There are many great operators who fit your preferences, and many of them have many fans here who will cheer on their favorites
- often without providing reasons.
Danydon, here are my 10 reasons (cut and pasted from my 3P's review on tripadvisor):
10 points to consider:
1) 3P's age. Don't let 3P’s young 3 years in business spook you. THE STAFF HAS OVER 100 YEARS OF COMBINED DIVE OP EXPERIENCE and it shows in every aspect this operation.
Ironically, one of the current staff members was formerly with our prior dive operator!
2) Top Quality Online Service. We initially contacted 3P's through their website with a number of questions. We informed them we were looking for a new dive op and could only commit to 1 day of diving with them. If we were pleased, we'd probably dive the next 10 days with them if availability allowed. We received a response with all questions answered just a few hours later from Jeanie. It was also nice to receive a response the next day from the owner, Steve B., who was aware of what had taken place with our prior dive op and was looking forward to meeting us and delivering a superior level of service and dive experiences. As it turns out, quite a few divers from our prior dive op have found 3P’s and are now diving with them as well. SHOW ME ANOTHER DIVE OP WITH AN OWNER WHO PERSONALLY REPLIES TO EVERY SINGLE REVIEW POSTED ON TRIP ADVISOR! ‘Nuf said.
3) Courtesy transportation. 7:40AM at the in-town dive shop for the courtesy transport to the marina was no problem. As we always stay at the Casa Mexicana we were a bit concerned about having to be at the shop by 7:40AM but that fantastic breakfast buffet at the Casa (known as the best on the island) opened at 7:00AM sharp every day so we had 35 minutes to enjoy breakfast before our short 5 minute walk around the corner and to the back of the block where 3P’s shop is located. Some divers were also picked up from other hotels and all inclusive resorts that resided between town and the southern marina. It was especially interesting to see divers picked up from some all inclusive resorts where their ‘resort dollars’ or ‘resort credits’ could have been used for diving with the resort’s in-house dive operator yet these divers preferred to pay to dive with 3P’s and use their credits on other offerings. That says a great deal in itself.
4) Trust them with your gear. I am a stickler about our dive gear. I've never left it in the hands of a dive op (not even our prior op) and I cringe when I place it in the hands of an airline. Quite frankly, I don’t like others even touching it. However, I found a level of comfort with 3P’s and decided to give them a chance taking care of it. Well, every day all of our gear was on the boat having been fully rinsed. I can tell you it also smelled far better than it ever would have if we had been rinsing and hanging it daily ourselves. It was such a pleasure to show up at the boat and find all of our gear not only waiting for us but already set up. I’ve also never, ever allowed a dive op to set up our gear but our level of comfort was such that I trusted them with the set-up and only needed to perform a quick (yet somewhat anal) inspection of it all... No probs whatsoever. Upon returning from our dives it was great to walk away from it all and let the staff take care of it. It was like having two vacations for the price of one as we were often back to the marina shortly after noon and back at the Casa showering by 1PM. That left lots of time to relax & review UW photos taken that day, kick back by the pool with a cocktail or take a walk around town. The only decision to be made daily was where to eat dinner! Owner Steve B. and other divers on the boat all had recommendations that offered great food at a fraction of the cost of the well-known’s.
5) Courtesy gear maintenance. When we have encountered a couple of minor equipment issues that couldn’t be performed on the boat, we were informed they would be taken care of by Pony at the shop and our gear would be ready the next day for diving. Pony performed the maintenance free of charge (as there were no new parts needed other than an O-ring which he had in stock at the shop) and we were pleased to tip him for his services. Bottom line… If it goes under water Pony can probably fix it and if he can’t he knows who can and will do his best to get you back in the water without missing a dive.
