Princess excursion Dive St.Lucia

[nho9504]

Princess use Scuba St.Lucia - they do both snorkeling and SCUBA. We boarded a boat at pier and had a 45 min or an hour boat ride to Anse Chastanet where the dive shop is located. We were lucky that day the sea was very calm. When we arrived the tiny beach at Anse Chastanet, our gears were placed on the ground of the dive shop, with our names written in front of each set. 3mm shortie wetsuits were also provided without extra charge should we want it. They separated us into 3 groups, 8 persons each. They also made sure each person has a buddy - however, whether it actually works underwater is another matter ... The first dive was a shore dive - there was a drop off of about 140 ft just short distance from the beach. They did brief check-out dive when we were in the shallow water - clear mask and again, lose and retrieve regulator. My regulator was slightly leaking. I told my group leader and she just told me to try the octopus which worked fine. I had hard time to equalize so for a long time I hovered around 25-30 ft while others went down to 50ft or more. I signaled to divemaster my problem and she asked me to stay at the level I was and just followed the group below. After a long while I finally was able to get down. This dive was briefed to us as 40-45ft, but we went much deeper to 70ft at least. There were not much to see other than some coral and a few fishes, visibility was 40 to 50 ft I think.

 

The description of the excursion said we would then get back to shore, have lunch at the nearby resort, before we board our boat to the 2nd dive site under Pitons. The reality was, we went back to shore, refilled the tank, and then got back to the boat and took off ! I did not bring any snack with me and was not happy with this change. There was only drinking water on the boat. The boat was a very basic boat, there was no head.

 

The 2nd dive site was just round the corner of the bay and we were under the shadow of Pitons. We were told this would be a drift dive and to enter the water either by giant strike or by back roll whichever way we prefer. I did not have a watch so was not sure exactly how much surface interval time we had - my guess was less than 45 minutes. Again we were told the depth would be 40-45 ft. Again, in reality we went to 70ft. Mind you, the group followed closedly with the divemaster so it was the divemaster who led us down to 70ft and we really shouldn't, esp on the 2nd dive.

The divemaster took a nylon rope from the boat and drifted down. Again I had difficulty equalizing. She wanted me to grab the rope and followed. I did and eventually was also able to join the group down below. The visibility of the 2nd site was better, around 60 to 70 ft - lots and lots corals, ok amount of fishes. I would rate the 2nd dive an 8 and the 1st dive a 6, on a scale 1 to 10. We did a gradual ascend, and instead of a safety stop at 15ft, we swam horizonally at the level between 10 to 15 for quite a few minutes before we surfaced. Unlike in Cozmel where the boat would come to pick you up, here you had to swim against current to the boat ! I was used to the service at Cozmel and the like, and not too happy about having to kick hard to the boat. Once I reached the ladder, I started to take off my fins, my weight belt, and expected them to lift up my tank and BCD when I climbed the ladder - they did not come until I signaled them to come ! And a guy had the nerve to ask me, "are you really tired ?" Amazingly dump question ...

 

I had 1200 psi air left on the 1st dive and 1100 psi air left on the 2nd dive. However, there were guys had only 700 psi left ...

 

Afterward we went back to shore to have a primitive lunch in the jungle - you had to walk a path from beach into the bush and reached an area where they set up the picnic tables. BTW, the bathrooms there are the chemical type.

 

Afterward we had to wait and hang around the beach under the sun for 30 to 45 minutes before boarding the boat for the ride back to pier. There were also a group of Princess snorkellers on the same beach and we all boarded a bigger boat and rode back to the pier together.

 

Overall, the 1st dive was good, the 2nd dive was excellent. The boat was a joke, but the boat rides to and from were pleasant - the coastline was beautiful, the diving equipments were ok except they should not have a leaky regulator (I am glad I had a review course, and that helped my comfort level a lot so I remember how to handle a leaky regulator and be calm), the quality of lunch food was poor and the schedule was absurd - 2 dives without any snacking and no warning about that, plus we went down to 70ft on both dives, despite the briefing of 40-45ft.

 

If it was not due to the dive sites in St.Lucia are far from cruiseship pier and our ship departed at 5pm, I would not use the excursion from ship. All the dive boats went to the same sites - we saw 2 Sandal's boats on both sites we went.

 

Hope the above info help others who consider to dive St.Lucia.

[w&k]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write your review! It's always nice to see the different views of the trips.

 

We are going to dive the shorex with Scuba St. Lucia through RCCL in March, and I will be sure to take a between-dive snack with me.

 

Did you take any photos?

 

Wendy