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Went on our honeymoon & came back scuba certified!

kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
Me & the wife went on our honeymoon last week to Jamaica. Previous to going, I started my PADI class online but didn't finish. To my surprise, they had "free" scuba lesson in the pool that we decided to try out. Me & the wife enjoyed it so we just decided to get certified. What an experience it was! It was a little nerve racking at first but we both completed just the basic certification to dive with instructors! We had two dives lasting around 40mins each. (I lasted 30mins the first time because of improper breathing.) It was awesome..! We even bought the video of us underwater(The file is probably to big to upload somewhere, I'll have to see). We are now planning our next vacation somewhere we can dive! Any suggestions would be great!

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TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Congrats Kevin. It definitely is an addicting hobby. Especially to someone who has a reef tank and can appreciate the beauty of live coral reefs and all the beautiful fish that live amongst them.

When I got certified, it was with on a trip to Cozumel with "The Dive Shop" in Cherry Hill. I took my classes with them at the shop and in the pool, then did my "check out" dives on the Cozumel trip. I've never been scuba diving anywhere else except the pool and the quarry (Dutch Springs, PA) but IMO, Cozumel is the ideal diving location. The reason I say that is because it was all "drift" diving. There are natural currents that will carry you across the reefs and basically all you do is drop to the bottom, get buoyant, and breath as you float over/by gorgeous reefs. The boat crew we had was awesome and they knew really great places to take us. Dive Paradise is the Padi shop that we booked with.

Again, I haven't been anywhere else really.... but I can for sure say you won't regret diving there!

As to the improper breathing - don't worry about that. It's normal to use up a tank pretty quickly when you're a beginner. The more practice and experience, the longer you can go on a tank. When you first start out, all you really think about is breathing through your regulator. While that's important, you tend to neglect other things which means you consume air faster (overexerting yourself swimming, not having proper buoancy, etc.) When you get more comfortable and confident with breathing under water, you relax and focus on the other things that help you be a more efficient diver.

Anyway, glad you had a great time.
 
kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
Thanks!!

When I started my PADI online classes I made my dive shop "the dive shop" in cherry hill! I didn't think I would be scuba diving, nor getting certified in Jamaica. I had no idea you could be able to dive and get certified in 2 days.
We were actually looking at Cozumel for our next trip. Our instructor, who was from Turkey, suggested it. Ironically enough, we stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Colorado last year & they have a B&B in Cozumel. They also happen to be dive instructors. I don't know if we are going to stay there, but we're keeping our options open.
 
greybolt03

greybolt03

Cozumel is the best diving I have ever done, caymen islands is nice too but no all inclusives so it gets sort of expensive.
 
kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
Where did you end up staying in Cozumel? In Jamaica we stayed at the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall. I looked up Iberostar in Cozumel, but the ratings aren't as good.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We stayed at "Hotel Cozumel". It's an all-inclusive type resort... but it's not a 5-star resort. The rooms were nice and clean and they had buffet style food available for every meal. But, the food was just OK in my opinion. Although they changed the menu every day, it just seemed repetitive. You could find something you liked every night (fresh fish, chicken, pork, steak, etc.)... but there was always tacos or fajitas or mexican food #3 or mexican food #4. Don't get me wrong, nothing really tasted bad and most things tasted pretty good... it just seemed like you were eating the same kind of food every day. They had a good salad bar and lots of fresh fruit all the time too. The lunch buffet by the pool was the same every day: pizza, burgers, hot dogs, salad, snacks, and usually tacos or something too. That got really boring.

This was a no-frills all inclusive but since we were there strictly for diving it was fine. The dive shop was directly across the street (which you could get to through a tunnel under the road or by walking across the road) and in between each boat trip we just went right to the buffet and loaded up. The best part was that everything was really convenient. They even had a buffet setup at the dive shop building so you didn't have to walk back and forth if you didn't want to.

Although this wasn't like a Sandals resort or something like that, the price was unbeatable. I think I paid less than $800 for the week for me and like $400 for my wife (she didn't dive, so it was less for her). The price included all my diving (17 dives over 5 days) and all the food / drinks you wanted. It was a great bargain IMO!
 
M

Mike S

How remote do you want to go? My wife and I went to Belize for our honeymoon and loved it. We stayed at Blackbird Cayenne on the Turneffe atoll. It was about a 2 hour boat ride to get to the island and there was nothing there but the resort. We did a great couple of snorkeling trips each day but the divers that were there raved about it. We did a trip out to the Blue Hole and it was wild. One day I'm going to get certified and go back.
 
thirty5

thirty5

That is awesome!!! I am going to Turks and Caicos for my next trip and I am def gonna get certified before I go though :)
 
greybolt03

greybolt03

I stayed at The Melia. But that was when they first opened up many years ago and I've heard it's gone way down hill since then... My best friend is a travel agent I'll pm you her # if your interested she specializes in the carribean...
 
kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
TanksNStuff said:
We stayed at "Hotel Cozumel". It's an all-inclusive type resort... but it's not a 5-star resort. The rooms were nice and clean and they had buffet style food available for every meal. But, the food was just OK in my opinion. Although they changed the menu every day, it just seemed repetitive. You could find something you liked every night (fresh fish, chicken, pork, steak, etc.)... but there was always tacos or fajitas or mexican food #3 or mexican food #4. Don't get me wrong, nothing really tasted bad and most things tasted pretty good... it just seemed like you were eating the same kind of food every day. They had a good salad bar and lots of fresh fruit all the time too. The lunch buffet by the pool was the same every day: pizza, burgers, hot dogs, salad, snacks, and usually tacos or something too. That got really boring.

