Dive Review of St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures/Hotel Caravalle in
Virgin Islands/Christiansted, St. Croix

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St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures/Hotel Caravalle: "Excellent Experience in St. Croix with S.C.U.B.A./Hotel Caravelle", Sep, 2017, by Richard J Lunsford Jr, KY, US ( Contributor 14 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 9794 has 4 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Spent 8-days at Hotel Caravelle in Christiansted, St. Croix. On Aug. 6, 7 & 8, did 12 boat dives (6 2-tank trips, all with AL80 tanks, diving air) on S.C.U.B.A.'s dive boat Reliance docked at the boardwalk right across from the hotel. They setup my gear, swapped tanks between dives and took us out one trip with only 3 customers, & I think 1 was non-paying shop staff! Friendly staff, good general Caribbean reef diving, and plenty of Caribbean reef shark sightings (part of why I chose diving the north coast vs. staying in Frederiksted and diving the west coast this trip). A tropical storm dumped over 5 inches of water the evening/night of the 7th, and the overall trip viz. of 30-50' was lower than I'm told is typical (a dive professional indicated 60-80' is common). Saw a couple of octopus, some good-sized sea turtles (hawksbill & green), dolphins passed once within a dozen feet of me while I waited to descend to start a dive, other divers saw eagle rays, and we saw 1 nurse shark. Some big snapper but no large grouper. I'd give Bonaire or Belize's outer atoll region the edge on overall reef quality, but topside St. Croix was rather lush, beautiful and somewhat mountainous. Topside we did a rainforest 1/2 day Jeep tour with Tan Tan Tours (fun). Of the 12 boat dives, max. depths ran about 51-77 feet deep, average depths 31-47 feet, guided dive times from 41-59 minutes, keeping within NDLs at 4 dives/day on air kept me mindful the last dive but wasn't a real problem. After diving, they offered to keep (& rinse) BCD, reg. & wetsuit; customers take other gear off (including boots & fins). Even when I encountered staff off-duty in town, they were friendly and greeted me warmly. Hotel Caravelle was quite nice, good for the budget, the 2 queen beds comfortable (I like firm), a safe & mini-fridge were in the room but no microwave, the pool was decent-sized with 3-8 foot depths, Rum Runners restaurant was adjacent and a short walk to Angry Nate's restaurant was made often, and while Christiansted doesn't offer a sandy beach directly, a $5 round trip ferry (which I'm told runs 24 hours) over to the little island with Hotel on the Cay gets you sandy beach with gradual slope into the water, nice for our 4-year old daughter. St. Croix is an excellent destination for a 'scuba trip disguised as a family vacation' (as my wife calls them). I did 1 shore dive each at Davis Bay (long swim-out), Cane Bay (really long swim-out) and Frederiksted Pier (Nice! Way more there than you can see in one dive) with Sweet Bottom Dive Center, Cane Bay Scuba and N2TheBlue, respectively. Had a fine experience with all 3. Cane Bay's wall may be my favorite reef of the trip. More Extensive Report on ScubaBoard: St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - [scubaboard.com link] Richard.
Websites	St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures Hotel Caravalle
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Bonaire (> 150 dives), Key Largo (20 dives), Jupiter, Fl (17 dives), Belize via live-aboard (26 dives), Caymans via live-aboard (25 dives), North Carolina (9 dives), California Channel Islands (24 dives), several on Caribbean cruise stops.
Closest Airport	Henry E. Rohlsen Airport	Getting There	Flew from Nashville, TN; layover in Charlotte, NC going, Miami, FL coming back. One day travel time each way.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	IIRC, don't exceed 130 feet deep, back on the boat with at least 500 PSI (nobody checked us).
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Cameras had a rinse bucket separate from masks. They'd take my camera as I climbed out and put it in the rinse bucket for me.

Report currently has 4 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures/Hotel Caravalle in Virgin Islands/Christiansted, St. Croix

St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures/Hotel Caravalle: "Excellent Experience in St. Croix with S.C.U.B.A./Hotel Caravelle", Sep, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures/Hotel Caravalle in
Virgin Islands/Christiansted, St. Croix