Blue Angel vs. Dive With Martin

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

Gordon, when you say Blue Angel serves you water on board before and between dives, are you also saying they tend to do surface intervals on the boat rather than taking you to one of the beaches (their website indicates surface intervals are at the beach)? I have memories of diving one trip years ago with La Ceiba's house op, which did really fast surface intervals on the boat, leaving us not enough time to off-gas properly so the second dive was always really chintzy. I know we won't be granted the legendary bottom times of the big-tank ops, but I hope to get in some solid, longish dives as my air and computer deco limits allow. Otherwise, I'm good with competent, friendly, no-frills operations. Although I believe DWM did sometimes offer fruit between dives, I think mostly according to their own whims, last time we were with them.

 

[okiejeff]

I have memories of diving one trip years ago with La Ceiba's house op, which did really fast surface intervals on the boat, leaving us not enough time to off-gas properly so the second dive was always really chintzy.

Not Gordon here, but I can say that one day they were headed to the beach for some off-gasing followed by a nearby shore dive. The divers on board decided to try a 2nd dive further north so we took a slow ride from one of the Palancar reefs up to Tormentos. The rest of the week pretty much followed the SI on boats due to dive site selection; however, if we wanted to hit a close by beach and SI on the beach I have no doubt they would have delivered. They took out group as far south as Marcaibo Shallows so distance to dive sites was not an issue either.

They did not serve snacks between dives, but did provide water before the first dive and after dives. DWM used to provide fresh fruit.

 

[ggunn]

Gordon, when you say Blue Angel serves you water on board before and between dives, are you also saying they tend to do surface intervals on the boat rather than taking you to one of the beaches (their website indicates surface intervals are at the beach)? I have memories of diving one trip years ago with La Ceiba's house op, which did really fast surface intervals on the boat, leaving us not enough time to off-gas properly so the second dive was always really chintzy. I know we won't be granted the legendary bottom times of the big-tank ops, but I hope to get in some solid, longish dives as my air and computer deco limits allow. Otherwise, I'm good with competent, friendly, no-frills operations. Although I believe DWM did sometimes offer fruit between dives, I think mostly according to their own whims, last time we were with them.

This last trip (May) we did some SI's on the beach and some on the boat, depending on the distance between the two sites. They were always sufficiently long for my computer to allow a long second dive. I never felt rushed to either get in the water or out of it on the second dive.

 

[MMM]

I did a few dives with Blue Angel a couple of weeks ago. SIs were on the boat. I have a Suunto computer which is very conservative so I dive nitorox on the 2nd dive. My dive times were generally in the 60-80 minute range for all dives. They send divers up as they run out of air but I was fortunate enough to be placed on a boat with good divers.

 

[sharky60]

We have dove with both operations for several years, much like you we dove with Martin when we stayed at La Ceiba and when they wen time share and out priced us, (and the time share salesmen pretty much in no uncertain terms told us find another place to stay if we did buy with him...true story), we moved up the road to Caribe Blu, our new Cozumel home.

The 2 dive ops are quite comperable. Both dive ops are top notch in my book, the DM's and captains do a great job. The boats are in good condition and get you there and back safely. The shops are good about working with you on re-scheduling days, if once you get there and want to change things around, given proper notice of course.

Both are pretty much "no frills" diving, they provide a boat & captain, DM and required equipment (tanks and rentals). Occationally a DM will bring some fruit on board for snacks but that is not the norm.

Martin leaves early if you are an early bird, 7:30 I belive.

Blue Angel leaves at 8:30, good for me and my wife who are NOT morning people.

The convienence of the dive op being on site at Caribe Blu is a major plus when it comes to scheduling, equipment storage and setteling up the bill. The hotel/dive package is hard to beat in price also, although Dive with Martin has always had one of the lowest cash only prices on the island.

I really don't think you could go wrong with either choice.