Scuba diving St Lucia?

[Jack and Suzanne]

Would like some reply on diving in St. Lucia in January. We will be on a RC cruise.

[Porchbeers]

My wife and I dove St. Lucia about two years ago on our honeymoon through Sandals. The diving was fun and we had a good time. Now, take this with aa grain of salt, but the visibility was a little less that perfect, probably about 60 feet. But we enjoy Cozumel so we are a little spoiled in that sense. The current was swift, in fact the swiftest current we dove was a dive called "Superman's Flight." Its called that because it is where scenes from Superman 2 were shot.

[techdiver]

I've done a couple of excursions that involved Anse Chastenet. One involved a nice buffet, I forget which cruise line had that, but check your shore excursions.

[Jack and Suzanne]

Thanks for the replies.

 

The excursion is offered on Royal Carribbean and it is the Anse Chastenet Resort dive, which includes lunch at the resort. One is a shore dive and the other takes you out to the coral reef below the Pitons. The only other dive the cruise offers is in St Thomas and St Martin, which a friend did not recommend. My husband does not dive, so I am on my on that day and because of getting back to the ship on time was advised to go with a ship tour.

 

I have been spoiled too, as I am in Belize a lot and I usually dive there. Only one other dive in Fla. Atlantic lobster "tickleing". Great fun!! Just would like to venture out and see more.

 

Suzanne

[techdiver]

Yes, we were off the Empress of the Seas and the trip with the lunch was well worth it. I recommend it. Just "stay with the group" or you'll get yelled at by the divemaster.

[Jack and Suzanne]

OK!! Techdiver, thanks for the heads up! I don't stray far from the crowd...which in San Pedro, Belize is rarely a crowd! I mostly stay close to the divemaster....

[sjbowler]

Sounds like the same trip we took with Adventure of the Seas. We dove St Thomas, St Martin, St Lucia and Barbados. We would have done Antigua as well but they didn't offer any diving. We liked St Thomas and Barbados as far as diving goes. St. Lucia did have a current but when we were there it wasn't that bad. It took about 45 minutes to get out to the dive site and we were late getting back to the ship. Good thing we were on a ship excursion so they had to wait for us to get back. The Adventure of the Seas has a dive shop on board so if your husband is not a diver maybe they can hook you up with a dive buddy. I hope you enjoy your trip. We did.

[Jack and Suzanne]

Thank you, SJBowlers, for the info. I will dive with RC and their excursion. Did you dive the Pitons coral dive near Anse Chastenet Resort?

 

Suzanne

[sjbowler]

Yes, we did. The first dive was at the marine reserve and it was a shore entry. The second dive was a boat entry off the reef and the current was a bit more swift. Both dives were excellent. after the dives we got a lunch buffet at the resort. it was a great time.

[w&k]

We were picked up at the pier, and packed into a van to be tranported through the island to a dock in the middle of a construction site.

 

Then, we stood out in the sun for about 20 minutes while waiting for our dive boat. While we were waiting, a wacked-out local drug dealer showed up, grabbed me by the arm, and tried to sell another lady and I his decorated coconut and the 'smokable' contents, or a little of his, ahem, personal service, while our guide looked on in amusement (thanks dude, no tip for you).

 

We hauled our gear onto the boat, then had a nice ride way around the island, where we pulled up directly onto the beach. Toted our gear up the beach to the dive shack, filled out paperwork, got weights, set up for the first dive, and toted our dive bags back to a closet that could be locked.

 

Back down the beach in full gear for a tour through the reserve. Nice dive, but we spent about 15 minutes lolling around on the sand bottom waiting for our divemaster to go through the whole group one-by-one doing a mask removal and replacement drill.

 

The dive was nice, but what an ordeal to get to it. When our speed-tour was finished, back up the beach in gear...and I still had 1800 in my tank. Drat. Then we were told to put on DRY clothes to go eat lunch. We didn't bring any dry stuff, so after much discussion and hand-waving from the restaurant manager, it was finally decided we could eat in the beach bar area although we still got dirty looks for the wet bootie-prints through their buffet area, which was tile and outside.

