ISO: Cruise (not liveaboard) - St. Thomas / Samana / Tortola / Great Stirrup

[leo]

I am going on a NCL (Norweigian Dawn) cruise for non-diving reasons, but I want to get a dive or two in while I'm traveling. I'm looking for recommendations on which places to dive, dive ops, and dive sites, given the following details. Ports of call are the following:

Samana, DR
St. Thomas, USVI
Tortola, BVI
Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

While there is only me and another diver, I hope to put a small group together (via the larger group we're joining within our cruise, or cruisecritic, or here?). My preference is small boats, 6-8 divers - no cattle boats. Thus, I'm obviously not going to dive with NCL-sponsored excursions. So, I'll need a dive op that will fit into the routine (pick-up/drop-off at cruise dock, work within the port-of-call hours, etc.).

1. Other than Tortola, if I want to dive two or three days, which locations should I choose? No need to comment on Tortola, it's obviously at the top of this list and the Rhone is obviously one of the top sites given these options.

2. I've read everything posted within two years here with a search on Samana (ebuzo posted some helful info), but I'm still left wondering if diving Samana makes number 2 on the list, and allows for a non-NCL op??

3. St. Thomas probably is an option, and I've already learned by reading posts here that I'd probably want to dive with Blue Island or Admiralty and not Sawyer (since I like small boats, and given my cruise restrictions). And, of course, I WON'T DIVE COKI BEACH. Would St. Thomas make #2 on the list, and what's the recommendation?

4. I believe Great Stirrup is a private island, if so I would have no non-NCL dive options - only their excursions. Now, once I did a Stuart's Cove dive as a RCL-sponsored dive excursion, and although I paid a premium it was an awesome day of diving (on a cattle boat)... so maybe I might consider this stop for diving if I learn the sites there are awesome (but I've heard there's no good diving there?). Of course, I'll have to check with cruisecritic...


On a side-question, I might want to choose to snorkel with some nondiving friends. Do any of these locations offer a great snorkelling option? I'd get to spend some time with other friends... but if Tortola is the only good snorkelling location (The Baths?) I probably would replace my best dive option with snorkelling...

Thanks!!


So, that leaves the only question regarding Tortola

[BurBunny]

I'd say definitely Tortola and St. Thomas are your best options overall. Both have good snorkeling and diving both. But look at whether the logistics of your time in Tortola will allow you to get to the Rhone. It's sometimes tough to arrange the private operators to go out there on your schedule - while they offer times which work with your port times, it's not always to the Rhone.

In St. Thomas, if you wanted to do a combined dive/snorkel trip, there are a couple options, but they're the ones you've already eliminated. First, Chris Sawyer Divers offers an afternoon combo boat if your ship is in port late enough. Or you can also do both snorkeling and diving at Coki Beach. Not as good, but lots of fish as that's also Coral World and they do some fish feeding there. So if you want to snorkel with your friends, what's left is to do one of the power boat options through the cruise line, or go over to St. John - but while there is a snorkeling trail there, it's on the same level as Coki Beach in my mind.

Given your restrictions, I'd say diving with Blue Island would be my first choice for you.

Don't even try in the DR. Truly not worth it for what you can access from the cruise pier.

Finally Great Stirrup Cay. Just be aware this isn't just a ship's excursion, but it's run by the cruise line - no independent operator contracted with the cruise line like you experienced with Stuart Cove. Very strict on bottom time, depth, etc. Not bad diving, but also not something most divers will write home about.

For putting a group together, you're most likely to have success on the Cruise Critic Roll Call for your sailing.

[georoc01]

Cruisecritic is probably your best bet to putting together a group prior to the cruise. There should be a thread for just your cruise where all internet people can post. Put a post there, and see who responds.

[diversteve]

On a side-question, I might want to choose to snorkel with some nondiving friends. Do any of these locations offer a great snorkelling option? I'd get to spend some time with other friends... but if Tortola is the only good snorkelling location (The Baths?) I probably would replace my best dive option with snorkelling...

