St. Lucia Scuba Suggestions

[CruzinSouth]

My DH and I are going to be in St. Lucia in October and we were wondering if anyone has done a dive without going through the ship's excursion. We're going to be on the AOS and the operator I contacted (Scuba St. Lucia) said they are contracted through the ship and we wouldn't be able to book through them individually. The only problem is that the ship's excurstion would be the entire day. The tour consists of leaving early in the morning, having one dive, stopping for lunch, having our second dive, and then getting back to the ship just in time for sail. Although I've read where people really enjoyed it, we'd like to be able to dive (either one tank or two) but also have a little time to visit the mineral springs. Any help would be appreciated.

[Jerry_G]

I believe that any of the good dive sites is St. Lucia are quite a distance from the boat dock. Here is the scenario that my wife and I had. We dove in St Lucia in February. An excursion off of the Voyager of the Seas. I would be very concerned about making it back to the boat on time if I made reservations by myself. We were the first people off the ship and arrived back at the ship 30 minutes AFTER the scheduled departure. The dive site they took us to was about an hour away by boat. Then we had to get off the boat go into the dive shop, fill out paper work, and get equipment(we brought our own but had to wait for the others). Then we had to get into the water and demonstrate skills, such as mask removal and regulator retrieval. This was followed by a shore dive to the coral near the dive shop(beautiful). We then had to wait for their dive boat to arrive for a ride to the next dive site(again beautiful). All in all it was a very full day with no time to do anything but the dive. We dove at the following location

 

http://www.ansechastanet.com/default2.html

 

If you look at this website you'll see that the scenery in this area is beautiful. I'd do it all over again if I go there again.

[scuba dad]

Try Dive Fair Helen's in St. Lucia. We used them over Christmas and they did a great job. It is a larger boat, but they had DM for every 5 people. They group everyone according to ability. They picked us up at the pier.

 

My son's favorite part was the lunch. It was home made. Three kinds of chicken, rice, baked beans.....

 

I will use them again.

[CountessP]

I agree with Scuba Dad. We used Dive Fair Helen in St. Lucia and they did a great job. Very friendly, and very accomodating. They pick you up at the pier in their dive boat, and bring you back, if you are lucky, to the same pier where your ship is docked. You do have to be a bit careful as there are two docks in St. Lucia. Needless to say, I got the wrong info from our cruise ship about which dock which we were on (can you believe they didn't even know!), and almost missed our dive, but DFH waited for us with a smile on their faces....."no problem mon!". Got back with plenty of time. And Dad's son is right. Best food I've ever gotten on a dive boat. Home made and warm. A real treat! The only thing negative was that their equipment was worn, but that was a small price to pay considering what a nice dive we had. Divefairhelen.com. Much better than diving with the ship.

[VTSnorkeler]

Best macaroni casserole too!!

 

We dove at the Anse Chastenet reef (discover dive) the reef was beautiful.

[chrysalis]

we did a privately arranged whalewatching trip which included a stop in a bay for swimming and snorkeling.....the water was some of the clearest that we have experienced in the Caribbean and a nice selection of coral and fish.

 

Hackshaw's Boat Charters will custom design the day as you might wish.

 

We are going with them again next March.

[JudyK]

You might try Frogs We have booked for November Dive/snorkel - they will pick you up at the dock about 9:30 and return you at 1:30. I know other CC's have used them.

 

I also found this operator Buddies Scuba

 

You can email both and get all the information you need.

[CruzinSouth]

Thanks for everyone's response. I've sent emails out to a few of your suggestions so we'll see if anything like this is possible. If not, I'm sure I'll enjoy both dives, I'll just be disappointed that we weren't able to revisit the mineral baths, since that's one reason I booked this cruise! :(

[cruzinteachr]

I am diving in St. Lucia over the christmas holidays. I will be on the Mariner of the Seas. I am looking for a dive buddy, if anyone can help me out, that would be great.