Admiralty Dive, St Thomas

[CruisinCrow]

Beware of Admiralty Dive in St Thomas. I booked and reconfirmed a 2-tank dive for my husband and father for April 19. They knew that we were arriving by cruise ship and said they would pick us up at the Havensite pier at 9 am. My husband and father were there but Admiralty Dive never showed up. After waiting over an hour, my husband was able to borrow a phone from one of the parasailing companies and call them. They said that their boat would not start and so the dive was cancelled. They also said that they had called us and left a message. We never received a message - not on our cell phone, not on our home phone and not on the ship. They also could have sent someone over personally to tell us or even called another nearby company to be on the lookout for 2 divers waiting at the pier. They could have done anything other than making my husband and dad schlep dive gear all the way out there and wait over an hour in the sun for no reason!

 

I guess we should just be glad that their boat didn't break down during the dive because this company obviously does not have their act together. No contingency plans and no customer service.

 

Sorry to say that I booked Admiralty Dive because of a recommendation by Bruce R, whose opinions and diving experience I respect. But in this case, Admiralty Dive let us down big time.

[CruisinCrow]

To be fair, I e-mailed Admiralty Dive and Laura answered quickly. Her response is below. Our complaint was not that their boat broke down. We know, as we have owned boats ourselves, that boats do break down. Our complaint was that no one let us know that there was a problem. Hopefully, they will improve their procedures for situations like this. In the future, we will certainly call the dive shop before ever leaving the ship!

 

 

Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience on the day of your father's and husbands dive charter. We agree that this situation is unacceptable and we work with another dive operation very closely so that all our customer's are taken care of in these instances. On the day of this scheduled dive, our "back-up" boat (which is the one we use for when our main boat is in maintenance or down), also had problems. We did our best to find a solution that would satisfy all needs. Unfortunately, the other shop we work with was also experiencing boat problems. Believe me, it cost us more than you'd know to get our boat(s) up and running. It is not our practice to let people down and we were also very devastated over this whole situation.

As far as a message being left - I will speak to my husband and ask him what number he called. We do not have any way of contacting customers on cruise ship phones, it is not allowed.

And yes, we too are grateful that we were not on a dive charter when our boat broke down. Our business has been in business for a very long time and is very reputable. Unfortunately, not every day is paradise and there are problems that we cannot control or change, like the weather and boats breaking down.

Again, I am sincerely sorry.

Sincerely,

Laura Hausch

Admiralty Dive Center

[bruce-r]

Sorry to say that I booked Admiralty Dive because of a recommendation by Bruce R, whose opinions and diving experience I respect. But in this case, Admiralty Dive let us down big time.

Wow, I am really sorry. I feel really bad that your men didn't get to dive especially since you chose Admiralty on my recommendation.

 

You can be sure that your review will influence many others looking for a recommendation for St. Thomas.

 

Maybe I should stop recommending dive operators.

[Middleager]

Maybe I should stop recommending dive operators.

Hey Bruce-r, don't stop. CruisinCrow did say she respects your opinion. I'm in the same boat (ok, with a little pun)

 

I enjoy your comments and recommendations. I've wrote some comments and hope they help others. I know how it may feel if I recommends some op and it turned out not good.

 

I happened to be going to St. Thomas, on Carnival Destiny this Aug, and have begun to review the comments.

 

CruisinCrow, thanks for sharing your experience, and especially the reponse from Admiralty. I'd wonder who the other operator they usually work with is.

[FuzzyMelton]

We are still going to use them. Will be there Sunday (6 days).

[cmdchiefthom]

I used them last year in April to shoot video on the hospital ship, and it was fantastic. There was just my wife and I, the DM and boat operator. I didn't mind when on the way in, the steering linkage broke, and we had to use a pole jury rigged to the steering post through the aft access hatch. The skipper had to relay which way to steer to the DM aft because he couldn't see the bow to know which way the boat was headed.:eek: Kind of an interesting trip. These boats take a beating, day in and day out, and its understandable that sometimes, they just can't make a trip. I always worry when I make private reservations that something might come up and I'll be stuck waiting on pier. That's one of the risks you take when you choose not to dive with SHOREX. I always choose to take the risk because if everything works out, you have a better diving experience. I will use Admiralty again in December when I make it back to St. Thomas in December.;)

[CruisinCrow]

Bruce R - don't stop recommending. People (me included) really value your experience and I didn't mean in any way to blame you. I was just so surprised that a recommended dive shop would leave us stranded at the pier. At least Laura did e-mail me to explain the reason.

