San Juan, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Kitts

[Pegger]

Hello Pegger,

Check out Dive St. Kitts, Scuba Diving Services for some great information about the dive sites. I am a bit partial to the diving at this destination. Our wreck of the "River Taw" is one of the best in the Caribbean. Send me an email and I can answer you questions or concerns.

Mike

Thanks Mike,

What's the weather and visibility usually like that time of the year, and what arrangement could you make for myself and my two daughters from the ship for a single tank dive? How does St Kitts compare to the other Islands, ( if you had the chance to ), and what would you recommend after St kitts?

Thanks again,
Steve

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Ok I am now officially booked for March 30. Dartref you aren't by any chance a photographer? I want some pics of me while diving. It seems like most of the dive shops provide a videographer but not a photographer.

Does anyone know of a dive shop on these islands that provides a photographer?

 

[dartref]

My wife will probably have her camera, maybe. I'll check with her tonight and let you know. She normally takes the underwater camera on all our dive trips but since we're not diving every day on this trip, I'm not sure. I'll find out for you.

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Sounds good. Now that things at work have calmed down I'm going to resume my research for dive shops at the islands.

 

[dartref]

Wife says she'll most likely have the camera. During our weeklong Blackbeard's trip this summer, she took the camera on every dive but one. Turns out that was probably the best dive for pictures all week and she didn't have the camera. Now she's determined to take it on every dive!

 

[DivingPrincessE]

ha ha, I don't blame her. Once I get a camera setup I'm going to go picture crazy

 

[DivingPrincessE]

This is what I got from Pro Dive in St. Kitts

Hi Emily,

Happy Holidays! Thank you for your request.

Our 2-tank dive departs at 9:30am and we can meet you outside the arrival building at Port Zante at 9am. You will have more than enough time to get on the dive.

The rate is USD85 plus $1.50 Tourism tax and you will need to give me a 25% credit card deposit at least a month prior to your dive. You can call me with your credit card details at the number below or fax me your information to 869-465-7808.

Please let me know if I can book your dive for you.

Kind regards,

Margot Macleod
Managing Director - Dive Coordinator
Pro-Divers Inc.
Fisherman's Wharf
Basseterre
St. Kitts
West Indies.
Tel: 869-466-DIVE

 

[DivingPrincessE]

I am still waiting to hear back from Dive Dominica and Hightide (barbados). These (Dive Dominica, Hightide, Blue Island Divers, Pro Dive) seemed to be the most highly recommended in Scubaboard. Some had a negative review or two...but there was much more positive feedback than negative.

Also, the reviews seem to suggest that best islands to dive at are Dominica, St Thomas (just not a shore dive), St. Kitts and Barbados. People seem unimpressed with diving in San Juan Puerto Rico, Antigua, and St. Maarten.

 

[dartref]

Nice job doing all that homework! We've heard the same thing about diving on most of the islands, especially in San Juan where I'm told you really need to travel to another part of the island to get to good dive sites. We're probably most interested in diving just a couple of sites, not sure about more. Last time we took a cruise, all we did was dive in every port and we came home feeling like we really didn't see any of the places we visited. So we want to compare the best 2-3 places to dive with the best 2-3 places to see and visit and try to figure out the best schedule for us. We dove St. Maarten last time so we know we don't want to do that again. We'll probably head to the other side of the island there. I like that the place in St. Thomas doesn't charge your card until you get there. Would be curious if the 25% deposit in St. Kitts is refundable if the ship doesn't dock, or the seas are too rough to dive that day??? Will be interesting to see what you get back from the other places. We're going to Bonaire in 3 weeks but now you've really got me excited about the cruise!

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Yeah I'll ask about that 25%

I still haven't heard from Dive Dominica and Hightide, and they were the really highly recommended places on SB...but 48 hours with no response sure doesn't scream great customer service to me. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume that they are very busy on weekends...but if I don't get a response by Tuesday I'm going to look for other dive shops. I don't like unresponsive LDS's...especially when you are trying to plan a trip.

My reccomendations for St. Maarten are Orient Bay Beach on the french side, it's the most lively. Pinel island (which is 5 mintue ferry ride away...still St. Maarten) is more relaxed, and has no waves. Food, there are great french restaurants...but not near the the beaches. Also over my the airport there is a strip...I forget what it's called but I'll think of it later, that has a great italian restaurant. We ate there 3 nights of the 7 nights we were there two years ago. It's kind of cheesy because it's a theme restaurant for the Sopranos, but it had the most tender chicken parmigian I'd ever had.