Diving excursions from a cruise ship

[bgoody]

I have booked a cruise for December 2011 on the Carnival Freedom. We will be going to St Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau. Which islands have the best diving?
I will be able to dive on two of these.

 

[jar546]

Admiralty in St Thomas will pick you up with their boat right at the ship dock. Good diving. They have over 100 sites and I only saw 2 of them on single trip.

Nassau has tons of options. Shark, reef, wreck, etc.

Not sure about the other 2.

 

[Garrobo]

Bgoody: I've been looking at Carnival's 4-day/Western Carribean cruises which includes a day at Cozumel, trying to get one that gets me there early enough to get in either an early or afternoon dive and have time to get back to the ship on time. Can't seem to link up. I fly Southwest where I've got two round trips coming on my Visa card. They go to Fort Laud, Tampa and New Orleans which all have ports with cruises going where I want to go. A problem is that since I travel alone I'll have to pay double occupancy but overall the cost is less than flying to Coz on Continenal plus no food or hotel costs. So, I'd get a couple days of floating around in the ocean plus one day of diving for around $400+ along with the dive shop charges. They also have some 5-day cruises which stop at some island or town on the north coast of Mexico which I've never heard of , along with the Eastern Carribean cruises, bwhich might be fun. I'm not much of a tourist type so I am really only looking for opportunities to dive.

 

[Airleron]

I can only vouch for Nassau....and I would definately go with Stuart Cove. We were on an RCCL 3 day cruise, and dove the Tongue of the Ocean wall dive, then a wreck dive. You'll definately get the shark experience with Stuart Cove, if that's something your interested in.

 

[diversteve]

Tortola has good diving but it's pretty close to St. Thomas so is similar. Nice reefs, lots of fans/soft corals, the occasional shark. Depends on where the dive operator takes you - some of the islands (Norman, Peter Cooper, Salt Islands etc.) just south of Roadtown are pretty great. We also did good dives amongst the Dog Islands slightly NE. IDK if anyone is doing the Rhone wreck (off Salt Island) on a cruise day trip but it's excellent.

Admiralty or Blue Island Divers will likely take you south off St. Thomas - possibly to a wreck since there's a lot of them nearby. Both pickup at the Havensight cruise port.

On Nassau, Stuart Cove's shuttles you from the cruise port to their south side location. About 1/2 hr+ each way. If you're in early enough, Bahama Divers is another option. With customs clearance you probably won't be - their 2-tank leaves at 9AM.

 

[mikeb663]

Another vote for Nassau and Stuart Coves. I have had nothing but good experience with their operation and have dove with them before from a cruise. Alot of the cruise companies use them too so book early! Have a nice trip.

 

[Zsuzsika]

My dive group and I will be heading to some of the ports you will be visiting - we have a blog with good information on Tortola and a website with detailed port info at our dive boat manifest group page. I lead these dive groups every year and we have found using one company to book all our dives in each port we plan to dive to work best for us. We charter our own dive boats, but you can do the same thing on your own. I am not affiliated with these online agents who do this sort of thing, but if you email me (as I am not allowed to post the info here) I will get it to you.



Although our cruise also stops in Antigua, we won't be diving there - don't recommend you do either.

Good luck!

 

[mbwilliamn]

We are doing the same dives in Dec 2012. What places did you decide to dive, who did you use and how did it go? We've done a lot of cruise diving, but this is the first time in all of these locations (except the Bahamas).