6) The boats. Skinny Shark & Loan Shark. Skinny Shark & Loan Shark are set up for a maximum of 10 divers each. Both boats are powered by new, eco-friendly 4-stroke Yamaha 300HP outboards that don’t spew that 2-stroke oil into the water that other dive ops that have been “grand-fathered” still use. We dove from both boats and left the dive fleet behind every day and were always among the very first on the reefs. Skinny Shark is a bit wider than Loan Shark but both are equal in length and deliver equally smooth rides. Unless you are sporting 36”+ free-dive fins you’ll never experience that annoying fins-on-top-of-fins from the diver sitting across from you on either boat. I will also touch on a safety issue which is very important to us… In the rare event there was an dive emergency, both boats have full first aid kits, emergency O2 on board, and FUNCTIONING radios. I don’t want to be on a boat that lacks a fully stocked first aid kit, emergency O2, has to wait for 20 divers to all get back on board, and then plods along at 10MPH to a dock to then call paramedics from a land line. I want to be on a boat with a max of 10 divers that can run 40+ MPH at full throttle and have paramedics waiting for transport when the boat hits the dock.
7) The dive sites. Because the boats are still classified as "small" boats by capacity and are so fast, we enjoyed the best dive sites every day based on dive conditions and regardless of their distance from the marina. If you've been diving Cozumel for a while you know what I mean… There are the sites that save an operator fuel and time and there are the sites the best dive ops with the fast boats will get you to.
8) THE FREEDOM & ON BOARD ATTENTION! As others have stated, this a dive op “By Divers for Divers”. Owner Steve B. was diving with us almost every day! 3P’s offers experienced divers the freedom to dive their own profiles, computers and tanks. Divers are only limited by their own computers and air consumption. 1:00 to 1:20 dive times were the norm. Talk about bottom time and value for your dive dollar! Steve has selected his DM's and captains for their commitment to delivering a level of freedom experienced divers want. No dives ever held deep by the DM to limit bottom time and maximize air consumption… no games played whatsoever. You can dive deep and short or shallow and long. WE WERE NEVER SIGNALED IT WAS TIME TO SURFACE AS LONG AS WE HAD SUFFICIENT AIR AND OUR DIVE COMPUTERS INDICATED WE HAD TIME! This level of freedom truly sets 3P’s apart from most and they can do it because they leave early from the southern marina, have FAST boats and have DM's who consume as much air during a dive as a tire on my car loses in a year. On board you never need a helping hand as the Captain and DM’s are assisting you with all of your boarding and on-board needs.
9) Fellow divers with 3P's. Simply stated, a fantastic group of fellow divers. From new divers to highly experienced technical divers, all were represented. I would say the dive mix was probably 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. 1/3 were new or relatively new, 1/3 were “experienced” and the last 1/3 couldn’t find their old dust covered log book they lost track of years ago if their life depended on it. While a dive operation such as 3P's is going to attract more experienced divers by its nature, new and newer divers should not be afraid to dive with 3P’s and enjoy the same great experiences we have. For example, our most recent dive trip had a newer diver on board who was surfacing after 35-45 minutes. Well, that lasted all of 1 day and some suggestions from the more experienced divers during a surface interval had him pushing 1 hour bottom times immediately! I even surfaced before he did on one dive and asked him what the heck he was still doing in the water when he reached the ladder! That’s the benefit of being a newer diver among more experienced divers. See #10 below.
10) New/Newer divers. If you're coming down for your open water cert dives, have only a few dives logged, or could be new to drift diving, I say book 3P's and pay for a personal DM as several have done during our trips. You'll see the best sites the other operators won't get you to and for a few bucks you have the comfort of a personal DM until you feel comfortable. As the boats are generally 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3 as I described earlier, unless you are doing your check-out cert dives you can also basically enjoy a personal DM free of charge as the more experienced divers are going spread out a bit and dive their own dives. That leaves you with basically a free personal DM and no one kicking fins in your face. For those who believe there is safety in the numbers a “cattle boat” that crams 20 divers on board or may be fearful of a smaller boat with a smaller number of divers, I will tell you it’s far better to be one of the newest divers in a small group of “experienced” divers who all know how to watch out for each other and the group as a whole than to be one in a group of 20 who plan to dive one day during their trip, parasail the next day, swim with dolphins, tour the ruins, rent a dune buggy, and close out their last day with a massage… Just something to think about.
