Family is going on a cruise, I get to dive once help me pick the island

[drrich2]

More non-dive stuff to do in Nassau, the port is basically downtown and also the ferry next door goes to the Atlantis Megaresort - you can buy a day pass for many of the tours/activities.

Take note how many hours you'll be in port, and read reviews of the excursion you'll considering taking to see if, by the time getting there and back and involved hassles are considered, you'll 'get your money's worth' out of a given excursion. Nassau is not a particularly attractive port; it's one of a few a number of cruisers on CruiseCritic.com's Royal Caribbean section dislike, and some don't get off the ship when there. I've been twice; no great shakes either way. First time wife & I did a sea lion interaction at Blue Lagoon; second time we took our daughter on an excursion over to Pearl Island (some swimming and beach time, eating, etc...).

There are different ways to approach your problem:

1.) Since this trip is mainly about family, pick what non-diving excursion you'd do at each of the 3 ports. Whichever one least appeals, dive at that port instead.

2.) Dive at whichever one you think you'll never dive at otherwise. If you anticipate doing a Bahamas live-aboard someday but figure you'd never take a dedicated dive trip to St. Maarten or St. Thomas, well... Oh, at St. Maarten, you'll dock at the Dutch section; unless you take a tour over to the French section, you'll miss it. If you like having visited various foreign holdings, perhaps a minor draw.

3.) Hard as it is to believe I'm saying this...you could skip diving and make this cruise all about family. Then 'take revenge' and do a dedicated dive trip together, somewhere with high diving frequency (e.g.: Live-aboards, Bonaire, Key Largo or CocoView Resort in Roatan). This is what I've done my last couple of cruises with my wife & our little girl.

Richard.

 

[JayNSusan]

If I were in your place, I’d dive in St. Thomas. I’ve been there—but didn’t dive. The water was beautiful. I’ve been on a too shallow for my taste dive in Nassau and awesome dive but wavy boat ride in St. Maarten. Dive operators in St. Maarten said the waves are almost always an issue.