Scuba Diving - Cruiselines or the Internet?

[rolande]

Our family is taking the Carnival Destiny to St. Thomas late May 2006 (in a couple of weeks - yea!!!). Does anyone have recommendations on which dive shop to use? Do they pick you up at the pier? Or, is it better to book off the ship.

 

btw - we took the Carnival Valor to Roatan last May and dived on the West End with a great dive shop, Salt and Pepper. I highly recommend those folks. They're down home, no hurrys, no worries, no maddening crowd. They give you a great lobster meal afterwords and plenty of time to have a few (lot?) drinks at a wonderful bar on the beach. It's one of my favorite places.

 

See you at the Islands!!

[jenjens1023]

We used Coki Beach Dive Club (you should be able to google them). As we had never dived, we did their Discover Scuba Diving package. The dive master was wonderful (he's a Yankees fan, but I can fogive him one small indiscretion). They picked us up from the ship, but we had to get our own transportation back to the port (so we could stay at the beach as long as we wanted). The taxi back was $9/person.

[bruce-r]

Does anyone have recommendations on which dive shop to use? Do they pick you up at the pier? Or, is it better to book off the ship.

Sure I have recommendations, but first you might want to read the bit I wrote about deciding between making your own arrangements or going with the ship's excursion. Click Here Personally, I'd go with making my own arrangements in just about all ports unless time was very short or I was in port at an odd time.

 

In addition to the recommendation for http://www.cokidive.com which is an excellent choice for a mixed group of divers/non-divers, I would also consider Chris Sawyer diving, Admiralty dive center (which does pickup at the cruise dock), and Blue Island diving (which I think also picks up at the dock). I've read very good reviews about all three dive operators.

[jenjens1023]

I was tired when I wrote last night and left out some details about our excursion with Coki.

 

One of the big advantages over booking with the ship: there were only three of us (me, DH and DD) on the dive! I would imagine a ship's trip would be much more crowded. I had some problems learning to breathe correctly with the regulator but with such a small group the dive master had time to help me and once I learned to exhale completely and relax, it felt completely natural. I even knocked the regulator out of my mouth at one point and didn't panic.

 

By the way, we saw and octopus, an eel and a puffer fish (and 77 million parrot fish)!

 

I was amazed at how light the tank was underwater. But it sure brought me back to reality when I got out of the water. And I came out of the water practically kicking and screaming like a two-year-old. I didn't want the experience to end.

 

I want to do it again--can I go with you?

[rolande]

Thanks for the info on the dive shops at St. Thomas. Also, appreciate the info on Coki beach. The cruise ship shore excursion literature indicates it's only a one-tank dive, and we'd like a two-tank, so we've decided not to book off the ship. I've sent Admiralty an email and am waiting for their reply.

 

Last May (2005) we booked a dive trip using the Carnival Valor ship's shore excursion at Grand Caymens. There were 10 or 12 of us on the dive boat (it was full). I didn't like the boat captain, didn't like the number of people, and in general didn't like the dive. We booked another dive during that cruise, but it was off the Internet, at Roatan and things we're different. There were 3 from my family (myself, daughter, and son) and we joined 2 others at the pier (also from our ship). It was a nice group of 5, in a small boat, with a very friendly couple of divemasters. I liked the diving in Roatan, but my son liked the diving in Grand Caymens. Roatan was shallower (30-40) and the colors were much brighter. Caymens was deeper and the number, variety of fish was better than Roatan. Both were great.

 

Bruce-r - I agree with your comments regarding the shore excursion vs do it yourself. pros: you get to meet other people on the cruise if you book the ship's shore excursion and you are sure to get back in time. Although, the two people we met/dove with in Roatan were also on our cruise ship. The con: it's possible to miss the departure if you're not careful. Again, thanks for your comments.

 

How about Dominica, Aruba, and San Juan? Any dive shops you recommend?

[bruce-r]

How about Dominica, Aruba, and San Juan? Any dive shops you recommend?

I went with http://www.divearuba.com and had a good time. Few cruisers are able to dive Puerto Rico as the decent diving is a 2+ hour drive from San Juan. I haven't been to Dominica so someone else will be a better source for information. You might look on http://www.scubaboard.com in the general caribbean section.