Best diving for beginners...

Hello:

In March, my husband and I will be visiting St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Martin (in that order). We are trying to do our certification beforehand, but we might end up doing our Open Water dives while on the cruise. Either way we will be very new divers. Which ports/dive show would you recommend?

I was thinking Coki Beach in St. Thomas and then somewhere in St. Kitts, but was wondering if we should consider Barbados or St. Martin instead. We would snorkel in the ports that we don't scuba.

Thanks-

Nicole

We did part 1 of our open water dives in St Thomas. Went great! We went through the ship's dive certification, so they planned out the dive boat for us. But we did go with the rest of the discover divers - but we got our own Divemaster. Went through Royal Caribbean.

I would not recommend St. Martin for your first OW dives. It can be a bit rough with currents and lower viz.

St. Thomas offers some really nice shallow easy dives. I've heard good things about Coki beach but haven't used them. I've had great experiences with Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas. The boat comes right to the dock around the corner from the ships and they only take about 6 divers max.

Dive St. Kitts is great. They meet you at the port with a sign and take you to the resort. It was in pretty bad shape with construction when I dove them last year. Don't let that scare you lol the dive op is really thorough and good. After the dive you can take a dip in the pool and enjoy a rum punch while you wait for the ride back to the port.

I definitely think St. Kitts for sure. It was interesting enough for advanced divers, but no problem for new divers at all,and a great operator (Dive St. Kitts, http://www.divestkitts.com). As Pixistyx pointed out the hotel where the shop is has undergone some renovation. If that's still ongoing, it's a bit of a mess, but nothing that will affect your diving, and the staff is great.

St. Thomas is fine, and there are countless options there.

Barbados would be another great choice. Contact Peter at West Side Scuba Center (http://www.westsidescuba.com). There is a great site there for new divers, Carlisle Bay. he can definitely set you up.

St. Maarten is probably a place you could skip for diving. If you really want to dive there Octopus Divers is a good operator (http://www.octopusdiving.come).

Harris

Denver, CO

but we might end up doing our Open Water dives while on the cruise

Just to "manage expectations" .... in MOST cases you'll need to pre-arrange 'check out dives' .... simply walking up to a dive shop and asking to do a check out is not the way it is done.

You need an Instructor for a check out dive .... a typical escorted dive is led by a 'dive master' .... different skill level.

If a ship has a dive class program they may be able to help set this up, but IME this is NOT something you should assume is available . . .

Just trying to avoid disappointment . . . .

To build on what Capt BJ has said, trying to do your certification dives on a cruise is going to be nearly impossible. Here's why:

Certification requires a minimum of 4 open water dives, and the maximum that can be done in one day is three. Doing the classroom and pool at home, and then the OW dives on a trip is what's called a "referral". There is no mechanism for two separate facilities to conduct one student's referral; and I can't imagine an instructor being comfortable doing half a referral.

I had it come up just the other day where a student fell behind, and thought she'd be able to do just the one dive she was short while on vacation, but even that wouldn't work. No instructor is going to want to pick up where another left off.

I would strongly recommend you get your OW certification dives done before you go on your trip. There are ways to get it done, even in the off season.

The ship's that have a dive class aboard are teaching the "Scuba Diver" Certification, which requires only two OW dives, and results in a certification that imposes a depth limit (40 feet) and requires all dives be with a dive pro. Not what most people really want. Royal Caribbean does this on board, and last I knew they were getting $350.00 for it. That's a lot for "half a certification".

I see which cruise you're going on, the Equinox. If the itinerary were reversed you actually could do a referral at St. Maarten, since you have the overnight there, but with the way it is, you'd end up getting certified at your last stop. :(

If I can help, feel free to click the link below and send me an email.

Harris

Denver, CO

Once you have that Open Water card, Coki Dive Center in St. Thomas can set you up with shore dives or some nice boat dives. I did some boat dives with them last Christmas while on a port call to St. Thomas and they were very accommodating and flexible. I'm booking with them for my port call this year.

Thanks for you help and suggestions, I do appreciate it. I'm been working on this for a long time and things seem to keep happening that prevent us from getting certified. We were going to do it in Key Largo before our cruise last February, but my husband broke his ribs, so we had to cancel the diving. Then we were going to do it in Ft. Lauderdale before a cruise this October, but we had to cancel the whole trip because we used too much vacation time with some family-related time off. The same family-related issues prevented us from being able to do it locally while it was still warm in northern New England.

There are several shops that will do a package of 2 PADI referral dives, including Dive St. Kitts. Shore Trips even arranges this in 3 of our 4 ports. I realize that this far from ideal, but I'm struggling to figure out an alternate approach.

We will be Florida for almost 1 week staying with relatives, and my plan had been to do our OW dives during our visit. I figured it was Florida and warm enough for the beaches, so we should be able to dive, right? However, I was unaware that the diving conditions aren't good for beginners on the west coast and the shops in the area do an overnight Key Largo trip for the open water dives. This really cuts into the time we are supposed to be spending with the relatives, not to mention, a lot of driving extra driving- Cape Coral to Key Largo to Cape Coral to Lauderdale. They won't schedule for the last two days before our cruise because they don't want to take the risk that the conditions would be bad in Key Largo one of those specific days.

I'm investigating an instructor who works out of Ft. Lauderdale to see if we can do all 4 dives with him on the Weds and Thurs before the cruise, but even if I arrange this, there is always the possibility of the diving conditions being bad and us losing the opportunity to do the dives while in Florida.

