Best place to dive?

[hermitstyle]

Hey all. I'm going to be going on a cruise next year in March, and I will be visiting San Juan, Nassau, Grand Turk and St. Thomas. I am getting open water certified in the next couple of months, but I would like to know which one of those ports is the best dive place and who you would recommend to dive with? Thanks!

[cardbucfan]

First of all, I wanted to give a big "Thank you" to all the folks on the scuba board for your invaluable advice prior to our cruise on the Legend. Our whole family just got certified and we took this cruise to have a nice vacation with our kids and get some dive experience.

 

After all your advice, we chose to do ship excursions since we would be the newbie divers sucking down our air and to minimize my stress level with the whole thing. These were our first recreational dives after our checkout dives. Since we got certified in the Gulf (with horrid vis and surf conditions) we were really hopeful that the Caribbean would be all that we wanted when we got certified.

 

Overall, the excursions were great. Our first stop was Grand Cayman and the ship uses Dan/Don Fosters. This excursion was not terribly efficient in the way it was run. We waitied at the cruise dock for everybody for a while, then took a bus to the dive shop where we had to fill out all the forms and listen to their spiel. Wasn't even the dive profile briefing. Got our gear and then were separated into two boats. We had 12 people on our boat and were split into 2 groups. Our equipment was really good but another guy in the other group had a faulty inflator on his BC and felt he got and "oh well" attitude when he mentioned it. I thought the dive was a great "first" dive experience. Felt very safe. The DM's were O.K. at pointing out stuff but really good at watching out for us. That was really important to me but if you are experienced, it probably wouldn't be the best set-up. This excursion took up the entire port time which I was O.K. with since I'd been to GC before but for the amount of time actually spent diving, it was pretty wasteful from a time standpoint. They also really hurry you (finally they are moving fast!) when you get off the boat so there was no time to get my dive log stamped. Luckily, I had our DM sign them on the boat.

 

Next day we went to Cozumel. Diving was through Sand Dollar and they were really efficient. They had us fill out our paperwork and checked our dive cards at the cruise port while waiting for everybody so it was much faster into the water. We drove about 20 minutes away from the terminal to the Wyndam resort. I was a little nervous since we had never done a drift dive before and I have "slow ears" (new term for me!). I told the DM and he just had me go down first so I could really take my time. Worked great (except for that sucking down air first thing!). I didn't have enough weight though so had some issues staying down during the safety stop. I really need an anchor line! Went back to land for our SIT and watched the video they took of us. If it hadn't been so expensive I would have bought it because it was really good. But c'mon, $60?!?! Fixed the weight for the second dive and it was wonderful. We had 12 people total with 6 people per DM. I thought it was great and loved all the stuff we saw.

 

Third day was Roatan. I had heard that this was the best diving of all so was really excited. We got off the ship, hooked up with the folks from the dive ship and rode a bus about 20 minutes to Anthony's Key resort. The resort was really cool with little huts over the water and a dolphin discovery swim right there so we could watch the dolphins before the boat went out. We had some pretty decent swells so vis was stirred up a little bit. Well, the stuff to see underwater may have been great (including the school of GIANT grouper that we dropped off the boat into!) but it was an awful dive operation. Truly a cattle boat operation and I felt very unsafe. First of all, they put 19 (!!!) of us in one group with a DM at the front and one at the rear. Then my depth gauge didn't work! Everything else seemed to be working so I hooked up with my buddy to keep track of my depth. We swam out 20 minutes from the boat and I didn't have a clue where I was and couldn't see the boat with the huge coral formations. All the divers kept bunching together to see the things being pointed out and I felt claustrophobic the whole first dive. I was actually really happy when I got out of the water. They replaced my reg and the depth gauge worked the next time but still had the same issues with number of people and the bunching. The DM's seemed very disinterested in things. Maybe they are just laid back but I got the feeling they felt we were an inconvenience in their day. Overall, very disappointing day. Our family decided right then that our first equipment to buy is dive computers! I will say, we had some DM's from the states on our excursion who kind of did their own thing and they raved about Anthony's Key and looked into literature to come back for a land vacation.

 

Final dive day was in Belize. Very expensive excursion so I was hoping for some good things especially after the disappointment of the previous day.

We had no issues getting on our tender although we had heard that some folks got left behind on the Legend the previous week so we went down to the Follies Lounge early to make certain that didn't happen to us. But there were 4 people that had tender issues. One couple were actually put on a tender to the mainland, got to a dive shop there at the port only to be told they were supposed to be 13 miles out! They lucked out and were able to hop the next tender back and Carnival held our tender for a few minutes for them. Another guy kept being sent to the wrong spot on the Legend and missed our tender. Carnival did refund him his money though.

