PittieMe74

Good day!

First time visiting Barbados. We are arriving on Celebrity cruise ship in December 2023. Port arrival is 11am. Looking for a recommended dive operator that I can contact to see if they accommodate afternoon dives. If we cannot find a good recommendation, we may dive St. Lucia instead as we arrive earlier that day.  If you also have recommendation for St. Lucia dive operator, please send it my way!

Thank you for your time! 

21 hours ago, omeinv said:

 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Harris! You gave me great options the last time I cruised down to the Caribbean and we had a wonderful trip! I appreciate your information and recommendations once again!

I love this forum! I get the BEST recommendations for our dive trips! Thanks to all that previously gave me advice prior to those trips! I have not been disappointed by any of the recommendations and I truly believe it made a world of difference so HERE I AM AGAIN hoping for more GREAT reviews from those that care to leave one 😄

We will be cruising on Celebrity in December going to St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, and St. Kitts.  I have been reading through this forum and it sounds like, of these ports, that St. Maarten and Antigua are the least recommended locations for a good two tank dive. Unless you think otherwise, of the remaining ports, how would you rate them from best to worse and why? And who are your favorite dive operators at each location?

FYI...I prefer low key dive with lots of color and creatures; turtles would be awesome, but I am not too picky. I really just love being under the water. The DH likes an interesting wreck, which I don't mind if there is lots of things to see. For example: we dove a wreck in Aruba which was ok, but visibility was not great and there wasn't a lot to see other than the wreck. BORING!! We are certified to 100 ft. in case it matters.

Ok, as always, thanks in advance for your input and insight! 

The big wreck in Aruba is the Antilla. A German ship that first was interned at Aruba in the early days of WWII, then scuttled when Germany invaded the Netherlands, drawing the Netherlands into the war, and thus the interned ship was to be seized by the Dutch authorities. It's a great wreck for those, like you, that lack much wreck experience, because it's large and shallow (+/- 50 feet). Because of the shallow depth, it's broken up quite a bit over the years due to storms and what not. Consequently it's widely considered unsafe for penetration; and there's really no need to penetrate the wreck, since the large openings that have been created allow one to see well into the ship.

 

The Pedernales is another good site, even shallower (+/- 25 feet). It's the middle section of a tanker that was torpedoed there in 1942 (The bow and stern were salvaged).

Awesome information! We look forward to checking these wrecks out! Will we be able to see both sites in the same day? Since you are familiar with Happy Divers, are these sites frequented by them? If we go with them and request to dive these sites is that acceptable or are we asking for them to go out of their way?

Thanks, Harris! You gave me some great advice last year when we were headed to Cozumel and Roatan so I am so glad to have your advice here! We are very intrigued by the wrecks in Aruba. I read a little about them already. Never dove a wreck but I think we will do so since they are shallow enough not to scare the bejesus out of me, haha. We will be in Aruba for like 15 hours so I think we will likely dive here and then still have plenty of time to do something else above the water.

Thanks for taking the time to give me more wonderful advice!!

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It all depends on if you are shore diving or boat diving.

Shore diving....the house reef at Buddy Dive is one of the best dives sites, a little bit of everything there. Easy, too.

 

Boat diving...you can get to some of the more southern reefs, as well as the more northern ones with difficult shore entries.

I would bet they take you over to Klein Bonaire for the first dive, and then something closer to town on second dive. All will be good. The Hilma Hooker is a great dive from boat so you don't have to do the very rough shore entry.

 

Instead of requesting a particular dive site...ask to see seahorses or frogfish. Those are two of the big draws in Bonaire, and the squid.

DMs usually know where to find them day to day.

 

Have fun.

Great info!! Thanks again!!

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I have dived all four islands, Bonaire wins hands down.

Thanks Laurie!!

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Bonaire is like swimming in a pool full of fish, zillions of fish. We have done two trips there, land-based, doing 20+ dives each time. Yes, its that good.

 

One of my videos:

 

 

Looks awesome!! Thank you for the video. Definitely gives you perspective. Did you have any dive sites that you enjoyed more than others?

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Good Day!

My husband and I will be cruising in December 2017 to ABC Islands and St. Maarten. I am just starting my research but thought I would see what kind of feedback I might get here from some fellow divers familiar with these locations as this will be our first time visiting.

We would dive all 4 islands, but we do also enjoy other activities so want to also do some things that maybe we can't miss out on. Plus, we will be in Puerto Rico the week before our cruise and will get in some diving there.

So what am I looking for from all the divers out there? I'm looking for your recommendations for where to dive if you had to choose just one island...okay pick 2 ;p and please tell me why you chose them.

Thank you for reading and hopefully responding!

Happy travels!

So we had our dives with Subway. The experience was 100% positive.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Thanks for following up Harris! I appreciate your time to give your feedback! It definitely helps to have reviews from divers with first hand experience! December can't come soon enough! I hope we are as lucky to have good weather when we are there.

omeinv -why not the Sand Dollar?

I will be there in November. It will be my first ocean water dive after getting certified. None of the other people in my group on the cruise will be diving with me. I felt it was best to book through my cruise line since I will be taking this excursion alone with other people from my cruise boat. I will have much less experience than poster.

 

 

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I would read the bad reviews for Sand Dollar. Although they have plenty of good reviews, my guess is that, like you and I, many are first time ocean divers and have nothing else to compare to. So, as long as they had no issues, the experience was pleasant enough to give a good review. The bad reviews they had were enough to scare the bejesus out of me!! I will steer clear as there are WAY too many other dive shops with raving reviews to risk possible injury or worse!

Word of advice for Coz drift dives - or for any drift dive for that matter. Know the name of your dive op, your boat's name, the boat captain's name, and the comm channel they monitor.

 

 

GREAT ADVICE!! That is probably my biggest fear when thinking about drift diving...well actually getting lost. At least your extra guy ended up with a group instead of by himself in open ocean, haha...

 

PF

Thanks ABQRobin! You confirmed what I thought about Belize and why we decided not to try and dive there, but to take in some of the local sights and see what else there is to offer as we have heard there is so much to do there. This will be our first taste of Belize so not sure what we can accomplish during the 8 hours we will be there, but plan to come back to Belize for a full blown vacation as I know we will leave wishing we had more time!

Thanks for your reply!

PF

Thanks for your reply CT Sean! Drift diving is a bit intimidating for sure and exactly why I am asking for good recommendations due to our inexperience! I want it to be fun and not overwhelming so this is good information for sure!

PF

Thanks Lefty Writer! I appreciate the info! Looking forward to warm and clear water dives!! It will be a great experience!

Thanks Harris! Great info and yes, if you would not mind, please do let me know how your dive went with Subway Watersports.

Looking forward to WARM water diving and visibility more than 5-10 feet!!

PF

HI ALL!

My husband and I will be cruising in December 2016 to Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel on the RC Liberty of the Sea.

We are recent open water certified divers thru SSI with no ocean dives and about 12-15 lake dives. We will probably have another 5-10 lake dives by the time we depart.

I am looking for some guidance. We would like to dive in Cozumel and Roatan, but the excursions through the ship and the travel agency we purchased the cruise through have limited scuba excursions. Not terrible tours, but most are snorkel tours. Is it possible to scuba on a snorkel tour?

We are not completely confident or experienced enough to just go to a local dive shop and "dive in" on our own and would like to know if anyone is experienced in these two port areas enough to provide recommendations on good guided dive tours. We are ok with group dives through a recommended cruise excursion company or direct with a local dive shop. No need for one-on-one guide ;)

Much appreciated!

Cruise On!