Scuba in Bermuda

[kruiser68]

Has anyone done the Scuba Two-Tank Dive Excursion from St. George's Port of Call? I'm looking for excursion information for Norwegian's Crown Cruise Ship (which dive shop do they use?), but would take any cruise ship scuba excursion. My husband and I are going for our last check-out dive this Thursday and will be leaving on the Crown September 9th. We would like to use the excursion from the ship for our first dive since we don't know what to expect. When I called NCL's excursion office, the person said that it didn't show that there were any extra charges for equipment, but also didn't say what equipment was included. We want to know if we should bring BCD's, regulators and wetsuits. We want to leave them home if they are included in the excursion price. We are limited to one bag each for the shuttle we are taking to the pier. Thanks

[cal2632]

Has anyone done the Scuba Two-Tank Dive Excursion from St. George's Port of Call? I'm looking for excursion information for Norwegian's Crown Cruise Ship (which dive shop do they use?), but would take any cruise ship scuba excursion. My husband and I are going for our last check-out dive this Thursday and will be leaving on the Crown September 9th. We would like to use the excursion from the ship for our first dive since we don't know what to expect. When I called NCL's excursion office, the person said that it didn't show that there were any extra charges for equipment, but also didn't say what equipment was included. We want to know if we should bring BCD's, regulators and wetsuits. We want to leave them home if they are included in the excursion price. We are limited to one bag each for the shuttle we are taking to the pier. Thanks

Some cruise lines will offer scuba with or without equipment. If it doesn't say, I'd think it is safe to assume that equipment is included. The difference in cost is usually only $10 or so. That will not include a wet suit or computer, but will include anything REQUIRED to dive. You might want to bring your own mask if nothing else - I know I am more comfortable in mine.

[kruiser68]

Thanks for the reply cal2632. Come to find out the excursion we had wanted in St. George's is only offered on the Majesty, so we will have to go through a Dive Shop while on Bermuda. So we definately will have to rent what we don't bring.

 

Has anyone scuba dived in Bermuda? Which shop did you use. And since most places say that your money is non-refundable within 24 hours, what happens if your ship doesn't dock? We are thinking of going (or calling) a dive shop as soon as we arrive and book then. We will be in St. George's one day and Hamilton 2 1/2 days (although we wouldn't dive the last day for fear of missing the boat) :) Our first day in Bermuda is 9/11, with it being hurricane season will the dive shops already be booked up or should have openings availible? Please excuse my ignorance, this will be our first dive away from home.

[cal2632]

We went with Blue Water Divers in Bermuda (http://www.divebermuda.com). They are by Somerset Bridge - across from Hamilton. If you want to do more research, try http://www.bermudascuba.net. I don't think you'll have a problem booking dives for Sept.

 

Have fun!

[scubaran]

We went with Blue Water Divers in Bermuda (www.divebermuda.com). They are by Somerset Bridge - across from Hamilton. If you want to do more research, try www.bermudascuba.net. I don't think you'll have a problem booking dives for Sept.

 

Have fun!

 

I use blue water divers as well. A couple things, they have a shore dive shop at Elbow Beach resort, only a 5 minute cab ride from Hamilton. As such, if you want to do a shore dive you can go any time (that they're open) without reservations, rent any gear you need and jump right into the water. Also you can hire a dive master from them so you don't have to go alone (if scheduled in advance). Their dive shop is right on the beach. They also have two boats that go out every day but they move around depending on the weather and the winds. The good news is Bermuda is small enough that you could dive from any of their locations from any port so don't let the fact you're in St. George limit your diving in Hamlton, etc.

I've got some pictures of diving in Bermuda on my underwater website. You can find them at http://www.randallgamby.com. If you have any specific questions about the diving there, there's contact information on my site.

 

Thanks,

Randall

[kruiser68]

Thank you both cal2632 and Randall for your information.

 

Randall, thanks for the information about shore diving. I knew that you could do it, but didn't know you could just walk up, rent tanks and go. I'm really excited now, the stress of trying to book something ahead and not knowing what to expect, worried that the boat won't dock and we have a dive scheduled is a relief. We've done some snorkeling from the beach in the past. We really enjoyed stopping at a couple of beaches along the Kona coast of Hawaii. This (Bermuda) will be so much better, although hopefully once we scuba dive, we will still enjoy snorkeling.

