Scuba Certification on Allure

[kelsey.smiles]

Hi All!

 

We just got off the Sept 24th sailing on Allure of the Seas, and while on board, boyfriend (28) and I (23) earned our open water scuba certifications! Because I feel Royal really lacks on info given beforehand and it's still a newer program without many reviews, I want to make sure I pass along whatever I can :)

 

The PADI Open Water Scuba Certification involves about 8-10 hours of book/computer/iPad work, 4 pool dives, and 4 open water dives. This is true wherever you get certified. On board this translates to independent iPad work, 2 4-hour pool sessions, and 2 excursions (each about 5 hours total trip time).

 

Equipment: You must have your own mask and snorkel. We bought Cressi sets on Amazon for $40 which the instructor told us were great. They also sell National Geographic sets for $45 on the ship. All other equipment is provided by the ship. They also suggested wearing a rash guard if you aren't wearing a wet suit (just to prevent rubbing from the BCD), but they will provide wet suits if needed. I wore a shortie wet suit for one dive, but all others I just wore my bathing suit. Boyfriend's BCD was digging into his shoulder, so he preferred wearing a shirt underneath. We also brought an underwater camera that we were able to use on our last open water dive - but note you won't be allowed to use it earlier in the course, because the instructor wants you to focus on skills.

 

Schedule: For the Western sailing, our schedule was as follows:

Day 1 - knowledge check (20 questions), paperwork (bring your medical form with you), and equipment sizing - about 30 minutes total, at your convenience before 6pm

Day 2 - pool session - 6am-9:45am

Day 3 - free

Day 4 - 2 open water dives in Jamaica - 9:45am-2:30pm

Day 5 - pool session - 6am-9:15am

Day 6 - 2 open water dives - 8:45am-1:30pm

 

Before You Go: Once you sign up for the excursion, you will receive an email with a medical form. Complete the form and send it back and they will send you an email with an access code to the online theory work. You can choose to do this on a computer or on an iPad. We both chose to do our theory on our iPads for convenience, but found the format a little cumbersome. It is basically a giant pdf file that you scroll and swipe though, with quizzes at the ends of the sections. Because the computer version uses flash, I feel it might be a little more user friendly, but I can't say for sure.

 

It takes about 8-10 hours to do all of the work. It's no joke and really important that you pay attention and actually learn it. I spread it out over 2 weeks (30-60 minutes/day) and felt I had a really good grasp of the material. Boyfriend tried to cram it all in 2 days before the cruise and didn't retain as much. There was another person in our group who didn't sign up for the excursion until Day 1 and did his theory on a ship-provided iPad on board. While possible, I absolutely would not recommend this. You will be spending way too much of your cruise doing work and also cramming it all in like that makes it harder to retain the information long-term, I think.

 

Pool Sessions: Plan for pool sessions to take from 6-10am on the days they occur. Note that on Allure, Cafe Promenade is the only food place open before 6am, so plan accordingly if you need to eat first. All the equipment is brought down to the aqua theater pool for you, so you just have to show up. Pool sessions are just practicing and demonstrating different skills. If you have any specific questions about the skills, let me know.

 

Open Water Sessions: For the open water sessions, you will take the same excursion as certified divers. You meet at the dive shop 15 minutes early and must carry your own equipment. In Jamaica, we took a taxi about 20 minutes to Dressel Divers and went on a boat dive. Each dive is 30-45 minutes depending on air usage with a surface interval of about 45-60 minutes. In Cozumel, we took a taxi about 5 minutes to Sand Dollar Sports. This was a shore dive. You spend the first 3 dives mostly demonstrating skills with a little swimming around in between. By the 4th dive, all skills should be demonstrated and it is like a normal dive. At the end you must go back to the ship to return your equipment (unless you want to lug around a 30lb bag for the rest of the day). In both ports we still had several hours after diving to do our own things.

 

Overall: I do want to note, that while we are thrilled we are certified, and don't regret doing it, it definitely took a toll on us. Something about all the swimming and breathing compressed air really tires you out, and on days we dove we didn't have energy to do much else other than lay around and read. If you are considering getting your certification on board, be prepared that your whole vacation will revolve around diving. We barely experienced the night life on board because we were so tired and had some early mornings. Also the first 3 open water dives really are more serious than fun.

