Cancun Open water referral Dive Operator recommendations

[jeff33613]

Hello,
I am looking for a little help on picking out the right dive operator for us in Cancun. We are going in Spetember to Cancun. I am a 39 yo male, I have a 15 dives under my belt (AOW, deep diver) from 15 years ago, a few dives in between and my fiancee has none (38yo female, strong swimmer though). We are both getting recertified PADI and want to do the open water certification dives in Cancun (probably one day also in Cozumel if our skills are adequate). We are a little less adveturesome so are looking for a comfrotable, nice looking boat, atentive staff for the cert parts, and good equipment (we are just bring mask, snorkel, fins). We are going to be staying at the Le Meridian. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[dlndavid]

Welcome to the board Jeff, lots of information on Cancun here.

I used Scuba Cancun to do my OW cert dives, they were pretty good, boats Ok.
Here is a link that may be usefull, Have fun diving in Cancun, oh Cozumel too!
Did my first wall dive there, Palancar (100 ft on my 1st dive being certified for only 60 ft)

http://cancun.com/SCUBA/Courses/

 

[dazedone]

I dove with Scuba Cancun last month and was not impressed. Boats were OK and they have some good people working for them, but they put a bunch of OW referral students into the water with a ripping current, which I felt was rather unsafe. An independent instructor who took some of his students on the boat refused to put his students into the water eventhough the Scuba Cancun Instructors felt it was OK for their students. The ended up putting all the DM's in the water to pull all the students out of the water after the students started freaking out. To put students who have never been in the ocean before in into a current like that was irresponsible.

On our way to the Cenote dive, their van broke down and we were stuck in on the side of the road in the heat for 90 min.

I did not rent gear from them, but by the looks of their rental gear, I wouldn't use it.

Overall, I would say Scuba Cancun is not a very professional organization. I don't have experience with any other dive ops in Cancun, though I noticed Aquaworld had the nicest boats, though they did seem crowded.

Then again, it is Mexico, you have got to lower your expectations when you go there.

Good choice on the hotel. The concierge at the hotel I stayed at in Cancun used to work at the spa at Le Meridien and said it is a really nice place. The Spa is supposed to be the best in Cancun.

 

[RedddogK]

My husband and I were in Cancun at the begining of August and we dove with Manta Divers (www.mantadivers.com). They are a small operation and the Divemasters are very good. My husband and I went with about 13 dives under our belt and it was our first ocean dive. We even dove in Cozumel as well. We were very happy with them and will dive with them again when we go back to cancun.

 

[landlubber]

I used manta divers twice while i was in cancun in april.(booked my day coz. trip thru them as well)they are located right beside fat tuesdays in a flea market.i used thier rental eqip.and found it more than adequate.They seem to have endless boat problems however,our 1st charter we went out on a scuba cancun boat after sitting around thier shop for over an hour listening to john frantically call around to see if he could accomodate us(didn't care much as they have a nice beach in front of the shop)the 2nd trip they put thier own boat in the water,nice boat big+rear deck for easy entry+exit(no backflip off the side)unfortunately the boat crapped out on the way back+spewed diesel all over the place my gear reeked for 2 weeks after+we had to get towed in which took about an additional 2 hrs(i was a little peeved by then)you are right they do have excellent dm's,attentive,helpful+friendly.their dm's also do not make u go up when the 1st guy blows his tank off they will just send him+his buddy up and stay with u until you reach 700-800 psi.
if they say they will pick u up at your hotel don't believe it!!the 1st day he was about 45min late+the 2nd day didn't show up at all!!they did let us re-schedule without a problem.some advice:1.bring some sea sick pills cause i saw more than one person feed the fish on our charters.
2.be ready for some current as all dives around cancun seem to have current.
3.book your dives at the shop. some dude showed up at their shop with some receipt showing he booked his dives thru some mall kiosk.john had no idea what he was talking about.i'm not sure how this panned out but i think he was probably S.O.L.
BOTTOM LINE:I would use manta divers again as everyone is really friendly,they operate with a safety 1st attitude(rare in mexico)and although i had a few issues with them they did accomodate my concerns in the end.

 

[dazedone]

...They seem to have endless boat problems however,our 1st charter we went out on a scuba cancun boat after sitting around thier shop for over an hour listening to john frantically call around to see if he could accomodate us(didn't care much as they have a nice beach in front of the shop)the 2nd trip they put thier own boat in the water,nice boat big+rear deck for easy entry+exit(no backflip off the side)unfortunately the boat crapped out on the way back+spewed diesel all over the place my gear reeked for 2 weeks after+we had to get towed in which took about an additional 2 hrs(i was a little peeved by then)...

What you just talked about is so typical in Mexico. They have no idea how to maintain motor vehicles, dive boats are crappy and the cabs always break down. There is a reason why mexico is so cheap...

 

[TNBama]

I dove last year with Manta Divers. I highly recommend not diving with them. My tank air was definitely foul. When I mentioned this to the dive master he correctly asked "does it taste oily" and then said that they had been having problems with it. Service was okay, but Ive had much better. When we returned, the owner asked us if we would be back the next day. When we said we were flying out the next day, he was very rude and obviously "dismissed" us.

There are plenty of other dive shops in Cancun, so I highly recommend avoiding these two.

 

[Tucker_2004]

I did my 4 open water dives with Scuba Cancun and found them to be great! I have also dove with Solo Boceo and I would go with Scuba Cancun any day of the week. When I dove with Solo we ended up doing a wreck dive (c55 at 80ft) and they didn't even tell us that we would be going inside and through the wreck until we were underwater. It was cool to do but I would have liked the heads up before the dive started. I would stay away from Aquaworld as I've heard lots of bad things. By the way, all the dives in Cancun and Cozumel pretty much have current.

 

[catbrown]

Never lower your expectations aabout dive resorts some of us are trying to raise the standard and want the rest to follow so don't put up with rubbish...the weather has been bad lately but there is no reason to put people in strong current or high surges, we will always cancel dives on these dives and do our best to talk you into cenote diving which is an awesome experience

 

[thetash]

My wife and I dove with Manta Divers in July 2004. We had the same experience as referenced above-->communication / pickup issues, boat problems, and the owner was very negative about the business and Cancun in general.

The DM's were nice. They did send the air suckers up in pairs and give others more bottom time. We chased some dolphins on the way back one day and they offered to let us snorkel with the dolphins, but it went by too quick.

Lief was great for the Cenote dives and the food was fabulous. I would go back there again with Lief. Make sure you eat lots of the hottest sauce!!! Yummy!!! One negative was that on our first ocean dive, Lief was not very clear explaining that it was not a normal drift dive and to stay really close to him. One couple drifted off (but still in eyeshot) and he was banging his tank like mad trying to get their attention to stay close. When we got back on the boat, he was kind of miffed. I felt like the next site he picked (like 25-30 ft.) was sort of baby scuba because of how the first dive went. But hey, my wife loved that site, go figure! In the middle of it, we got flanked by a squadron of alien looking scuba scooter things attatched to a boat.

The wreck dive was fun. We penetrated through the wreck sideways. You could see the entry and exit the whole time. It was tight enough where you needed decent buoyancy though.

Bottom line. Cenote trip recommended but we would probably try someone else for the rest. Also, we would definitely have stayed in Cozumel rather than Cancun if we hadn't had free lodging given to us.