Damselfish & Todd,
I'm by no means an expert on St. Lucian diving. I was down in April for my Honeymoon and since my wife doesn't dive I only made a couple of dives. I dove Anse Chastenet with Scuba St. Lucia and had a great time. Normal I dive off VA or in local quarries and other then my cavern class I've never had more then 20 ft of visibility. As a result my few dives were a real treat for me. I don't have anything to compare it to since I've never been to other parts of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about other dive operators either. I can't tell you if the reefs are in better shape then other areas but I can tell you that Anse Chastenet is a marine sanctuary. Even though the dives were guided I didn't feel like I was being herded around.
I made my original comment because my LDS told me about some people that were planning a trip and canceled it because they heard that all dives were guided. Do I think they were over reacting, yeah probably. The dive master took us in and wandered around and surprise we ended up right at our entry point or right at the boat. As long as we were all in the same general area buddy pairs could do their own thing. If I decided to drop down to 120 feet or head off in the opposite direction I'm sure the DM wouldn't have appreciated that.
I got the impression that a lot of the other divers were the "hey, the waters nice here why don't I go diving" type. No one seemed like they went their specifically to dive. Most were either diving because they were there or had gotten certified on their vacation. I'm the only one that had any of my own gear. Some people even rented a mask and fins! I had a computer and was the only one with any type of time keeping device. No one else even had a set of tables! This was a real eye opener to me.
In the end, the guided dives weren't that bad. Some people seem to detest them so I thought I would toss that out. I had a great time and enjoyed the dives but really don't anything else in my log book to compare it to.
Hope that helps. If it doesn't you're out of luck. I'll be out of town next week so won't be able to fill in any gaps.
Dive safe,
Drew
Ps If you're down there with a non-diver there is
great snorkeling at Anse Chastenet. The dive shop is on the beach and the park is right off the shore. They have a large roped of area for snorkeling. It's about 15-20 feet deep an plenty of shallow coral and marine life. We did our safety "stop" coming back through here and let me just say it sure as hell beats a hang bar!