Hi Tom, I found a PDF file detailing all of the Princess shore excursions. It also gave a good deal of detail about the PADI newwaves scuba certification program. I'll send it to you as an email attachment. Please let me know if you get it or not. If it doesn't make it, I can get it to you another way
I Highly recommend getting certified. It would even be better if you could do the classroom/ pool dives at home before the cruise. Then you could just do the open water dives on the cruise to complete your certification. This process is call a referal. If you haven't tried scuba at all and would like to just see what it is like in a pool before you invest much money, many dive stores offer what is called discover scuba. They give you some instuction then take you to a pool to try breathing underwater.
I tried snorkling on the first cruise I went on in 1986. I enjoyed it but it felt too restricting being forced to the surface after such a short time underwater. I knew then that I wanted to try scuba diving. Too bad it took me 14 years to get certified. All that time wasted when I could have been diving. Now I try to dive atleast monthly.
I'll make the comparison of snorkling to diving this way, it is like shopping. When you snorkle, you look through the window at what is inside, but you can barely get through the door before you have to go back to the street. With scuba diving, you get to enter the store and wander around looking at stuff for much longer before being forced back out the door.
