Scuba excursion w/minor

[frostywolf]

I am taking my niece on The Rock Boat in March for her high school graduation present. She will be 17 at the time of sailing. She's been getting really excited, and has been checking out excursions on the Carnival website.

 

She asked me about the possibility of Scuba diving. I see one beginner excursion on the Carnival website, and the minimum age is 10. However, would she be able to do this since she will not be traveling with a parent/guardian? There is a waiver that has to be signed, so I'm thinking they won't allow it?

 

Anyone had any experience with this?

[agc291]

To be honest when we booked our excursion no one who was doing the paperwork checked any IDs or anything and there were a couple of teens. Should be ok but if you are uneasy I would just bring a notarized letter stating that you have permission to not only bring her on the trip but to also scuba dive.

 

Just to clarify we were booked through Carnival for the Discover Scuba in St. Thomas.

[Colorado Kat]

In addition about the letter authorizing Scuba-diving, you need a letter authorizing you to seek medical help for her, and allowing you to take her out of the country.

[Jasalth]

While I can't answer for sure, I would bring a separate notarized letter from her parents saying they are allowing it and allowing you to make decisions about medical issues. So one for the cruise itself, and one for the scuba.

Also there are a LOT of medical reasons that one can not SCUBA, and I know if she has any medical condition that she will also need a note from her doctor saying she can scuba (which might be a good idea to get just in case anyways!)

 

I have recently learned that no matter how much someone wants to do it, scuba just isn't for everyone. My oldest DS (13) wants to make marine mammals his life. There is actually a SCUBA Instruction place right down the road from me... the nearest somewhat large lake.. is over an hour drive.

 

I would check to see if there is one by you. The one by me, offers pretty much the same Beginners SCUBA as the cruise line. The difference is it's in a pool. The one by me only charges $50. Both my DS's were really interested in seeing what it was like. My oldest fell in love and has bugging me to get his certification now (was outta my budget!!) but my youngest... didn't and was out in less than 5 mins. The best part about it.. was I only spent $100 to find out he just wasn't cut out for the feel of it, rather than the cruise prices!

 

On a note, if you can't find one near you, but you have a local(ish) Zoo that has an aquarium check with them! Most of them use volunteers to clean the tanks, hence how I found this company in the first place as my son found out.. and wanted me to get him certified ASAP. Alas he has to be 18+ and a lot more than just basic SCUBA certed, at least I will have 5 years to save up for it for him!

[PenguinLife]

Ok, this is coming from someone that used to work as a scuba instructor many years ago, and has taught resort scuba and discover diving classes, I would not encourage anyone with an interest in scuba diving to try a resort scuba experience on a cruise without having tried it at home first at a minimum. Details of exactly what goes into these classes have changed repeatedly over the years so I will not go into too many details, as I have not kept track of them.

 

First a few definitions: These are general terms, specific certification agencies may use their own variants:

 

Certification Agency- this is the organization that certifies divers and scuba instructors, the largest one in the US is PADI , although there are dozens of others, the differences are not very important at the intro scuba level

 

Scuba classes fall into 2 categories certification and non-certification classes , in a certification class you will end up being a certified open water diver these classes are often taught over 2 -3 weekends or evening classes for 4-6 weeks, meaning you can go diving just about anywhere, buy gear, etc. Non-certification classes are varying levels of introductions to diving and don't count towards certification at best they will let you go diving under direct supervision of a scuba instructor over multiple days at a given resort

 

Discover scuba - this is the lowest level of non certification experience, it is often done as an assembly line process when dive shops are advertising "free" intro scuba weekends, etc. The whole process takes at most half an hour, the student gets fitted for basic gear, mask, fins, etc. a scuba instructor spends a few minutes in a swimming pool teaching how breathe through a regulator, sort of how to swim with fins, and then they get to swim a lap or two around the deep end of a swimming pool while the instructor is right next to them in case anything goes wrong

 

Resort Scuba - this is a more detailed class which teaches all the basics someone needs to go diving while under direct, but not 1 on 1 supervision in near ideal diving conditions, the class portion is done in a confined water environment, this is most often a swimming pool, but can be in a sheltered water situation also, this class is much more detailed than the discover scuba experience as it attempts to teach how to use scuba gear as you would need to "in the wild", in other words swimming in a straight line, not bobbing up and down, as well as knowing what to do when your fellow novice scuba student kicks your mask off or your regulator out of your mouth. As you can imagine this takes a little time, in a well organized small class with good students this can be done in a couple of hours. After these skills are perfected (well perfected may be optimistic), the students are taken to a shallow dive site in open water, often without much to look at, which is fine since most students will be far too preoccupied with trying not to run into each other to look at much sea life. (Think of resort scuba much like you would think of trying to teach someone how to drive in 2 hours, you can cover the basics, but a whole lot has to be left out which is fine if your sitting there in the passenger seat ready to grab the wheel)

 

The typical cruise scuba experience falls somewhere in between the two classes that are mentioned, often based on what the instructor can squeeze into the allowed time and how fast the students pick up the skills.

