Barcelo Maya resort shore dives?

[Top_Shot_ar15]

I have an email out to a Dressel Divers who operate the dive shop at the Barcelo Maya resort , but with them stationed in Spain email has been lagging a bit to get info. I do see some great reviews for them on the boards and TripAdvisor.

Quick question as I am doing my homework and await responses , anyone have experience diving directly from the beach at the resort ( Barcelo Maya). My son and I are taking our gear and would love to do some shallow shore dives while the rest of the Fam snorkels (we did this in Maui and what a blast / we would surface swim and snorkel with the fam to our dive spot and then head down while the fam snorkeled).

Now we are looking at booking some excursions to do some boat dives and possibly a Cenote dive as well , wouldnt miss out on that for nothing , but thought it would be great fun diving rather than snorkeling right at the resort.

Any feedback or experiences are welcome , thanks for the time

 

[Sasha_RI]

Barcelo Maya has no shore diving options (but you do have some snorkeling). Dressel Divers are not bad: I’ll rate them 7/8 from 10. If you want to dive with them it's cheaper to buy package before you come and yes – you email to Spain to do so. They usually have 3 dives a day (plus night dive 2 times a week) and you can sign to any of these dives if you wish (or none) using dives from your package. They also make trips to Cozumel, bull shark dives (November-February I think), and cenotes.

If you want to use different operator you’ll have small logistic problem: resort would not allow them to pick you up from the lobby (but they allow to drop you there on the way back after the dive). So you have to walk with your gear for few minutes (7-10) to get out of resorts (there are 5 resorts in complex, so it’s big). It’s definitely very convenient just to walk to Dressel Divers hut, put you gear there and walk to the pier for a boat.

I usually dive locally with Dressel Divers and use operators from Playa for my cenote dives. It’s mostly because Dressel’s dive only in a couple cenotes and I’ve been there many times already.

It’s a great hotel and good diving as well. I am coming back right after Thanksgiving.

Have a good time in Barcelo!

 

[kj23]

My husband and I were at the Barcelo Palace 2 weeks ago. There was no shore diving but decent snorkeling at the Palace Beach. We saw turtles and stingray and my 6 year old daughter was able to snorkel and feed a turtle a banana. We ended up doing a 2 tank dive with Dive Aventuras. They had complimentary pickup in our lobby and transportation back to the hotel. It was about a 5 minute drive to the shop. We wanted to do a 2 tank dive and Dressel only had single tank dives available the day we wanted. I chose the shop from reviews I saw on this forum and they didn’t disappoint. I saw my first sea horse. We also had a huge eagle ray that swam around us during the 2nd dive and a huge turtle as well.