USVI Dive Vacation - what do we need to know?

[Snoweman]

Delta is flying to St Croix on Saturday, the flight goes Atlanta to St Thomas to St Croix and back to Atlanta. Flight from St Thomas to St Croix is about 9 minutes from wheels up to touchdown.

St Croix is reopening for guests on June 1.

Had an awesome dive Sunday (private boat) at the end of the Puerto Rico Trench, between Buck Island and Green Cay. Peligics at the trench end at 60-70 ft and all sorts of reef fish at 35-40 ft on the reef. This area is almost never dived, too far from the dive shops in Christiansted. Gorgeous, healthy coral. Felt like Cousteau discovering a new untouched place.

I love this island!!

I went to Delta's website, and they are not showing any Saturday fares until August 1.

 

[TN Traveler]

We flew in on the flight on May 9 and have friends leaving on the flight on Saturday.

Suggest you call Delta.

Just did some searching and almost all the flights are sold out - probably because the first leg to St Thomas is full.

 

[DiveProKoko]

Definitely call! Our Delta flight to STT on July 20th got straight up canceled yesterday. It was booked in February. Delta has grounded 75% of their fleet and are "rearranging" their routes. They gave us a refund and we rebooked (for a week earlier, yay!) on American. Point is, the airlines can help you a lot better right now if you call them and discuss options, etc. Good luck!

 

[jonhall]

Can only fly American Airlines out of Indy for foreseeable future but most trips take 2 days to get to St. Croix and 1-2 days to get home. No Delta available at all, currently. I take it all with a grain of salt - it's all subject to change at a moments notice - the reason I'm not traveling until things settle down, although I still have a trip scheduled for Jan. '21 to Aruba. We'll see how that goes.

Flight info for the USVI : COVID-19 Flight Updates

 

[Jersey]

I take it all with a grain of salt - it's all subject to change at a moments notice - the reason I'm not traveling until things settle down, although I still have a trip scheduled for Jan. '21 to Aruba. We'll see how that goes.

Flight info for the USVI : COVID-19 Flight Updates

That is my hesitation - I book something then flights are cancelled and I'm out $$. Was on Bonaire when the world shut down. Delta screwed around with flights so much that eventually I threw up my hands and paid for a one way on American just to get home, Did not want to be stranded for months (maybe not that bad an idea in retrospect). Any long haul trips will wait until a bit of normalcy returns. Oh well, had been wanting to do some FL & NC diving.

 

[DiveProKoko]

That is my hesitation - I book something then flights are cancelled and I'm out $$. Was on Bonaire when the world shut down. Delta screwed around with flights so much that eventually I threw up my hands and paid for a one way on American just to get home, Did not want to be stranded for months (maybe not that bad an idea in retrospect). Any long haul trips will wait until a bit of normalcy returns. Oh well, had been wanting to do some FL & NC diving.

Yeah, that sucks. I had just arrived in Bogota, Colombia with clients when they shut down and we had to rebook a flight immediately for the next morning to get out of there. Bogota...for months....ugh! At least you were in Bonaire! Haha! Just a comment on flight cancellations. Remember that if the airline cancels the flight on you, you are entitled to a refund if you want it under DOT rules. You can take the credit they are offering if you want, but they HAVE to refund you if you choose. It's Federal law. Delta refunded our ST Thomas trip as soon as I requested it, no questions asked. Maybe that'll give you and others some comfort in booking trips going forward......but diving NC and FL ain't bad either!

 

[Jersey]

@ICatchBadGuys - rather in Bonaire than Bogata! Oh boy Columbia. Glad you got out. We flew on miles. I did call Delta, speak to an agent to cancel our flight after we set foot on US soil and I knew I could drive home (worst case scenario). He did tell me they would reinstate my remaining points, which they've not yet done nor have I had time to chase them down. 30 years as a road warrior, usually 2-3 flights a month and Delta has been my go to for the last 15 or so - business and pleasure, domestic and international. They've always done right, as much as possible. Hoping the airlines recover and we are all free to move about..

 

[BadGoat]

St Croix has regular air service to/from the US mainland on Spirit, American Airlines, Delta, and Silver/Seaborne. Most of these have changed their flight timing in some fashion since the pandemic started, but the first 3 are all still flying in and out in some capacity. My daughter's flew out on Delta on Saturday (June 6) and there were only 30 people on the flight. They did have some connecting flight schedule changes, but we worked it out with Delta reps. Silver/Seaborne is a regional Caribbean airline with routine flights to/from STX, Puerto Rico, and STT. They are in trouble and going through a massive revamping of their flight tables.

Mike

 

[MAGELLAN]

For various reasons I want to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands for 2 weeks this summer. There will be 6 of us, all certified divers (some with NITROX, others just OW). We have dove several Caribbean Islands over the years - Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Saba, Curacao, St Martin and would love to get a good amount of diving in while there.

I know very little about the islands and about what to do to get the optimal diving experience, so am looking to the regulars on this boards for some tips about where to stay, what the diving is like, restaurants and other surface activities. We often like to do some shore diving, if its decent, but are happy to go out on boats (although getting up every morning for a 7:45 boat departure doesn't make it much of a vacation for some of my group). Mostly our goals are simple - coral reefs, interesting creatures, some photography - nothing extreme.

I have searched the forum but can't find a lot of information - what sort of things should we be looking at?

I appreciate whatever help you can offer.

I've been to St Croix, and would go back. Stay somewhere near Cane Bay and shore dive from there all the way over to Carambola and also drive over for a dive or two at the Frederiksted pier. You can do some research on specific shore diving sites, but basically renting a car and driving around you'll figure it out pretty fast. You don't need to book boat dives, unless you want to for variety's sake. The island is pretty quiet, and we were actually a little lonely on our trip there (It was late summer and that was low season for them) - but it was ultimately very relaxing. Stayed at a place called The Waves in Cane Bay, had to venture out each night and find somewhere to eat, not very touristy at all - which can be nice.

 

[MAGELLAN]

Something to think about on that. I did 12 boat dives out of Christiansted with St. Croix Ultimate Blue Water Adventure; reef sharks showed up on a number of those dives, not just cruising by in the distance but coming around and checking us out. Nothing alarming (and one without a dorsal fin named 'Flat Top,' hey, you can't make this stuff up!), and no one was spearing. One of the guides told that that in the past the sharks stayed deeper, but in the wake of spearing back when people fed the sharks, in more modern times the sharks were hanging out shallower on the reef. That was unnatural so people had largely quit feeding lion fish to the sharks.

My point here is, if a reef shark wants your lion fish, it can make your life interesting. As Art Penney found out in the Bahamas - see A Shark Tale in DAN's Alert Diver online. And on my first live-board trip out of Belize, a couple of reef sharks made life interesting for a guide who carried one around on a spear during one dive.

A quick check online suggests some boat op.s will take you out to try it if you wish. I'm not knocking it, just saying be aware.

Richard.

This happened on our trip 8-10? years ago. I was spearing lionfish during a shore dive at Cane Bay when several blacktips starting coming out of nowhere. They were small 4'ish, but you can't get the lionfish off fast enough and I had one nearly take my spear. So, I stopped spearing them, and didnt take the spear back out again.