Aquaworld in Cancun?

[No Fish]

Does anyone have any diving experience with Aquaworld in Cancun? We are thinking of staying at the Copacabana and I think they are the dive operator there.

Thanks

 

[Kat]

You needed to post this in Mexico - not in Caribbean.
Don't repost, a Moderator will move this over to Mexico & I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses then.

Is the resort your thinking about staying at the Copacabana Beach Resort Riviera Maya? If it is, FYI it is not in Cancun. It is about an hour south, past Playa del Carmen and is near Akumal, on Xpu-Ha Beach. It is between the Xpu-Ha Palace Resort & the El Dorado Resort.

Don't have any experiance w/ that dive op, however, sorry.

 

[DocVikingo]

(nt)

 

[No Fish]

Thanks for the move.

 

[JohnF]

No Fish once bubbled...
Does anyone have any diving experience with Aquaworld in Cancun? We are thinking of staying at the Copacabana and I think they are the dive operator there.

Thanks

I believe they're the biggest op in the Caribbean. AW has a large marina on the Lagoon in the Hotel Zone and they also run a dive boat (boats?) on Coz. Most of their boats are large, in the style lovingly referred to as cattle boats. But they really aren't bad if you're a normal tourist diver type. The boats are big and stable and the crew always obliging. They put DM's in the water with you and the dives tend to be 35 minutes and back to the boat. This is obviously geared to a couple of things. One, it shortens the time on the water for the staff and the boat, and two, invariably there'll be someone on the dive who can suck down an al80 in 35 minutes, even at a max depth of 40-60'.

From Cancun they run a lot of different dive trips starting first thing in the morning and working thru the day into the evening, then finishing with night dives. They probably still run an afternoon single tanker to the Isla Mujeres side or just out to Chitales for a 25-30' dive. There'll be some resort course divers on this sometimes, but it can be an easy warmup dive if you feel a little rusty and Chitales is a great spot to see Sting Rays. First trip in the morning is a two tanker which can include the minesweepers and/or the reefs off Punta Cancun.

The AW guy at our resort has been great about letting us borrow a tank to jump in our resort pool if we have freshly serviced regs to test, or if someone just wants to renew the feel of the gear.

I'll go out on their boats any time because it's really handy for me from our resort and I'm not a very demanding diver. I'm happy to get in, get wet, and see some pretty fishies. If I have too much air left over after 35 minutes, that's okay. I haven't forgotten the days when I was one of the folks who came back to the boat early.

I have a few recommendations if you're thinking of doing a night dive though. Based on my experience last January, the best advice I can give you about night diving with them is .... don't. Not unless you're very comfortable with the feeling of being basically on your own in a black bumpy ocean a few miles off shore.

Maybe I just hit a bad night. The sea was pretty rough, but manageable with 4-5 footers. In the water was a mess. The dive plan went out the window within seconds of us hitting the water. The dude who was supposed to be leading the dive was already headed for the bottom by the time my buddy and I were able to hit the water. We knew he would want to get down fast because of the current but we didn't want to stomp on the folks in front of us.

In any event we all ended up together on the bottom. Then the leader decided for some reason to drop back behind us. The current was pretty strong and a couple of inexperienced divers were basically just being bowled along the bottom.

My buddy and I tried for a few minutes to keep the trailing "leader" in sight and still stay in touch with the front of the group, but he wasn't making much attempt to stay with us. We dropped back to see if he was okay and he seemed to be. I guess he was just exploring the reef. My buddy and I moved back in between the front runners and the "leader" and held that position just drifting along over the sand (we'd missed the reef drop) till we saw the front group start to ascend without us. The plan was to gather and surface together. Of course the plan was to follow the leader and keep the group tight. Buddy and I then did a gradual ascent watching the lights of the front runners and keeping an eye on the "leader" as he dicked about on the reef. He couldn't have cared less where the rest of the group went. I wasn't a happy camper and really had to bite my tongue not to spout off at him when we got back on the boat. Three of the less experienced divers were afraid to go in for the second dive. They were pretty rattled by their experience but didn't realize that a lot of the problem was just the lousy organization of the dive and the sea conditions. Everyone lived. 8)

Fortunately that's not the kind of service AW provides on the daylight dives and hopefully it's not the norm for night dives. If anything, during the day dives the crew is overly solicitous and rides herd on the divers perhaps too well. I have no qualms about sending anyone out with them during the day. Just bear in mind it's babysitting diving, but that's not always a bad thing. It's still diving and the fishies are pretty. Well, mebbe not the sharks, but they're pretty cool.

Have a great holiday
and dive safe
JohnF

 

[razor]

I dove with AquaWorld and it was not a bad experience. There were 15 people in 3 groups of 5 divers. The boat was huge and very comfortable and the DM was very accomondating. I saw 15 people and instantly thought cattle boat but it was not bad. I dont have a lot of dives (16) but We were very happy after the dive.

You have to try the Cenote dives-Chock Mal was great.

 

[newdiverAZ]

i dove with them about 2-1/2 years ago on my first ever resort dive <cringe>. I thought they were pretty good. There was a french guy who was really good, and a Canadian kid that was alot of fun, I think his name was Brian. They did a good enough job to get me hooked for life. I even have an old video of it, what an eye opener to look at now lol.

 

[Ice]

Hope this recommendation is not too late. I was in Cancun last month and went to dive with AW, excellente service, my recommendation is Try the cavern dive, if you haven't yet, is something you won't forget in long time, little expensive (specially if you take de videographer service) but an absolutly have to.

 

[No Fish]

I appreciate the help.