First time cruise advice

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skibud

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Hi hope you can help. I am booked on my first cruise at the end of January with a number on non diving friends and am interested in booking some independent dive trips whilst in port. The P and O Azura calls at Grenada.....Castries St Lucia..... Dominica.....St Kitts.....Phillipsburg St Maarten....Tortola BVI.....Curacao......Bonaire.

My previous dive experience in and around the Caribean was Cuba and Dominican Republic, so I have no idea about any of these destinations. If I can get two days diving in I will be happy enough, so i was wondering if anyone can assist with the easiest best options and any dive school recommendations?

I have an UK HSE part 111 equvalent BSAC Sports Diver qualification. I generally now only dive on holiday, about fifteen logged dives in the previous 12 months. Any help would be gratefully received.
 
I've only been to the last three on your list. Dominica has been on my short list for a while though - I've read the diving there is excellent. I've read you should do something else on St. Maarten - the Philipsburg area is not known for great diving. Saba is but that's another island nearby - not accessible during a day trip.

In Tortola you're going to dock in Roadtown. Check with We B Divin since they're literally walking distance from the cruise dock. British Virgin Islands Scuba Diving : We Be Divin' : Tortola The BVI's are decent shallower diving. The Rhone wreck is worth the ride on the off-chance they're diving it the day you're there - it's across the channel near Salt Island so 30? mins. each way. Easily penetrable bow section - one of my group did her 12th dive there. And the 2nd dive on the back is really interesting also. Nothing deeper than 70' and since it was a 300' long ship - most of it is shallower. Everything off Tortola is a boat dive - Painted Walls is among the best of the dives they do so ask about it also. Not too deep - maybe 60' or so max. But the colors are amazing.

Curacao could be a good option also since it's low current easy diving. Bas Harts Diving or Atlantis Diving both work with cruise schedules. For shore diving, some people go to the Dive Bus location near Pierbaai Beach instead - it's a few miles south of the cruise port. Cruise Ship Passengers

The MegaPier is right near downtown. Across the harbor (via the floating bridge) is the famous downtown shopping area - on the same side as the MegaPier is the Renaisssance Casino and the Rif Fort complex so there's a lot to do in that area also if you don't dive there.

On Bonaire you're going to dock at Town Pier downtown. Dive Friends Yellow Submarine location is about 1/4 of a mile or less north of there. Dive Friends Bonaire, our location at Yellow Submarine They're going to have a 9AM 2-tank dive available. Personally I'd dive in Bonaire since downtown is small and there's not a lot else to do there. It's also among the best diving in the Caribbean. You could also check with VIP Diving - I've heard they work with cruise schedules. All they do is escorted shore dives.https://www.vipdiving.com/
 
I dove with Scuba Steve's Diving one day and did the Pitons trip (a premium trip that's a bit more expensive), and had a good time. Here's my quick trip report from that.

Bonaire and Curacao are famous for having their sloping wall reef in close to shore, so you can swim out & shore dive any time of day or night without needing a dive boat or guide, no group, and you can 'do your own thing,' so to speak.

If I were you & planning to only dive 2 destinations, for example, I'd think about which destinations I'd likely return to for a dedicated dive trip (probably Bonaire, maybe Curacao), and instead take advantage of this cruise to dive other places I probably would not go back to for a dive trip. Maybe St. Lucia and Tortola? Haven't dove the latter.

On a cruise ship stop in St. Lucia on our honeymoon, the wife & I did a rain forest hike and had a good time. Lush and pretty. But being out on the island, no jaguars, crocodiles or other potentially lethal predators to add a little potential danger in; just beautiful vegetation & lots of it. I enjoyed a bus tour in St. Martin, that took us over to the French side, too.

When narrowing down which locations to dive at, also considered which islands have great non-diving excursions you'd like to do. Lets say you want to encounter a dolphin or sea lion, hike a rainforest, visit Mayan ruins or whatever. Lets say a couple of your stops don't offer other things you like to do. That can help narrow it down.

Richard.
 
Most cruise lines require a dive within 12 months. What this really means is that you need to have been on a dive within 12 months for the first dive. After you dive the first port you can then claim your last dive was yesterday. :)

I've been diving all the places you list. All of them on one cruise is pretty amazing. I might skip St. Maarten if you don't want to dive every port but all the other ports are great ports to dive.

