Best for SCUBA DIVING - (list of ALL Carnival ports) - please advise !!

I made a list of all the places in the Caribbean that Carnival is cruising through 2019. The lists are in clockwise order through the Caribbean, except western which is listed counter clockwise. I also made a Google MyMaps showing all of the ports on a map . . .

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11tyXD9wyldqkSlV11G4IRCyMNxTdo6F1&usp=sharing

In your opinion ... which of these places are the best, good, just ok, and which are not good for scuba diving ? (and also I guess which do you not have any knowledge about/never been : ) Feel free to expand beyond a 1 word answer if you want to go into more detail on certain areas, or if you want to share best excursion companies, best reef, best structure, best fish, best shallow, best beginner/advanced etc.

If I have left off any locations, please feel free to add them.

BAHAMAS

Freeport, Bahamas

Nassau, Bahamas

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Princess Cays, Bahamas

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EASTERN

Grand Turk

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (Amber Cove)

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

La Romana, Dominican Republic

San Juan, Puerto Rico

St Thomas

Tortola

St Croix

St Maarten

St Kitts

Antigua

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SOUTHERN

Guadeloupe

Dominica

Martinique

St Lucia

Barbados

Grenada

Aruba

Bonaire

Curacao

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PANAMA

Cartagena

Panama

Limon

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WESTERN

Key West

Havana, Cuba

Progreso Yucatan, Mexico

Cozumel, Mexico

Costa Maya, Mexico

Belize

Isla Roatan, Honduras (Mahogany Bay)

Grand Cayman

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

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Bermuda (not Caribbean)

I may do another thread later with best snorkeling or best walk off the beach snorkeling. You can feel free to include that here as well if you like, but primarily this thread is about scuba diving.

great, Cayman Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, Cozumel, Tortola (Wreck of the Rhone), Grenada, and St.Lucia.

no so good, Jamaica, there is no coral reef system. We were at Sandals and dove for free. We would not have paid after the first dive. I have been to many of the above islands, but have not dove. The Bahamas has some really good diving. We do not go to the Bahamas in the winter as it can be too cold to dive,

I am not sure the best but Cozumel is a great port for scuba diving.

Keith

From my experience of visiting and being in the water of 23 of these locations. Also, taking into account The Belize Barrier Reef that is a 300-kilometer (190 mi) long section of the 900-kilometer (560 mi) Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is continuous from Cancún on the north-eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula through the Riviera Maya and up to Honduras, making it the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

My first and favorite place is Honduras, then Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel. Bonaire and Grand Cayman are also great. Have had good experiences in St Thomas, St Martin and Barbados, but the best has been Honduras,(Roatan, Cayos Cachinos, Utila. etc) and not from a cruise ship.

forgot about Belize, also great diving. I kept my sailboat in St.Martin for years. Where did you find good diving? We thought lack of dive sites was one of the only negatives about St.Martin, love the place. We wish them well on their rebuild.

From my experience of visiting and being in the water of 23 of these locations.

(snip)

WOW !! I'm super jealous. We've only been 13 of the locations (and only dove 1), but I'm on a mission to do all of them :cool:. Seems some of our cruises have been duplicating locations, so I'm paying a lot more attention to the ports now.

I like Roatan, Grand Cayman & Cozumel is ok. Hubby dove in Dominican Republic out of La Romana last year & swam with a huge manatee. It stayed with the divers for about 20 minutes. I snorkeled due to ear problems & snorkeling was good - just mad I missed the manatee. Hubby also dove Grand Turk & Aruba, but don't recall any specific comments about those sites. We dove in Nassau area and saw some cool wrecks, but it was raining, so visibility wasn't so great with it being rainy & cloudy.

Belize hands down is the best! I always book directly with Sea Sports Belize when I am down there and I wouldn't dive with anyone else in Belize. The only exception would be a live aboard trip(but that wouldn't involve a cruise so I don't think that counts).

This past May I was on the Carnival Ecstasy and in Nassau I booked with Stewart's Cove. I've wanted to dive with them for a while, they are the operator who partners with The Discovery Channel for shark week. In Freeport I booked a Carnival Excursion they partnered with outfit called UNEXSO. Over the two days we saw about 20-30 sharks between the two ports. I highly recommend both. My only compliant was it was storming the day we were in Nassau so the light level was terrible for recording video(as you can see bellow) .

Apparently I was the only diver on the Ecstasy for this trip.

I've also dove Cozumel and while it was good and a fun after diving Belize the day before was a tough act to follow. Perhaps has we dove it first, I would have a different opinion.

Here are two videos from the trip in May

I'm going to be on the Carnival Freedom in January and I'm finely going to dive Cayman. This will be my third time on that itinerary, but the first time I've actually dove there. I'm scheduled to dive the USS Kittiwake and I'm really looking forward to it.

