Diving Suggestions while Cruising the Caribbean

[Edgewood]

We had a great cruise in December and ended up diving in St.Thomas with Blue Island Divers, who did a fantastic job. We only had our family of 3 and another family of 4 on the boat. They pick up right at the cruise ship dock and still get you out for 2 dives. Highly recommend: www.blueislanddivers.com
In Turks and Caicos, we dove with Oasis Divers through the cruise ship as a shore excursion. They also did a good job with a small group of 8. The only drawback of diving while on a cruise ship is that you don't have any time in port to see anything else so be certain that what you want to see is underwater!

 

[Edgewood]

I'm new to the forum as well. Going to Royal Caribbean cruise in February and wander to make a 1-2 dives while in ports (Labadi, Falmouth, Cozumel). I dove once in Cozumel, during certification, but I wasn't cruising at the time. Now looking for operator(s) in the above ports. I won't have my own equipment, so need operator that provides rental, guide and hopefully shuttle to/from port. I'll have about 8 hours in each port.
Most of my diving experience is around Cancun, love cenotes and shipwreck diving. Any recommendation is appreciated.

Thanks.

We dove in Cozumel with Casa del Mar but we were there for 5 nights. I'm not sure if they accommodate cruise ship passengers but I'd give them a try.

 

[Wandersome]

I'm planning to dive Labadee this week end. It's about an hour from where I live in Haiti. I'll post what I find. There were some issues last month with the cruise lines. I am not sure if they have resumed stops in Labadee. Last month I dove MontiCristi and Bayahibe DR. Both good dive sites. MontiCristi is off the beaten track but has a great dive center and lots of good diving. Bayahibe is a bit more commercial but still great diving with UWESCUBA.

 

[Kashtan]

We had a great cruise in December and ended up diving in St.Thomas with Blue Island Divers, who did a fantastic job. We only had our family of 3 and another family of 4 on the boat. They pick up right at the cruise ship dock and still get you out for 2 dives. Highly recommend: www.blueislanddivers.com
In Turks and Caicos, we dove with Oasis Divers through the cruise ship as a shore excursion. They also did a good job with a small group of 8. The only drawback of diving while on a cruise ship is that you don't have any time in port to see anything else so be certain that what you want to see is underwater!

I don't think Blue Island Divers is on any of my stops.
Is the drawback applies to dives scheduled through the cruise ship, or in general to all dives while cruising regardless of the operator?
Yes, I'm concerned that scheduling a dive may kill any chance to see anything else during stops.

 

[Wandersome]

The trip to Labadee went well overall. We made two dives. One was completely exploratory. One of the locals said he knew a "Great" Dive site. We called it the Mystery dive. It turned out to be "OK". We dropped into about 12 feet and swam around a bit eventually finding a drop off that looked promising. By that time we were at our turn around point and swam back to the pick up point. I will attempt to dive that site again now that we know where to drop off.

The second dive was off "Ilse de Ratt" This is becoming a resort on a desert island. Great place to do interval as there is a shaded area and bar. We ordered fish from a local fisherman who then cooked it over charcoal on the island while we were making our second dive. The second dive was a boat drop about 150 yards off the island. We maintained about 35 feet depth for most of the dive. As planned, we circled west and came to a gradual slope that brought us to shallower water, about 12 to 14 feet. There we encountered some reef building activities as they are seeding the reef in the area. We also encountered two large cannon. I am unsure if they were placed there or if they were from an actual sunken Galleon.

Of note was the lack of larger sea life. Much of the North coast of Haiti is over fished which is affecting the quality of the reef.

We exited and enjoyed our fish and some local "Prestige" beer. We enjoyed the island for a bit then headed back to the boat dock in Labadee.

 

[BFRedrocks]

So, Blue Island Divers looks good for St Thomas, but what about St. Maarten? Doing a Royal Caribbean cruise in May and trying to decide between doing our one allotted dive day in St. Thomas or St Maarten. Any suggestions between those two? I'm figuring they'd be similar, but it would be helpful to hear SB member's thoughts on which one you found better and which dive ops do the best with experienced (DM and MSD) divers from cruise ships.

 

[gryffin]

This is probably too late to be helpful to the the person who originally asked about Labadee- but for anyone else who may be wondering- when you go on a cruise ship, you are restricted and can only access the Royal Caribbean facilities on the island- it is literally surrounded by a tall fence. There are no dive facilities in this area- while you could bring your own equipment, you won't have any way to get an air tank. You can go out on a boat, but all the boat trips are run by Royal Caribbean, so I don't see how you would be able to meet up with any local shops outside of the Royal Caribbean controlled area. Maybe they have added dive facilities since last March, but I would be surprised.

There are lots of dive operators on Cozumel who can accommodate cruisers. I suspect you could dive in Jamaica, but I don't know that I don't know that I would feel comfortable- in the event of a medical issue- I would be worried about the ability to get good care locally.

Regarding St. Maarten versus St. Thomas- St. Thomas reportedly has better/easier diving.

 

[BFRedrocks]

Just a follow up regarding our cruise ship diving in St. Thomas. We went with Blue Island Divers (directly, not through the cruise ship) and I highly recommend them. G and Michael were great and everything worked out perfect for our port stop. We walked the 5 minutes to their boat and met both men at the dock at around 10:45 am (picture shows the dive boat in the foreground, and our ship, Oasis of the Seas, in the background). My wife and I brought our own masks and computers, so once we were fitted with shorties, BCs, and fins, we took off in the boat to pickup some divers at the "other" cruise dock. We ended up having 5 divers total, plus G as the DM in the water with us and Michael driving the boat. We did two dives, the first a deeper "wall" dive (not much of a wall once you've experienced Cayman), and the second, a double wreck dive. The paired wrecks were former Navy barges that were purposefully sunk following their use as barracks, and they were fairly shallow which made for some really cool photo ops playing with the light and steel. Water temps were pretty consistent at about 79-80 degrees. On the way back, we dropped off the other divers and then went to our dock, arriving right at 4 pm, with plenty of time left to get back on the cruise ship and relax. All in all, we had a great day with Blue Island Divers and I would highly recommend them if you're in the area.