 

Let us assume an 8 hour port day and being back on the ship an hour before departure which leaves us with 7 hours when you step off the ship:

 

Assume 1 hour of total travel time each way to the dive operation which leaves us with 6 hours to do paperwork and get fitted for gear (30 minutes maybe more, lets call it 1 hour until everyone is in the pool with their gear on). We are now at 5 hours until you need to be back on the ship, 1.5 - 2 hours are spent in the pool learning basic scuba skills, breathing underwater, lots of don't panic if.... swim in a straight line, etc. Most students will feel like they are being rushed at this point and they are, this is sink or swim there is not time to spend extra one on one time with someone having problems. We are now down to 3 hours before needing to be back on the ship, assume 1 hour travel time to get on the dive boat, get to the dive site, get everyone in the water, then you get to spend about half an hour swimming around underwater while half a dozen other intro students are fumbling around running into you, with luck you will be able to see something interesting and hopefully your mask does not fog up as there was likely not more than 5 seconds spent saying let some water in and swish it around to clear fogging done in your class. So now your back on the dive boat, 2 hours or less before you need to be back on the ship, half an hour later you are back to shore and hopefully loading up on a bus back to the ship where you may have time to buy a T-shirt from a vendor before making the run for the gang plank.

 

If she is really interested in diving go do a discover scuba experience at a local dive shop with an indoor pool (it is close to winter now for most of the country), if she likes that you can both do an open water scuba certification class before the trip, and then go do some real diving instead of having what may be a miserable experience and a mostly wasted day in port.

 

Ike

[agc291]

Im sorry but the above person is making it seem like way more of a production then it needs to be. I am not sure what port you are doing but we did it in St. Thomas and next month we are doing it in Cozumel.

 

There was a 4:1 student to instructor ratio. Although she wont know everything about diving procedures etc , I wouldnt say that it would be a waste in port and take 7 hrs. We got off at 8 am, met our driver who worked for the Dive Club (which is certified by PADI) and filled out the paperwork. Another poster is right they ask you about flights, heart conditions etc. You may be able to find out this info on PADIs site. Then you take the drive to site. Considerring how tiny most islands in the Caribbean are, this wont take you an hour. Ours took 15 minutes and then we met our instructor.

 

He took the 4 of us into a group and started the class room session which took us about 30 minutes. They go over everything and it was very interactive. He asked us a ton of questions and had us come up to show we could do what he was saying. He then took us down to the beach where we got fitted for our equipment and then walked into the water. In the shallow end we practiced the signals he had gone over and blowing the water out of your mask, etc. I was a little uneasy with the "forced" feel of the breathing at first but you get used to it. The instructor makes sure that everyone gets it and that it is safe for everyone to continue, you can stop if you feel uncomfortable.

 

We then took a 30 minute dive to about 30' and saw some really cool reef and animals. After the dive we could hang out at the beach as long as we wanted and he filled out the PADI form stating that we had completed the class. The whole thing took 2 hours not 7.

 

If you want to take a discover class at your local center go for it. That is how I am taking my sister to see if she likes it. I love that I go to do my first dive in the ocean, but I am sure it makes no real difference.

[Smart Arsenal Fan]

You don't mention if you will be participating also...

 

Yes, she'd be allowed.

 

But no not alone.

 

Unaccompanied guests must be 18 years of age or older.

[zqvol]

I am taking my niece on The Rock Boat in March for her high school graduation present. She will be 17 at the time of sailing. She's been getting really excited, and has been checking out excursions on the Carnival website.

 

She asked me about the possibility of Scuba diving. I see one beginner excursion on the Carnival website, and the minimum age is 10. However, would she be able to do this since she will not be traveling with a parent/guardian? There is a waiver that has to be signed, so I'm thinking they won't allow it?

 

Anyone had any experience with this?

 

You can sign it as a guardian. To be extra safe have one of her parents give you a notarized authorization for her to scuba dive to take with you. It should not be an issue.

[frostywolf]

Thank you for all of your input!