New divers - advice on which itinerary in the Caribbean

[lunula]

Hello!

My husband and I are currently taking certification classes and if all goes as planned, we will be certified by the end of Feb 2013. We had a big European cruise planned, but we are going to cancel that and book a Caribbean cruise, instead, so that we can go diving!

I was wondering if you could give us your opinions on a few itineraries below?

Our goals are this: We would like nice, easy dives with lots to see, not too deep - I'd like to stick to 40' depth, maybe 50'. We'd like to avoid long boat rides out to dive sites, if possible. Would love to get experience with shore diving, docks and quick boat trips. I am not interested in caves/tunnels or swimming into wrecks; our comfort level is just not there yet. Basically, we would like to experience some variety and build our confidence. We are both very excited, but also very cautious and I think slowly building up to bigger, deeper dives is the way to go!

With that in mind, any suggestions/feedback/advice on an itinerary? Each of these ports is a day-long stop, normally from 8/9 AM to 5/6 PM.

Would love your opinions, also, on whether any of these stops would not be good for beginner diving - so that we can explore for other fun things to do, instead! ALso, all 4 cruises are in April, if that makes any difference.

Option 1 (10-day cruise with following ports):
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Basseterre, St. Kitts
Bridgetown, Barbados
Roseau, Dominica
Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Option 2 (14-day cruise with following ports):
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Philipsburg, St. Maarten
St. Johns, Antigua
Castries, St. Lucia
Bridgetown, Barbados
St. George's, Grenada
Oranjestad, Aruba
Willemstad, Curacao

Option 3 (10-day cruise with following ports):
Antigua, Antigua & Barbuda
St. Lucia
Barbados
St. Kitts, St. Kitts & Nevis
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

Option 4 (10-day cruise with following ports):
Aruba
Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands
Grenada
Dominica
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Princess Cays, Bahamas

Thank you so kindly.

 

[herbdb]

Nothing wrong with any of those destinations. The diving you want can be found most places. It looks like you are looking for a cruise vacation with a little diving thrown in. If that is the plan you won't be disappointed with any of your proposals.

I think that most of the frequent posters here have a different approach. They choose a dive destination and concentrate primarily on diving often getting 15-30 or more dives in a week. If your intention is to really work on dive skills, I would skip the cruise and go to a dive resort.

Welcome to the board. There is a lot of really good info here.

 

[lunula]

Thanks, herbdb! We actually really love cruising and do not want a trip based solely on diving - so the intent really is the cruise/vacation 1st and diving will be a part of the experience. We do want to work on dive skills, but we are also looking for fun, relaxation and meeting new people in different places. We are just hoping to choose a cruise to maximize dive potential.

I am trying to do research on all the spots, but it's a bit overwhelming. I have no frame of reference at the moment, as I have never been diving and my Caribbean experience is limited to a week-long family trip to BVI last year (and we didn't leave our rental too much - just lots of sunning, eating and drinking!).

 

[flots am]

OK. I'm going to make you unhappy. sort of. You're going to have to choose.

For cruise ship diving my absolute favourites are:

"Dive St Kitts" on St. Kitts
Call the dive op. They'll send a taxi to pick you up in the shopping center a few hundred yards from the ship, bring you to the dive shop and you can do whatever dives you arrange with them. It's a really nice small operation and they have a nice beach entry for shore dives.

"The Dive Bus" on Curacao.
Get off the ship and take a taxi to "The Dive Bus". They'll rent you tanks and there's awesome diving right across the street from the shop. You can dive all day, at your own pace for the cost of tanks and weights if you bring your own gear.

These are both very relaxed with no time pressure.

Believe it or not, Bonaire is kind of a waste. It's extremely difficult to get there, get off the ship rent a car, find a dive shop to do the "park briefing" or whatever it's called, buy your park pass, get tanks, get out to a good dive site, bring the car back and get a ride back to the ship. Way too much stress.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas: Booked though the ship. Diving OK. Nothing special.
Roseau, Dominica: Beautiful island. Skip the diving and do the River Tubing. It's an amazing amount of fun. Buy some hot sauce on the way back.
Philipsburg, St. Maarten: Weather seems spotty or maybe it's just my bad luck. Been skunked a couple of times.
St. Johns, Antigua: Nice diving. Not much time.
St. George's, Grenada: Ship's dive op sucks. No-name dive op or boat. Dive OK in the sense that I got some rescue practice. Dive site used for tourists sucked.
Oranjestad, Aruba Nice snorkelling if you have a wife.family.
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands : diving "good" not great Reef has been declining.
Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos: Nice dives. No complaints. Book thought the ship. Too hard otherwise.

Princess Cays, Bahamas: No diving here. Nice beach. Some fish if you snorkel way off to the sides away from the people.

flots.

 

[Skybadiver]

Believe it or not, Bonaire is kind of a waste. It's extremely difficult to get there, get off the ship rent a car, find a dive shop to do the "park briefing" or whatever it's called, buy your park pass, get tanks, get out to a good dive site, bring the car back and get a ride back to the ship. Way too much stress.