 

It took us 30 minutes to get to the dive shop, Hugh Parkey's. What a cool place. I'd probably go stir crazy after 2 days but it was beautiful! They used the 30 minute ride to have us fill out the paperwork and check dive cards so when we got there all we had to do was get our gear. We switched to another boat where they already had the tanks set to go. Then it was another 30 minute ride to the first dive site. We had 14 total and were divided into 2 groups of 7. While the coral wasn't nearly as spectacular as Roatan, the DM's were AMAZING! They showed us so much stuff it was incredible and they had a slate so could really tell us what it was. Wish we had them in the beginning so we would have known what we were seeing all along! When I ran low on air, he knew we had the other DM from the states in our group so he took me and another guy and showed us to the boat and let the others stay there with the guest DM. I was glad everybody didn't have to get out because I was such a Hoover! Took us to the next dive site and everybody was giving me tips on conserving air and I actually had enough to stay down with everybody on the second dive! It was truly an amazing dive experience and I'm so glad that was the way the trip ended. We went back to Hugh Parkey's and had about 30 minutes there to chill, get beer and food if we wanted before heading back to the ship. Oh and speaking of food, Belize was the only dive operator to have anything for our SIT. Everybody had water, but they had really nice snacks!

 

So, overall it was a really successful "dive trip". We had a real taste of the various islands, got exponentially better at our buoyancy control and air consumption and discovered why so many people dive! Gotta find time for our next trip now!

[Dive Master]

Glad you had a great trip. Your air consumption will improve with experience. Buying your own gear and growing comfortable with it will also certainly help. It is a pain dragging gear around on a ship but I know mine is in top notch condition and how everything works.

[rum bar]

Angie, Thanks for posting the dive report, I've been meaning to do the same with a few minor differences!

 

Don Fosters in Grand Cayman: If I could go back in time I would use an independent operator, probably Sunset House. For me they simply squandered too much time. We had never been to Grand Cayman before and really wanted to visit 7 Mile beach and we probably could have if Don Fosters didn't waste almost 2 hrs standing around and waiting for boats/buses. Since we had only 28 minutes of bottom time on the 1st dive this was really aggreivating!

 

Sand Dollar in Cozumel: Agreed. I love that the DMs in Cozumel are very protective of their gorgeous reef. Our 1st dive was Santa Rosa wall and the 2nd was San Clemente reef where we hovered over a field of seahorses, with the DM checking everyones bouyancy so we didn't disturb the little cuties. My BC had a sticky release button so I had to use the dump valve. Other than that it was a good dive.

 

Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan: We will probably be back for a week stay. I was also disapointed that they put us all 19 of us in the water together (I doubt they do that with their guests) but quickly learned to hang out at the very back of the group away from all the bunching, it was quite pleasant back there and the DM let us use our computers to finish the dive. The resort is beautiful and the wall is a short boat ride (5 min) off the shore.

 

Hugh Parkey in Belize: Agreed. Bring bug spray, on the shore there are lots of what they call 'sand flys' that leave little itching bites.

 

Happy Diving!

[bruce-r]

San Juan, -- You won't be diving here. The good diving is over 2 hours from San Juan

 

Grand Turk -- By far, this will be your best choice for diving on your cruise. I'd go with Blue Water Divers again. Bring a snack from the ship. They only supply water for the surface interval, and you should be drinking a lot of water when you dive. Being hydrated is very important to keep from getting DCS.

 

St. Thomas -- Second best choice for your cruise. Easy to recommend http://www.admiraltydive.com They'll pick you up from the cruise dock and return you to the ship after the dives.

 

Nassau -- If you can arrange a shark dive here, you'll never forget it.

 

Be sure to tell the dive master your experience level when you meet him/her.

And to answer the question in your title: Fiji is the best place to dive.

[hermitstyle]

i don't mean to be rude, but those replies had nothing to do with the question in my post. i am looking for places at the ports i am visiting (nassau, grand turk, san juan and st. thomas) that is/was the best dive, who did you go with, why, etc. i would dive in every port, but my cabin mate doesn't dive, so i'm only diving in one port. so please, if you don't have any information on the ports of call that i am going to, please don't post a reply in this thread.

[Dive Master]

I believe something "screwy" happend with the boards as my original reply was to the posting on the Carnival Legend dive trip. I agree with Bruce on the diving for your cruise.

 

1 Grand Turk pristine diving on a beautiful deep wall ----wall diving may not be a good idea for newbies

 

2 Nassau Stuart Cove's shark dive is fantastic and fine for newbies--just watch your depth for the first dive on the wall.

 

3 St. Thomas good diving for newbies---nothing special for me but I would certainly dive on a port stop there.

 

Hope this helps and good luck with your certification.

[hermitstyle]

thanks bruce-r and divemaster. bruce-r's reply wasn't there when i posted that reply, so something must have been a bit screwy with the board. and bruce, you had me at shark dive. if i can arrange it, it will happen, if not, then off to grand turk. thanks!