Beaches Sandy Bay PADI ow cert

[sugar water]

I am new to the board and new to SCUBA diving.

My boyfriend and I would like to complete our PADI open-water certification w/ referral pack on our 5 day trip to Negril, Jamaica. We will be staying at Beaches Sandy Bay.

Any suggestions on dive shops/boats we should go to for our PADI certification that are near our hotel, are reasonably priced, and have quality instructors?

We're both college students, so are funds are somewhat limited.

The best rate I have received so far is from Negril SCUBA ($300/person).

Beaches Sandy Bay's dive shop quoted me for $450/person over the phone, even though my travel agent said it should be $270.

I've heard that some places cost $150-$250, but I have not been able to seek out these places online.

Any feedback is appreciated

[wills029]

Hi Sugar Water,

My experience with Beaches Negril is that $450 is for the complete OW certification - class, pool and open water dives. If you have completed the class and pool elsewhere, and will only be doing your 4 open water dives on a referral basis, the cost is $250 and that includes the PIC.

You may also want to factor in the cost of any equipment rentals. At Beaches, it is all included in your hotel package.

BTW, we just got back from Beaches Negril and my two kids completed their Junior Open Water certs with the Beaches Dive shop. The dive shop staff and in particular, instructor Damion, were excellent with the kids. Their open water cert dives couldn't have been better.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Bill

[ReefHugger]

wills029 is correct that the $450 is for the full course.

The scuba diving at Beaches Sandy Bay is a shared activity with Beaches Negril (same chain). Because Beaches Negril is the larger property, they have all the scuba stuff (including boats) and personnel. I would suggest that you contact watersports at Beaches Negril and explain about the referral. I'm confident that you'll get a better quote. Btw, the two properties are only about a 1/4 mile apart.

In addition to Damion, there are other instructors like Norman and Karen. All nice people.

[jah313]

My 11 y/o son did his referral dives there last year and it was not $450. That is the full course. He also had Damion as his instructor and was excellent. Once certified, just do all your diving through Beaches. It is fun, easy and included in the price.

[236hokie]

Hi Sugar Water,

My experience with Beaches Negril is that $450 is for the complete OW certification - class, pool and open water dives. If you have completed the class and pool elsewhere, and will only be doing your 4 open water dives on a referral basis, the cost is $250 and that includes the PIC.

You may also want to factor in the cost of any equipment rentals. At Beaches, it is all included in your hotel package.

BTW, we just got back from Beaches Negril and my two kids completed their Junior Open Water certs with the Beaches Dive shop. The dive shop staff and in particular, instructor Damion, were excellent with the kids. Their open water cert dives couldn't have been better.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Bill
Very interested in your experience. Next week, I'm going with 5 families, numerous kids that have all completed closed water dives and plan to do open water dives at Beaches Negril. If you can answer some questions, that would be very helpful:
-Is it okay to use all their equipment? Do they have lots of kid size equipment?
-Did you sign up for Open Water Dives before you left or when you got there?
-Any info for a total newbie?

thanks in advance, Larry from No. Virginia

[jah313]

Larry,

The equipment there is fine and I have never had a problem with the gear at any Beaches or Sandals resort. We do bring our own gear, but I have used theirs before. My son will use one of there BC's and he is small.

They will only let you sign up when you arrive. I would do it first thing after getting your room if the scuba hut is open.

The dives are easy and the staff is excellent, plus they are GREAT with kids. You will have a blast.

I will be there next week as well, but we are staying at Sandy Bay (1 mile away). All of the dive boats run from the Negril resort, so we may even bump into each other. I will be diving with my son Jack.

Hope to see you there. Have fun!

Drew

[sunisdad]

We're at Sandals Negril (sort of next door) next week, I assume they don't share boats., or do they?

[jah313]

No, Sandals and Beaches do not share boats. But you can wave as we go by :D

[sugar water]

Thanks for all the responses. Sorry for taking so long to respond. I was not receiving email notifications of responses.

I decided to book an appointment with Negril SCUBA for $250 just in case the dive shop at Beaches Sandy Bay is booked for the days we want to get our ow cert.

Can I sign up for my OW cert at Beaches Sandy Bay the day before? or do I have to show up early morning the day I would like to get certified?

[jah313]

Just sign up the day you get there. There is a fair amount of paperwork to fill out for PADI.

[wills029]

Hi Larry,

We brought our own gear for the kids. My daughter is quite petite and my son has his own BCD. But there were smaller kids on some of the dives, and there didn't appear to be any sizing issues.

By and large, the gear is in pretty good shape - mostly ScubaPro. I just found if there were a lot of divers, some of the older regs were put into action, and they didn't look as "shiny".

With our kids, we found it useful to have them practise their skills in the pool before doing their first open water dives. The dives for open water certs and discover scuba are scheduled at 11 am, and the pool session is from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

For certified divers over the age of 12, there is a deeper dive each morning at 9 am. The depths are typically 60 to 80 feet. I found these reefs to be in better shape - deeper and less new divers - and if you're lucky you get to see some bigger life. On a few of the morning dives, we saw nurse sharks, dolphins, turtles. There is also a lot of small stuff, you just have to move slowly and look for it. I saw a number of small Queen angels for the first time this year. Also noticed less lionfish this year. They have been holding regular lionfish dinners and it is becoming a local delicacy.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Enjoy!

Bill