Princess Diving Excursion in St. Lucia

[jam82]

Anyone done it? Thoughts? It's a long day, but it sounds nice. Anyone know which dive company Princess uses? I'm wondering how deep they take you. The first dive goes to Anse Chastanet Reef and the second to some place by the Pitons.

[scubadiver888]

Princess cruises doesn't always use the same dive operators. If a dive operator gets the contract and does a good job they will probably get renewed but there is always the chance that the dive operator will change.

 

That said, last time I went to St. Lucia with Princess cruises they used the company which has their shop set up at Anse Chastanet Reef. I think they were called Dive St. Lucia.

 

The excursion included food and time at a beach. You take the dive boat to the shop. They get you suited up. It is nice that they have a sheltered bay. You can go in and adjust your weights if necessary. The reef is a few feet from the shore. So the first dive is a shore dive. There are high speed fishing boats going overhead. So they want to make sure if you lose your regulator or mask you are not going to panic and go to the surface. This means taking, literally, a few seconds to do mask and regulator recover before you leave the bay.

 

Then it is nice swim around the reef and back to the bay. Second dive is a boat dive. Normally, at all the ports we had 20 people going on dive excursions. When they found out you have to do a mask and regulator recovery, all the poor divers cancelled. For St. Lucia we only had 4 of us. They took us to Superman's Flight. Great drift dive. You either have to stay off the bottom or have good buoyancy control because the bottom is not even; lots of up and down if you hug the bottom.

 

If the weather was good before you get there, you'll have great visibility. If it rained before you get there, it stirs up particles/nutrients. The visibility isn't the greatest but all the marine life comes out to feed. Small fish eat the particles. Big fish eat the small fish.

[jam82]

Do you think that could have been Scuba St. Lucia? Their operation sounds like what you described. I'm not scared of doing a mask/regulator recovery. However, I've never done a drift dive and I'm not sure I'm experienced enough for that. Do you remember the depths of the dives? I'd be doing the excursion by myself, so do they hook you up with a buddy or do you have to hire a dive master to dive with? I'd hate to get a moron for a buddy and I'd also hate to have a buddy with a ton experience where I was the moron. :-)

[scubadiver888]

It was Scuba St. Lucia. I just had a look at their website and remember them.

 

When doing cruise dives you shouldn't worry about your experience level. The dive operator staff want you to have a good time. They'll take you to a location you will be comfortable with.

 

St. Lucia is one of the best places to do drift diving. The better the visibility the easier it is to drift dive. The first thing you want to do is get neutrally buoyant. Then a deep breath will make you go up. Fully exhale and tilt your head down to go back down. At Superman's Flight you will come up on big barrel coral. Breath in and you go up over the coral. Look down at the coral as you go over it. Occasionally you'll see marine life in the coral. Exhale and you'll drop down as you pass the coral. It is that simple.

 

You'll see things coming well ahead of time so you don't have to react quickly.

 

If there is an even number of divers you will get paired with one of the divers. I usually chat up the divers on the cruise ship. You will gather in a location on the ship (your excursion ticket will tell you when and where). Show up 15-20 minutes early and chat with your fellow divers. Experienced divers will figure out who they like and who they don't. Selfish divers who don't want to put up with a newbie or less experienced diver will quickly pair off with who they like. Bottom line, who dives with who tends to get sorted out very easily.

 

If there is an odd number of divers the dive guide (usually an instructor) will have someone pair with them. Having the guide as your buddy usually doesn't hurt but if you want to go off and explore you might want to find your own buddy.

 

Divers with a ton of experience don't mind diving with less experienced divers. They just don't like diving with people who are careless, think they are great divers or just don't care about the environment. I learned a LOT by getting tips and helps from experience divers during cruise ship excursions.