How do you become a cruise diving instructor?

[heydn62]

Cruise Dive Instructor?

My local dive shop is closing and I just went by to see the owner and chat for a while. He knows my kids and I love to take cruises and he said his dream job would be to teach diving on a cruise. He asked if I knew where he could inquire about a job, but I had no idea. I thought I would post here and see if anyone knows where to start when looking for a job with a cruise line. I imagine there is employment info out there on the cruise line websites, but I wanted to ask here as well in case any of you have any first hand knowledge.

 

Thanks.

[xSandman3`]

It's really a gig for young, unmarried people who are trying to avoid working for a living. The pay sucks, the hours are long, and you have to deal with drunks on vacation. Other than that, I'm sure it's great.

 

Dale

PADI OWSI

[TheVegasMan]

Which cruise lines have this position? I've only been on HAL and CCL and neither of them had a scuba instructor, only scuba excursions that were marked up compared to what you could get by going directly with the dive shop.

 

Carnival owns most of the cruise lines, here's their employment link. Many jobs pay $1.50 per day and you're dependent upon tips for the bulk of your earnings.

[heydn62]

Which cruise lines have this position? I've only been on HAL and CCL and neither of them had a scuba instructor, only scuba excursions that were marked up compared to what you could get by going directly with the dive shop.

 

Carnival owns most of the cruise lines, here's their employment link. Many jobs pay $1.50 per day and you're dependent upon tips for the bulk of your earnings.

 

I know you can take the certification classes on Royal Caribbean. I also found a position posted for NCL. I'm not sure if there is actually any open water diving involved, although it sounds like they expect you to guide the snorkle excursions. Looks like it may primarily involve teaching classes onboard.

[themons]

There were a total of three instructors on board the RCL Voyager. Two were foreign nationals from eastern europe, one was U.S.

 

I imagine that there are also instructors on the larger Freedom class and the new Oasis class RCCL boats. It would seem that there will be some new openings soon.

 

None of the instructors accompanied any of the scuba excursions. I'm not really sure what they did beyond the refresher courses, man the store, and get everyone from the dive locker to the excursion operators. The discover scuba courses also seemed to be operated completely by the excursion operators.

 

I think that most of the people on cruise ships have a number of different duties aside of their primary job.

[xSandman3`]

None of the instructors accompanied any of the scuba excursions. I'm not really sure what they did beyond the refresher courses, man the store, and get everyone from the dive locker to the excursion operators. The discover scuba courses also seemed to be operated completely by the excursion operators.

 

They do Classroom and Confined Water work, then refer students to other instructors at various ports for OW checkouts.