 

Like cmdchiefthom said, it's the chance you take when you don't book through the ship. We chose an independent dive operator because it sounded like Admiralty Dive wouldn't be a cattle boat and my dad was dying to use his new Nitrox certification. Next time, maybe we'll go with the cattle boat. Or not. But we will definitely call the dive operator before getting off the ship.

 

Happy diving, everyone.

[CruisinCrow]

I heard back from Laura again. She offered to comp our dives if we ever get back to St Thomas. I think she is truly trying to set things right and I do appreciate it, although I don't know when we will be back.

 

It sounded like their boat problems hurt them a lot worse than it hurt us. At least we still had time to enjoy a Bushwacker at Paradise Point as a consolation prize.

 

FuzzyMelton, I hope you have a great trip and better luck with the boat than us. Let us know how it went so we'll know what we missed. :)

[Middleager]

I heard back from Laura again. She offered to comp our dives if we ever get back to St Thomas. I think she is truly trying to set things right and I do appreciate it, although I don't know when we will be back.

Well if you won't be back there soon, how to I pretend to be you (how should I sound and dress)? Ha, just kidding.

 

I'm still keeping an eye out for dive op reviews in St. Thomas and the rest of Destiny's ports (Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, and Antigua) to book my dives.

 

On another note, how long did it take you for the skytram ride to Paradise point? How long was the line up, and how many minutes did it take to get to the top? Our ship leaves at 4:30pm, so I wonder what time we should take the down ride, to get back on ship in time.

 

Admiralty has a 3-tank trip, getting back at 3pm. I wonder if that leaves enough time for a round-trip skytram ride to the top, see a bit, then come back down.

 

Thanks.

[CruisinCrow]

Middleager,

If your ship leaves at 4:30, you'll have to be back on board by 4 so I don't think you'll have time for 3-tank dive and a tram ride. But I'm impressed if you can do a 3-tank dive and still feel like going sightseeing! :) I'd be wiped out!

 

I thought that Paradise Point was great. There was a long line to go up the tram but that may have been because it was peak time by the time we got there. I think we probably waited half on hour. On the way back, we just hopped on the next tram. No waiting. They say the ride is 7 minutes long but it felt much shorter than that to me. There are 2 sets of trams (each set has 3 cars that hold 8 people each) and they run constantly. The price was $18 - a little steep but cheaper than the scuba dives would have been. :rolleyes: We spent at least an hour at the top, taking pictures and having some lunch, beer and Bushwackers. It's nice and breezy at the top. Gorgeous view of Havensite and beyond. Anyway, I'd count on at least an hour for the round trip.

[billeelou]

we were there, Admiralty was great, and had a fun time especially for my Newbie diving DW ....

 

Looks like Laura's trying to make it right....

[Middleager]

Middleager,

If your ship leaves at 4:30, you'll have to be back on board by 4 so I don't think you'll have time for 3-tank dive and a tram ride. But I'm impressed if you can do a 3-tank dive and still feel like going sightseeing! :) I'd be wiped out!

Hi. I was mistaken. We have to be back on the ship at 4:30pm, it leaves at 5pm. So it might be doable. People say diving is a lazy men/women's sport, so it's not supposed to be tiring. But then we're in the heat for many hours (except when in water), and there's also the effort to lug the gears around. So yes I will also be tired. But I should still have energy to take the tram.

I thought that Paradise Point was great. There was a long line to go up the tram but that may have been because it was peak time by the time we got there. I think we probably waited half on hour. On the way back, we just hopped on the next tram. No waiting. They say the ride is 7 minutes long but it felt much shorter than that to me. There are 2 sets of trams (each set has 3 cars that hold 8 people each) and they run constantly. The price was $18 - a little steep but cheaper than the scuba dives would have been. :rolleyes: We spent at least an hour at the top, taking pictures and having some lunch, beer and Bushwackers. It's nice and breezy at the top. Gorgeous view of Havensite and beyond. Anyway, I'd count on at least an hour for the round trip.

I thought the price of $18 is high too. But I guess they know they get a lot of tourists. The day we'll be there, there will be 2 ships in port. Less than the busy times.

 

How long is the walk from where Admiralty would pickup/dropoff, to walk to the skytram? And how long a walk from skytram to the pier? Thanks a lot.

[CruisinCrow]

You're lucky - only 2 ships in port and you're on Carnival. You'll be the closest to the start of the pier where Admiralty will (I hope) pick you up. :) We, on the other hand, were on the Norwegian Jewel which was allllllll the way at the very end. The tram is right across the street from the Havensite shopping area. You'll have a nice short walk.

 

Here's a picture I took at Paradise Point. This will give you an idea of the pier layout. Pretty, isn't it? There were 5 ships in port that day - 3 at Havensite and 2 and Crown Bay.