Opinions on which islands on my cruise present the best diving opportunities?

[mahdnc]

We will be taking a cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in January 2014 that calls on Aruba, Curacao, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten, and St Thomas. We do not intend to dive at all of these islands, so I am trying to figure out which ones we should do.

 

I would appreciate your opinions on which islands we should definitely dive. If you have a dive operator recommendation, I would like to hear that too! From what I have read on this board, it seems that Curacao and St Thomas should definitely be on our list.

[Loves_Dogs]

I agree, Curacao would definitely be on my list. And I would not dive with anyone but the The Dive Bus. They are great!

http://www.the-dive-bus.com/

 

If you decide to dive in St Thomas I highly recommend Admirality Dive Center.

You won't be disappointed.

http://www.admiraltydive.com/

 

Safe diving and have a GREAT cruise!

[pamawi]

I would definitely choose Curacao based on its reputation. I haven't been there but have been to nearby Bonaire which is wonderful. St. Thomas was also great and I was very happy with Blue Island Divers who picked me up in the boat on the same dock as cruise ship. I don't know if they still do that, but it was nice.

[Laurie S.]

My favorites, in order, are St. Lucia, St. Thomas, and Curacao. I have not yet dived at Grenada or Antigua. The other islands are okay for diving, but not spectacular.

[mahdnc]

Thanks for the replies. Would appreciate any additonal comments.

 

Sounds like I will definitely put Curacao, St Lucia and St Thomas on our list. What about Aruba? Is it a good diving spot? Our ship (Eclipse) will end up spending 12 hours at that port......

[Laurie S.]

Aruba is okay, not outstanding, but definitely not bad. I would dive there again, if I were on a cruise.

[geekybiker]

Curacao is great. One of the better spots in the Caribbean IMHO.

[Middleager]

For Antigua, the better diving is in the south of the island, 30min away from the dock.

 

In St. Lucia, try to get a trip to "Superman's Flight" dive site, as that's at the base of the piton. To see the pitons, you need to take a boat trip, so this also serves that purpose.

 

For Barbados, most of the diving is in the south/west. The wreck Stav is pretty good, and is a deep dive. Dive boats may take people to front of the Sandy Lane, which is good for snorkeling with good chance of seeing big turtles.

 

For St. Thomas, a ride to Coki Beach, can allow boat dive with the Coki Beach Dive club. The rest of the people can do intro scuba at the shallow water at the beach, or people can just snorkel or enjoy the beach there.

[chadbeck]

Of the ones you listed I like St. Lucia, St. Thomas, Curacao, and Grenada the best of those stops.

 

St. Lucia-Like someone else said Supermans flight is a great dive. Most of the dives by the pitons are pretty good. If you dive there make sure it is someone who will take you to dive in that area.

 

St. Thomas-has some really good wreck dives and I only use Admirality Dive Center. They have a great staff and have always taken care of me when on the island. Depending on your comfort level they will take you to dives others won't.

 

Curacao-Has a bunch of pretty good ops and a ton of easy diving.

 

Grenada- is a great spot to dive is you are comfortable on wrecks that are pretty deep and can have some ripping currents.

[FlightMedic555]

In Aruba consider diving with Jads.

[w&k]

I would do it in this order...

 

Curacao - Go with Suzy and Mark at The Dive Bus - awesome beach diving with insane folks! http://www.the-dive-bus.com

 

Grenada - Go with Helen & Phil at Dive Grenada. They will send a taximan for you, and be sure to tickle the dogs for us. http://www.divegrenada.com/

 

St Thomas - Coki boat or beach dive - pretty dives in totally laid back style http://www.cokidive.com/ or Blue Island Divers for larger-boat diving, in the style of South Florida http://www.blueislanddivers.com/

 

Aruba - Clive at Dive Aruba- excellent small boat diving, and typically the first dive is fairly deep - check the schedule for your day to see what's happening. http://divearuba.com/

 

Barbados - John and Mary Moore at Dive Barbados http://www.divebarbados.net/. Sometimes John works through Dive Shop Ltd on the east side of the island (we prefer the west side diving).

 

St Lucia - We had a group booked with them in December, but there had been storms in the area that roughed up the water and killed the viz. They sent their boat to the pick-up point to tell us that the diving was canceled - I thought that was classy. http://www.tikaye.com/diving

 

Antigua - no diving, totally ripped off by Carlos at Dive Antigua (thankfully no longer in operation)

 

St Maarten - reputation for rough water, so have never been diving here.

 

Have a wonderful time, wherever you dive!

 

Wendy

 

dive (and other) pix and our out-of-date website

http://community.webshots.com/user/wendyandkeith

http://wendyandkeith.webs.com

[ScubaCruiser54]

I have dove at Curacao, St. Thomas, Grenada, Aruba, and St. Marteen on your cruise list. We enjoyed them all.

