Aqua Dives is below par

[therealwwdiver]

I just returned from Belize yesterday and used Aqua Dives for all but 2 of my dives. I found all of their dm's to be very professional and extremely proficient divers. They did what I paid them to do: drove me to the dive sites safely, led the way around the reefs, and returned us to the dock. When the boats had large groups they split everyone into smaller groups. The only hiccup was the lack of one nitrox tank but they told me they lost power and couldn't get the fills. To me this was believable as the island lost power 4 times while we were there. Admittedly this was my first trip to Belize (but definitely not the last) so I don't really have any comparison point.

 

[peterbj7]

Great you enjoyed yourself, but why re-activate this thread? It would have been better if you'd started a fresh one.

 

[robint]

Well, this is my first post and I feel bad for it being a little negative but here goes:
My friends and I did a trip to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye in Belize. We stayed at Casa Caracol which is owned by a guy named Phil who was very helpful with everything. We went through Aqua Dives because they had a PADI 5-star rating and, well, they were cheaper than the rest.
Their services were slightly lacking: one instructor left us to do our safety stop by ourselves (we are not beginners so we did the stop just fine). another instructor told us not to touch anything yet wrangled a nurse shark and a sting ray so that the group could take pics and pet them. all instructors swam sooooo slow (I understand it's supposed to be slow and calm but, c'mon, my 90-year old grandmother could swim faster than that!). Last but not least, on our last day of diving we went to Turneffe Atolle and, I swear, instead of doing 3 different dive sites, they brought us to the same dive site 3 times!!
All in all, they were not terrible but I definitely feel like safety was not at the top of their priority list and the instructors didn't seem remotely interested in showing us all there was to see.
I rate them a C- and suggest you listen to the others and go with Ecologic or Amigos del Mar.

back to the OP and his comments......

wow, the DM went as slow as a grandmother.......PERFECT!!!!! That is the way I like it. I hate hate hate when a DM tries to cover miles of reef on a dive. I want to stop and look at things, take photos and video of things. I am constantly being left behind a group and having to swim hard to catch up over and over. That is one reason I prefer to dive without a DM (like a liveaboard offers, or shore diving).

and the only place I have ever been where the DM stayed in the water to hold everyone's hand during the safety stops was Palau... but that was because we had to stay together because of the raging current and fear of being swept out to sea and lost.

Just my 2 cents.
robin

 

[The Chairman]

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