This was a no-frills all inclusive but since we were there strictly for diving it was fine. The dive shop was directly across the street (which you could get to through a tunnel under the road or by walking across the road) and in between each boat trip we just went right to the buffet and loaded up. The best part was that everything was really convenient. They even had a buffet setup at the dive shop building so you didn't have to walk back and forth if you didn't want to.

Although this wasn't like a Sandals resort or something like that, the price was unbeatable. I think I paid less than $800 for the week for me and like $400 for my wife (she didn't dive, so it was less for her). The price included all my diving (17 dives over 5 days) and all the food / drinks you wanted. It was a great bargain IMO!
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Thanks for the info! I read reviews & doesn't seem bad at all. We want to keep it as low cost as possible. We want it to be a strictly for diving & some relaxing time. I wish they had a direct flight! I hate full days of travel. Hopefully we'll be able to make it down to the dive shop in the next few weeks to check it out. We still need to do chapters 4 & 5 and two more dives to be Open Water Certified.

Mike S said:
How remote do you want to go? My wife and I went to Belize for our honeymoon and loved it. We stayed at Blackbird Cayenne on the Turneffe atoll. It was about a 2 hour boat ride to get to the island and there was nothing there but the resort. We did a great couple of snorkeling trips each day but the divers that were there raved about it. We did a trip out to the Blue Hole and it was wild. One day I'm going to get certified and go back.
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Wow, I looked this up! You can rent the whole island for $90k for the week, lol!

Chrisgarrick said:
There is an island off the east coast of puerto Rico. Culebra. Look it up.
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I shall look that up!

thirty5 said:
That is awesome!!! I am going to Turks and Caicos for my next trip and I am def gonna get certified before I go though :)
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Awesome! It's a great experience!

greybolt03 said:
I stayed at The Melia. But that was when they first opened up many years ago and I've heard it's gone way down hill since then... My best friend is a travel agent I'll pm you her # if your interested she specializes in the carribean...
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If you could do that, that would be great!


I was on tripadvisor for majority of the day yesterday. We are also looking at the Florida key's.(again, no direct flight!) We thought about possibly flying into Miami & taking a car down the keys for the experience. Everything is up in the air. Coming home from vacation has just put me in full mode to plan the next one.
 
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magic

magic

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
thirty5 said:
That is awesome!!! I am going to Turks and Caicos for my next trip and I am def gonna get certified before I go though :)
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Turks and Caicos are a great place to dive. Try Grace Bay it's a restricted national park (no motorized watersports) with a great reef. If you stay at a Sandals or their family resort Beaches the diving is included, no extra charge and the boats go out 3 times a day.

Bob
 
thirty5

thirty5

magic said:
Turks and Caicos are a great place to dive. Try Grace Bay it's a restricted national park (no motorized watersports) with a great reef. If you stay at a Sandals or their family resort Beaches the diving is included, no extra charge and the boats go out 3 times a day.

Bob
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Yes,
I am going to Beaches. Diving is all free and if you are cert'd you can dive 2x a day! I am really psyched!
 
magic

magic

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
thirty5 said:
Yes,
I am going to Beaches. Diving is all free and if you are cert'd you can dive 2x a day! I am really psyched!
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My family has been to Beaches T/C about 7 times and we loved it. If you never been before, the beaches are unbelieveable! The sand is a white and very fine (here's a tip, bring baby powder to sprinkle on your families legs it makes the sand slid off easy). My daughters are grown and now we go to Sandals. If anyone at this resort doesn't have a great time it would be there own fault! Your family can grab snorkel gear and walk about a 1/4 mile down the beach to the national park. Last time we went my daughers we're trying to catch baby sea turtles. You'll have a great time.

Bob
 
thirty5

thirty5

magic said:
My family has been to Beaches T/C about 7 times and we loved it. If you never been before, the beaches are unbelieveable! The sand is a white and very fine (here's a tip, bring baby powder to sprinkle on your families legs it makes the sand slid off easy). My daughters are grown and now we go to Sandals. If anyone at this resort doesn't have a great time it would be there own fault! Your family can grab snorkel gear and walk about a 1/4 mile down the beach to the national park. Last time we went my daughers we're trying to catch baby sea turtles. You'll have a great time.

Bob
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I can't wait!! We are going to travel with another family and getting one of the Suites in the Italian Village with the Butler!! It is going to be great! The part that stinks that we are going in 2014 :(

I didn't know that the national park was right down the beach. My kids want to snorkle and would be great.... My older daughter wants to scuba, but I still have to get her to not hold her nose when she goes underwater.....
 
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