I want to make sure we have a backup plan. I think we should be able to do at least dives 1 & 2 with him because there is a lake option if the water is too rough, but it isn't deep enough to complete the certification.

If anyone knows of a dive shop near Cape Coral that certifies locally, please let me know as that would be the most flexible option.

Thanks!

What part of the country is home? There's usually something that will work.

Harris

Denver, CO

We are in New Hampshire.

We are in New Hampshire.

Ah, Have you already done you classroom and pool lessons? If so, you likely could get your open waters done locally before the weather gets too cool.

I was toying with booking your same March 4 Equinox cruise, but the prices just keep going up. I did that one a year ago and it's a great diving itinerary. If I see things changing, and decide to book it, that would be one way we could do your referral and OW dives on a cruise. :)

Harris

Denver, CO

We are in the middle of the e-learning and haven't yet done the pool work.

Do post if you end up crusing with us- it would be nice to know someone else heading to the same dive shop. :)

I'm sure you could still do your dives at home. Here in Manitoba, Canada - we're still diving!! that said, we Manitobans are a tough bunch ;)

The dive conditions in the gulf are fine for beginners and getting certified. I am from Marco Island, about an hour south of Cape Coral, and dive with my 4 boys (11,14, 16, and 19) frequently. We got our certifications at Scuba Marco. They are a great family run dive shop on Marco Island. There are many dive shops in southwest Florida that can help you out.

I will give Scuba Marco a call. Thanks!

I am in contact with West Side Scuba in Barbados to schedule dives for our visit- they offered a nice package with transport to and from the port. I think it will be fun to dive there. The last time we visited we did a catamaran trip and snorkeled in Carlisle Bay- there were lots of fish to see.

Peter at West Side will definitely make it a nice day for you. If you liked Carlisle Bay for snorkeling, you'll love it for diving Six wrecks on one dive there, since they're all deliberately sunk, they're close, and the relatively shallow depth means your air lasts and lasts.

Harris

Denver, CO

It looks like all of this will work out. I contacted Scuba Marco and they are happy to do our checkout dives with us when we are visiting family in Cape Coral. They are a bit further away than the other dive shops that I contacted, but a lot closer than going to Key Largo or the east coast for our checkout dives! We will be able to dive with them and still stay with our family during our visit.

We will have 4 days to fit the checkout dives in- and they also have a sheltered area to do the dives if the ocean is too rough. In the meantime, I am going to set up to do our pool work with a shop in New Hampshire- that way we can take our time and make sure we are comfortable with the skills and equipment before we head to Florida.

I have set up dives directly with Peter at West Side Scuba in Barbados and also with Dive St. Kitts.

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions!

It turns out that we didn't end up on this cruise. Circumstances led to us cancelling the cruise and opting for a land vacation instead. The good news is that the land vacation was in Grand Cayman. We did our class and pool work at home, and then finished up with our OW checkout dives on GC. We got in a few more dives, though my husband got sick, so we ended up with 6 dives for him and 9 for me.

We head to GC again in the fall for another week and plan to get in some more diving.

In February, we will be heading on a cruise and hope to dive in at least two of the ports. The itinerary is similar to the one I originally posted about- in order: St. Kitts, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and San Juan. I'm assuming St.Kitts and St. Thomas for diving. I'm looking for operators who take out fewer people on their boats and who can cater to novices. As recommended before, I'll contact Dive St. Kitts for that port. For St. Thomas, would Blue Island Divers be our best bet?

Also, any ideas for refresher dives, either near Fort Meyers or Fort Lauderdale? It might be nice to get out in the water before the cruise since we'll be in Florida for a week before we embark.

Thanks!

I like Coki Dive Center in St. Thomas. Shore dives or boat dives and Peter is flexible about departure time for the morning dive if your cruise arrival is tight. The limit for his boat dives is around six people.

The boat dives are low key and fun, within a novice diver's depth limit and you're pretty much guaranteed to see interesting stuff. Generally a dive master will lead the group and point out interesting things.

For a refresher how about heading down to Key Largo? Lots of shops there; I got my cert dives with Horizon Divers (their boat but my local dive shop organized a trip and instructed on the actual dives).

Coki's dive boat is pictured here:

We head to GC again in the fall for another week and plan to get in some more diving.

 

If you are heading to Cayman - check out diving at Little Cayman - Little Cayman Beach Resort offers an amazing dive package. The same company (they own Reef Divers) own a resort too on Grand Cayman (newly purchased so its getting an overhaul) called Cobalt Coast - and also Cayman Brac resort.

The diving on Little Cayman however - is up there in the worlds top ten - its a beautiful island - worth checking out - maybe even split your stay -

I am going to complete my PADI there - I cannot wait!

technical note:

While the diving at Little And Brac is fantastic

These two Cayman Islands are about 70 miles from Grand .... not a day trip for most! There is regular air service but no ferry that I'm aware of.

Is IS possible to book a split trip. Our first visit to Brac and Little was done this way. Familiar with Grand we booked 3 days on Brac, then on to Grand for 4 more days of a week stay. We were 'concerned' about what we'd find on Brac in 1985 .... but have been back many times! You can dive Little from Brac .... most stays on Brac for diving will include a day trip to Little and Bloody Bay Wall.

We would love to go to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac sometime, but this time, we have already booked a condo for the full week that we will be on Grand Cayman.

I think you do have to fly to get to either island from Grand Cayman.