Anybody knows if Princess New Wave Program offers refresh courses ?

[nho9504]

Haven't dove for a long while. Bought a last minute X'mas sailing going East Caribbean on Star Princess. St. Lucia is one of the ports. A few years back we were supposedly going to Sandals St. Lucia (Grande) but hurricane made us going to Sandals Antigua instead. I really want to dive in St. Lucia, but think I should have a refresh course before taking the real dive.

 

Suggestions ?

[bruce-r]

Haven't dove for a long while. Bought a last minute X'mas sailing going East Caribbean on Star Princess. St. Lucia is one of the ports. A few years back we were supposedly going to Sandals St. Lucia (Grande) but hurricane made us going to Sandals Antigua instead. I really want to dive in St. Lucia, but think I should have a refresh course before taking the real dive.

 

Suggestions ?

Local Dive Shop. At least my LDS offers a rusty divers night in the pool.

 

According to the New Waves website, they offer a PADI Scuba Review.

 

Hope this helps,

Bruce

[nho9504]

Local Dive Shop. At least my LDS offers a rusty divers night in the pool.

 

According to the New Waves website, they offer a PADI Scuba Review.

 

Hope this helps,

Bruce

 

I e-mailed New Waves as well as a local operator (Ft.Lauderdale area) inquiring the refresh course.

 

The local operator refresh course includes academics, pool, and 2 open-water dives, for $135.

 

New Waves do not include open-water dive, for $49.

 

I hope New Waves would have the Review course on Star sailing Dec 18.

[nho9504]

New Waves said it does not receive schedule from Princess for the review course.

 

Princess said it is definitely available on Star Dec 18. The contact person at Princess, whom New Waves usually talk to, is out of town till next Monday. Bummer.

 

At the end, New Waves agreed to sign me up, and to contact Princess to straighten it out.

 

I went ahead to pre-reserve St.Lucia Scuba Diving Excursion - the last slot available. Will see if this would work out - Review Course available, then I would do the St.Lucia dive, review course not available, then I would cancel the excursion.

[MikeInPgh]

I have done the on-board refresher twice. First time was to get more comfortable with the gear, since I only had 4 open water dives in my book. The second time I took the course was 1 year after major spinal cord surgery, just to make sure I could still do it.

 

All the New Waves people I have worked with on the ships have been first rate.

 

Doing the skills test in the pool on even a mild sea day can be harder than doing them in the open water. The water is actually moving with the motion of the boat, but since there is no coral or anything to fix on for a frame of reference, you tend to fall over a lot. Actually, on my second course, the instructor set up an obstacle course in the pool for us to swim through. Best $50 I ever spent on training.

 

Mike

[nho9504]

Doing the skills test in the pool on even a mild sea day can be harder than doing them in the open water. The water is actually moving with the motion of the boat, but since there is no coral or anything to fix on for a frame of reference, you tend to fall over a lot. Actually, on my second course, the instructor set up an obstacle course in the pool for us to swim through. Best $50 I ever spent on training.

Mike

 

What do they test on the skill test ? I funked one skill test when we were at Sandals - they required anyone to go out to perform certain skill sets in the pool - I failed the test of putting the BC (strapped with the tank) back on while in water. I always had some trouble with that thing, and back many years ago, the BC was a big bulky piece. At the end the divemaster just kind of sigh and let me get away with it.

 

I am glad they are doing a good job. The local dive shop wants $135 - which includes the classroom, the pool, and 2 open water dives according to them. I dont feel like to go thru the hassle of doing open water dives (even in Florida !) and rather save $85 for the only dive I want to do on this cruise - $149 at St.Lucia.

[MikeInPgh]

We did the BC test ( a real trick in a pool when the water is sloshing back and forth) and remove and put your mask on and clear it. Plus the instructor made a little obsticale course for us to swim through (used cones and wet floor signs and stuff.

 

Mike

[nho9504]

OK, now we came back from the cruise I would report the experiences on both the refresh course and the actual dives at St.Lucia.

 

There were 3 of us doing the review course. It was scheduled on the first Sea Day, but was postponed to the following day which was also a Sea Day due to the other 2 persons got on board too late on embarkation day, I was told by the instructor. He left a note in the mail slot outside our cabin as well as a voice message - though the voice message did not work.

 

Anyway we started our day checking out the equipments at the dive locker and then went to one of the 2 big pools. Half of the pool was roped off for this purpose.

 

There were no classroom stuff though the instructor would briefly explain things and would fire off quick questions and give quick answers when we did not know the correct ones.

 

Among us, one guy has about 10 dives, one girl has numerous dives but has not dove in 2 years (she is from Philippines and has worked in underwater research, she said there was a period of 7 weeks she dove 2 times daily ...) and me, who was certified in 1991 and had about 25 dives but did not dive for 4 years. None of us are able to answer all the questions, though we all seem to do OK once we got underwater.

 

We reviewed all the basic skills and at the end were required to perform successfully a few things (I dont remember the order though) : clear a halfly flooded mask, swim without mask and then put the mask back and clear it, breath thru a free-flowing regulator, buddy breathing, lose your regulator and retrieve it.

 

Afterward, the instructor put a PADI sticker on our C-Card to show we finished the review.

 

Both the guy and me signed up to dive at St.Lucia. The girl from Philippines did not do any dive at all during the 10 day cruise. She took the review course just so that she would not forget her skill.

 

I would report the dive at St.Lucia with a separate post.