Not sure where to ask this....Attention *DIVERS*

[cluelyss18]

I would have posted this in the ports..but then I would have had to post in a few different ports.

 

We are on the Victory May 20..my boyfriend is looking to scuba dive one day in port.

 

These are the options

 

St. Thomas (we've been, snorkeled in St John.

 

St. Marten (we've been here too, but I'm hoping to go to Maho again in the afternoon)

 

Barbados (we've never been so I was thinking we would snorkel, but if diving is better here, so be it)

 

St. Lucia (never been, was going to zip line)

 

Any suggestions? It will just be him diving, I'll be staying with the others going to a beach while he dives.

Thanks for any input!

[Clear Solution]

St. Lucia... we ended up on the zipline there as well. We had booked thru the ship for diving(we are experianced, my wife has 20 or so, and I just passed 400 dives), but when I saw the facility and the boat, we turned around and got a cab.

 

The place that the "MIRACLE" was using was a dump. Equipment was old (conshelf regs and old ratty BCs, walmart looking masks and fins- everything was sun bleached and looked as looked old as me). They were working on one of the boats motors, ect... needles to say, I didnt get in the water there. Im not a dive gear snob, but at $200 a person, they can afford nice gear, not stuff 20 years old.

 

As for the zip line, the cabbie took us about a hour outside of town and waited on us while he had a "smoke'. The zipline is (if my memory serves me- too much rum punch) 2000 or 3000 ft long and has 6 or 7 stops up in the canopy. It was pretty fun and all of the equipment was fairly new. The cab ride is interesting though, Our guy did a good job in not killing us(it was close a few times-LOL). I think we paid him $20-25 and tipped him the same for staying around and waiting for us.

 

As for St. Maarten, we snorkled about a mile from the cruise ship dock, mostly broken coral bottom, lots of fish and some pretty rocks(coral). About 100ft off teh shore the vis got much better (60-80ft) and was about 30 ft deep. We took our own gear. We rented a couple of lawn chairs and slipped the lady renting them $20 not to steal/watch our stuff. She made some good Pina Coladas for us when we were fixing to head back to the ship... Good Times!

[pops72106]

we were on the victory march 18-25 and my son and 2 others dove at St Thomas - St lucia and St kitt in that order and he said the dives got better each dive and St kitt was unbeliveable...he and his best friend only have 11 dives but hte other kids father has over 500

[cluelyss18]

we were on the victory march 18-25 and my son and 2 others dove at St Thomas - St lucia and St kitt in that order and he said the dives got better each dive and St kitt was unbeliveable...he and his best friend only have 11 dives but hte other kids father has over 500

 

500? This will be his first recreational dive. He got certified for the swat team on our pd. Hasn't gotten to go on his own yet for fun.

[Laurie S.]

I've dived all but St. Martin (will be diving there in August). By far the best was St. Lucia, but you need to dive at the Pitons. Superman's Flight is a fabulous dive. Search for "Papa" or "Irving" on the web for St. Lucia. He has a booth at the cruise ship terminal. We dove with him in 2010 and the underwater beauty was totally amazing.

 

My second choice would be to go with Blue Island Divers at St. Thomas. Those dives (same cruise) were a very close second to St. Lucia. He'll be able to dive some great wrecks there. I'm going back to them on the August cruise, also.

 

Barbados was okay, nice beach, cool turtles, but not outstanding dives.

[byucougs]

Husband and I dive.

 

St Thomas has great diving and great beaches

St Lucia has great diving and beautiful scenery, not sure about the beaches.

Barbados diving can be interesting - first time we dove strong current but saw a manta ray. Second time had a great time with the turtles.

St Marten- nice beaches- so so diving

 

 

Good luck deciding!

[Blind Squirrel]

You might try the SCUBA and SNORKELING board.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40

[cluelyss18]

You might try the SCUBA and SNORKELING board.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40

 

thank you!