shop offered no refund at all, they claimed as an one time exception they'll give us 50% off our next dive booking...

 

Another thing that I went through with them.  They ASSUME the second the cruise ship pulls up you can walk off it and get right into a taxi.  I did explain that the ship has to be cleared, you then have to walk for nearly 5mins to get to the mall-like terminal, the terminal takes at least 5mins to walk through and once you get inside a taxi, there's a checkpoint for them to leave the secured area