Marnier PADI Scuba Course

[JrMafia90]

My 16 year old son was considering taking this cruise on board our Marnier cruise. I was wondering if anybody did this. Is it worht it? Do you recommend it? Any pros or cons? Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Dr. Dean]

Hi -

 

As noted many times on CC, there are differing opinions on whether it is worth it to do the certification on a cruise.

 

Our family of four completed SCUBA Diver and Open Water over the course of two cruises (one level of certification on each). It was worth it for us as we wanted to do it together and this was the only time we all could get together (versus taking it at a local YMCA as an example).

 

The certification will require a few hours of watching videos and taking quizzes, a long early morning pool session and two open water sessions (and obviously reading/studying).

 

We found the onboard instruction at the Dive Shops to be quite good.

 

Hope this helps...happy cruising.

[RobInMN]

The downside that prevented me from taking the course was that it basically prevented you from doing any other excursions the first 2 ports (Western - Labadee aside). If I remember correctly, there is classroom instruction either on the first sea day or Labadee day (or both?), and then on our cruise, the pool instruction was late morning while at Ocho Rios (preventing you from doing any excusions). Then the actual certification dives are at Georgetown Grand Cayman. I can certainly understand the certification dives being done instead of another excursion, it's the only way to do it really, but the pool time could have been scheduled better.

 

On our cruise, weather prevented us from stopping at Grand Cayman, so I am not sure what they did for certification dives. I would hope that alternative arrangements were made at Cozumel.

 

I was with a group of 7 family members and there were a few excursions that we were all interested in, that had I done the PADI course, I would have been the only one not doing them. The other thing about the scheduling is that Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman were the only ports that had excursions of interest to us. It did not seem worth it to miss all the "good" excursions and "settle" for something in Cozumel. Which ironically, is exactly what we did when Grand Cayman was cancelled. Note: According to the Fury Catamaran staff the hurricanes not only wiped out Cozumel, but also pretty much all of the good diving/snorkling areas, so snorkling was disappointing.

 

-- Rob

[JrMafia90]

Thanks for the info, anybody else?

[Ocean Boy]

You do have to be prepared to put in some hours, have to be at the pool at certain times, have to do some studying. If you are prepared to do that while on vacation on a cruise ship I guess it would be ok. As for me when I'm on a cruise the last thing I want is to have to do things at certain times and have to study.