 

After a quick bite, we grabbed our gear, and were rushed onto the boat and around the corner for a dive at the Pitons. Much nicer dive this time. One of our group that had rental gear developed a leak at the console. Not a few bubbles, mind you, but a real leak. DH and I saw it at once, so we got on either side of the lady, and I had to go get the divemaster, who simply flashed 'OK' at us. We stuck close, but the dive was called early to get us back to the ship so the leak didn't really matter. Out of the water with 1800 again. Double drat.

 

We were then hustled back around the corner, ran back up the beach to collect our dive bags, then back down the beach and onto the boat again. Then, we ran the boat flat out for about 15 minutes, and were transferred to another boat full of sunburnt snorkelers for the trip around the island directly back to the dock.

 

For this day of rushing, traveling, and short dives we paid a premium price - about $160 each if I remember correctly.

 

Great trip to do once, but that was plenty.

 

I hope they have the timing figured out better now for your trip...let us know!

 

Wendy

[diverearl]

Did you talk to any divers on the ship that had a good experience on a dive booked directly with a dive shop? Not through the ship.

 

We will be on the Empress of the Seas 11 nt southern Nov 06, St Maarten - Tortola - Guadelope - St Lucia - Barbados - Margarita Island - Curacao - and Aruba. Which islands have the better diving and which would you just enjoy the topside. We usually book our own dives on every island we stop at but most of these ports will be new to us and several of these ports are getting bad dive reports.

 

We for sure will dive Curacao and Aruba. Thanks in advance, earl.

[wogg88]

Has anyone ever used Island divers in St. Lucia. We will be there in November and are looking for a good dive op.:D

 

Thanks ,

 

Paul

[w&k]

Earl- The Empress itinerary you have listed looks quite different that the one we took this spring, and are booked on again for next spring. We dove the 4 ops listed below in the spring (plus the St. Lucia trip described above). Dive Barbados and and Kenneth’s Dive Center on St. Kitts were second trips for us, as we had done them from a trip on the Zenith.

 

Currently I have another mixed group (dive, intro dive, snorkel, beer) going to The Dive Bus in October from Radiance of the Seas (PC), and we will probably do all four again next spring. That is, if they will let us come back again ;)

 

I can heartily recommend (in alphabetical order):

 

Aruba – Clive at Dive Aruba http://www.divearuba.com (I know I wrote a review, but can’t figure out what happened to it right now…)

 

Barbados – John and Mary at Dive Barbados http://www.divebarbados.net (CC reviews are http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=121690 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=367272 )

 

Curacao – Suzy and Mark at The Dive Bus http://www.the-dive-bus.com (CC review http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=332272)

 

St. Kitts – Kenneth’s Dive Center http://www.kennethsdivecenter.com (CC review http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=340136 )

 

 

 

St. Lucia ????? Scuba St. Lucia through the RCCL shore excursion we found to be disorganized and quite pricey, as the dives were regimented and very short. I’m sure that better planning and organization would take care of the short dive problem.

 

 

 

Paul- I have seen notes that some divers have used and been pleased with Dive Fair Helen – but our odd port time prevented us from booking with them. I don’t recall seeing Island Divers listed, but it was awhile ago. Please post your trip when you get back – I would love to do St. Lucia again, but not with the excursion.

 

 

 

Have a great time wherever you dive!

 

Wendy

 

Dive pix

http://community.webshots.com/user/wendyandkeith

[crusinhokie]

Jack & Suzanne

 

It looks like you are booked on the Serenade the week after us. We just reserved with Dive Fair Helen in St Lucia. When I contacted them they were very helpful, answered all of our questions, and gave us a pretty good price on the dives (3 divers). I haven't had much luck getting opinions about them but their time frame seems perfect for our ship. Have you decided who you are going to dive with?