Southern Caribbean on Royal Caribbean

[aepstein]

Next month, I'm taking my family of four on a 7-day Royal Caribbean cruise to the Southern Caribbean with stops at the following ports of call:

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
St. Johns, Antigua
Castries, St. Lucia
Bridgetown, Barbados

We are all certified and would like to dive at each port but not as part of the ship's excursions. We've heard they usually charter cattle boats and we prefer a 6-pack with a DM.

This is our first cruise and I would appreciate anyone's advise or recommendations on how best to arrange our own charters, precautions and if there are any recommended dive operations (or ones to avoid).

Side note - Should we consider bringing our own equipment?

Alan

[diveborg]

So, for St. Thomas I would recommend either Chris Sawyer dive center or Admiralty dive which will pick up from the cruise ship dock and has a 6 pack. They will also do a 3 tank trip.

I'd skip St. Maarten unless the ocean was dead flat calm, and even then I wouldn't expect much.

I also bring all my own gear when I go cruise diving.

Can't make any recommendations for the other islands.

[JRScuba]

Went on a cruise last year and this is what I did. Got on the internet, found dive boats at each port. Gave them date and times my ship would be in port. Price and the way they personally responded to my emails were my criteria's. To my good fortune we had a great time with each of my picks ( luck probably played a part in it).Unfortunately none of your islands were in my itinery.

After listening to some of the divers complain about rental gear, I was glad we brought our own.
Hopefully I answered both your questions. The first is pot luck and the second is a definite.

Joe

[Twister]

On the subject of rental gear oh yeah bring your own
Free flowin regs - B C D 's - inflater hoses NOT ect.
Get the picture

[aepstein]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Based on the information I have gathered, we plan on diving with Admiralty in St. Thomas, Frog's in St. Lucia and One-On-One in Barbados. I haven't been able to find any reports on One-On-One but they claim to cater to small groups.

Does anyone know if most Dive Ops have soft weights available? We are going to bring our own BCDs that have integrated weights and I'd hate to lug my own on the trip.

Thanks once again.

Alan

[WJM]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Based on the information I have gathered, we plan on diving with Admiralty in St. Thomas, Frog's in St. Lucia and One-On-One in Barbados. I haven't been able to find any reports on One-On-One but they claim to cater to small groups.

Does anyone know if most Dive Ops have soft weights available? We are going to bring our own BCDs that have integrated weights and I'd hate to lug my own on the trip.

Thanks once again.

Alan

Out of curiosity when are you going? I am going on the same cruise this saturday

-Will

[Tractor Tom]

...but in St. Thomas I REALLY like Sean and the guys at Blue Island Divers. They bring the dive boat over to the cruiseship terminal and pick you up right on the pier. You do your paperwork on the diveboat, and then they either drop you back at the pier, or take you to the shop and find you a ride back. The shop is across town in the Crown Point Marina, and I had a great time diving with them.

In St. Maartin, I dove with Dive Safaris, and tho' it was OK, I wouldn't write home about it. The diving there is better than Michigans Fresh Water Lakes, but not great. I was treated well, and the dive boat was in good shape. They provided cold drinks and snacks and stuff, but nothing to write home about. I had better diving in the Keys in November than I had in St. Maarten.

On Barbados, I dove with Blue Reef Divers. They came out to the cruiseship pier, but I had to walk outside the gates to meet them. They dive out of a fairly small, island built, wooden boat and have a funky little dive shop that sits on the beach. To get in the boat, you walk across the beach and wade out to the boat in the warm shallow water. Again, the diving we did wasn't world class, but the water was warm and clear, and folks who own the dive shop are WORLD CLASS. I have positive memories about diving there. Also, there is a little beer place right outside the gate to the Cruiseship Pier with some excellent local brews for a good price. After paying $4-5 a bottle for beers on the cruiseship, I was happy to find places in the towns we visited to find local brews at good prices.

[aepstein]

Out of curiosity when are you going? I am going on the same cruise this saturday

-Will

WJM - I sent you a private message the other day asking the same of you! We're sailing on April 10th. Hope you have a great time and would like to hear of your adventures.

Alan

[WJM]

well i'm back...
while not the best of diving it wasn't the worst either.

St. Thomas I dove at Coki Beach. I wanted to check out my aeris 2 computer and just get my feet wet again since i haven't gone diving since Sept. It was ok. Great guys at Coki Beach Dive shop. Had a good leisurely dive along the reef saw some Spotted Moreys and a crab in a conch like shell. Nothing too exciting. The visibility was about 30-40 ft due to some storm from the atlantic earlier in the week.

In St. Lucia I was forced to go with the ship excursion. I couldn't get ahold of Frog's to save my life. ALL the phone numbers on their website, either didnt work, or just rang when I called them. I bought a calling card for the trip, and the only island I was able to use it on was St. Thomas. The ship excursion was through Scuba St Lucia. Good dive crew. The first dive was off the beach and around the Anse Chastanet reef. Second dive was at Grand Caille just around the corner from the cove and it was a drift dive, with currents moving the group at a easily a meter/second. It was fun to experience a drift at this speed. Not a whole lot to see other than some nice coral formations.

In terms of the group though it was bad. There were a lot of "all show no go" divers in the group. One guy who talked a non-stop good story and was wearing a PADI shirt, and scuba diving swim trunks, couldn't for the life of him get himself under control in terms of bouancy. Also the group dynamic had a lot of people continually on top of and bumping into each other.

Barbados I dove with the Dive Shop and had a GREAT set of dives. I went out of the terminal to the location I was told to wait for a ride. A man from a taxi company came up and said he was sent from The Dive Shop. My gf and I went with him, and he ended up throwing us in a cab with a family of 3 from Italy. The family from italy got out at their stop and then the cab driver took us to the dive shop. I could tell from the packing and the way things went down that we were being man handled. I told the cabie I wasnt paying him, because the dive shop was picking me up. He had wanted $12 for the 2 of us to get there. We told him he would have to get his money from the shop. We went in and the shop owner (great guy) talked to the driver. He came back in and told me it was a good thing I had sent him in because he would have charged us $12. When the fare should have been $6.
Anyway something to keep in mind! Every island you go to ask the cruise ship what the fares should be to get to a place, so you know that you are not been taken for "a ride"
Anyway diving... There were 2 couples on the dive boat with me, and one girl from England. The cricket match of England vs the Indies was happening in Barbados this past weekend. We did a nice reef dive off the boat, nice visibility 50 ft or so. and came across 3 turtles. One was HUGE at over 4ft nose to tail. 2nd Dive was a wreck and then reef dive. Very nice time, and again came across more turtles (2). The people on this dive were all great, easy to buddy up to, and anticipate their movements and behavior compared to the group from the day before. I will definitely ALWAYS plan to do dive away from the ship excursions in the future.

All in all not a bad set of diving, and it at least ended well.

The cruise ship itself was fantastic, with great service, people, and things to do. The weather was as close to ideal as one could ask for.

Feel free to email me at sirwills@yahoo.com if you have any questions or would like to talk about the cruise more offline. I can give you the full run down on what I found at each island.