 

I looked through your pictures, LOVED them. Showed my husband too, he enjoyed them also.

 

I just puchased a Canon Powershot SD1000 with waterproof housing. I had a Pentax W20 that took beautiful underwater pictures when we snorkeled on our cruise around Hawaii. But it was stolen when we went on our next cruise in Cozumel. So instead of upgrading to the W30, I went with the Canon knowing that I would want to go deeper while diving. What camera(s) did you use for your pictures, and did you use additional lighting. On you home page it looks like you are holding just a camera and housing, no extra lights. What did you use for the Bermuda pictures?

 

Thanks, again awesome pictures -Michele

[kruiser68]

Randall,

 

This is freaky - I just went to your 'Scuba Links' and saw that you were first certified through a dive shop in Glens Falls. We are from Poestenkill, NY, just east of Troy. :eek: We will be honing our dive skills in Lake George next month, my mother-in law has a camp on the Lake across from Hague, before diving in the much warmer waters of Bermuda. What a small world.

-Michele

[scubaran]

Hi,

 

First off, I use a Canon A620 with the canon underwater enclosure. Around the Bermuda trip last year I added a single strobe that triggers off my flash through a fiber optic cable (hint, if you look at something like this you have to "blackout" the area around the flash so the backscatter is eliminated). I also have photoshop to eliminate the "blue" in the pictures (though I never modify the content of them). Also be aware that Bermuda is shallow diving. I don't think I was in any part of the reef that was deeper than 40ft. (it's a fringing reef around the Bermudian underwater mount so you have 40ft or 3000ft as options for diving).

 

As far as local, I live in Bennington, VT (The only land-locked New England state :( ). My local dive shop is Morin's dive shop in Glens Falls. I have an RV and camp most weekends in the Adirondaks so I do a lot of my summer diving in "cold water" and my winter diving in "warm water". Just so you know, if you're diving in Lake George, Hearthstone Point State Park (just a few miles north of the Village of Lake George) is the big place to dive. There's divers in the water there every weekend. It's where the local dive shop does their training and they've sunk a small plane, a car, a boat (all for search and recovery training) and the beach has lots of parking and easy access. In addition, in September the New York Dive Club hosts a dive weekend at Roger's Rock campground on the north side of Lake George. So keep this in mind, especially if you're new to diving as you don't have to dive alone and the local divers are a great bunch of folks.

 

Glad you liked the picts, again let me know if there's any additional info I can provide.

 

Randall

[kruiser68]

I added a single strobe that triggers off my flash through a fiber optic Randall

 

After I get a couple of dives in and see how the camera works, I'll have to look into this.

 

Also be aware that Bermuda is shallow diving. I don't think I was in any part of the reef that was deeper than 40ft.

 

Randall

 

Bermuda sounds like a good place to begin our diving adventures. Right now I'm a little afraid of going too deep. I'm worried about ear pressure. So far I've been o.k. with clearing my ears, but I did have a little problem getting them to clear after our final check-out dive and we were able to putt around on our own. I had a lot of earaches as a kid and had an eardrum bust one winter. This was my only hesitation the past 5 years my husband has been pestering me to get our certification.

 

Just so you know, if you're diving in Lake George, Hearthstone Point State Park (just a few miles north of the Village of Lake George) is the big place to dive. There's divers in the water there every weekend. It's where the local dive shop does their training and they've sunk a small plane, a car, a boat (all for search and recovery training) and the beach has lots of parking and easy access. In addition, in September the New York Dive Club hosts a dive weekend at Roger's Rock campground on the north side of Lake George.

Randall

 

Thanks for the great information. Luckily, my mother-in-law has a boat and we are not far from Roger's rock. Our dive instructor is coming up to the lake one of the days we are up there in August to go diving with us, maybe we will try Hearthstone then. Although from what I remember it was a long boat ride and gas ain't cheap :eek: these days. We may have to save it for a day we want to drive there.

 

Thanks again.

[cram33]

I also dove with Blue Water Divers in Somerset. I recomend them. I remeber Bermuda diving not to be ~60 feet TOPS. So going deep shouldn't be a concern.

 

Included or not I always bring my own gear. BWD held mine overnight in a locker, too. Usually the price just includes tanks and weights. Everything else i generally rented.