There is one dive operator in St. Lucia (I think they are Scuba St. Lucia) which does a shore dive from Anse Chastanet Resort. There is an amazing marine park right off the shore with some great wall dives. The problem with the location however is that just down the coast is a fishing village and there are fishing boats racing over head occasionally. Because of this, Scuba St. Lucia wants to be sure you aren't going to panic and go to the surface. So they have to do a mask and regulator recovery at the start of the dive (in the bay). If you cannot do this without effort you might want to skip going with them. If you can do this, they have a great dive. They aren't making you do this test to be a pain. A few years back a diver had a mask flood, panicked, went to the surface and got hit by a boat.

Grenada has some nice wrecks to dive. Last time I was there the government did not allow operators to build docks. I had to wade out to a small boat then the small boat took us out to a larger boat. So you have to be in reasonable shape to dive here.

Dominica has some wall diving and a dive call The Champagne Reef. Dominica is a volcanic island. There are small bubbles coming out of a reef. You can lay in the reef and it is like being in a hot tub. Really cool.

St. Kitts is just a nice dive. Good marine life. I think they insist you have a dive computer. If you don't they'll rent you one.

In Tortola you will almost definitely dive the Rhone out by Salt Island. It is an okay dive. It is quite rusted out so you can safely swim through it. There are a lot of other sites in the area but last time I was there on a cruise we went to the Rhone.

Curacao is definitely a good shore diving island. I have gone diving with The Dive Bus. I also heard good things about Ocean Encounters. You can book your dive by going to The Dive Bus website. You'll need to get a cab to the shop. Before you get in the cab agree on the price. Once you set the price you can get in the cab and know they won't change their price. When you need to get back to the Cruise ship you can have Suzy or Mark call a cab for you. Remember to agree on the price before you let them drive you back to the cruise ship.

In Bonaire the choices are endless. I'm sure there are dozens of good recommendations you'll get from people on here.

I'd recommend googling the island for the recommended dive shops and seeing of they have a cruise ship package. Some of the dive operations will have a special for cruise ships. They pick you up at the same dock as the cruise ship, take you to boat to the dive shop, suit you up, take you diving, bring you back to the cruise ship. Makes it safe for you so you don't miss your cruise ship departure. The only place I've had a close call was Curacao. They had internet trouble and I didn't bring cash. Then it took a while for the cab to show up and haggle the price. I still made my ship before it left port. I suspect the cabbie quit haggling because he didn't want me to miss my ship. :)
 
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I have an UK HSE part 111 equvalent BSAC Sports Diver qualification. I generally now only dive on holiday, about fifteen logged dives in the previous 12 months. Any help would be gratefully received.
It's unlikely many of the operators will have come across a HSE certification. Does in contain anything to indicate its equivalence? Like ISO or CMAS.
 
I don't think the OP is going to have too much difficulty using his HSE card in the British Virgin Islands...lol.

St Kitts either:
Since 1783, St. Kitts has been affiliated with the Kingdom of Great Britain, which became the United Kingdom.
 
Hey Skibud,

We organise dive trips for cruise tourists on Curacao. We will pick you up and drive you to the north-west side of the island. This is where in our opinion the better diving is. Plus on the way to the dive sites you get to see half the island :)

We go off road to remote and secluded dive sites/beaches. No crowds guaranteed!

Bas


Send me an email: bas@bashartsdiving
 
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Guys, what a magnificent response to my first time post and lots of information to digest. Many thanks will come back with any questions soon. On my HSE certification, I never had a problem, but as many overseas operators had never heard it, I took the decision to join (BSAC) British Sub Aqua Club and obtained an equivalency card to their Sports Diver grade. This has thus far been immediately recognised when presented with my HSE certificate.

Many thanks
 
Guys, what a magnificent response to my first time post and lots of information to digest. Many thanks will come back with any questions soon. On my HSE certification, I never had a problem, but as many overseas operators had never heard it, I took the decision to join (BSAC) British Sub Aqua Club and obtained an equivalency card to their Sports Diver grade. This has thus far been immediately recognised when presented with my HSE certificate.

Many thanks
That will do the trick.
 

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