Dive operators..St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten?

Visiting several islands in August
Looking for dive operator recommendations...

Leaning towards these operators...any advice?

St Thomas....Blue Island Divers or Admirality Divers?

Barbados....EcoDive Barbados or The Dive Shop?

St. Lucia...Iyanola Dive Ventures (Carnival ship excursion but they visit the Pitons) Wanted to use Scuba Steve but they have a full fee even if your ship does not make port.

St. Kitts....Pro-Divers or Dive St. Kitts?

St. Marteen....Carribean Dive College (Carnival Ship Excursion) Had to be sure we finished our dives early due to a 12:35 flight the next days...the Carnival excursion gave us the best chance of doing that.

Looking forward to your opinions. I tried the Cruise section but didn't get any replies...figured this section may have more info regarding the operators.

Thanks

I will be hitting those same islands aboard a cruise in early November. More than likely I'll drag my gear along and dive at all those spots...probably through a shipboard shore excursion. it beats schlepping around town and hitting all the touristy shops. Ugh.

I dove 3 outta 5 stops last May('12) on a Carnival cruise.......Dove with Dive St Kitts---Scuba Steve @ St Lucia---& Admiralty Dive in St Thomas--did not dive St Maarten & Barbados.....All 3 I used their rental equipment(1st time EVER to not carry all my own gear & had a great experience with all 3--was like 10 USD per stop extra to do so so I figured rather than having to fly with an extra suitcase I'd give it a try).....Took my mask/snorkel/fins & dive computer /UW camera ---that was about it.......Very glad I did, didn't have to worry about drying that stuff out & things being pretty stinky in the room by day 5 or 6-----lol.....Good luck....

BTW, @ St Lucia, opted for the Premiun package deal which meant we dove the Pitons for both dives(well worth the extra ?30 bucks or so.....)...All 3 were NOT thru the cruise ship---ie I called or emailed ahead & had NO PROBLEM making it back to the ship on time....All 3 went like clockwork & it rained all day while diving St Lucia...

EDIT-------pics/videos from those 3 stops can be found here(click below link)----last 7 sets on this page.......

GEAUXtiger's photosets on Flickr

On St. Thomas if you dock at WICO in Charlotte Amalie, it's a wash. If you dock at Crown Bay, Blue Island is walking distance. They'll also pick you up off the dock at WICO with their boat - touch and go only, they can't tie up. I think Admiralty has a van but verify that.

I'm almost positive Carnival docks at WICO - shot this there - the back two are both Carnival ships:

I recently stopped in St Thomas as one of our cruise ports and dove with Admiralty. They will pick you up at the dock via the dive boat, you get directions on where to meet them and it was easy to do so even though the dock was chaos. My friend and I were the only two of the group off the cruise, so Duane gave us a ride from the shop back to the boat which was really nice.

Great people and interesting characters but I found the diving to be just so-so. Viz wasn't great (which can change day to day), not a lot of color or fish life on the sites we went to, and I felt a little rushed during the dives. Our first dive (Miss Opportunity), we were back on the mooring line just 19 minutes into the dive. Reason given is that one person in the group blew through their air so all of us were forced to go up. Compared to other locations I have been in the Caribbean, that was the first time I was forced up due to one air hog rather then sending them up the line with their buddy and letting the rest continue to dive.

I dove with Iyanola and Caribbean Dive College. I was happy with both. The dives at the Pitons were great and Carribean Dive College seems to have a good operation.

Only think to note it the Iyanola boat is small. Have to do a back entry off the side.

we used fair helen in st lucia. had a great time with them. they will pick up cruise ship passengers and transport them to their marigot bay location.
in st maarten carr college i believe is the only option now if you need one right at the docks. scuba fun was shut down recently. not sure if that is permanent. we use dive adventures (through aquamania) when in st maarten. the main shop is in simpson bay but they also work out of divi little bay resort which is very close to philipsburg where the ships come in. the boat from simpson bay stops there to pick up divers at about 930am or bit sooner and would be back there about noon or 12:30
not sure if that helps at all but thats all i can add

Reviewed Admiralty here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cr...-cruise-diving-tips-needed-2.html#post6447733

Reviewed Dive St Kitts here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/429218-st-kitts-diving-2.html#post6447716

Re: St. Kitts....great service & diving with our friend Capt'n Crabby at Dive St. Kitts!

cb5150:

I will be hitting those same islands aboard a cruise in early November. More than likely I'll drag my gear along and dive at all those spots...probably through a shipboard shore excursion. it beats schlepping around town and hitting all the touristy shops. Ugh.

Click to expand...

When is your cruise? We sail on the Carnival Valor out of PR on Nov 3rd...