With our busy work schedules, getting certified on our vacation was the only way we could do it (and also it was surprisingly cheaper than our local dive shop), but if your schedule and where you live allows you to get certified pre-cruise, I would recommend that so you can spend your cruise dives just enjoying the scenery.

Also would like to note that royaldiver@rccl.com was very responsive to any questions I had before sailling and forwarded my emails to the actual dive staff on the ship.

 

I hope this was helpful - let me know if you have any questions! :D

[compman9]

Thank you for putting this up on the messageboard, it is really interesting

 

You have actually put me off doing it! We thought very seriously about doing it, but the idea of being tired to do other things, and it certainly sounds like a lot of effort, would lead me to thinking it would be a better activity for DW and I to do on a less exciting vacation

 

A couple of questions:

1) What is RCI's price for this?

2) How good a swimmer do you need to be to do this?

 

Many thanks

Paul

[rukkian]

Hi All!

 

We just got off the Sept 24th sailing on Allure of the Seas, and while on board, boyfriend (28) and I (23) earned our open water scuba certifications! Because I feel Royal really lacks on info given beforehand and it's still a newer program without many reviews, I want to make sure I pass along whatever I can :)

 

The PADI Open Water Scuba Certification involves about 8-10 hours of book/computer/iPad work, 4 pool dives, and 4 open water dives. This is true wherever you get certified. On board this translates to independent iPad work, 2 4-hour pool sessions, and 2 excursions (each about 5 hours total trip time).

 

Equipment: You must have your own mask and snorkel. We bought Cressi sets on Amazon for $40 which the instructor told us were great. They also sell National Geographic sets for $45 on the ship. All other equipment is provided by the ship. They also suggested wearing a rash guard if you aren't wearing a wet suit (just to prevent rubbing from the BCD), but they will provide wet suits if needed. I wore a shortie wet suit for one dive, but all others I just wore my bathing suit. Boyfriend's BCD was digging into his shoulder, so he preferred wearing a shirt underneath. We also brought an underwater camera that we were able to use on our last open water dive - but note you won't be allowed to use it earlier in the course, because the instructor wants you to focus on skills.

 

Schedule: For the Western sailing, our schedule was as follows:

Day 1 - knowledge check (20 questions), paperwork (bring your medical form with you), and equipment sizing - about 30 minutes total, at your convenience before 6pm

Day 2 - pool session - 6am-9:45am

Day 3 - free

Day 4 - 2 open water dives in Jamaica - 9:45am-2:30pm

Day 5 - pool session - 6am-9:15am

Day 6 - 2 open water dives - 8:45am-1:30pm

 

Before You Go: Once you sign up for the excursion, you will receive an email with a medical form. Complete the form and send it back and they will send you an email with an access code to the online theory work. You can choose to do this on a computer or on an iPad. We both chose to do our theory on our iPads for convenience, but found the format a little cumbersome. It is basically a giant pdf file that you scroll and swipe though, with quizzes at the ends of the sections. Because the computer version uses flash, I feel it might be a little more user friendly, but I can't say for sure.

 

It takes about 8-10 hours to do all of the work. It's no joke and really important that you pay attention and actually learn it. I spread it out over 2 weeks (30-60 minutes/day) and felt I had a really good grasp of the material. Boyfriend tried to cram it all in 2 days before the cruise and didn't retain as much. There was another person in our group who didn't sign up for the excursion until Day 1 and did his theory on a ship-provided iPad on board. While possible, I absolutely would not recommend this. You will be spending way too much of your cruise doing work and also cramming it all in like that makes it harder to retain the information long-term, I think.

 

Pool Sessions: Plan for pool sessions to take from 6-10am on the days they occur. Note that on Allure, Cafe Promenade is the only food place open before 6am, so plan accordingly if you need to eat first. All the equipment is brought down to the aqua theater pool for you, so you just have to show up. Pool sessions are just practicing and demonstrating different skills. If you have any specific questions about the skills, let me know.