Something to consider in your planning - the Baths are on Virgin Gorda not Tortola. And the Rhone is off Salt Island. Salt Island is almost directly south of the cruiseport(Roadtown) on Tortola - it's a very lonngg island. And Virgin Gorda is due east. So you'd likely have to pick one or the other on a cruise schedule timeframe.

Personally I'd dive the Rhone, I don't like wrecks and it's one of the best I've done. It was a huge ship for it's time, is in remarkably well-preserved condition for being 100+ years old and has some interesting things to see. The huge prop is the picture used on some of the BVI tourist board ads, the front half has a long rec-level swimthrough - and it was the set of the movie "The Deep". It's a two tank dive and the two pieces of the ship are far enough apart that you change moorings between dives.

We had a non-diver with us and he found good snorkeling several times up close to the rocks at sites we dove. Most sites it wasn't much of a swim. At one we ran into about 50 snorkelers on a dayboat from somewhere - either Tortola or VG would be my guess. May've been off Ginger or Cooper Island...

I agree about Coki Beach, we wasted a morning there...The only advantage would be that your friends could snorkel while you dove. Don't go to Coral World either. Even the pictures on their website look marginal. It looks worse in person.

[Trwmodela]

Tortola, BVI is the place and the RMS Rhone is the site! I used a dive operator out of Roadtown called Dive Tortola. It's a two tank dive the bow is usually dived first followed by the stern section. Dive Tortola usally has someone taking a video of the dives. You can purchase DVD and I would recommend this because of the history of the wreck.

Tortola British Virgin Islands scuba diving, snorkel, Caribbean dive vacations, resorts, villas, suites

[leo]

OK, so I'll make some calls and try to get a group of 6-8 and "charter" a dive op that only does a six-pack anyway - and that might allow us to do the Rhone with a private op while we're on the restricted port call cruise schedule.

Since, due to info read mostly here, I won't dive Coki nor Coral World, then what's my best bet for St. Thomas? ...likely have to bail on the snorkeler friends there... but is there a private op that I can use, given my restricted schedule (especially if I don't have a group of 6-8, say it's just me and another)? And what dive sites would I request (Barges?) since I'll make it clear that I won't go if they do Coki, etc. Once I went out to Turtle island, or something like that, it was OK... I think it's more by St. John?

Thanks

[diversteve]

Since, due to info read mostly here, I won't dive Coki nor Coral World, then what's my best bet for St. Thomas? ...but is there a private op that I can use, given my restricted schedule (especially if I don't have a group of 6-8, say it's just me and another)

afaik you've answered this question:

3. St. Thomas probably is an option, and I've already learned by reading posts here that I'd probably want to dive with Blue Island or Admiralty and not Sawyer (since I like small boats, and given my cruise restrictions).

And what dive sites would I request (Barges?) since I'll make it clear that I won't go if they do Coki, etc.

No diveop with a boat will take you to Coki Beach since it would useless to dive there off the boat. And Coral World is one of those Snuba type things only. Actually the best part of the Coki diving is just past the outflow pipes from CW.

We dove off Grass Cay and one other small island but anything your diveop suggests is likely better.

Once I went out to Turtle island, or something like that, it was OK... I think it's more by St. John?

If your plan is to dive with Admiralty or Blue Island, they'll likely go south instead of towards St. John.

There's really only a couple good sites off St. John anyway and one is on the far side of the island and gets blown out often. The other is north of St. John so you'd have to go halfway around St. Thomas to get there. You might have a higher likelihood of getting Sawyer's to run out there since their harbor is just across the channel from St. John.

But I wouldn't, the logistics of getting there would kill a lot of dive time..

[leo]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I talked to Dive Tortola, and they only have large boats. I've heard many good things of them, but does anyone know of a good dive op out of Tortola that uses a 6-8 person boat?

Thanks!

[Trwmodela]

I booked throught the Carnival Liberty for the RMS Rhone. They use Dive Tortola and we only had five divers on their boat. Don't miss this dive because of the size of their boats! Does NCL have scuba trips offered in Tortola?

[Don Wray]

You can also contact Mike at
Sail Caribbean Divers :: Scuba diving and water sports in the British Virgin Islands
I believe they have smaller boats also.