 

I would agree that the water at Curacao was great. St. Thomas has almost always been a good dive. Grenada was small boat diving and enjoyable. Aruba was a bit murky on two of the four times we dove there. St. Marteen has been hit or miss on water clarity. We still had a great time. I would dive all of them again, but if I were to rate my list best to worst for future dives: 1. Curacao, 2. St. Thomas, 3. Grenada, 4. St. Marteen, and 5. Aruba.

 

Hope it helps.

[mahdnc]

Again thanks for the replies. Would appreciate hearing any more comments!

[TexCruise371]

Again thanks for the replies. Would appreciate hearing any more comments!

Barbados with Eco Divers...small boat and will pick you up at the dock.:)

[092306]

Another vote for St. Thomas. Haven't been on your other stops, but really enjoyed the diving in St. Thomas. Used Underwater Safari.

[snorkelgirlca]

We will be taking a cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in January 2014 that calls on Aruba, Curacao, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten, and St Thomas. We do not intend to dive at all of these islands, so I am trying to figure out which ones we should do.

 

I would appreciate your opinions on which islands we should definitely dive. If you have a dive operator recommendation, I would like to hear that too! From what I have read on this board, it seems that Curacao and St Thomas should definitely be on our list.

 

I went to st Martin in April creole rock on the French side had both snorkel and diving available for cruiser passengers. St John was too rough so that dive got cancelled was there before and it was good.. Bonaire was outstanding. Best of the nine spots we stopped. Barbados and Antigua was not as good as st Martin. Did not snorkel in either aruba or Grenada. St Lucia was ok but not great. So my recommendation would be st Martin as first choice since u r not going to bonnaire and then take the ferry to st John if u have the time when in st Thomas.

[sunseeker17]

St. lucia- superman's flight. First choice

Skip St. Maarten, unless you can get to Saba, small volcanic island with amazing pinnacles. sunseeker

[mahdnc]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I have nailed down the following:

 

Aruba: Dive Aruba (Clive)

Curacao: Relaxed Guided Dives

St. Thomas: Aqua Marine

St Lucia: still looking.....

 

Curacao was difficult to book because many of the high rated, small, dive operators were closed during New Year's Day such as the Dive Bus and Curious2Dive. Relaxed Guided Dives also would not book a dive for New Year's Day. After several emails (and our commitment to have a group of 4 for a two tank dive), they agreed to take us. I was hoping to do the Mushroom Forest and Watamula which are boat dives. But since Relaxed Guided Dives predominantly does shore dives (and we really wanted to do Curacao with a good dive operator), I guess with save the sites for a non-cruise trip to Curacao. I hope I am not making a mistake.

 

With New Year's Day being a problem for Curacao, it looked like Aruba was going to be a problem for New Year's Eve as the first dive company I called, Happy Divers Aruba, said that they are closed on only one day out of the year--which happen to be the day we would be there (New Year's Eve). Fortunately, my next call was to Clive (Dive Aruba) and he took our booking.

 

I have chronicled in another thread in this forum my concerns I had with finding a dive operator in St Thomas. The worry was that our ship, Celebrity Eclipse, will be tendering in St. Thomas and as a result, we might be late in showing up for our morning two tank dive. The first response I got from a dive company was that it would, indeed, be a problem. We ended up booking with Aqua Marine because they said they could accommodate us getting ashore after 9am.

 

I have read the active St. Lucia thread, trying to get a line on a good dive operator. I am still looking.....

 

I want to limit our diving to 4 islands. Should I consider another island instead of St. Lucia (Antiqua, Barbados, Grenada, St. Martin)?

[Laurie S.]

St. Lucia has wonderful diving, way better than St. Martin and Barbadod. Haven't been to the others yet, but it would be hard to beat Superman's Flight at the Pitons in St. Lucia.

[w&k]

St Lucia - We had a group booked with them in December, but there had been storms in the area that roughed up the water and killed the viz. They sent their boat to the pick-up point to tell us that the diving was canceled - I thought that was classy. http://www.tikaye.com/diving

 

Sorry - haven't been back on the boards for awhile. We had a great pair of dives with the folks at Island Divers.

 

We were on the 'hurricane Sandy' cruise on the Jewel that was held in Boston for two days, so we ended up with both a day change, and a strange port time (10:30-6). Even with all that, Robert was still able to accomodate us.

 

We were picked up from the little dock next to the ship, then rode to the resort to pick up tanks, and a small group of snorkelers. We did a beautiful pair of dives, and then went back to the resort to pay the bill.

 

With our late start and the snorkeler pick-up, we ended up not really having time for lunch. As far as we were concered, that was perfect - we prefer to do our dives, then get back to the ship. Neither of us really like to eat between dives (a nibble is fine, but not a meal), so we were very happy about it.

 

If I remember correctly, our DM's name was Lester, the captain was Griff, and the snorkeler's DM was 'James Bond' and I'm sure there's a story behind that.

 

I will definitely book with them again the next time we're on St. Lucia, and will actively try to do our dives without lunch again. But... if you like lunch at halftime, the aromas drifting out of the kitchen werel really, really yummy, and the guys brought some takeout boxes back on the boat that looked good, too. :D

 

Have a great time!

 

Wendy