 

Open Water Sessions: For the open water sessions, you will take the same excursion as certified divers. You meet at the dive shop 15 minutes early and must carry your own equipment. In Jamaica, we took a taxi about 20 minutes to Dressel Divers and went on a boat dive. Each dive is 30-45 minutes depending on air usage with a surface interval of about 45-60 minutes. In Cozumel, we took a taxi about 5 minutes to Sand Dollar Sports. This was a shore dive. You spend the first 3 dives mostly demonstrating skills with a little swimming around in between. By the 4th dive, all skills should be demonstrated and it is like a normal dive. At the end you must go back to the ship to return your equipment (unless you want to lug around a 30lb bag for the rest of the day). In both ports we still had several hours after diving to do our own things.

 

Overall: I do want to note, that while we are thrilled we are certified, and don't regret doing it, it definitely took a toll on us. Something about all the swimming and breathing compressed air really tires you out, and on days we dove we didn't have energy to do much else other than lay around and read. If you are considering getting your certification on board, be prepared that your whole vacation will revolve around diving. We barely experienced the night life on board because we were so tired and had some early mornings. Also the first 3 open water dives really are more serious than fun.

With our busy work schedules, getting certified on our vacation was the only way we could do it (and also it was surprisingly cheaper than our local dive shop), but if your schedule and where you live allows you to get certified pre-cruise, I would recommend that so you can spend your cruise dives just enjoying the scenery.

Also would like to note that royaldiver@rccl.com was very responsive to any questions I had before sailling and forwarded my emails to the actual dive staff on the ship.

 

I hope this was helpful - let me know if you have any questions! :D

 

Thanks for taking the time. I was actually on the fence about doing this, but since my two teenage sons want to try diving on our next cruise, I am doing the try on the ship and a discover scuba again in cozumel. I may try this in a future sailing.

[kelsey.smiles]

Thank you for putting this up on the messageboard, it is really interesting

 

You have actually put me off doing it! We thought very seriously about doing it, but the idea of being tired to do other things, and it certainly sounds like a lot of effort, would lead me to thinking it would be a better activity for DW and I to do on a less exciting vacation

 

A couple of questions:

1) What is RCI's price for this?

2) How good a swimmer do you need to be to do this?

 

Many thanks

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

Glad I could help. The price is $599 and includes everything except your mask and snorkel. You only need to be an okay swimmer. There is a swimming test which was 10 laps around the aqua theater pool (200m) and treading water for 10 minutes. You can take as long as you want on the swim and use any stroke you like (even a dog paddle!).

[rukkian]

Hi Paul,

 

Glad I could help. The price is $599 and includes everything except your mask and snorkel. You only need to be an okay swimmer. There is a swimming test which was 10 laps around the aqua theater pool (200m) and treading water for 10 minutes. You can take as long as you want on the swim and use any stroke you like (even a dog paddle!).

 

That is much cheaper than near me, which would involve diving in dirty lakes with nothing to see instead of in the beautiful Caribbean ocean. Sounds like a good deal.

[HannaBelle]

Thank you for the review!

 

DH & I decided to do this with our upcoming cruise, but since our port schedule is iffy post hurricane we are undecided. :confused:

 

I would definitely want to study ahead of time.

[alertkm]

Thanks so much for this. I am registered for this certification in Nov. and didn't do any research beforehand. I'm exhausted reading your post and am rethinking the purchase of the drink package for sure. Anyway I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

[NeverlandClub23]

Thank you for your review! We're doing the certification in November on Freedom. We're doing the cruise primarily for the certification so it will revolve around that, for sure. We both chose computer courses, but looking back I wish we had done iPad. Sitting at the desktop computer for hours (I do one section every Sunday) after working all week is not ideal, but I'm almost done. Like your boyfriend, my husband keeps putting it off and I see him trying to cram it all in at the last second.

 

Question, on the days where you do the open water dives, do you break for lunch or is lunch provided? Did you pack or bring anything off the ship (or wish you did)? Thanks for all this information! It is very helpful!

[gibby937]

Thank you for the info! We are doing this in Dec on Allure also. I was glad to see that wet suits can be provided.