Scuba Certification on Oasis

Our family of 4 was recently on Oasis of the Seas. Three of us are already PADI certified (Advanced Open Water) and our 16-year-old son was registered to be PADI open water certified while on the ship. It cost approximately $600. He completed all the course work online before the cruise –it was a fair bit of knowledge review and testing, likely 6-8 hours to go through everything.

Once on the ship, we had to check in with the PADI 5-star scuba shop immediately after muster drill. He was fitted for all the equipment he needed (the only thing he was required to have himself ahead of time was a mask and snorkel). The next morning was a sea-day, and the 9 students and 2 instructors all met at 6am at the aft Aqua Theater pool. Their first pool session lasted 3-4 hours and they practiced various skills, first at a depth of about 5 feet and then in the deeper part of the pool. (Recall that the floor of the Aqua Theater pool is adjustable and goes up and down. I believe it can go as deep as 18 feet.)

The next day was a beach day in Labadee and our son had no diving activities. The following day we were scheduled to be in Falmouth, Jamaica at about 10am. The students (there were only 8 on the second day as 1 had dropped out) and 2 instructors met at the Aqua Theater pool again at 6 am for another 3-4 hours. This completed their confined pool work, and their first open water dives were scheduled for that same afternoon in Jamaica.

We had already confirmed with the ship that the scuba students were slated to be on the same dive boat as the Royal Caribbean certified scuba dive excursion, so the remaining 3 members of our party were all able to take part in the excursion. Otherwise, at least one of us would have stayed with our minor son as he took part in his instructor-led open water dives.

We all met at the end of the pier security-zone and some of the ship’s excursion crew members put everyone (students, instructors, and excursion participants) on a taxi-bus to take us to the dive boat operator, which was Dressel Divers. Once we arrived, we had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and collect our weights/belts before everyone trooped onto the boat.

There were six excursion participants (all already certified, including the 3 of us) who went on 2 dives led by Dressel Diver’s Christina, who was an excellent dive-leader. Meanwhile, the scuba students went in with their 2 instructors in the exact same area we were in. The students did their first 2 of 4 required open water dives in Jamaica. Once everyone was back on the boat,we were taxi-bused back to the ship’s pier.

Two days later, in Cozumel, the students had their 3rd and 4th open water certification dives first thing in the morning.The operator was Sand Dollar Sports, and my husband stayed with our son and the students as they were taxi-bused to a nearby beach. Their 3rd and 4th dives were from the beach in Cozumel, which my son preferred to the super-wavy dive boat in Jamaica. Meanwhile, my other son and I were met on the Cozumel pier by the excursion staff and had to walk about 50 meters where the dive boat picked us up (our dive boat operator was also Sand Dollar Sports, but we were not with the students on that day). We had 2 boat dives which were fantastic.

That afternoon, my husband was going to take our newly-certified 16-year old on the Royal Caribbean excursion that was scheduled for the afternoon. Unfortunately, the dive boat broke down (luckily before any participants had boarded it) and Royal Caribbean therefore cancelled the dive excursion that afternoon.

Overall, the scuba certification on the Oasis was great, but it did require two very early mornings for our son (and for us, who accompanied him to the Aqua Theater pool and watched). We would have preferred to have him already certified before the cruise, but it just didn’t work out with the timing so this was a good solution. We were particularly impressed by the onboard PADI scuba staff – Amy and Andre were super helpful for our son but also with helping the rest of our family coordinate our own dive excursions.

Thank you for your feedback, much appreciated.

Sent from my SM-T357T using Tapatalk

Thank you.

I thought five confined water dives were required for padi open water certification. Did your son have a couple combined in one session?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Interesting, I did not know you could do this. I was certified a LONG time ago with NAUI. All my dives were Open water (Hawaii), I have never actually been in a pool with scuba gear. :)

WRT number of dives, 3 - 4 hours times 2 is easily equal to 5 dives.

Thank you so so much for this post! We are cruising in a month (same itinerary but on Allure) and just decided we wanted to try to get certified in time to dive there. This has so much more info than the website. THANK YOU!

That's awesome. A dive-heavy cruise sounds like literally the perfect vacation in my book. Unfortunately, my wife, who is more the relaxing type, has told me that she only wants to do a maximum of 1 dive excursion per cruise. ;)

PADI open water is one pool session and 4 open water dives ..... I have seen the pool session called a 'confined water dive'

What RCCL is doing here is what's called a "Universal Referral"

http://keylargodiving.com/open-water-referral/

and is a common way to get certified for several years now. dd was certified this way a few years back: book work was done during school year by computer. Then we scheduled a UR with a dive shop in Key Largo. Day one began with a test to verify the book skills were learned. Then a morning pool session for basic skills like mask clearing, and a paddling around the pool with tanks. After lunch, a two tank boat trip. End day one. Next morning another two tank boat trip a POOF - PADI Open Water certified.

RCCL Shore Excursion XCZ4

it is a bit pricey ... similar program in Cayman is $325 for the 'referral' or wet part only, $400 for the whole package. In the Keys $300 ....

Caution: RCCL has several diving progams that look like classes: the Discovery Dive which does not yield certification, SCUBA DIVER which is about 50% of OPEN WATER - includes only 2 dives and yields a limited certification of SCUBA DIVER. Sort of a learner's permit ... you can only dive with a properly certified escort. This one is 'full' Open Water is the 'entry level' certification were you are an 'autonomous diver' ... able to get air fills and dive on your own.

LIKE a beginning DRIVER, a newly certified OW diver should know their limitations ....

My husband and I are taking the PADI certification course on the Freedom in November. Thank you for sharing this experience as not a lot of details are shared on their website. I know it may be different on different ships, but would your son be done after those 3-4 hour pool dives? Or was there an additional classroom review session out of the water? Just wondering how much of the day it takes up and if we start at 6 a.m. if we'll be done for the day by 11. Thanks for any insight!

Just wondering how much of the day it takes up and if we start at 6 a.m. if we'll be done for the day by 11. Thanks for any insight!

Hi there - I'm glad you found this helpful. He was definitely done by 11am on the first pool day (which was also a sea day).

After the second day of the pool session, the students trooped back up from the Aqua Theater pool to the 5* dive center area to prepare for their imminent departure for the first 2 open water dives in Jamaica. I will say that it was a long day for him, to be in the pool for a couple of hours and then go for 2 open waters. Seems like breathing all that compressed air tends to make one scuba-sleepy afterward.

I believe that the other time they were all together but not diving was after their 3rd and 4th open water dives in Cozumel. I think about 4pm (recall that their dives were over by noon) they all met outside the 5* center and sat on deck chairs as the PADI instructors on the ship went over the dive logs, showing them how to fill them out and sharing depth, time, temperature, etc. The students did not dive with computers as part of their regulator set so they did not necessarily have this info, unless they had their own dive computers on their wrist.

Hope this helps. Am happy to answer any/all other questions. I know I searched myself for info before we left, but there was very little. I will say that if you have any ship-specific questions you can always email the dive staff on board your ship ahead of time. We had several email exchanges when we were trying to figure out if we could do a family dive along with the students.

Thank you so much! That's exactly what I wanted to know. On the long day, what did they do about food? Did they break for lunch or provide anything? My food-conscious husband is always worried about getting his meals :rolleyes:. I'm thinking I'll just pack a couple of granola bars for the early mornings. We're pretty much doing this cruise exclusively to get certified so our schedule is completely open, but it's nice to know what to expect.

do you know if they gave customers an option to do the pool part before the sailing of the ship? TIA