SCUBA in Australia

[couture1]

Hi, we are struggling to arrange SCUBA diving for our upcoming Australia adventure June 2 2018. We are experienced certified openwater divers (kids 12,14,15) and we'd LOVE to convert the snorkel day to scuba or add a dive day out of Brisbane...
Has anyone tried or know how to make these arrangements?
Thank you in advance!

 

[RSM]

If you are doing the ABD to Australia, there is an option to SCUBA dive instead of snorkeling. You sign up for your activities for the day while on the boat. I think SCUBA diving is for an hour. You go out with a marine biologist. They have a beginner level and more advanced. To do the more advanced you need to make sure you bring your certification. Others may be able to add more detail but I think that is the gist of it.

 

[acndis]

If you are doing the ABD to Australia, there is an option to SCUBA dive instead of snorkeling. You sign up for your activities for the day while on the boat. I think SCUBA diving is for an hour. You go out with a marine biologist. They have a beginner level and more advanced. To do the more advanced you need to make sure you bring your certification. Others may be able to add more detail but I think that is the gist of it.

I agree with RSM. If you want to do this in Cairns, I would not book in advance but wait until you get on the boat. They will take care of you there.

As for Brisbane/Gold Coast, our plane out of Cairns was late so we ended up not having much free time on the Gold Coast on that first day. It was an anomaly but something to consider. I don't know of anywhere to dive on the Gold Coast but I will tell you that the water and beaches are STUNNING. I would check Viator or search around TripAdvisor for a well rated tour (if there is one).

That said, DO NOT MISS the kayak day in Byron Bay. Best day of the trip! It was amazing.

 

[Grifdog22]

You might research the availability around Brisbane or Gold Coast - we added a day (well it was the ABD last day which is just a transfer to the airport) to spend it whale watching which was a full day event and amazing. We set it up on our own, but arranged well in advance with ABD for our airport transfer to deviate a bit and drop us at a hotel near the airport early that morning where the whale watching group picked us up and brought us back. However, the public transportation, bus and train, in that area turns out to be amazing as well. You have the luxury still of time to set this up you if add this on. I don't think you'll feel like the Cairns boat is enough time for you to SCUBA. It's an extra charge, and if you folks are experienced open water divers, you will probably want more time than they provide. Talk to/email your ABD vacationista. While they are not travel agents and generally don't give direct advice, they steered me away from several things we wanted to do on our own and once we got there we discovered they were right on and we were extremely grateful for the help. (The nighttime glow worm trip is one of those we looked at and are glad we did not waste time or money on...)

Like acndis says, kayak day at Byron Bay rocks. We also LOVED LOVED LOVED the next day as well.

Enjoy - this is a great trip. Please take advantage to spend time with the Aussie's as well. Amazing people.

 

[DCPhotoGal]

I don't think you'll feel like the Cairns boat is enough time for you to SCUBA. It's an extra charge, and if you folks are experienced open water divers, you will probably want more time than they provide.

I agree on this this. My husband was really excited about going to the GBR, and would have liked to have spent another day there. He snorkeled the whole time we were on the reef and would have dove if we were certified. If you decide to sign up to dive from the boat ride, know that you have to do so before the boat departs. So do it first thing when you get on the boat. As others mentioned, it costs additional money, not sure how much.

I wouldn't plan to miss any of the ABD activities to do diving. You pay a lot of money for this trip, I feel like folks should take advantage of all of the planned activities. Staying for a day at the end is probably best, although I'm not sure how the diving is down in Brisbane, vs. at the GBR.

 

[Tsunami]

My 12 year old daughter and I went diving on GBR day on our ABD last December. I'm PADI certified, but she is not, so we went on the introductory dive. It is about an hour long. Below are the prices from the Quicksilver website:

Introductory Diving- $172
Certified Diving 1 Dive - $124
Certified Diving 2 Dives - $174

I agree with the others that you will arrange it right on the boat and need to do so directly when you get onboard. We were there on Christmas day and the boat was completely full. Luckily, Disney worked its magic and got us on first, which made it a little less mayhem, but still crowded!

My daughter really, really, really wanted to see "Nemo" and our dive master brought us right to him so this was definitely the highlight of the trip for us. A couple of notes:

- I would not attempt to do both the helicopter ride and the SCUBA. We unfortunately tried to do this, and while both were fantastic, it made the day more hectic than it needed to be. Quicksilver says that they do this all the time and it would all work out. However, with a sold out boat, the scheduling was not where it should be. We ended up getting back from the helicopter late as they were calling our name "last call" over the PA system. My daughter and I raced to the diving, justifiably irritating the dive master and others on our trip. Because of this, we ended up not getting lunch (worth it!).

- Some more advanced divers on our ABD did the certified diving and they also said it was incredible. One of the parties brought their PADI cards, and one gentleman forgot his and they were able to look it up.

- This will be the only opportunity to dive the GBR unless you go back to Port Douglas/Cairns/somewhere else after the ABD. There's just not enough time, and even if you skipped a Disney day (don't!), it's still quite far to get to the outer reef and work out your wait times between diving and flying.

- You could potentially stay after your ABD on the Gold Coast and go diving from there. It's not the GBR, and we didn't do it so I can't comment on it, but there seemed to be quite a few offerings. There is a shop across the street to the left from the Sheraton Gold Coast that rents surfboards, etc. and has tours. They are extremely nice and helpful and I will update if I can remember the name.

Let me know if you have questions. Oh do I wish I were going back!