March 2014 Eastern Caribbean and diving

[coloradocruisers101]

Hi All! I posted this on the excursion forum with not many responses. We want to dive in the eastern caribbean cruise in March. Does anyone have any comments on best diving and/or excursions. Do any of the snorkel excusions have dives? We will be newly PADI certified (one month) and want to good dive company. Help!

[chrysalis]

Hi All! I posted this on the excursion forum with not many responses. We want to dive in the eastern caribbean cruise in March. Does anyone have any comments on best diving and/or excursions. Do any of the snorkel excusions have dives? We will be newly PADI certified (one month) and want to good dive company. Help!

 

It would be helpful to know what ports you are going to....

[bconley351]

Before I became certified I would have to sign up for the snorkeling excursion, and my dh would sign up for the scuba excursion. On a couple of privately booked excursions we've done both off the same boat, but they didn't always work out well. A dive excursion that will take snorkelers will normally go to a location that is too deep for the snorkelers to see much. Twice, in Hawaii, we have found snorkel excursions that will have a dive master aboard, but we had to give prior notice.

Letting us know what your ports are would help a lot.

[coloradocruisers101]

Thank for your answer! We will be going to St. Martin, St. Thomas and Princess Cays.

[compozer]

Just returned at Christmas. We were unhappy that we could not book a scuba trip in Princess Cays - so we signed up for the ship's advanced snorkeling trip. We went up the coast a few miles. It was not the best but any time you can spend under water is better than being on the beach. We used lava core suits and I was glad we did.

I am not at home so I will get the info later but we did two dives at both other stops. Was very pleased with both dives.

[coloradocruisers101]

Looking forward to your info :)

[compozer]

St Thomas:

Blue Island Divers - Talked to Kilian

 

http://blueislanddivers.com/01_diving/CruiseShips.html

 

They picked us up right in front of the ship. Great guys. My husband stayed on board and had a great time talking to Kilian when my son and I were diving.

 

St Martin:

Dive Adventures

Anne - dive master

 

http://www.stmaartendive.com/

 

We had to get a taxi and met them at Divi Resort. I think we paid $10 for taxi. They have another location and we had to wait for the boat to come from over there. We walked out to a small boat which transferred us to the dive boat. It was very nice of them to drop us off just off the side of the ship - wish they could have picked us up there.

 

Anne was great.

 

We were suppose to do a wreck dive but there already was a boat at that location. Very rough out but the crew was great helping us get ready, checking everything and getting us in and out of the boat. There were four or five other dive boast out that day.

 

The site at Divi Resort is just a location that they use. Their shop is further away so they just pick people up there.

 

I would recommend both of them

[coloradocruisers101]

Thanks Compozer! How was the equipment or did you bring your own...

[compozer]

We brought our own equipment. I don't remember which one but one of the boats used the same equipment as our local dive shop. In St Martin, Anne asked to look over our equipment and tested it on shore. She even noticed that one of my hoses was showing moisture droplets (can't remember what it is called) and brought it to our attention. She did say it would be ok to use but we should have it checked. I had only used the regs twice and the shop replaced it when we returned.

The crew took care of everything for us on both dives - put our equipment together and changed tanks.

In ST Thomas, there was a couple with us that did their PADI open water and they wee so impressed with the team for helping them. Lots of people do it that way - classroom back home and open water test on vacation but it is so much more expensive.

The seas were really rough and my stomach was bothering me - only other time in the past was during our open water test in four foot waves on Lake Michigan. I had some Bonnie and ginger tablets with me. I took a couple ginger ones and it helped. I think from now on I will take them before we get on the boat.

Let me know if you have any other questions

Enjoy

[Coral]

I think a lot of colleges are doing this now. I work at a small university and did my certification about 7-8 years ago. It is a popular class - my school partners with a local scuba company and we used their facility. I didn't like it and never really used my certification but am glad I went through it.

[coloradocruisers101]

Thanks again Compozer! I was thinking about taking my reg and by bcd vest (which i still have not bought), fins, mask and snorkel. I was advised by our dive shop to do the open dives at the Blue Hole in New Mexico as we were going to be on a cruise and probably would not have enough time for the four open dives. I heard of a dive shop on Coki Beach that you can do a beach dive vs boat and thought that would be good for a beginner as my husband gets extreme motion sickness. Your thoughts and anyone else's thoughts...

[compozer]

If you haven't purchased your BCD yet, I'd recommend the Cressi travel. It is so much lighter than the one my son has. It has weight pockets which I really like. I have a bad back so as soon as I get out of the water (shore dives) I take them out. It folds up really nice.

 

Not sure what to say about a boat or shore dive. I have only been diving 1 1/2 years. I did 34 dives this summer - my son pushed me to go with him and then get the advanced SSI. My first boat dive was a bad experience. It was very rough - nothing like Lake Michigan but my stomach was bothering me and we had two other boats and those people stepped onto the dive boat and went in the water from it. I ended up being the last of eight to go in and I was feeling sick by the time I got in the water. Not sure if I used it as an excuse but my mask was leaking and I even tried going down a second time. Someone talked that there was a wall and a 100 foot drop and I think I had a feeling I might sink down there. I finally said, "I think I will just forget it this time and not hold you up". It had been a year since I did my open water and had done 16 dives but I really think I was more scared than anything. Two weeks later we went back to the same spot and I loved the dive. Had no problems. Everyone said that if you don't feel comfortable, don't do the dive. So maybe a few more dives might help.

 

There was a couple with us that were on their first boat dive and they loved it. Email some of the shops in the ports and maybe they could plan a shore dive for you. Or call one of them. Killian was such a neat guy - he seemed like he would do what ever he could to help people.

 

Will you be comfortable 65 feet down? If not, the beach one may only be 10 to 12 feet. The other thing might be to do as many dives as you can before you go - can't remember if it said where you were from.

 

Good luck,

Sandy

[Vexorg]

I have done the Explore scuba (as a Princess excursion) a couple of times at Coki beach, and they seem to be a fairly decent place to do it. Coki Beach is definitely a bit on the tourist trappy side compared to some other beaches on the island, but it's still got some good diving.