Bobroo

An OW course with Royal Caribbean includes everything; including mask, snorkel, fins etc. BTW, their rental gear (the gear you'll be loaned to use) is decent quality Aqua Lung equipment. And, they prodigiously keep it up doing all the required inspections of BCs, regulators, and even send out their tanks for visual inspections and hydros like they are supposed to. Even though Royal charges a good buck for their OW cert courses, I still think there is excellent value for the diver. Don't run out and spend a million dollars on dive gear! I've recommended putting some money into a dive mask for some specific reasons and exactly for the reasons @omeinv has said; mainly: your mask should fit properly and feel comfortable. Also I would add if you went out and bought a nice low volume mask with squishy silicone and spent some time prepping it up, you'll feel you are bringing some tools to the game. But also, if this were not to go as planned; having the nice mask that can be used for snorkeling on future cruises is not a bad investment either. What Youtube? Well, I know that I am sending you down a rabbit hole to YouTubes' never ending algorithm of scuba videos. Just start with Open+Water+Scuba and that should be enough to start 1000's of hours of viewing. Again, watch everything. You don't have to care what language it is in, how long ago it was published, or even who the channel poster is. Harris had mentioned taking a new mask into a pool and I couldn't agree more. If you can't do so pre cruise. You can do it on embarkation day once onboard. It is generally frowned upon and maybe even against Royal policy for masks, fins, snorkel to be used during public pool hours, however....if you bring just your mask and are consciously working on its' fit or even <hint, hint> doing your own practice version of mask clearing, the lifeguards won't blink an eye; even in the solarium pool. One final thing, I am not sure if you are solid Royal Caribbean cruisers but I will say, the dive Royal offers at Coco Cay is an excellent, excellent, excellent place to do one of your first dives after getting your OW cert. It means you pass the class and go on a whole other cruise, but I'm just say'n that is a perfect dive for new OW divers.

Couple things: You are very correct to head into your local dive shop at this time. In your case(s) the single most important thing you should purchase is a properly fitting dive mask. DO NOT BUY YOUR MASK ON AMAZON, do this at your local shop where there are a variety of masks to try on and an expert for guidance and help with fit. If you were to also buy a matching snorkel, some defog, are the special concoction to take the film off the mask--all accessories OK to purchase as well. I would limit myself to mask at this point, all the other gear will be provided by Royal. I would even hold off on buying fins. When you receive your online access code, hit the books! Show up to Day One prepared. Take notes during this, and keep a blank piece of paper for questions , comments, topics that "aren't entirely clear", and especially other diving questions that aren't in the curriculum. Your instructor will LOVE you for bringing these questions up! Nothing-- and I mean nothing, is off limits. Start watching YouTube!!! You can't watch enough Open Water related videos to get familiar with the skills that will be asked of you. Watch good behavior and equally watch bad. If you prepare with the above things, this will make your OW training as easy as possible. And, you'll be head and shoulders above your other classmates.

As Harris has illustrated, scuba on a non-ship excursion requires a lot of planning. Going this route can be really rewarding, more so than with diving with "cruise ***** divers". I would recommend you do some easier solo dives before studying Google Maps for potential cool offshore dives close to a port stop. By that I mean, nearly every Cozumel dive shop has a house reef. And some dive shops specialize in easy house reef dives, specifically I am thinking of The Dive Bus in Curacao--which is an excellent shop BTW.

Once again @omeinv is exactly correct! My upcoming cruise in January I've chosen Dive Bus for Curacao and to do two tanks on their house reef. Although I am capable of doing much more difficult diving, there is something to be said for just putting an 80 on your back and just enjoying being in the water at your own pace.

The best answer is Ft Lauderdale.

One more upvote for West Side Scuba!

