Scuba in Southern vs Western Caribbean Ports

[TomAndRebecca]

Hi Folks,

Doing B2B on Symphony in April 2024.  We are wanting to take the on-ship scuba lessons and are wondering which leg of the trip would be best for diving.  The 1st sailing (4/6/2024) is 8 nights and has stops in Oranjestad, Willemstad, and Labadee.  The 2nd trip (4/14/2024) is 6 nights and includes stops in Nassau, Falmouth, and Labadee.  

Would love some input regarding which sailing you would recommend for brand new divers.  

Thanks in advance for your help!

Tom

[bobroo]

The direct answer certainly is to take the OW class on the first sailing. Over the week you’ll become good friends with your instructor and the ships dive team; that will carry over to week two.  In case there are any rough spots with the class, you’ll have sailing #2 to make things up (there won’t be an additional charge). On the other hand, if things go well; you can look forward to diving at Stuart Cove’s in Nassau. Providing the time in port cooperates, most of the Stuart Cove dive sites will be great places for going on your first dives. The visibility is always great, the water 80, and it’s shark central— so there’s lots to like.

But being more than a year away, have you considered taking an OW class BEFORE going on the cruise? That way you’d have dives in Aruba and Curacao to look forward too.

[TomAndRebecca]

Thanks for the input.  I live in Alaska so not too interested in doing an open water class here!

[MarvinS]

I've lived in Alaska for over 40 years and completely understand your desire to NOT get certified up here!

My wife and I had plans to do like you are looking to do..  We had a B2B that was supposed to have left from Ft. Lauderdale in June 2020.  We were going to get certified on the first week, and enjoy additional SCUBA excursions the second week.  The pandemic hit, and we had to throw those plans out the window.

Fast forward to 2022, we decided to do things a little different, and just flew down to Florida a couple of extra days ahead.  We worked with a dive shop in the Key Largo area, and completed our open water certification in two days.  We did ALL of the PADI coursework ahead of time (all online on an iPad) at home before traveling, flew into south Florida, and drove down to Key Largo, overnighted down there, and arrived at the dive shop early the next day and started doing the pool work in the morning, and did our first two ocean dives that afternoon, finishing with two more ocean dives the next day.  This worked out great!  We then drive back to Ft. Lauderdale the next morning boarded the ship (for two weeks!) with three different planned SCUBA excursions, and had a great time!  We just told the SCUBA excursion operators we were newly certified, and they always very willing took that into consideration and always put us directly with a dive master that treated us extremely well, and never pushed us beyond what we could/should handle and feel comfortable with.  Very happy with this decision!

[FireFishII]

I live in New England and I don't like to dive here.  WAY TOO COLD.  Even in August. But PADI dive shops in the Caribbean are known for accepting students who only needs their open water portion.  And yes, RCL also has this option. 

See https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-if-i-have-not-completed-the-open-water-dives

What I like about that is you don't have to get up at 6:30 am to take your pool sessions while on your cruise. 

[mac66]

Do your diving instruction on the first leg. Good diving on Curacao and Aruba. I did my OW check out dives in both places while on a cruise.

But I kinda agree with FireFishII.  You can do your class and confined water in a pool back home and then just do your OW checkout dives while on a cruise. Less stress, less time away from your cruise.  I live in the north.  That's what I did. Pretty easy to find a dive shop to test you out while in port. Or you can check with the cruise ship and see if they'll do your OW dive check outs.

I used Scubacoa in Curacao and Happy Divers in Aruba for my OW dives.

[TomAndRebecca]

Marvin, what dive co did you use in Key Largo?  With all the costs and time involved in traveling to the opposite corner of the country, I really like the idea of extending the vacation a few extra days.

[MarvinS]

3 hours ago, TomAndRebecca said:

Marvin, what dive co did you use in Key Largo?  With all the costs and time involved in traveling to the opposite corner of the country, I really like the idea of extending the vacation a few extra days.

I originally contacted Florida Keys Dive Center (https://www.floridakeysdivecenter.com/) and made all the initial transactions (PADI online course, etc.).  When we arrived, we worked with them and their sister company (same owner, I believe) and did the pool work with Islamorada Dive Center (https://islamoradadivecenter.com/).  Both were EXCELLENT to work with, and I most certainly recommend them!  They had sufficient staff so that we could start our on-site training (pool work and then ocean dives) ANY day of the week. They have scheduled morning and afternoon dives every day, so it was easy to work into their schedule.  We really liked that flexibility.  For the ocean dives, you go out onto regular dives along with other certified divers.  You are placed with a dedicated dive master instructor in small groups ( thing there were 4 or 5 in our group) to work exclusively on your PADI training.  I discovered that some dive centers only do PADI training on certain days, and you have to work with their schedule.  Both of these dive shops I worked with were incredibly flexible.  This allowed me to time everything perfectly, and do our two days of pool/open water ocean dives, and then travel back to the mainland and get on the ship the next day.  We just stayed in Key Largo for the few days we did the training.

One additional helpful item is that there is a large "Diver's Direct" store (https://www.diversdirect.com/) in Key Largo, which made it very convenient if you needed ANY diving supplies.  We actually stopped there the night before, and I picked up a replacement mask (as I needed one that fit me well for diving) and a new snorkel.

[FireFishII]

Here is a piece of advice to any new beginner - do not dive right before flying.  This could cause the bends.  Even if you do your safety stop.  While DAN (Divers Alert Network) recommends 12 hours after a single dive or 18 hours after multiple dives, I try for 24 hours. 

I would also STRONGLY recommend getting extra dive insurance from DAN. This is why I get it:

Does my coverage include emergency transportation? An air ambulance can be the most expensive part of a diving accident. Some insurance plans may cover the cost of hyperbaric treatments and not the cost of getting you to the chamber.