Caribbean cruise - diving tips needed

[diveguy600]

Hi guys, I will be visiting the following destinations as part of my 7 day cruise in mid November. I would like to dive in 1 or 2 destinations and need to choose the best places based on quality of diving. The itinerary is:

San Juan, Puerto Rico
St. Croix USVI
St. Kitts
Dominica
Grenada
St. Thomas USVI

[stcroixscuba]

This is the priority I would go with (along with my usual disclaimer that as a dive shop owner on St. Croix I have an obvious vested interest).

St. Croix (dive boats, ours and others, leave right off of the cruise ship pier)
Dominica
Grenada
St. Kitts
St. Thomas

[diveguy600]

thanks! the cruise (Celebrity Summit) arrives in St. Croix on Nov 11 at 8am which is a Sunday, are you guys open that day? When would the diving start and finish? How often do you do the wall dive? Do you require AOW for the wall dive? I have an Advanced cert with over 100 dives but I will be with my GF who is a newly certified diver so not sure what would be suitable for her.

Off topic: After doing the dive I would like to head to Christiansted to check out the other side of the island, do you think there is enough time to do that? Are there car rental places around?

[Rick Murchison]

Another decision you'll need to make is "Who will I dive with?"
For the best diving, make your own arrangements with the operator of your choice...
but...
letting the ship make your arrangements assures the ship won't leave you should the dive operator be late; they *will* leave you behind if you make your own arrangements and are late getting back.

Rick

[diversteve]

It's not San Juan - the better diving is too far away to do in one day.

[diveguy600]

I'm guessing the dives are morning dives 9-12 or something similar, the ship leaves port at 5:30pm so I have a solid buffer of 5+ hrs

I have never dived with a cruise ship but I have heard cruise operators take guests to the worst possible dive spots since cruise passengers in average tend to be much less experienced.

[diversteve]

In St. Thomas (although I agree with stcroixscuba's ranking) either Admiralty Dive or Blue Island Divers will pick you up off the cruise pier.

[diveguy600]

Thanks for the info, Stcroix scuba, I will touch base with you to sign up for the dives as our departure date nears

[mala]

I'm guessing the dives are morning dives 9-12 or something similar, the ship leaves port at 5:30pm so I have a solid buffer of 5+ hrs

I have never dived with a cruise ship but I have heard cruise operators take guests to the worst possible dive spots since cruise passengers in average tend to be much less experienced.

they are less experienced on the whole.
experienced divers would be going on a dive holiday not a holiday with diving.
i dont expect you will go to the worst but you probably wont see the best.

[stcroixscuba]

Our west shore dive boat leaves from directly off of the cruise ship pier at 9:30am for a two-tank wreck and reef dive trip. You'll be in sight of the ship at all times and will be back on the Pier around noon. Even the afternoon west shore trip which leaves at 1p is back by 4p.

For the wall diving you have to travel a bit. Our north shore boat leaves from Christiansted and does a wall dive first and a coral garden give second. It normally leaves at 8:30a returning around 12:30p but on cruise ship days we hold it up to an hour to make sure that divers from the ship have time to easily make it to us.