Scuba Certification

[Colorado Babe]

Friends of mine are going on a cruise with us during spring break. One of our ports of call is the Cayman Islands! Will he and his family have enough time to get certified and be able to get back on the ship at time? If so, what company do your recommend and what do they need to do before hand....They are going to do all the class room stuff here in Colorado, etc beforehand. Thank yoU!

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[wannuhcruise]

I think they need to be fully certified before going down to GC. They should check with their scuba training center in CO and see if they have recommendations. Usually, full certification requires a variety of open water dives and I'm not sure if all of those can be completed in one day.

[drew sailbum]

It sounds like the OP's friends want to do a referral for their certification. You can complete all of the classroom and swimming pool training and then complete you open water training dives in the warm clear Caribbean waters.

 

The basic rules of a referral are:

 

1. You can only do a maximum of 3 training dives in a day. Most referral programs require 4 or 5 dives. Some allow for 4 scuba dives and one snorkel session.

 

2. Arrange EVERYTHING in advance. Detail which training dive(s) you intend to complete at which island. Inquire about your equipment needs. Communicate all of this with you chosen shops. You need to make arrangements with dive centers in more than one port.

 

3. Bring copies of any required medical clearance for each dive shop you will deal with.

 

4. Be prepared to complete ALL of the paperwork over again in each port.

 

5. Absolute minimum time for a training dive is typically 20 minutes. Add time for preparation, paperwork, travel to dive site, and briefing. To complete two training dives, you should plan on an absolute minimum of 2.5 hours from the time you reach the dive center. (Who wants to dive only the minimum amount of time. Once you complete the required skills, you want time to look around!)

 

6. Dive centers located at a shore diving site have more flexibility to work with cruise ship passengers.

[Colorado Babe]

Thanks for the info. I will pass this on to the family who wants to do this! :)

[TheVegasMan]

I believe you posted this on the Cozumel forum as well. They need to complete 4 open water dives for a PADI certification. Make sure they bring along the paperwork showing they have completed their coursework and confined dives and all they will need to do is their 4 dives. 2 in GC and 2 in Coz and they are done.

 

Cozumel is my favorite place to dive. I have only snorkeled in GC as I was not yet certified when I was there.

[Almost Packed]

grand cayman dive was awesome!