Advice on Carribean charters..?

[Recon]

Anyone have any advice on which charters to use in Nassau / St. Thomas, USVI / St. Maarten, NA. ?? Also, should I go with the booking on the cruise or should I just call up the charter directly?? Just looking for a nice relaxing dive... I will be on vacation , so I do not want to have to fight the current to much, and I really do not wanna go below 60 to 70 feet, as my dive buddy likes to stay around 45 or so, I do not wanna push him more then he is comfortable with.

~Recon

[JCAT]

You'll pay around double if you book through the cruise ship in most places. Do research on this board and the other board to find the best operators.

Find the ones who deal with the cruise ships and then book on-line before you go. Just make sure they have a good reputation.

cheers

[georoc01]

I've haven't done an eastern caribbean cruise where I did any diving. A good source to check out would be Cruise Reviews, Cruise Deals and Cruises - Cruise Critic There is a special forum for scuba.

[John Yaskowich]

Check out Shore Trips Welcome to ShoreTrips® - Your Guide to Shore Excursions. I booked dives through them on my cruise to St Maarten this past Feb. Which cruise line and stops are you on?

My dives in St Maarten were with Scuba Fun Dive Center Caribean Dive Center - Diving on St Martin - Scubafun Very well run operation. We left from just outside the cruise ship docking area. Note: This is the operation that Celebrity uses so you might be with a group from a ship (although I booked through Shore Trips, and you could book independantly). They did divide the 12-15 divers into managable groups, each with a DM, and did not have an obvious time limit to the dives. We made 2 dives - Carib Ghost (68ft) and Maze (53ft). I had a blast!

[Rileybri]

I have had very good experience with Low Key Water Sports on St. John they also service STT as well as the BVI's for diving. They have two very well outfitted boats and just replaced all of their rental gear over the winter.