scuba diving through ship or arrange on our own?

[Tracy1]

We're cruising on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas Aug. 29 Should we book a dive excursion through the ship or arrange on our own? Is there any good diving in St. Martin?

[Debi_D]

Diving is always good in the Caribbean. I really do not know much about any dive operations on St Martin but to play it safe I would probably stick with the ship. Now if I was diving in other ports where I have dove before and know of the dive operators then I would choose them.

If you stay with the ship excursions than you are guar. to make it back on time. The only problem I have with the ship excursions are that they really limit you to your dive profile and you are usually stuck in what we divers call the "herd". Sometimes that can be a pain, especially when most of these divers are once a year or some haven't dove in over 5 years.

Hope that helps, enjoy the dive and say hi to the groupers for me:D

Debi

[CaribbeanCruisesRock]

[b][color=red]I would scuba dive through the ship because then you are guarenteed to get back to the ship on time.[/color][/b]

[Hilary]

St. Martin isn't known for very good diving and really isn't a recommended place to dive in the Caribbean. I typically book through the ship for stuff to be assured I'll make it back in time for sailing. I've been on too many dive charters that go a little longer than they're supposed to and am not interested in taking the chance of missing the ship!

Also, I've been on too many cruises that cancel a port or get in late for one reason or another to want to risk booking privately and being charged for a dive I wasn't able to take. At least if the ship cancels the excursion you aren't charged, but most dive ops require 48 hour notice to cancel, which you may not be able to give them.