Scuba St Lucia and Anse Chastanet Questions

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Guide required for all diving in St Lucia
While this is generally true, I can't remember if it's required in front of the resort. I was there 20+ years ago, long before "Jade Mountain" was a separate property, or was marketed separately....
 
I was in St Lucia last week, did 24 dives with the Sandals dive team. Very good fish life and well preserved reef. You can skip the wreck there as it is not really in good shape and it sit in the middle of a sandy field with nothing around. There are much more interesting dives around like Turtle garden and Fairyland. I've done more than 130 dives there and it's a renewed enjoyment every time.
 
I was in St Lucia last week, did 24 dives with the Sandals dive team.

How long was your stay? I was under the impression they only offer 1 two tank dive per day. Looking to book in June 2019. My husband wants maximum dive time. Trying to find a resort that will offer more dive options including afternoon dives and night dives. Any suggestions? Thank you
 
How long was your stay? I was under the impression they only offer 1 two tank dive per day. Looking to book in June 2019. My husband wants maximum dive time. Trying to find a resort that will offer more dive options including afternoon dives and night dives. Any suggestions? Thank you

Sandals is a premium resort group with all inclusive facilities, including scuba diving. They offer two tank dives everyday except on Sundays when it's a one tank dive. All guided dives are at a maximum 60 foot depth. They have well equipped dive boats and very a professional team, nice people who know the sites. They also offer private and night dives for an added fee. They supply the following equipment: 80 cubic feet aluminium tanks, Scubapro BC's, regs, masks lead weights and fins. You leave at 8am and are back for lunch around noon. The guests from Halcyon and Regency take a shuttle to the Castries marina and those from the Grand leave from the resort. The dive sites are impressive and just the ride there is worth it. I did 24 dives because we stayed two weeks.
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I did 24 dives because we stayed two weeks.

In past threads where people reported on scuba experiences with Sandals, I recall a mention of 45 minute dive times by one person. Of course, that may be anecdotal, wasn't recent and I don't recall what location. So I'm asking...

1.) How long were the dive times?
2.) Did the whole group have to go up together when one person got low on gas?

Richard.
 
Thank you for the info. I wasn’t aware of the additional night dive option. We are more about the diving than the resort. The optimal goal for us is 24 dives in a week. I’m intrigued by St. Lucia as it’s one of the few Caribbean islands we haven’t visited.

Richard, I have the same concerns with Sandals diving as I’ve hesrd mixed reviews. I’m actually headed to Sandals Ochi this weekend for a quick birthday get away. It was ridiculously cheap (got a great deal) and free airfare. Too good to pass up. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Right now I’m not having much luck with my search in St. Lucia. Will probably just go to Cozumel this time, get our dives in, and save money for the next trip.
 
Hi Richard,
Dive times varied between 45 and 60 minutes with a median of 50 minutes excluding coming up to the surface and safety stop. They will separate teams and bunch together experienced divers and form another group of newbies and certifying divers.

There are dive operators in St-Lucia and many small hotels available also.

The dive sites are better than Jamïca and Barbados, only 180 000 people on the island, so not much overfishing. People in general are very friendly.
 
Just finished a long weekend at Sandals Ochi in Ocho Rios. Diving was so/so. Jamaica has definitely been over fished. On the positive we saw a lot of juvenile grouper so they are reproducing.

Diving with Sandals is definitely “resort diving”. It was frustrating having to come up with 1500psi after 35 minutes because a new diver is still doing his check out dives and is out of air. They do make everyone come out when the first diver is down to 1000. By the time we were calling off our air, he was down to 400 and I was at 1500. With that said, any dive is better than no dive when you don’t live on the coast. On Sunday they only ran one/one tank dive. We opted to book 2 tank dives at an additional cost, double what we normally pay. We did it because we were there, and tomorrow is never guaranteed. Overall it was a nice experience. We went ahead a booked the Sandals Grande in St. Lucia for next September. We also are going to the Florida Keys in January for a family vacation, and Cozumel in June for true dive vacations, Sandals is more of a resort vacation.

If you travel with non-divers, this would be good option. Something for everyone.
 
anyone dive with Scuba Steve shop? I'm heading down to stay at the starfish, was the Rex Pappillon. Any comments or useful hints?

Cheers
 
Just finished a long weekend at Sandals Ochi in Ocho Rios. Diving was so/so. Jamaica has definitely been over fished. On the positive we saw a lot of juvenile grouper so they are reproducing.

Diving with Sandals is definitely “resort diving”. It was frustrating having to come up with 1500psi after 35 minutes because a new diver is still doing his check out dives and is out of air. They do make everyone come out when the first diver is down to 1000. By the time we were calling off our air, he was down to 400 and I was at 1500. With that said, any dive is better than no dive when you don’t live on the coast. On Sunday they only ran one/one tank dive. We opted to book 2 tank dives at an additional cost, double what we normally pay. We did it because we were there, and tomorrow is never guaranteed. Overall it was a nice experience. We went ahead a booked the Sandals Grande in St. Lucia for next September. We also are going to the Florida Keys in January for a family vacation, and Cozumel in June for true dive vacations, Sandals is more of a resort vacation.

If you travel with non-divers, this would be good option. Something for everyone.

Hi Belmont,
would be something offered on some days in excess of 60 feet max. I My wife and I are booked into St. Lucia Regency La Toc for 2 weeks next March....The dive site descriptions on their web site shows dive sites with depth ranges down to 200ft. Are the dives really limited to max 60 feet on all dives? Obviously we weren't expecting to have to produce our Adv. Trimix cards as we thought it would be only recreational diving but thought that there might be some dives in excess of 60ft offered. We were at Sandals Barbados in 2017 and were offered dives over our stay there down to 100ft (wreck dive) while on our trip. let me know.
Cheers,
Norman H.
 
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