St. Thomas or St. Maarten?

I'm going on a 7 day cruise this Sunday, May 12th on Princess cruise lines to the Eastern Caribbean with stops at St. Thomas and St. Maarten. I would like to dive one of these locations, and I would appreciate any recommendations or advice anyone may have.

These are 2 tank dives, with St. Thomas running $89, and St. Maarten at $99.

The dives through the cruise line is with New Waves scuba (www.newwaves.com), so I would also be interested if anyone has any experience with them or if anyone would recommend another dive operator at either of these locations. I only have 7 dives logged, with 3 of them in Hawaii, and even though I'm very comfortable in the water, I want to make sure I'm with a safety-minded operation, especially since I won't have a dive buddy with me that I know.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

TiggerB

Try Chris Sawyer at the Rennaissance on St Thomas. Very safe dive op!

The diving in St. Thomas is better than St. Maarten. Been to dive a couple of times in St. Thomas, try and find a small 6 pk. type of op. we found the diving to be excellant on St. John also.
Caymaniac