My wife and I just returned from a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We chose to dive in Saint Maarten. We had never been there before and had no knowledge of any operations over there. I did a search on dogpile and located several. We finally decided on Neptune Dive Center on Orient Beach. We waited until the last minute to decide, so I had to finalize our arrangements via internet on the cruise. Sylvie was my contact person and she did a fantastic job. We had a group of 6 divers and finally confirmed everything two days before we arrived. When we arrived, we found out that their boat had mechanical problems the day before we got there. But since they were expecting us, they had arranged a rental to be there for us. Neptune Dive Center is a quaint little cabana on Orient beach. Just what you would hope for on a tropic isle. I forgot our divemasters name, but he worked hard to make our trip memorable.
The first dive was a drift dive through two natural arches with a bevy of wildlife. As we neared the end of the dive, we came across about 30 dolphin. It was the most amazing sight. They were in a formation almost like a wall. Vertical and horizontal rows. Several of them broke away and came and played with us. It was an experience I'll never forget!!!!
The second dive was a wreck. There was wildlife all around and a black ray buried in the sand on the periphery of the wreck almost like a sentry! We were able to do a swim through penetration of the wreck and the divemaster even took a picture of me at the helm of the ship.
The whole operation worked hard to make sure everything went well for us. I have never had a more memorable dive. I reccomend them to anyone thinking of diving Saint Maarten.