princess operators v. go alone/puerto rico dive ops

[rachel0]

Hello,

 

My husband & I will be taking our 1st cruise in Sept on Golden Princess. I'm looking for any tips/advice to make everything go smoothly. OUr ports:

 

barbados

st. lucia

antigua

st. maarten

st. thomas

 

We're only beginning divers (getting certified as I write) but have snorkeled (and SNUBA'd) extensively so we're very comfortable in the water. So, i'm worried about using princess's operators and getting stuck with "bad" beginning divers (yes, i think we're good beginners:) ). Does anyone what dive operators PRincess uses in any of these ports and whether i should use princess or try to book on my own. I think it will make my husband tense to use a non-princess operator insofar as fear of not getting to the boat on time, but if the boat's operators really suck, maybe there's a way to work around that? I'd love to hear anyone's experiences!

 

2) any suggestions on good diving operators in san juan where we'll be staying there a few days before the cruise?

 

 

That's it--that's a lot. Thank you all!

[bruce-r]

Hello,

 

My husband & I will be taking our 1st cruise in Sept on Golden Princess. I'm looking for any tips/advice to make everything go smoothly. OUr ports:

 

barbados

st. lucia

antigua

st. maarten

st. thomas

 

 

2) any suggestions on good diving operators in san juan where we'll be staying there a few days before the cruise?

 

Of the islands you are visiting I have only been to St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

 

The diving in St, Maarten was quite disappointing and I have heard that my experience there isn't far off the mark. All the diving is done in the open ocean, so if ocean conditions aren't good the diving suffers. The boat ride can be pretty unpleasant. I wouldn't diver there again unless the ocean was dead flat calm, and even then I wouldn't expect much.

 

St. Thomas, on the other hand, does have decent diving. I went to Coki beach for an inexpensive guided shore dive. I recommend http://www.cokidive.com especially if you are part of a mixed diver/non-diver group. At least check out their website for some good information.

If you are looking for a boat dive, many people recommend Chris Sawyer diving. You might also look at http://www.admiraltydive.com/ I'd probably go with them as they offered cruise dock pickup, a small boat, and a 3 tank trip.

 

I do recommend making your own dive arrangements. If you do a morning trip, you should have NO problem making it back to the ship in time, at least on St. Thomas or St. Maarten. Often the dive operator the cruise line contracts with operates larger boats with many once a year cruise divers, offering follow the leader dives with limited bottom time. I prefer a smaller operator that will allow me to do my own dive to the limit of my computer and NDL time limits. I'm pretty good with my air, so I really don't like ending my dive just because someone else has used up their tank while I still have 1500psi left. I also don't like to dive fast. I prefer to go slowly and take my time with my photography. A large operator with a fixed schedule is less likely to allow this style of diving.

 

For Puerto Rico, most, if not all, of the decent diving on the island isn't very close to San Juan.

 

If you are interested, there are a couple of good scuba message boards where you might find more information:

 

Scubaboard.com has separate sections for different parts of the world. Search function works.

 

scubadiving.com only has the one board. The regular members do appreciate it when new members use the search function before posting questions.

 

Any other questions?

[rachel0]

i did a search there, and some people seemed to have a good experience with cruise excursions but i didn't see a post with princess-specific experience so i wanted to cast about and see if anyone bit.

[Hilary]

A good operator to use in St. Thomas is Blue Island Divers (http://blueislanddivers.com/) They run smaller boats and will pick you up at the cruise pier. I second the recommendation to not dive in St. Martin. I've never heard anything good about the diving there, and it sounds like a day at the beach or on a catamaran would be much better.

 

As a word of caution, remember if you book your dives privately and your ship either skips the port or gets in late, you're going to be charged for a dive you won't be taking. This is why my husband and I are booking a few dives privately and a few through the ship. We'll book through the ship for ports that have a sea day prior, and only book privately for ports that are close to eachother. That reduces the risk of missing a port or dive.

[rachel0]

For Puerto Rico, most, if not all, of the decent diving on the island isn't very close to San Juan.

I was reading more about Puerto Rico diving, and I don't mind making a trip to get to the good diving. What I'm more worried about is how experienced a diver one has to be--we're getting certified as I write, haven't even finished pool dives yet so I think it's kind of early to be doing any particularily deep diving. How deep do you need to go to get to the decent diving in San Juan, and for that matter, any of the other ports?

 

Thanks!

[bruce-r]

I was reading more about Puerto Rico diving, and I don't mind making a trip to get to the good diving. What I'm more worried about is how experienced a diver one has to be--we're getting certified as I write, haven't even finished pool dives yet so I think it's kind of early to be doing any particularily deep diving. How deep do you need to go to get to the decent diving in San Juan, and for that matter, any of the other ports?

 

Thanks!

 

Just be sure to let the dive operator know your experience and comfort level. They should be able and willing to accommodate your desires. There are so many great dive sites that are 50ft or less that you don't really have to go deep to see "the good stuff". Actually there are a couple of benefits of making shallower dives. The color is better because the water filters out the different color wavelength the deeper you go until everything is mostly blue. I always take at least a small dive light on every dive to look into hole and to see the true color of some things. If it looks brown at 40ft it probably is really a bright red. Shallow dives can last longer both because you have more NDL time at shallower depths and because you use air slower because it is less dense.

 

I had the time I'd dive in Puerto Rico. There is a bioluminescent dive you can do as a evening/night dive that is supposed to be an out of this world experience and it is a shallow dive.