Victory Ports-Best diving?? St. Thomas,Dominica,Barbados,St.Lucia,Antigua, St Kitts

[dhzebra]

My husband and son are certified and would like to do 1 or 2 days diving. Which islands do you think are best? What specific dive sites would you suggest? Are there any islands I could definitely rule out? Any dive shops to recommend? Ideally, me and the other 2 kids could go along on the boat to snorkle. Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

Our ports: St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados,St.Lucia,Antigua, St Kitts

[BrianOrange]

UGH! I've literally tried to post a response to your question 3 different times and failed each time for various reasons.

 

Now I am too tired to write out another thoughtful response.

 

Basically, stick with St Thomas or any Virgin Island, St Lucia, and Dominica in that order. Forget Barbados or Antigua. They have great beaches but just average diving.

 

Have fun.

[MPM]

My wife and I were just on the Carnival Victory last May after becoming newly certified divers. I dig in to cruise critic well ahead of time to find recommendations, and once again was not disappointed with the results. We went on a sail boat trip on St Thomas so I can not comment on the diving there. Our first dive was on Dominica with Nature Island Divers, http://www.natureislanddive.com. They picked us up from the cruise ship and drove us to their shop. I would have to classify the first dive as just ok. On the second dive our dive master Tony took us to Champagne Reef. It was just my wife and I going out, as it would have been a third dive for the other divers. To be honest, I had heard of Champagne reef as a snorkeling and "tourist" spot, and thought maybe Tony was taking us there because we were newbies. It turned out to be our favorite dive of the trip! Tony pointed out a lot of small interesting creatures. We saw a lot of things we had never seen before, and had a wonderful time.

 

Our next set of dives was on St. Lucia. We went with Scuba Steve, http://www.scubastevesdiving.com. We dove superman's flight,and one other location not far from the Piton's. This was a drift dive, so while we were at it, my wife and I got our drift diving certification. We had arranged for this ahead of time. Shirley took us out and we had a great time. We purposely scheduled smaller boats where we could get some personallized attention if we needed it, and while we did fine, we appreciated the smaller, more intimate groups.

 

We originally planned to only dive in two locations, but my wife was really interested in doing another set of dives. I had packed away the phone number for Pro Island Divers on St Kitts just in case. We called the night before arriving on the cruise ship, and made arrangements with Austin, prodiversstkitts.com. Again, it was a small group, my wife and I and one other couple. Pro Island Divers was close to the cruise ship pier. They came to the ship to pick us up, and off we went. They probably had the nicest dive boat we have been on to date. We did a couple more great dives, and were not disappointed.

 

All of these operators have been praised on cruise critic before, and as I said, we were not disappointed. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Have fun!

 

-Mike

[dhzebra]

BrianOrange and MPM

 

Thanks for the responses. It really helps to hear people's opinions who have been there and done that.

 

We also like small boats. They have been diving in Cozumel and it has always been on a small,fast boat. I have been able to go along and snorkle while they dive. With any luck, we'll be able to set up something like that.

 

I appreciate your suggestions.

[mystkittsdivebuddy]

My web site has all the dive information about St Kitts. Description of dive sites, sea temps etc. Plus lots of photos and video.

www.mystkittsdivebuddy.com

 

Enjoy and contact me if you need more info.

 

To answer your question Pro divers will take a non diver (with a diver) on the boat for US$30. Snorkel equipment is included. Remember though that the 1st dive site will be too deep to see much from the surface.

[underseahunter]

Dive pureto rico before the cruise...

I have been diving on ALL of those islands off that very same cruise boat out of san juan. It might surprise you to know that the southwestern coast of puerto rico has some awesome diving too. The small town of La Paguera has a wall that drops to 15,000 feet. That was nice. The surf city of rincon on the west coast just three hours from san juan has an offshore island called "desecheo" I dove this with "taino divers" they have a nice laid back operation. The la paguera boat was the crappiest and most "rolly polly" old coast guard boat I have ever been on. Almost all of the other divers were green and puking. AHAAAaa. The dive master was a control freak ,obnoxious, oafish, and a buffoon. don't go with those weasels. Anyway. There was also a big "sport fishing" boat that was also taking people to dive the wall, but I don't know what they were called. So if you have a day or two in PR before the cruise, go diving in PR first.

