Know Any Good Certification Dive Shops in St. Maarten and St. Thomas?

[mjwelch]

I'm looking to take the PADI introductory class / pool sessions before cruising and wanted to see if there were any good dive shops in both St. Maarten and St. Thomas where I could complete my open water dives. If anyone has had a particularly good (or bad) experience I'd love to hear it. Also ... any idea what it costs to do the referral dive with that shop?

 

Thanks!

[Loves_Dogs]

Thats exactly what I did. Took my classes, pool work and test at a local dive ship then did my certification dives on my cruise back in June. In St Thomas we dived with Coki Beach Dive Club and we had a great experience. They were very professional, friendly, and made sure to keep track of time so we would not miss our ship. They pick you up at the cruise terminal but you have to take a cab back which is no big deal as there are cabs everywhere. We made it back in plenty of time to be able to shop for souveniers (spelling)? Here is their site.

 

http://www.cokidive.com/

 

The dives were very scenic, saw lots of interesting things.

[Dgonza]

I went diving with coki beach dive club in St Thomas. My sister did a resort class there as she is not a certified diver. We also had someone from the cruise ship do her open water certification. It is a beautiful beach and the water is a real pretty blue. The dive shop looks run down, but they are real friendly and helpful too. Good Luck and keep bubbling!!

 

David

[CruiseKing]

I'm looking to take the PADI introductory class / pool sessions before cruising and wanted to see if there were any good dive shops in both St. Maarten and St. Thomas where I could complete my open water dives. If anyone has had a particularly good (or bad) experience I'd love to hear it. Also ... any idea what it costs to do the referral dive with that shop?

 

Thanks!

What cruise line and ship are you going on?

[mjwelch]

What cruise line and ship are you going on?

 

Bruce -

 

We're doing the Caribbean Princess ... a boat that you appear to know well :) Any particulars on the boat we ought to know about, good or bad?

 

Mike

[CruiseKing]

Mike,

That's why I was asking about what ship you'd be on. I was certified through the Princess New Waves Program in May 2005. Here's the link to the web site.

http://www.newwaves.com/programs.htm#info

You can do your 4 check out dives through the ship. PADI cost is $189, other certifying agencies are $199.

As for the ship my DW and I like it. Although it carries an additional 500 passengers than other Grand Class Ships we (our opinion) did not feel the crowds. Please feel free to check out the link to our cruise photos to take a look at the CB.

Anything more specific I'll try to answer for you.

[mjwelch]

Thanks! I'm actually going the New Waves route myself - local options didn't pan out. I understand that they dive at Coki Beach which has been recommended here. Looking forward to it! As for size, we did the Diamond Princess and really had no problems ... so I'm hoping it's the same here.