Liberty of the Seas - Scuba Certification?

[Bob26]

Did anyone get scuba certified while on the cruise? My daughter would like to do that during our 7 days Western cruise on Liberty of the Seas. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the classes schedule was like (what days of the week for how long) and when was the open water tests (Cozumel?). Also, how much it was?

 

Thanks.

 

Bob.

[cruiserJay]

I did the scuba certification on Mariner OS last October.

 

However, you could only be scuba diver certified, vice open water. US Immigration changed their policy and would not allow the scuba instructors to lead certification dives in St. Thomas unless the instructors were either US citizens or green card holders. On the Mariner, all the instructors were non-US, so we could only do the dive in St. Maarten. Thus, only the opportunity to be scuba diver certified.

 

Check with RCCL to see if they are offering open water on your ship.

 

Overall, the experience was very good. Instructors were knowledgeable, nice, and helpful. Alot of fun. I think the price was $259.

[Jimmers]

Probably best answered in the scuba/snorkel forum but what the heh, here goes.

 

My wife and I were PADI scuba diver certified on RCIs Navigator in April (Eastern Caribbean) of this year. It was $250 each. We did our two certification dives in St. Marten. That gave us basic scuba diver cert. (40ft with an instructor)

 

We also did the classroom/pool work for the optional Open Water certification (60ft w/o instructor and can purchase air) @ $100pp. The full OW cert can't be completed on the cruise because there's not enough time.

 

We were expecting that we could complete it on our LOS Western Caribbean cruise this past August. However the followup referral dives which have to be completed w/i a year of the classroom/pool work aren't offered on that particular ship.

 

Fortunately we were able to complete OW cert at Edens Rock in Grand Cayman on one of our LOS stops. This was an additional $150pp. Other than that the only additional expense was our masks and snorkle which are not supplied. We bought them on the ship.

 

Although we're glad we got the certification I'm not sure if we had it to do again we would do it on the ship. We missed two days on the first cruise and one day on the second. Didn't get to see much of St. Thomas or St. Marten. And we saw nothing of Grand Cayman but we've been there twice before.

 

It's a very skill intensive course with alot of new things to learn. Your pool work is done on the ship. As I recall it was about 4-5 hours each day. There's alot of book reading too. Not being a strong swimmer, my biggest challenge was the 200 yd (no equipment) ocean swim which is part of the open water check out dives. Thought I was going to drown in Grand Cayman.

 

We hope to get to the Caribbean at least once a year to use the skills we learned.

 

I would recommend getting basic scuba certification locally. If it's too cold where you're at, just do the classroom/pool work and then get a referral to do your check out dives on your cruise. If you do decide to do it all on the ship, just do the basic scuba certification part. Don't let them talk you into signing up for the classroom/pool work of the OW certification for $100pp. You'll forget too much before you get a chance to do the final two check out dives. We sure did.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Good Luck

Jimmers

[Jimmers]

 

Your pool work is done on the ship. As I recall it was about 4-5 hours each day.

 

 

Not each day of the cruise. To clarify, as I recall for the basic scuba there was only one day in the pool and that ran around 4-5 hrs. We had an extra pool day for the OW part.

 

Your 2 check out dives will take several hours out of your time at whatever port you do them at. Think we had about an hour or two tops of sightseeing at St. Maarten and about the same for St. Thomas.

 

Jimmers

[bethaniesmom]

the amount of time spent getting the certification (and missing other things on the cruise) is what made my daughter decide to get her certification before we go!

 

Good luck....

 

Beverly