As far as diving off the "buffet barge" I LOVE DIVING IN DOMINICA. The temptation of looking down a 1600' wall is neat. "nature island divers" is a sweet operation. Tony the DM and Karen the Co-owner are really helpful. They will get you back to the boat on time. You will be shock how close the dive spots are, but the road to suffrie takes about 20minutes, and they will pick you up near the cruise dock... Tell them underseahunter from palm beach florida says "hello." Oh, and make sure to try a Kabulli beer while you are in dominica. There is a tiny "bar" right next to Nature Island Divers.

 

I concur that St. Lucia's "superman and dos pitons" are the second best. It's a cab ride and long boat ride, but worth the trip.

 

Third would have to be St. Kitts. It is the most convienent. right accross the little bay from where the boat docks, the operation there has a real nice catamaran. I will edit and repost when I dig up the names of the vendors I used... I am proud to say I did not book one dive with the ship, and still dove all the islands on the itenerary. Thanks to two cool cats I met in la paguerra that were taking the same cruise.

Have fun,

C

[Socref124]

My wife and I were just on the Carnival Victory last May after becoming newly certified divers. I dig in to cruise critic well ahead of time to find recommendations, and once again was not disappointed with the results. We went on a sail boat trip on St Thomas so I can not comment on the diving there. Our first dive was on Dominica with Nature Island Divers, www.natureislanddive.com. They picked us up from the cruise ship and drove us to their shop. I would have to classify the first dive as just ok. On the second dive our dive master Tony took us to Champagne Reef. It was just my wife and I going out, as it would have been a third dive for the other divers. To be honest, I had heard of Champagne reef as a snorkeling and "tourist" spot, and thought maybe Tony was taking us there because we were newbies. It turned out to be our favorite dive of the trip! Tony pointed out a lot of small interesting creatures. We saw a lot of things we had never seen before, and had a wonderful time.

 

Our next set of dives was on St. Lucia. We went with Scuba Steve, www.scubastevesdiving.com. We dove superman's flight,and one other location not far from the Piton's. This was a drift dive, so while we were at it, my wife and I got our drift diving certification. We had arranged for this ahead of time. Shirley took us out and we had a great time. We purposely scheduled smaller boats where we could get some personallized attention if we needed it, and while we did fine, we appreciated the smaller, more intimate groups.

 

We originally planned to only dive in two locations, but my wife was really interested in doing another set of dives. I had packed away the phone number for Pro Island Divers on St Kitts just in case. We called the night before arriving on the cruise ship, and made arrangements with Austin, prodiversstkitts.com. Again, it was a small group, my wife and I and one other couple. Pro Island Divers was close to the cruise ship pier. They came to the ship to pick us up, and off we went. They probably had the nicest dive boat we have been on to date. We did a couple more great dives, and were not disappointed.

 

All of these operators have been praised on cruise critic before, and as I said, we were not disappointed. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Have fun!

 

-Mike

 

Thank you so much.:)

[2112]

St. Thomas, Dominica and St. Lucia are all know for good diving. Although Barbados isn't known for good diving, I really like the dive at Carlisle Bay Marine Park where you can see 6 wrecks on a single easy dive. It makes a great 1 tank dive to add on to your beach day at The Boatyard. I've never dove St Kitts but I expect that if you are not going to dive a couple days, St. Kitts would be a good day to skip (go to the Brimstone Fortress instead). I've only snorkeled in Antigua and was unimpressed. Antigua would also be a good day to pass on the diving and either do an island tour or an Eli Eco Tour instead.

[plutas]

Hi,

 

I think Dominica is the best for diving. I was going with Al Dive (http://www.aldive.com/). The owner Billy is really hepfull and good master. The boats are small so the groups are small also ;) That's exactly what I like. Check L'Abym (La Sourcier) dive site.

[the drew master]

If you plan to dive at St. Thomas you should really look into admiralty dive center! They have a great crew and beautiful dive sites. They'll even pick you up in their boat right at the dock. They run a smaller boat so it'll be a great experience for a family. If you decide to go with them try to recommend that they take you to flat cay. It was a beautiful dive the last time I was there with lots of fish and healthy coral. I know that the reef is shallow enough to snorkel but then the wall dropped down to more than 60 feet for us divers.

 

Maybe you and the kids could try a discover scuba! The admiralty staff taught me through a few of my courses and their instructors were really nice.