Scuba in Grand Turk or Dominican Republic??

Don't know a thing about these ports. I read good diving in D.R, but is it close enuf to La Romana port? I heard Grand Turk is Carnivals private island, is this true?

Anyone dive at Saona or Catalina Island? are these doable from port? I've sent an inquiry to Dressell? dive op.

We have dived in Cozumel, Grand Caymen, Belize, Roatan, Aruba & Curacao. Nothing seems to compare to Coz! We'll keep trying tho.

GT is not Carnival's private island, that's Half Moon Cay. They have several shops there you can use. I'm not sure which one the ships use.

I too would like info about Amber Cove.

GT is not Carnival's private island, that's Half Moon Cay. They have several shops there you can use. I'm not sure which one the ships use.

 

I too would like info about Amber Cove.

I'm going to research Amber Cove too. I've heard the Champagne dive is a "don't miss" in DR, but it's too far for us. I can't do diving at either of those islands I wanted to dive on. Dressel dive shop is a 30 min. cab ride, plus time constraints, we would only get to do a 1 tank dive. I may be diving in Curacao instead.

I hope someone answers your other thread. Thanks

We used Grand Turk Diving Co. and really enjoyed them. We were able to dive our tanks/computers and not some pre-defined timeline. Their boats are small but fast.

You need to take a cab to their dive shop, but they will drop you off after the dives.

We used Grand Turk Diving Co. and really enjoyed them. We were able to dive our tanks/computers and not some pre-defined timeline. Their boats are small but fast.

 

You need to take a cab to their dive shop, but they will drop you off after the dives.

I'm thinking of using Grand Turk Diving, Thanks!

I do not dive, but Grand Turk is beautiful, and with the huge drop off not far from land I've heard lots of great things. We did the helicopter tour last time we were there, here is a pic.

We went with Oasis Divers in Grand Turk. They use Carolina skiffs that are easy to get in and out of. Great staff. They took us out to swim with wild dolphins before our dive - no charge. Awesome experience!

Southern Belize is the best diving I've ever experienced, and Grand Turk was almost that good. Get out of the cruise tourist area and you will meet some incredibly nice people - they say Grand Turk is "where frowns go to die." I used the company located right behind Jack's on the beach. Oasis? At any rate, the wall is five minutes away. Don't miss it.

I haven't been to DR since I was 5 but DW and I are booked for GT Divers in Grand Turk in two weeks. I've been told all the OP's in Grand Turk are good and the diving is excellent.

Stay away from Oasis, they were the worst and the rudest operation we ever have experienced, and we have dived in many, many places. To top it off, about 10 days after our dives their ineptitude and poor judgement resulted in the death of a Discover Scuba student. Search it here, there is a lot of information about that incident.

Stay away from Oasis, they were the worst and the rudest operation we ever have experienced, and we have dived in many, many places. To top it off, about 10 days after our dives their ineptitude and poor judgement resulted in the death of a Discover Scuba student. Search it here, there is a lot of information about that incident.

Wow, I need to look into that. I know Oasis is the excursion Dive Op for Carnival so I passed on them for that reason.

We're booked with Blue Water Divers in Grand Turk in November. Swapped emails and then had a phone call and the impression was good. Hoping the trip is as good as I think it's going to be.

Stay away from Oasis, they were the worst and the rudest operation we ever have experienced, and we have dived in many, many places. To top it off, about 10 days after our dives their ineptitude and poor judgement resulted in the death of a Discover Scuba student. Search it here, there is a lot of information about that incident.

No disrespect to Laurie but I have another opinion to offer based on recent experience. I dove with Oasis through Carnival last week and was quite happy with them. They were significantly cheaper than the "on our own" options I looked into; this is unusual for a cruise line provided excursion in my experience. They were very pleasant and gave a good safety / dive briefing. There rental equipment was all in working order. Finally, they let us dive our tanks / computers rather than the typical everyone out when the first air hog runs out. I got two dives with max depths around 80 fsw and total bottom times around 45-50 minutes on each dive. They had a nice stable boat with multiple down lines for your safety stop.. On our trip we had a total of 8 divers plus the boat captain and a DM. The DM guided the dive but mostly let the buddy teams do their own thing.

I would use them again if I went back.

I dove Catalina island with the ship`s operator they were our only option. It was advertised as the second dive being on the wreck of Captain Kid`s ship. That was news to the operator who said they did not dive that site. Other than that the dives went well nothing special or bad just average.

I have been to Grand Turk four times and used Oasis divers each time. I never had any problems with them or felt unsafe. I do bring my own gear theirs was usually very worn blow the standard I usually see on ship dives. They usually push the wet suit rental really hard sighting jellyfish or other possible hazards. Unless you get cold easy like I do a wetsuit is not required. I bring all of my own gear so they work for me. I try to be the first in the water they have allowed 45 minutes on the wall dive. I wish I could be allowed a full tank however everything is a trade off. For me they are right beside the ship and easy to use. I could see were a novice diver could get in trouble there in a hurry. If your not comfortable on your own on deep wall select another option.

The experience we had with Oasis was in 2012, and the ones involved in the Discover Scuba death fled the island to avoid prosecution. So, I imagine it's all new people working there now. However, I have heard from people who work on Grand Turk that Oasis still does not have a good safety record.

You couldn't pay me enough to ever dive with them again. For us, being experienced divers (my husband is an MSDT with about 6,000 dives and I'm a DM with almost 400), the issue wasn't with their equipment or methods, but rather with the outright rudeness and the way we were treated. Never again.