Barcelo Palace scheduled, need dive shop

[vhs]

I will staying at Barcelo Palace and I am looking for a SMALL dive operation that takes no more than 6 divers out at a time. I would be diving at least 3 days of 2-4 tanks/day and a night dive. I would need to be picked up and dropped off at the resort. I have all my own equipment. Any recommendation for good dive operations. Thank you.

 

[stano]

I stayed there and dove with the shop on site. Diving wasn't great there or with them. Resort is nice however. There isn't tons around this resort. Playa has several ops however.

Also very good snorkeling to the far left of the Palace beach. Seen several turtles, tons of fish, coral just snorkeling. Good luck have a great time.

Stano

 

[Zeke XA3]

Dressel Divers are the on site scuba cozumel, scuba playa del carmen, scuba punta cana, jamaica diving: www.dresseldivers.com

Small groups, biggest boat used to hold 12 max, but thats when they are really busy so depends what time of year you are there really. They have the pier in the resort and leave twice a day for two and one tanks dives. Usually very high quality service even if the dive sites are "lacking" by some peoples standards. They can also organise trips to the cenotes and Cozumel which are well worth it. Id suggest a check out dive from the hotel and a day at each of Cozumel and the Cenotes!

Not sure if the Playa Del Carmen people would do pick ups from where you are but the taxis are cheap, and night dives were not on offer last time i was around with Dressel youll have to organise that with a playa mob. Id recomend someone like Mexico Blue Dream (Mexico Blue Dream, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

 

[Misty]

I can recommend Aquanauts in Puerto Aventuras. They do not pick up, but it is a short taxi away...5 mins max. They are a small dive shop with a great group of people. We have dove with them for quite a while now and love them.
We have stayed in Puerto Aventuras, (which is how we found them to begin with), and stayed at the Barcelo and feel that it is worth the extra money (for the taxi) to go to Aquanauts.

 

[TSandM]

My friends who live down there have recommended Dive with Natalie and Ivan, and I have sent students to them who have come home very satisfied. I don't know if they pick up, but you could contact them and ask.

 

[cddfamily]

VHS, agree with Misty

Just came back from staying at the Barcelo for our 2nd time. Both times I dove with Aquanauts at nearby Puerto Aventuras instead of Dressels on site. Taxi is ~ 11$ one way from Barcelo to PV, but I only took it the first day to get my gear to the shop. The other days I took the collectivo [local shuttle] for 20 pesos. Take Barcelo's shuttle or walk to the front entrance and catch the colectivo there. They run every 5 to 10 minutes. Another 5 minutes to PV + a nice 5 to 10 min walk to the marina. The folks at Aquanauts will take you back the first time and show where to get on and off the shuttle.

I dove a week+ and ~ 75% of the customers were repeat biz and the other 25% were referals - says alot for the service and experience. They are bottom time oriented and you dive your computer/skills. They are very accomodating and safety oriented. The reefs are only 5 to 15min away, so this is easy diving. July water temp was 84F /rash guard; no wet suit. 6 to 8 divers max. We grouped up by skill and desire. Sometimes the entire boat dove the same location. Sometimes we dropped off at three different spots - like I said customer oriented. You will not get this at the resort. The resorts group new divers and experienced divers together with the least common denominator setting the bottom time. I let Aquanauts know i wanted a night dive and they set it up. They also had a number of advanced skills courses in progress, optimized to people's schedules and skills. If you have the buoyancy control, I recommend doing a cenotes dive at the end. Awesome experience and a great fresh water rinse of your gear. Avoid the resort cenote guides - we met two of them at one cenote and it was a cluster-F. We got in ahead of them and took our time. Had a short surface interval and was about to start our second dive when they were returning with another group. That meant they dove two caverns and transitted back and forth to the hotels in the same time we dove one cavern and had 30 minute SI. They could not have spent more than 15 to 20 min in the water. Search the scubaboards/google and you will see nothing but praise for Nick and Mauricio as divers and instructors. I was so happy withthe experience I left a oustanding review for them on TripAdvisor. I also attached some cenote photos. Even with my poor photo skills, the awesomeness can be seen in the pictures.

If you go with them, say hi from Cliff