Cozumel and Grand Cayman are awesome places to dive. Western is probably your best bet.

Belize and Cozumel. Grand Cayman was a disappointment for me.

Of the places I have dove, here's my list from best to not so great.

#1 Roatan

#2 Grand Turk

#3 Bonaire

#4 Cozumel

#5 St Kitts

#6 Dominica

#7 Belize

I thought Belize was the worse by far. I kept hearing how great Belize diving was, but I was greatly disappointed. Dove twice there, once with Sea Sports and once with a Carnival excursion. I think you have to go further away from the port for better diving than it is possible on a cruise. Roatan was my favorite by a long ways.

Here is my 2 cents

Great: Cozumel, GC, Turks Caicos, Roatan.

Not that great: Key West, Nassau, La Romana, Half Moon Caye, Cancun

Although in Cancun, I had 2 giant blank manta rays right above me, blocked out the sun!

Cozumel, Dominica, Costa Maya, Roatan, Sint Maarten are all good from my experience Cozumel being the best. I was not impressed with Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire. This from a cruise ship which can be a very different experience than a vacation at a given location. Cruise ship dive operators tend not to give you the best diving and dives at a given port.

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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

Bonaire & Coz - doesn't get any better.

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If you're going to dive with the ship excursion you will be diving at the level of the poorest diver in the group. Cozumel two weeks ago 35 minutes a dive. Go with the private excursions and you're looking at 60 minutes easily and more chance of getting on the better reefs.

Roatan and Bonaire are at the top of my list, with Belize somewhere near the top depending on where you go and who you go with. Cozumel and Grand Cayman are the same. Eastern Caribbean is so dependent on the weather, every time I go to Antigua seems like it's cloudy and cold. Barbados was the same with rough water. Key West isn't even on the list, never again.

This is great info! We are going to ports...Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Bonaire, Aruba & Curacao In feb 2018. So far we have plans to dive in Grand Turk and Bonaire. I don’t do ship excursions so if anyone has recommendations for dive shops i will be following along! I have names for Grand Turk and Bonaire so far!

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My favorites: Roatan, Costa Maya, Belize, Cozumel, Bonaire, St. Lucia, St. Thomas

Never diving again: Aruba, St. Maarten

Would dive again: Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, Curacao

This is great info! We are going to ports...Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Bonaire, Aruba & Curacao In feb 2018. So far we have plans to dive in Grand Turk and Bonaire. I don’t do ship excursions so if anyone has recommendations for dive shops i will be following along! I have names for Grand Turk and Bonaire so far!

 

 

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Hey, I'd love some names for Grand Turk dive shops if you'd be willing to share :D

Hey, I'd love some names for Grand Turk dive shops if you'd be willing to share :D

I found Blue Water Divers in Grand Turk. I can report back once we dive!

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I think my hubby & his buddy went with Oasis Divers in Grand Turk. They are housed at Jack's Shack. They had booked the trip through the ship, but stayed on the dive boat to be dropped off with us ladies at Jack's.

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.

Any dive is better, as long as it's done privately!!!! Never waste our money doing the cruise dives after the first time...shortest dive we have ever had. Divers who lied about their competence were very soon found out when sucking on nothing at 24 minutes!. We dove the Rhone at BVI a couple of years ago and got 85 minutes and air to spare. The DM said that morning they had done a 45 minute dive from the cruise ship.

Hey, I'd love some names for Grand Turk dive shops if you'd be willing to share :D

Blue Water Divers was wonderful!!!! they were ready for us when we got to the shop. There were 4 divers plus the dive master. we saw a shark, a HUGE green Turtle, a pod of 14 dolphins and whales breeching in the distance!

The best I was ever on was my very first dive which was inPalm Beach Florida. The Goliath Grouperswere spawning in a small ship wreck and I have never again dove with suchamazing and big fish.

Second best dive was Big Island of Hawaii: We dove the Manta Ray night dive. I must do for ALL divers.

Next is Cozumel as the water color, clarity and coral are beautiful.

Next is Bonaire. Love theability to shore dive on your own. Thisis listed as the number one shore dive destination in the world.

Next is Little Cayman. Grouperswill follow you around. Very cool.

Next is The Virgin Islands. Dove the Rhone while staying in British Virgin Gorda. The water is a little rougher and deeper bluein the Virgin Islands.

Next is Cancun. Has thesame water color as Cozumel.

Dove LaRomana in Dominican Republic. Was fun, diving was Good, Location is easy toget to and cheaper than most islands in the Caribbean.

Jamaica at a Sandals Resort near Montego Bay. Not very good but it was included with theresort. Still bad diving is better thanNO diving.

Next Month we are on a cruise and Plan to Dive, Curacao, Arubaand St Thomas.

Next year we plan on St Lucia Diving. Snorkeling is VERY good there so I have toassume Diving will be great.