SCBA on board ship PADI cert. class

[HalfWhit]

Has anyone gone through the PADI class on board the RCI ships? We are considering it in December just because we have no time to get certified on dry land. Was it a good experience? Thanks for your information.

 

Dianne W.

[bruce-r]

Consider doing the Referral. From the RCI website

Complete your training in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean. This course is an extension of the Scuba Diver or Open Water Diver Course for guests who have already completed all academics and confined water training.

Contact your local dive shop to arrange the classroom work and the pool dives. It should take you 4 evenings to complete. Usually 2 nights a week for 2 weeks. Then you won't have to do the open water dives in the Hood Canal like I did.

[Jerry_G]

Ditto to what Bruce-R said. Don't waste your time on the ship studying and training when you can enjoy all the other things on the ship.

[Dragon Lady]

My sister and I did our Scuba cert on board the Navigator in May and I thought it was great!!! I live way up north on the alaska highway, so the opportunities to do the course are slim to none up here. I don't feel that I missed out on anything by taking the course. Here is the schedule that we had ...

 

Sunday (sea day) - we did our confined water dives in the salt water pool at 7:30 to 10:30 in the morning (just to warn you ... it's dang cold). That afternoon, I worked through my book and the quizzes while sitting by the adult pool in the sun wearing my bikini!!! Just plugged in my MP3 player to drown out any distractions and got to it. It only took about two hours to read and answer all the questions, and I got a great tan at the same time.

 

Monday (labadee) - from 4 to 7 pm we watched the videos and wrote our tests. We had to leave Labadee a little early, but by then we were hot and sweaty anyways and coming back to air conditioning was a welcome relief!!

 

Wednesday (Grand Cayman) - we were on the first tender off to GC and walked over to Diver Dan's for our qualifying dives. We were done just a little after lunch, the Dive Instructors gratiously hauled everyone's stuff back to the ship, and we still had a few hours to get some shopping in.

 

It was a great experience and a really neat thing for my sister and I to do together. We are booked back onto the same cruise for next May, and if I haven't already gotten my open water cert, I will definitely do it on the ship. I would have done it last time, but we were already planning a snorkelling trip in Cozumel.

 

We had a great instructor and the program was very well laid out. The cost includes everything but mask, snorkel and fins.

 

I would recommend it to anyone who is unable, due to location or time constraints, to certify back home.

 

Cheers,

DL