HillmoorPete

Ditto what others have said....all great diving.

Cozumel, Roatan, Grand Cayman, Bonaire

 

still hoping to dive Grand Turk in the near future as we have heard nothing but raves about it. Also heard St Kitts and Maarten are great but not sure about the 2 hurricane's damage to reefs. St Thomas the same.

 

robin

I dove St Kitts in Jan 2018 - there wasn't any damage to the reef there. St Kitts Dive Center was great.

Am looking at Blue Water Divers, Grand Turk Diving and the Humpback Dive Shack for diving in May while on a cruise. Does anyone have any pros/cons to any of these dive operators? Thanks

I booked with Blue Water Divers. A storm had been passing through and whipped up the water making it unsafe to go out in the dive boat from the shore. They didn't try to contact me to let me know diving was cancelled. I didn't find out til I showed up at the shop - (shared taxi from the dock). They were nice enough - it's a small operation and as I recall Grand Turk Diving is nearly next door. I'd likely try them again, but would make sure to confirm the night before and/or on arrival before leaving the ship. I could have made other tour arrangements. FWIW, my wife and I walked across the street to a small hotel and had use of their pool and beach in exchange for having lunch there. Very pleasant. We walked back 2 or 3 miles to the ship. The shoreline is nearly pristine and one of the nicest in the Caribbean.

I was on the Christmas cruise, and the booking people on board said the boat had been sold. The Grandeur of the Seas will end in October of 2019. There has been no announcement as to whether there will be a replacement boat placed in Baltimore or not. In my opinion, if they haven't put up cruises after October for Baltimore, but they have for the other locations, we are not getting a replacement boat.

The NextCruise rep from the Ukraine repeated the same rumor in January. It was news to the service desk personnel I asked. Apart from that single unverified source, there isn't any information I've found to corroborate the future plans for Grandeur and for Baltimore.

One RC unofficial blog lists the ships RC is slated to build. (Google "royal caribbean ships being built)

All are either Oasis, Icon or Quantum class ships - much larger than can be accommodated in Baltimore. If the Vision class is to be phased out, RC would have to buy another similarly sized ship to continue in Baltimore. Hopefully this is all idle speculation, and hopefully RC will make their plans known for Baltimore.

We did Sandals Grande Lucien last week on a day pass. The beach is nice, but good luck trying to find shade. The guests pretty much hog the cabanas and umbrellas for the day. It cost $120 each - La Toc is $100. You won't be able to scuba on a day pass, but the other activities are included. It was a 30 minute drive going to Lucien, but 1 1/2 hours to return on a Friday afternoon. Halcyon is the oldest, it was right on the main road going north. I didn't get a response from them, so I can't speak to their offerings. We enjoyed the Sandals in Antigua more than in St Lucia. Likely we won't do either again. Diving is important to me and that just didn't work out.

Can anyone give me thoughts on Sapphire beach Snorkeling?

I've snorkeled at Magens Bay (don't bother - murky water, very little to see), Coki and Sapphire. Coki is has a fairly narrow beach with okay snorkeling and a dive shop. We like Sapphire best (so far). It is fairly quiet, the snorkeling is good. I've played with sea turtles and enjoyed it there. They also have large land lizards back from the beach on the resort grounds. Take a cab and they'll come back for you at whatever time you set. It's about a 20 minute ride from the port.

Bruce isn't doing tours now. Caribbean Historical Tours is and can take calls and his website is working. http://www.CaribbeanHistoricalTours.com. You can reserve via the website. Great, informative tour.

 

I also toured with Papa Bear of Air Force One tours, but he had damage from storm and communication where he lives is still unreliable. He will be unavailable until his communications are fully restored. He also gives a great tour.

Caribbean Historical Tours isn't currently operating in St Thomas. We booked through their website and didn't get an apologetic reply until the day of our visit telling us they weren't doing tours. We joined in a group island tour that took us to the overlook of the port and dropped us at Magens Bay for 2 or 3 hours. Louisa came back on time (early) and we felt satisfied that we had seen a bit more of the island. We were disappointed that Caribbean Historical Tours hadn't updated their website or gotten back to us so we could have made other plans.

Thanks for the update. Just one question. I know that this beach isn't really known for snorkeling but perhaps after Irma things changed. Did you happen to see anyone snorkeling? We are going there after a morning excursion and didn't want to drag our snorkeling gear if we didn't have to.

I brought my snorkeling gear and gave it a shot on 24 Jan 2018. Megans Bay doesn't have coral and the water clarity wasn't great. I did see a ray, there were very few fish. I'd suggest Sapphire Beach - we've enjoyed our time there. The snorkeling is nice, the grill and bar is open, and there hasn't been a crowd when we've been there. Megans Bay is best for hanging at the beach.