[kruiser68]

I also dove with Blue Water Divers in Somerset. I recomend them. I remeber Bermuda diving not to be ~60 feet TOPS. So going deep shouldn't be a concern.

 

 

Thanks, I think we are going to go shore diving with BWD while in Hamilton and we might try Triangle Diving while in St. George's, it seems closer to that port. Has anyone dived with them?

 

Included or not I always bring my own gear. BWD held mine overnight in a locker, too. Usually the price just includes tanks and weights. Everything else i generally rented.

 

We will be bringing our own wet suits and BCD's, so it's nice to know that we could store them overnight if we knew we would be going back the next day. Do you rent the lockers, or do you need to bring a lock. Thanks

[scubaran]

Thanks, I think we are going to go shore diving with BWD while in Hamilton and we might try Triangle Diving while in St. George's, it seems closer to that port. Has anyone dived with them?

 

 

 

We will be bringing our own wet suits and BCD's, so it's nice to know that we could store them overnight if we knew we would be going back the next day. Do you rent the lockers, or do you need to bring a lock. Thanks

 

I didn't dive with Triangle Diving but I did see their shop on the way to the airport in St. George. They're the closest shop to St. George for sure. While I was investigating where to dive I did talk with the owner and he seemed like a nice guy.

 

As far as storing your gear, they just lock it up with their stuff (at Elbow Beach as well). They're pretty much the equivilent to "Surfer Dudes", easy going and trustworthy. Besides, at the Elbow Beach shop they have like 25 complete sets of gear hanging around the shop so there wouldn't be much interest in another set or two as they're packed to the gills as it is.

 

Randall

[kruiser68]

We plan on shore diving at least once while in Bermuda. When we dove here at home this summer we used a dive flag, should we bring it with us? I planned to, but are limited to one bag per person (bus charter to the dock) and don't want to bring anything unnecessary. Whenever anyone mentions bringing their own equipment, this isn't something mentioned, but then they may plan on doing soley boat dives. Please advise -Thanks in advance!

[HEW25]

Has anyone done the Scuba Two-Tank Dive Excursion from St. George's Port of Call? I'm looking for excursion information for Norwegian's Crown Cruise Ship (which dive shop do they use?), but would take any cruise ship scuba excursion. My husband and I are going for our last check-out dive this Thursday and will be leaving on the Crown September 9th. We would like to use the excursion from the ship for our first dive since we don't know what to expect. When I called NCL's excursion office, the person said that it didn't show that there were any extra charges for equipment, but also didn't say what equipment was included. We want to know if we should bring BCD's, regulators and wetsuits. We want to leave them home if they are included in the excursion price. We are limited to one bag each for the shuttle we are taking to the pier. Thanks

 

We just returned from Bermuda saturday. We sailed on the Azamara cruise line. We did a shore excursion through the ship while we were in St. George. It was done with Triangle Diving. They were absolutely wonderful, picking us up with their boat right behind our cruise ship. They had a divemaster for every two to three divers. My husband and I are both pretty new divers and this was a great first experience diving off a boat. They were very helpful and did all the work for us. They set up the the regulators on the tanks. The dives were at max 40 feet. They take you to a reef dive first and then they take you to a shipwreck. In between dives, they assist you in getting back onto the boat (which can be tricky in rocking water if you've never done it before). When our ship sailed over to Hamilton, we decided to arrange our own scuba excursion (since the cruise ship didn't have one there). We used Blue Water Diver's out of Somerset. They perhaps weren't quite as helpful as Triangle in getting into the boat and setting up your equipment, but they offered fresh water at the end of the dive to rinse your equipment if you brought your own. They did not send my husband and me down with divemaster, but one wasn't really needed. They too took us to a reef dive first, and then to a shipwreck (different area of the reef, different shipwreck than Triangle). This too was an awesome experience. Our trip to Bermuda clinched for me that I do indeed love scuba diving (as long as the water is warm, clear, and not toooo deep)

 

As far as equipment being provided, our excursion fee (about $150 per person) included the rental of all equipment. My husband brought his own gear,(and still had to pay the $150) but decided that in the future, he would most probably not travel great distances with it. When we dove with Blue Waters, the cost was $100 per person (2 tanks and dive). I rented a BCD and regulator for $10 each. Weights are included in the cost of the dive.

 

I hope you have a wonderful time diving. We did!