Question Cancun (Westin) for 6 days, wife non-diver; suggestions?

[Torontonian]

This is to report back on my trip. Our stay at Westin Resorts & Spa Cancun was good. As a Plat we got upgraded, and comp'ed breakfast. Cancun's restaurant prices were surprising high, but the local buses were frequent and inexpensive (just less than US$1)

On Mon. 2023.12.4, my wife and I took the local bus to Scuba Cancun's shop, to go out diving/snorkeling. There were 20+ people on boat and I was at first concerned, but the boat was spacious enough.

I did confirm with the op that there will be a guide in the water with snorkelers, before my wife would agree to come as a snorkeler. It turned out she was the only snorkeler, My wife was the only snorkeler, and I did confirm with the shop that there'd be a guide in water before convincing my wife to come together. There in deed was a guide kind of towing a buoy that my wife held onto. My wife did enjoy the snorkeling.

For the divers, there were many student/beginners, and 7 of us in the certified divers group. The guide Roberto was good in explanations, but didn't put us into buddies/groups, just a big group of 7 divers, plus another guide who was supposedly just quietly following us (seems like an experienced DM, but new in this place). It resulted in a lot of bumping into each other.

The first site was MUSA, underwater museum of statues. It was neat to see a VW car, and a bunch of statues. We then came up for SI, then to the 2nd site which is a reef (forgot the name). It was not bad, but not something I'd go back for.

At the end, Roberto said there is a jar (conch shell) for tips to the captain and other helpers on boat, and tips to him can be given directly to him. I had bills ready to give to to him originally thinking there'd be sharing, and told him I didn't have other small bills to give to others. He just took it and said others get enough. Oh well.

Oh, I wore my 3mm long wetsuit. It turned out fine. I asked Roberto and he said for cenote I should wear a 3mm shortie on top, so that's what I asked the FD staff to bring for me for next day's cenote diving.

 

[Torontonian]

For Tue., 2023.12.5, I went for a day of 2-tank cenote diving. It was a Chac Mool. There are 3 sites there, we did Little Brother, and Air dome, from the same entrance. The 3rd site was Kukulcan.

I was picked up at 8:10am (supposed to be 8) by Cesar in a ScubaCancun van. There was one other diver. We stopped at a plaza to pick up the Cenote and tech Instructor Chris, and loaded some gears. We then picked up 2 more divers (who were from Ottawa, not far from me in Toronto) at another resort in PDC. Chris then explained another diver will meet us at the site. It turned out these 2 + 1 divers booked directly with Chris.

We then went to pick up tanks.

Chris said our own gopros are not allowed, as there is an onsite photographer. Too bad, I would've wanted to take some pic/videos. As he can only take up to 4 divers, he divided us into 2 groups, 3 and 2. Chris said the 2 divers (from Ottawa) will do the 3rd dive.

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The place was busy with many divers. Chris was it is high season now. Well, the Little Brother was quite good. The place we came to, looked to an opening in the cavern where we see trees and sunlight. We surfaced briefly before continuing.

Chris had two tanks with him, wearing a 9mm long. When we finished out dive, the other 2 divers were there waiting, and Chris just continued with them.

After 1/2hr, Cesar told us to suit up to get ready for the 2nd dive. So after a 45min SI, we went with Chris for the dive to the Air Dome. This dive was also neat, and we surfaced in an air dome in the cavern.
After this dive, the other 2 divers were ready to go immediately with Chris for their dive.

We climbed the short flight of stairs back, then Cesar brought a small sub made by the small onsite shack. It was a very simple, with cheese and ham. Not very filling, glad I brought something else.

The other 2 divers decided not to do the 3rd dive, and we heard the 3rd site isn't that good. So headed back out earlier than previously thought. I actually got off by Westin Lagunamar where the other diver stayed. I crossed the street to walked around La Isla Shopping center, and grabbed a quick bite from MacDonalds.

 

[Torontonian]

For Thr., 2023.12.7, I was picked up on time at 8am, then picked up another diver shortly, then Chris, and more tanks. Chris said there will be 5 divers to meet us at Dos Ojos.

All the other 6 people booked with Chris directly, only I booked with ScubaCancun. They either dove with Chris before or heard about him. Chris was a good guide.

So we have total 7 divers, divided into two groups, with me being in the first group of 4 people. Again, Chris took each of four groups of divers one after another. Each dive was 35-40min.

There were lots of divers. From the same entrance, we first went to the East Eye. Second dive to the left to West Eye. Both were quite neat, with lots of stalagmites.

Chris said he started with Chac Mool the previous time (with me and some others) because it was a bigger more open place, where as some of the passages are more narrow in Dos Ojos.

The previous time 2 days before, they did not have a 3mm shortie XL for me. I did ask them to bring one, because in the 2nd dive I was beginning to feel chill. This time they did have a very well worn shortie for me, and I wore it over my 3mm Long for both dives.

The rental gears were old. I decided not to bring my own fin/booties (less to carry) and used their full foot fins. Today one fin had a one-ch crack/split. When I pointed this out, Cesar says in cenote diving we don't kick much so these are fine. The rental depth gauge didn't work. When I mentioned this to Chris, he said that's normal (it shouldn't be). The butt dump rope was missing so I couldn't do butt dump. There were also times when I pressed the air release button to let air out, no air would come out and I'd continue to ascend until I was pressing against top of the cavern. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, or the air release button had some issue.

At this site, there is no restriction of using gopro (which I didn't know, otherwise would've brought my gopro with handle).

This site was further away from Cancun, 15min from Tulum. So it was a longer day. When we were dropping Chris off, I asked if we can buy some food from a food-court style Chinese restaurant. Cesar said sure. It turned out all 3 of us bought containers of food there.