PADI Open Water course on Oasis of the Seas

[ClaudiaT]

Hi everyone!

I am going on the Oasis of the seas from Miami in December. I was wondering if anyone had done a Padi open water course on that cruise? All the info i got was pool day is on day 2 at 8am. but no other info about dive days on what ports.

If you have more info, please let me know!

-Claudia

[Brendon]

What ports are you going to? Seems like they are doing dives at Coco Cay, St. Thomas, Cozumel, and Roatan. I know that they do not have a dive operator in Nassau, St. Maartin, and Costa Maya. That is what I saw on my cruises over the past few months and what I am seeing as available on my future cruises.

[mac66]

Disregard

 

 

[Melweaver2]

Claudia, 

Did you do the course?  I'm supposed to do it at the end of February on Allure of the Seas but have not heard anything on how to do the home learning

[tjcruisers]

How are the diving courses on the ship?  I got my PADI cert back I the mid 80’s but remember it being like a 10 week course. Instructor was a navy diver. Do they do the tinfoil in the mask?

[mac66]

22 hours ago, tjcruisers said:

How are the diving courses on the ship?  I got my PADI cert back I the mid 80’s but remember it being like a 10 week course. Instructor was a navy diver. Do they do the tinfoil in the mask?

 

Since we've not heard back from OP I can only speculate what she ended up doing.

However, when I looked into the Open Water dive class on Oasis back in 2018 it was set up to get your OW certification within/during the week long cruise.

PADI now does most of the book work online before the class starts so you show up on board having done most of the book stuff and pass the tests.  Next step is the confined water where you learn the equipment and do the underwater stuff in the pool. This takes place early in the mornings before the pools get crowded i.e, 7 am.  If I recall correctly you do 4 hours in the pool or on the islands over course of several days. Then you do the open water part on the next two islands. The OW part is 2 dives a day over 2 days.

I ended up doing my confined water part in Nov of '18 in a pool back home and then did my open water dives on a cruise in Feb '19. That's known as a "referral". That's where you do part of the course with one dive instructor and OW dives with a different instructor(s). I did my first 2 OW dives in Curacao and my second 2 and got certified in Aruba.   The pool part, if I recall correctly was 2/4 hour sessions two weekends apart.

Don't know about any tinfoil.

[DunkelBierJay]

I recommend contacting the Royal Caribbean PADI instruction staff with this info:

I anticipate they will direct you to the PADI website where you can set up your online coursework here or at another PADI site that is associated with Royal: The cost for the online course is $217 payable directly to PADI if Royal hasn't bundled it into one total payment, which I doubt.

You will want to confirm that you need to come to the ship with proof of completion. I am not certain about the full process, but a shoreside diveshop (or Royal's) instructor number is needed to complete the registration...at least that was the case when I had my PADI C-card re-activated in 2021. I did my check out dives locally, and have done some diving on Royal excursions as well as independently by just walking up to a dive shop in Mahahual recently.

 

[tjcruisers]

52 minutes ago, mac66 said:

 

Since we've not heard back from OP I can only speculate what she ended up doing.

However, when I looked into the Open Water dive class on Oasis back in 2018 it was set up to get your OW certification within/during the week long cruise.

PADI now does most of the book work online before the class starts so you show up on board having done most of the book stuff and pass the tests.  Next step is the confined water where you learn the equipment and do the underwater stuff in the pool. This takes place early in the mornings before the pools get crowded i.e, 7 am.  If I recall correctly you do 4 hours in the pool or on the islands over course of several days. Then you do the open water part on the next two islands. The OW part is 2 dives a day over 2 days.

I ended up doing my confined water part in Nov of '18 in a pool back home and then did my open water dives on a cruise in Feb '19. That's known as a "referral". That's where you do part of the course with one dive instructor and OW dives with a different instructor(s). I did my first 2 OW dives in Curacao and my second 2 and got certified in Aruba.   The pool part, if I recall correctly was 2/4 hour sessions two weekends apart.

Don't know about any tinfoil.

Ok, I didn't do mine on a cruise but just the local pool. On a few cruises I walked by and watched a few times, seemed to be far more relaxed than when I did it. Not sure if if our instructor was doing just the PADI course or if he was introducing navy diving stuff as well.

Tinfoil thing (or anything to block out your mask would do) is we'd line the inside of the mask with tinfoil so you couldn't see. The instructors would put your equipment in the pool (which was 15 feet deep). We had to put the mask on, go down, feel around to find your equipment and then get dressed underwater. Another one was dive to the bottom with your equipment on, take it all off, including your mask and then surface. Take a few breaths, go back down and put it all back on. Some other crazy ass crap we had to do was swim the length of the pool and back underwater on one breath.

Don't remember how many dives I did on my OW. Did it in a quarry in a place called Innerkip Ontario around early May. A little chilly   Did a handful of dives on first day and I think they signed us off that night at dinner. I wasn't old even to drink at the time, but the adults had party they night for passing. Next day was an optional dive, there was cave/mineshaft they took you in.

 

[mac66]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:39 PM, tjcruisers said:

Ok, I didn't do mine on a cruise but just the local pool. On a few cruises I walked by and watched a few times, seemed to be far more relaxed than when I did it. Not sure if if our instructor was doing just the PADI course or if he was introducing navy diving stuff as well.

Tinfoil thing (or anything to block out your mask would do) is we'd line the inside of the mask with tinfoil so you couldn't see. The instructors would put your equipment in the pool (which was 15 feet deep). We had to put the mask on, go down, feel around to find your equipment and then get dressed underwater. Another one was dive to the bottom with your equipment on, take it all off, including your mask and then surface. Take a few breaths, go back down and put it all back on. Some other crazy ass crap we had to do was swim the length of the pool and back underwater on one breath.

Don't remember how many dives I did on my OW. Did it in a quarry in a place called Innerkip Ontario around early May. A little chilly   Did a handful of dives on first day and I think they signed us off that night at dinner. I wasn't old even to drink at the time, but the adults had party they night for passing. Next day was an optional dive, there was cave/mineshaft they took you in.

 

Uh....no they don't do the tin foil thing in PADI. They do make you take off and put on your mask under water. They also make you take off and put back on your tank underwater. But they don't do the blind touchy feely thing. If I remember correctly you are supposed to be able to swim 100 yards (4 lengths of the pool) but nothing underwater.

If you wanted to go diving again you could probably get by with just your PADI cert card if you still have one.  They recommend you take a refresher if you haven't dived in 2 years but you probably could get by without it if you still have your card.  unless it's been a very long time and you've forgot everything.   Also it's my understanding that PADI certification cards is or has gone entirely online. Which means they don't give you a card anymore.