Mike Ceci is the manager of Dive Atlantis at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai.
06:00am - Wake up in the hotel’s accommodation in Jumeirah Village Circle and head into work.
08:00am - The working day starts. We have a team of seven instructors including myself. They hail from Italy, Russia, Philippines, India and Pakistan (she is the first Pakistani PADI-qualified diving instructor), and I am from Italy. Sometimes we know well in advance who has booked, but the activity reps can sell up to 10pm the night before from the desks in the hotel. We work very closely with the hotel, especially on new product development and marketing. Around 50% of customers are from the hotel, the rest from the local market.
08:30am - Clean, brush and vacuum the two saltwater pools. Dive Atlantis reopened in July 2015 as part of the hotel. The buildings had a major renovation, and now, as a facility, it’s one of the best diving centres I’ve seen — especially to have two big indoor training pools, which is great in the summertime. We are a five-star dive centre, rated for recreational diving.
09:30am - Fill the cylinders, do the daily checks and man the reception desk.
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09:45am - The first groups arrive. The morning sessions are usually scuba theory lessons and kids’ courses. We offer Bubblemaker and Seal Team programmes for children over eight years old, and PADI Certification courses from 10 years old.
10:00am - We start with paperwork and medical questionnaires to ensure participants are fit to dive.
10:30am - And then it’s into the pools to begin the instruction. We will take up to four people at a time on the PADI certificate programme, and on weekends we are fully booked. PADI allows eight, but we wanted to limit it to four, to be able to give more attention to the students.
02:30pm - Afternoon dives are in the aquarium (I report into the director of the Lost Chambers Aquarium). And we also head out for the off-shore open water courses — two of our divers with four students diving to a maximum of 18m.
04:00pm - We often have kids arriving for after-school clubs.
06:00pm - The customers can review the Digiphoto images of themselves diving (we offer underwater photos that they can buy).
06:30pm - We normally finish, though sometimes it’s later for me, as the manager. We’re a very tight team, and we love what we do, having the chance to meet a lot of people, and make them smile. And to think what can we do next for them, especially the kids.
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