Casa del Mar Dive Center, Fajardo, PR, Trip Report December 24, 2011

[jlevine]

I visited Casa del Mar (Scuba Puerto Rico | Scuba Diving Puerto Rico | Dive Puerto Rico | Casa del Mar Dive Center) just before Christmas for a two-tank trip to the local area. i made reservations on the shop's website only three days before and received a call the next day. Maria was very helpful with placing the reservations and e-mailed me directions from San Juan. The shop called me the day before to reconfirm the reservation - a nice touch.

The shop is at the El Conquistador Resort Marina. The marina can be accessed without going through the resort but get the directions beforehand because it's a little tough to find it. The shop is really well organized and very clean.

We boarded their 46' boat (I believe it was called "Day Off") and received a thorough coast guard and dive procedure briefing. We then traveled to the site. After the dive briefing, I entered the water and had trouble with my BCD. The staff helped me but I decided to sit out the first dive. After a few minutes, everyone came back to the boat. The dive leader had "called" the dive because of poor visibility due to previous wind storms. We went to another location but the visibility was bad as well. So, that dive was called.

So what did the shop do? They gave everyone the option of a complete refund or to go to a longer two tank trip to Vieques Island the next day. I had to take the refund because I had other plans. I have only rarely seen such a commitment to customer service at a dive shop like this. To give a complete refund even though the shop spent money on fuel is almost unheard of. Because of this, I will definitely go back to Casa del Mar if I choose to dive in Fajardo again.

I wish I could say something about the diving itself, but I can't. I can say that this shop has outstanding service.

By the way: I met "irmo," another Scubaboard member. Hi Irmo!

 

[irmo]

I'll second JLevine's (great meeting you!)review of Casa Del Mar. They were great. We had a beautiful day… except for the 16 mph steady wind and the 3-4 ft chop. And these were the improved conditions! Casa did a great job, they really tried to get us in the water. They even went down, searched for and found one of the divers weights when it fell off. We can't go to Vieques either today, family commitments etc. I will definitely call casa del mar again. Maria, who does their reservations is fantastic and helpful too.

 

[irmo]

Casa Del Mar part II - I was able to get back to Casa Del Mar on 12/27. We had a beautiful day, much calmer seas (2 ft swells, no white caps) and much improved visibility. The folks at Casa loaded us on "Day Off" again. We had 2 groups of certified divers and a class working on certification which the crew kept separate. We were grouped and buddied by experience level.

Our first site was called Sandslide. You drop into 15ft. of water and then swim down a sandy "slide" to a reef. Visibility was 30 to 35 ft. The reef and sea grasses etc are healthy. There is not what I would call abundant fish in terms of numbers, but there are plenty of larger fish in good variety. we saw sea turtles, Jack, Snapper, Lobster and a wide variety of smaller reef fish. We saw one Lion Fish. Max depth for me was about 64 ft. All in all a very pleasant dive, that I enjoyed.

The second site was (I believe) one of the sites near Cayo Diablo. We descended in 25 ft and swam over to a reef face and down to 50 ft along the side of the reef. Once someone reaches 50% air you swim back up and over the top of the reef at 25 to 30 ft returning to the boat. The was a greater concentration of fish at this site, we also saw barracuda in addition to the species from the first site. Someone also saw an eel. Visibility here was 35 to 40 ft.

The group at Casa is great. They are all attentive, up beat and want you to be safe and have fun.