Cruise Trip Diving

Suckered into trying another cruise since we have some friends that would like to do that and my wife liked the first one we did (I hated it and got sick from something they fed me, to boot). It isn't my type of thing but I guess I can survive it.

Has anyone done much of this?

Last time we just contacted local dive operators at the ports involved rather than the ship's "excursion" and I am planning on doing the same thing.

Any advice? Should I even bother to take along the video gear for this kind of thing? The islands are Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Dominica, Aruba, Curacao.

Suckered into trying another cruise since we have some friends that would like to do that and my wife liked the first one we did (I hated it and got sick from something they fed me, to boot). It isn't my type of thing but I guess I can survive it.

 

Has anyone done much of this?

 

Last time we just contacted local dive operators at the ports involved rather than the ship's "excursion" and I am planning on doing the same thing.

 

Any advice? Should I even bother to take along the video gear for this kind of thing? The islands are Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Dominica, Aruba, Curacao.

I would agree with you on the cruise. My favorite saying is that cruises are for the newly wed, overfed and the nearly dead.

I have some friends that like cruises and they dive when they can. They have learned that using local dive shops will always offer a better experience, but timing can become a problem. They tell me that many times by the time they can get off the boat and to the dive shop, they are running late and have no time to relax. Afternoon or late morning dives might be easier to accomodate.

As for taking the camera, always! You know that if you don't have your camera you will see the sight of a lifetime with no way of recording it. On the other hand, you can almost guarantee good diving if you don't take your setup

Ryan

Islands that are good diving experiences: curacao, Dominica, St Martin.

Make arrangements with the local dive operators, if possible. The cruise ships like to tie up the locals so that may not be an option. When in Dominica try anchorage hotel for diving and whale watching, swimming is possible with a permit(expensive and hard to obtain). Curacao is macro stuff. Enjoy. some ships are better than others. Windstar best for diving and service, carnival worst. holland america so so, same with princess. Celebrity is nice.

Sounds like I'll be taking the video gear.

This is a Celebrity cruise, so that's encouraging. Will have to check the arrival times and all that to see if we'll be docking early enough to catch the morning dives. I suspect the women are going to want to spend the afternoons looking around on land.

At Dominica, would the diving likely be better around Rousea or up by the Portsmouth area?

on Dominica most of the diving I did was in the south, pretty good, lots of fish, pretty coral and sponges and nice walls. You will like celebrity, it is one of the better lines. Dive Dominica or Anchorage are both good options out of roseau. I would set up diving close to where the ship docks. Most dock in Roseau but soime use portsmouth. Enjoy, I did

Dominca & Curacao are very nice stops for diving. I would definitely dive there. Curacao has very good shore diving and many sites have full facilities including tank rentals, showers, restaurants, beaches etc..

Aruba has a very nice wreck dive called the Anitlla and is very worth while to dive. If you can't arrange to dive the Antilla, I would probably skip Aruba for diving. Depending on what time you get into port, you could use a company called Dive Aruba. They will pick you up at the dock.

Aruba dive op

My wife and I have had great experiences diving with Dive Safaris in St. Maarten, both cruise and land based. They have 2 shops, one in downtown Phillipsburg that's convienent for cruise ships and another in Simpson Bay. The shopping is pretty good downtown too, I found Boolchands' to be one of the more reputable electronic stores. Know the prices (grey market) of whatever you're interested in before you go to ensure you get a good deal Have a great trip.

Great stuff. I'll contact some of those places a little later on and set things up. Appreciate all the input and advice.

(At my age I guess I'm in the "nearly dead" category, but what the heck...)

Thanks.