Scuba excursion on RC

[rance]

Hi...my son and I are just finishing our cerification and wanted to do our open water dives on our upcoming cruise on oasis. Problem is my son will be 11 1/2 and the shore excursion brochure says must be 12 (even though padi allows certification above 8 years old).

 

Can I arrange or the open dives at a local dive shop in port or will it be too risky with ship timing? Do other people arrange own dives outside of shore excursion desk?

 

Thanks

[omeinv]

Rance,

 

People definitely arrange their dives without going through the cruise line. It's generally better. Your case will demand it.

 

There are several issues trying to do your certification dives during your cruise. They will be compounded by your son's age:

 

What you're wanting to do are called "referral dives". You complete your classroom and pool work with one instructor, and he/she "refers" you to another for your open water dives. That instructor then completes a form given to you by your original instructor, and you return to your home where your certification is issued.

 

You need a total of four dives (minimum) for certification. On each of these dives you will demonstrate specific skills you have learned. No more than three of these dives may be done on one day (per the standards of every SCUBA training agency recognized by RSTC and ISO - PADI, SSI, NAUI, etc.).

 

Because of the above you'd be looking to try to have two referral dives done in one port, and two done in another. The program really isn't set up to be done that way, but that's not to say it couldn't be done. However, to do it, you'd have to contact dive operators in at least two of the ports, explain what you're trying to accomplish, and see if they could help.

 

There is no way you'll be able to do this using the cruise ship dive excursions. First, the cruise line is reluctant to identify the operators they will be using, to prevent people booking independently at a lower price. Second, certification dives are entirely different than recreational diving trips. The ship's trips (and any dives one generally books) are often conducted by divemasters, your certification dives have to be done by an instructor (all instructors are divemasters, not all divemasters are instructors. Divemaster is a lower rating). Third the ship's excursions require you be a certified diver to participate. At this point, that's what you're trying to be.

 

Finally your son's being under 12 adds an additional issue. The standards of every training agency (again those recognized by RSTC/ISO) require that if there's a student under the age of twelve the ratio, the student to instructor ratio be no more than 2:1. Thus you and your son would constitute an entire "class" for an instructor.

 

So, to accomplish what you're trying to do, you'd want to research your ports in advance. Contact dive operators that look promising, in each port, and explain that you're trying to do the first two referral dives in one port, and then the final two in another, and specify that one of you is an 11 year old. The price for referral dives, is going to be higher than a regular two-tank excursion dive, and then more so in your case, because it will have to be the two of you with one instructor.

 

I don't know when your cruise is, but you want to start on this as soon as possible, as there likely will be several operators that tell you they will not be able to help. It will likely take some searching.

 

If you'd like to send me an email by clicking the link below, telling me the ports you'll be visiting, I likely have some ideas of operators in many of them; so I may be able to help.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Edited March 20, 2016 by omeinv

[Capt_BJ]

(if any other readers are curious this has been discussed at more length on the RCI board http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2331054

 

OP got a little cornfused by RCI's offering of SCUBA DIVER certification on their cruise)

[Claymore2]

The Open Water portion of the certification can be done through the Universal Referral dives and can be done in two different ports, I did my certification dives that way. Your sons age may be a problem but the dives he would be doing are for certification not recreational dives so the age issue may not apply. You would have to either arrange for a shop to provide an instructor to run the certification dives in 2 ports through the cruise ship operator or arrange your own operator. Either way you still have to pay the certification fees to the shops. I believe the there are only 2 operates on Nassau, Stuart Coves and one other, the cruise line uses Stuart Coves. I can't Make any recommendation for St Thomas. In Philipsburg the Cruise line uses Scuba Fun and there is another operator just down the way from the pier called Octopus Diving, I may dive with them on the 6th.

 

You should try and get the checkout dives arranged as soon as possible as getting everything arranged can be a lot of back and forth.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[BillOh]

Hi...my son and I are just finishing our cerification and wanted to do our open water dives on our upcoming cruise on oasis. Problem is my son will be 11 1/2 and the shore excursion brochure says must be 12 (even though padi allows certification above 8 years old).

 

Can I arrange or the open dives at a local dive shop in port or will it be too risky with ship timing? Do other people arrange own dives outside of shore excursion desk?

 

Thanks

 

I generally arrange dives away from official Royal Excursions. My upcoming cruise on Oasis will be an exception, only because I chose to dive in Nassau as we have other plans in the other ports. Oasis has a very short stay in Nassau so I elected to do their dive, but it gets good reviews.