Recommendation for Diving in Eastern Caribbean?

[DaBoilerz]

Hi,

I'm cruising Jan 11 in the Eastern caribbean with stops in Samana (Dominican Republic), Tortola, Barbados, Antigua and St. Lucia. I already have plans for St. Lucia...and was leaning toward a catamaran cruise in Barbados...but that isn't set in stone.

 

I was wondering if any of you divers out there had any opinions as to which place you'd prefer diving: Dominican Republic, Tortola, or Antigua (or possibly Barbados?)? Any good dive operations?

 

It seems that NCL is only offering diving in Barbados through the ship which seemed strange to me. RCCL offered diving at every single stop I've ever made!

 

Thanks for any advice!

[King Neptune]

I was recently on the Zuiderdam and went diving in Grank Turk, Tortola, and St Thomas.

 

In Grank Turk and Tortola our port times were such that I took the ship's excursion in St Thomas where we had all day, I booked my own.

 

In Grand Turk, the ship's excursion was with Oasis diving. They did not offer to set up your gear unless you really wanted them to. There were 21 of us off the ship and they broke us up into only two groups and kept the groups much too close together. We did two wall dives of 80 and 60 feet. The dive areas were good but too crowed with all of together. Their boat was plenty big enough for all of us.

 

In Tortola, we dived with Dive Tortola. They were very professional and set up all our gear for us before we even left the dock. There were 11 of us off the ship and we dove on the Rhone to about 70 feet. It was a very good dive until the currents picked up and they shortened the dive because they got so strong.

 

In St Thomas I had made arrangements with Admiralty and they picked me up in Crown Bay and took me to the dock. They were three others beside myself and they all were staying on the island and had been diving with them all week. We dove on the Kennedy and a near by reef both of which were very good dives of about 65 ft each which lots of fish, coral, and even a couple of turtles and a six foot sting ray.

 

Overall good diving, Dive Tortola and Admiralty were good outfits but I probably would not go with Oasis again if I had a choice.