beginner scuba diving?

[subieroo]

My wife and I have never dived before and would like to try it before we spend all the money on certification. We will be in Cozumel in April and were wondering what places offer the best beginners course for the money. We will be in cozumel from 9am to 5pm.

[scubadiver888]

Your best bet would be just to check the cruise for a discover scuba excursion. Probably 99.999% of dive shops have a 'discover scuba diving' course. The cruise ship should have an shore excursion with one of the dive shops.

 

If they don't you can check something like http://www.shoretrips.com/.

[Capt_BJ]

without additional detail can't provide much better answer than the one above - check for a Discovery Dive trip as an excursion thru the ship

 

Is Cozumel your only port of call? I accompanied dd on Discovery Dives in Cozumel and Cayman and the Cayman experience was better - I 'rolled my own' here and dove with Sunset House while in Coz we went on the ship excursion.

 

If cruising RCCL you may see that they offer a SCUBA course on board. I'm not a fan of this course as it is "SCUBA Diver" certification and to be fully qualified diver this course meets only 1/2 of the requirements. You'll eventually need to take "Open Water Diver"

 

(see PADI.COM)

 

Where do you live? Are there any dive shops around? Many shops offer a 'dive experience' in a pool at their shop or a local pool - often at no cost! Or offer a Discovery locally . . .

 

welcome to diving. Here's dd and I in the 'big tank' at EPCOT in WDW celebrating her Open Water certification

[Middleager]

It'll be better if you try to do some intro scuba course where you are before the trip. Read some material, get to know the terminology.

 

If you are departing from a warm water port, can go a couple of days earlier and go try some discovery scuba there too, without the time pressure at a port. Lots of dive shops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa.

[compozer]

I would also suggest you see if there is something in your home town. Our dive shop rents the HS pool two days a month and has all kinds of classes. Their Try Scuba class is something like $35. They even have a beginner snorkeling class which is wonderful for children. It makes their first experience so much better. I've been on an excursion where the kids screamed so much that we lost water time because we had to take the family back to a marina.

 

Good luck.

[akowilm]

CozumelH20 offers Discover scuba. Look them up on Trip Advisor. Great people!!

[sparkinator]

+1 on trying scuba out at home before your cruise.

 

I've been around/in water all my life and have always been extremely comfortable in that environment. I figured that diving would come naturally, but it didn't. I felt extremely anxious and uncomfortable the first few times in the pool when getting certified. I was ready to go through the rest of the course (my son and I were taking it together), but had pretty much written off that I would ever enjoy it.

 

By the end of the first day of pool dives, I had completely changed my mind. It started coming more natural and I felt a lot more comfortable. By the end of the course, I was really enjoying and felt like I had been doing it forever.

 

I just think if I had started out with a discover scuba while on vacation I wouldn't have enjoyed my dives nearly as much. By getting through the apprehensive steps in a pool, it made my vacations dives a lot more enjoyable, and I could devote myself to discovering the reefs more than just used to everything that comes with the intro to scuba.

 

Good luck on your diving, regardless of what you decide.

[gryffin123]

I agree with the previous posters.

 

My husband and I just did a Discover Diving excursion while in St. Lucia (via Shore Trips). It was the first time for both of us. My husband had a fantastic time. My mask kept leaking, and when it happened while I was "deep" underwater, I panicked. I eventually had to give up. Fortunately, while very disappointing, it wasn't such a bad experience that I don't want to try again. Before our next cruise (next February), I plan to do a certification course, and really get comfortable with the equipment, so I can make the most of diving while in a port.