Dive Review of UBS/Celebrity cruise ship in
Virgin Islands/Tortola

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UBS/Celebrity cruise ship, Dec, 2005, by Hilary S, WA, USA . Report 1713.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We chartered a private boat with UBS to dive the RMS Rhone on our short stop while cruising the E. Caribbean. I had explored many options other than chartering our own dive boat, but found that none of the other operators could guarantee us to be back to the cruise dock by 1pm. Although UBS was expensive for two of us, I went ahead and booked it since we wanted very much to dive the Rhone. As luck would have it, we met up with another couple who wanted to share our charter with us. Because there were 4 divers, the cost was below what any other dive op in Tortola would have been. The boat was a 6-pack and with 4 divers and a DM/Captain, we had plenty of room. The trip out to the Rhone was a fairly quick ride, and we quickly moored to a ball to dive the bow first. Our captain was also going to act as dive guide and show us the highlights of the Rhone. We geared up and descended to the wreck at 80 feet. The bow is in amazing condition and basically intact, and it was fabulous to look around inside and see the structure of the ship as well as coal that was sitting on the ground waiting to be shoveled into the boilers. Unfortunately, although the couple who joined us were AOW certified, apparently they hadn't dove in about 4 years. The gentleman was a major air hog and within 25 min. had sucked his tank down and they needed to head for the surface. The DM told my husband and I that we could stay and explore for a few minutes, but had the other couple both go to the surface as they were buddies. We enjoyed another 10 min. of bottom time before heading to the surface and our safety stops. Our DM/Captain provided us with drinks and ginger snap cookies during our SI and we had a good time chatting about diving around the world. The second dive was shallower at about 50 feet (max) and consisted of the rear of the Rhone. The stern is totally broken up, but you can still clearly see the propeller, the mast, a couple of boilers, and an anchor. Unfortunately for us, our camera chose to seize up and we got very few useable pictures of either the bow or stern. <argh!> Again our charter-mates sucked their air quickly, so headed back to the boat early. We stayed and looked around some more, but realized that we were getting short on time (not air), and had only an hour to get back to the ship before sailing. This time we both surfaced with over 1100 psi in our tanks, and felt a sense of disappointment that both dives couldn't have been a little longer. Once back on board, we stowed our gear and readied ourselves for the trip back to the dive shop. Our DM then broke out another package of cookies and opened the cooler to reveal BEER! We all enjoyed a few Heinekens on our way back to the dive shop, and once back they provided us with transportation back to the ship. We were dropped right at the pier and had a very short walk back to the ship. One thing is sure from our experience with UBS and Tortola....we WILL return one day and definitely will do another private charter with UBS. Tony and Kate (the owners) were amazing to deal with in planning our charter and Kate was a hoot when we got back to the shop after our dives.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	26-50 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, Bahamas, Keys, St. Thomas
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of UBS/Celebrity cruise ship in Virgin Islands/Tortola

UBS/Celebrity cruise ship, Dec, 2005,

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 UBS/Celebrity cruise ship in
Virgin Islands/Tortola