Allow me to step in again and make a few points so that anyone in the future reading this does not get any wrong ideas. Hammerhead sharks are NOT harmless! Hammerheads are known man eaters. They are beautiful, majestic animals and you are lucky to see one as a diver. Their annual congregation for mating in the Galapagos is stunning. Those lucky enough to do that dive have way more experience than an OW card. These divers follow and obey a very, very strict dive plan of sticking close to the wall and maintains buoyancy at 80ft in 2000’ of water. During that dive if any one of those frisky hammerheads gets an itchy trigger finger, the entire group of them will attack. There will be no warning. The water in the Galapagos is just as cold as the water in New England. What makes anyone think it is different? For reference, the iguanas that dive to eat the algae have to surface before the frigid water slows their metabolism to zero. Yeah— a reptile species that has inhabited the Galapagos for millions of years can’t stay in the water longer than ten minutes to eat it’s primary food source. Yeah, that kinda cold. Whale sharks. Have you ever noticed that no one scuba dives near the largest pelagic species like surfaced whale sharks, dolphins, elephant seals, and whales? It’s because it is too dangerous. We are fortunate that we can snorkel with whale sharks in the vicinity. PADI, PADI, PADI they are NOT the end all, be all of scuba diving. They are one of many, many agencies and organizations that do the exact same thing. By agreement and design a PADI certification is (nearly) exactly equal to a same level certification in any of the other 60-70 certifying agencies worldwide. That’s why the requirements to achieve what ever level are called standards. Standards to become open water, standards for rescue, standards for instructor, standards for Nitrox, etc.etc. Admitting it has been a long time since you’ve last dove. Realizing there are many roadblocks to getting back in the water. And, knowing what you are missing out on. Why would you not be eager to retake the OW corse from step one? Asking PADI about 10 years ago to go back and research their microfiche for my OW cert despite I knew the approx date, instructor name and location was too big of an ask for them. So for all the right reasons I started from square one again and I am grateful I did.

I believe the the dive shop that said it will take you 6 weeks to retake the Open Water class is exactly correct because it is going to take you at least 6 weeks to come to grips with who the Bozo actually is. First and foremost, there are rules and we do not fault those who are applying and following the rules. There are no work arounds, there is only a "work through".

I guess the dive operator cancelling the dive because the conditions were bad or dangerous or totally undesirable doesn't matter one bit? Faulting a local taxi driver who put his best foot forward and likely heard the same story that "our boat ain't going out today because..." ; you don't think he conveyed that? You've never heard the term "The meter is running" ??? If it was only $30 I had misspent on scuba over the years.

That 15 minutes on the surface was 15 minutes of education why it is so important for you to have and use a SMB on every dive.

Anthony's Key is a perennial favorite at has had contracts with the cruise lines for years. Also, Anthony's Key has the finest fill station I have ever seen. It really says something about their operation.

Another popular method to find which of the nearly 100 dive operators on Cozumel to dive with is: 1) Find which port you are docking at (there are 3 possibilities) 2) Locate that port on Google Maps and do a search for SCUBA around it It's often preferable to find an operator that is walkable to/from the port at which you are docked.

I dove PV off a cruise ship last February,. I will be forever grateful to the humpback whale that gave us a private performance on our way back to the dock. We watched him for 20 minutes—alone. I dove my drysuit that whole week. We divers who cruise do not go on excursions or two tank dives. We go on adventures. There is no telling what you may find or not find, but there is always a good chance it will be epic. In my case, PV was epic because of the ride back hone.

If you limit yourself to PADI you are only going to get narrowed shops/boats who have sold their soul to PADI and all the shortcomings that come with it. Understanding that scuba is as big as as the oceans, try my suggestion: I went to Google maps, and typed in Lahaina harbor, clicked on the 'Nearby' button and typed in the word Scuba. I received a list of 21 dive operators and scuba shops on Maui.

There is a lot to be said of bringing your certification to the destination. Meaning: get certified at home, build that customer/ scuba shop relationship. Then use a part of your vacation (whether it's cruise, honeymoon, or spending the holidays at grandma's house) for doing some diving. Instead of spending your vacation learning the fundamentals, bring those skills to the place you want to use them. In the end you'll find it more rewarding. And, back home you'll have a relationship with a scuba shop. Behind every diver who scubas while on vacation is a scuba shop back home who is instrumental as a source for gear, a source for continued learning, and the place he/she goes back to AFTER the vacation to tell the stories of how their dives went; stories that only fellow divers truly understand.