Is there diving at Great Stirrup Cay (NCL private island)?

[Web Monkey]

I was thinking of just bringing a steel 40 with me. It fits in my bag.

Terry

Yes, from the view of the higher deck of the cruise ship which is tendered quite close to SC island (and the sister island next to it which is another RCL's island), there appears to be a ton of beautiful reef with crystal clear water in the area. There are other islands nearby, too, so I'm sure there's a dive op close enough to do a boat dive in the area -- but I have no idea how you would link up with them as NCL and RCL would never let such an op tender alongside the ship nor enter the private property waters of the islands (nor allow you to hike outside the private property area.

If your weather is nice, and sea conditions right, I think your snorkeling will be quite good - let us know.

 

[markthefreediver]

Choose a cruise with better ports of call (no "private islands"). There's so much more to do for divers and non divers at a real destination. There are plenty of cruises that hit several interesting ports in a week. In March 2011, the Norwegian Gem stopped at Port Canaveral, Fl, Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau. I brought freediving gear and it turned out to be a waste of effort! The lifeguards are like prison guards and you can't reason with them. The snorkeling sucks unless you get far away from the beach and if you try to do that, they get on their jet skis and come out and harass you. As more and more construction is done on the island (to try to make this boring destination interesting) it will become impossible to strike out on your own to find a secluded area. Before arrival on GSC, I did some research on the ship, and decided that the best place to dive would be on the opposite side of the island from the beach, where the water appeared to be deep near shore. After arriving on the island via tender boat (that's a joke to begin with, having to wait on long lines and then get on a crowded little boat with hundreds of people just to get on land at your port of call), I quickly headed away from the crowds to do my thing. As I was about to suit up, a couple of lifeguards showed up and told me I had to leave. They were very bossy and hardly gave me a chance to get my gear back together. I headed back to the beach to try my luck there. By now, I was exhausted from carrying all the gear around. The water looked too shallow, but I suited up anyway and finally entered what I thought was supposed to be clear Caribbean water. The vis was hardly better than the Jersey shore and there was very little marine life. I was well prepared with a 3mm suit, freediving fins, dive flag, etc. After swimming far away from the beach, the water was finally clear and there were fish and other interesting things to see. Not a great dive, but acceptable. There was a current present, but it wasn’t too strong and if it intensified, it would have been very easy to get back to the starting point. There was zero boat traffic. I was finally having a decent time and then all of a sudden the lifeguard arrives on his jet ski and tells me I have to dive “inside the buoys” and that I have to be in sight of the main beach. I said OK and continued my diving. After 10 minutes, he came back and told me I had to get out of the water. WTF? I had gone beyond the buoys he said (maybe by a few feet, accidentally, and it was hard to stay precisely on track due to the distance between the buoys). I was following his instructions, but he was just waiting to get me for some reason. Never again will I waste my time on a cruise ship’s “private island” or beach. My next cruise was in May 2011 on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. The ship stopped at 6 ports of call, where I never had to board a tender and I free dived and scuba dived to my heart’s content. If I get a chance, I’ll post comments about my experiences with several dive businesses in the islands the Serenade hit. Great Stirrup Cay is OK if you want to take the kids to the beach (they’ll have just as much fun at the ship’s pool). After a couple hours, even the kids will get bored at GSC. For divers, forget about it!