I have a very diffferent opinion of Bonaire. The ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) are known for having some of the best, if not THE best shore diving in the world. Bonaire, in particular, has amazing shore dives, and many books have been written on the subject. One of my all time favorite dive spots, and number one when it comes to introducing a new diver to blue water diving, is the house reef at the Divi Flamingo resort in Bonaire. The Divi Flamingo is a 1 minute cab ride, or better yet a 10 minute walk from the port that the cruise ships use. Loaded down with dive gear, the walk is very comfortable, even for my 12 year old son. The reef gradully slopes away from the beach to as deep as your comfort level will allow, with a boat, a huge anchor and some nice coral formations in the 30 - 50 foot range. The reef runs straight east and west, so navigation couldnt be simpler. If you can remember whether you went east or west when you got it, your exit consists of swiming up the slope to 30 feet and traveling in the oposite direction until you hit the moring line. As with most shore dives in the Caribbean, you pay for access (I don't remember how much, but it's cheap. Maybe $40??), and then you can dive all day long on house air.Completely stress free blue water diving. Fantastic first caribbean dive.

I also have had very nice dives in Aruba, with the wreck of the Antilla being a highlight. The Antilla sits just off shore in 60ft of water at its deepest point, making it very accepable and nicely illuminated at that shallow depth. There are intersting parts of the wreck that are close enough to the surface that you may see an occassional snorkeler diving down for a look. The Boats for the antilla are a very short ride from the cruise ship docs.

Anyway, just more food for thought. For me personally, I would always choose an itinerary that leans more towards the western and sourthern caribbean. Bottom line you can't go wrong with any of those itineraries and you will have some great dives and amazing memories wherever you go. Have fun!

 

[flots am]

I have a very diffferent opinion of Bonaire. The ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) are known for having some of the best, if not THE best shore diving in the world. Bonaire, in particular, has amazing shore dives, and many books have been written on the subject. One of my all time favorite dive spots, and number one when it comes to introducing a new diver to blue water diving, is the house reef at the Divi Flamingo resort in Bonaire. The Divi Flamingo is a 1 minute cab ride, or better yet a 10 minute walk from the port that the cruise ships use!

The problem isn't that the diving isn't good, it's that the logistics don't work out.

Princess, for example, gets in around noon and leaves in the evening, which makes getting the dive briefing, buying a park pass and renting a car very difficult. Taxis are nearly impossible to find at convenient times when a 3,000+ passenger ship docks, since there just aren't very many taxis on the island and they all can't fit near the pier even if there were enough.

The OP could sign up with the ship, but I generally don't like the ship dives.

flots.

 

[Skybadiver]

The problem isn't that the diving isn't good, it's that the logistics don't work out.

We've had very different experiences, I guess. I've combined shore and boat diving with cruises several times, have never booked through the ship and have never fealt pressured to get back to the ship in time. In my experience, the diver operators on the islands are very in tune with the ship schedules and "Ship's Time." It's also not that difficult to figure out who the ship contracts with in each port and then schedule directly with the operator. That way you're sure to get back in time, and if you don't, the ship is not leaving because there are divers who booked with the ship out on the dive excursion with you.

 

[flots am]

We've had very different experiences, I guess. I've combined shore and boat diving with cruises several times, have never booked through the ship and have never fealt pressured to get back to the ship in time. In my experience, the diver operators on the islands are very in tune with the ship schedules and "Ship's Time." It's also not that difficult to figure out who the ship contracts with in each port and then schedule directly with the operator. That way you're sure to get back in time, and if you don't, the ship is not leaving because there are divers who booked with the ship out on the dive excursion with you.

That works find on any of the other islands , it doesn't work fine in Bonaire unless you know someone who will stop what they're doing in the middle of the day, pick you up at the ship and do the park briefing and give you your park pass.

I've done Bonaire three times from a cruise ship and each time decided I'd never do it again. It's a beautiful little laid-back island if you're there for a week. If you're there one day between noon and 6, not so much.

flots.

 

[lunula]

Thanks, everyone - some really interesting points to think about. We have no problem scheduling our own dive excursions, if need be, but flots' comments regarding Princess cruises are interesting, as that is one of the two we are considering. I've been reading as many threads regarding the various stops and the diving in each here on Scubaboard, but fabulous to have your input. We greatly appreciate it!

 

[Skybadiver]

That works find on any of the other islands , it doesn't work fine in Bonaire unless you know someone who will stop what they're doing in the middle of the day, pick you up at the ship and do the park briefing and give you your park pass.

I've done Bonaire three times from a cruise ship and each time decided I'd never do it again. It's a beautiful little laid-back island if you're there for a week. If you're there one day between noon and 6, not so much.

flots.

Not sure where you guys dive on Bonaire, but as recently as March 2012 I did the 10 minute walk from the port to the Divi and was in the water in less than 40 minutes after leaving the ship.