Casa del mar diving center in puerto rico sucks, do not go

[hysterix]

Casa del mar dive shop, is by far the most unorganized, terrible diving group I've ever had the displeasure of working with. I went to their website, and observed a few diving packages, that involve a 2 tank dive, and a room. They have 5, and 7 day packages generally. I first made an inquiry almost two weeks ago. Got no response after a few days. I called them, nobody picks up, and you can't leave a message.

Finally after calling them for a week straight, I got a hold of someone, and was told my package was being created, to "wait five minutes", and we'll call you back. I never got called back. So I called them back after waiting a few hours, and asked about how my package was coming along; I was told now I would receive an email when it was completed.

Waited a day, another day, another day, another day, no response. Finally I contact them again, and ask how long it generally to takes create a package, and was told that my package needed to be booked through the hotel. This is absoultely false, because I contacted the hotel itself weeks earlier (luckily el con is easily to get a hold of), and explained my situation to the concierge. They explained to me quite clearly, that any and all diving packages needs to be directly made through casa del mar itself, AND NOT the hotel.

I was being given a run around.

Casa del mar, you suck. I was ready to literally spend thousands of dollars on a vacation get-away, and instead of one paying customer, you now have one very pissed of would-be customer, who wants to tell anybody, and everybody how crappy the service at casa del mar is, and hopefully prevent some poor soul waste two weeks of their time like I did, attempting to book a package with this sub-par diving organization.

If anyone has any recommendations to a padi center that doesn't suck, I'd love to hear it because I'm still going to puerto rico at the end of the month.

Thanks all for allowing me to rant my feelings.

 

[GillScales]

Yeah, why are all the carribbean operators so apathetic about booking people at the height of hurricane season? You'd think they would want all the business they could get. What gives?

 

[jordanmk23]

I just get back from Puerto Rico and I have a blast. I do not recommend it for hard core divers since the majority of the dives sites are nice, but not comparable to Bonaire or Asia. However, Puerto Rico offers something that others destinations cannot offer: many family activities, luxury hotels and numerous outdoor activities.

We visit the rainforest, a must do activity, beautiful hiking and waterfalls, we visit the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo, it was okay, but too crowded , we went zip lining and of course visited Old san Juan and many white sand beaches in Luquillo and Vieques. It was a great trip for my whole family

Now, let’s talk about diving: I dove with several dive operators since we stayed there for two weeks. La Casa del Mar and Sea ventures in Fajardo and Island Scuba Puerto Rico in Guanica.

Island Scuba is a small operation well organized with a small boat and nice dive sites, but nothing special to mention above any other dive operator in the Caribbean. The divemaster was paying more attention about taking pictures than taking care of the divers.

Sea ventures, they have two shops, one in Fajardo and one in Humacao. The boats were not well maintained plus the service is average to poor. We were not able to dive in Fajardo since they did not have enough people and they canceled the trip. We were told the same day….We dove in Humacao even that weather was not very good and seas were very rough, the boat was a jet boat so, the ride was not fun but the sites are not too far. The sites were nice with enough sea life to enjoy but very bad visibility. Service onboard was not really good, just average.

La Casa del Mar, they are located on a luxury hotel, a Waldorf Astoria, so that give us, some expectations about the service and we were not wrong. The service that these guys provide is remarkable; they really go the extra mile to make the divers feel comfortable. They provide a clean towel after diving, offer water and refreshments during all the trip, chips, salsa and great fruit salads platter.

We went out 3 days with them. We dove Culebra, one hour ride on a very clean Newton 46’. The dives were nice, typically Caribbean sea life and decent visibility. Onboard we have a great lunch, refreshments, fruits, bread and even free beer after the last dive. After the dives, we did make a stop in Luis Pena, a beautiful white and beach and we were the only ones there. A beautiful day and so relaxing. It is so great to find people that they really enjoy making customers feel happy.

Second day we dove Diablo and it was great since a very short ride from the Hotel and the dive was good enough, clear water and large amount of small creatures but what really make our day it was a manatee who join us the whole dive . Service onboard was as great as the day before.

Third day, Saturday, we dove in St Thomas, we left casa del mar at 7:00 am and the fast Newton 46’ take us to the first site in 2 hours. I will say that this site, sail rock is a world class diving, 100’ + visibility, 150’ deep pinnacles , large fish, nurse sharks and many turtles keep you busy the whole dive. Second dive was even better , we dove a wreck WIT Shoal, a 360’ long wreck with a lot of selife and good areas to penetrate. It was an amazing dive. Back onboard the same first class services and we did a 2 hours stop in St Thomas for tax free shopping and lunch. It was great.

 

[Mark Derail]

I've had similar wonderful experience in March 2006 - though I wasn't a diver back then. The "Bio Bay" in Fajardo (it's in a lagoon, you go by kayak, at night) was unbelievable.
El Yunque forest, the Coqui frogs (in March!!!)

I plan on trying out shoredives with a local guide, instead of always taking a boat trip.

ScubaBoard.com needs a dedicated PR sub-forum !!!

I just get back from Puerto Rico and I have a blast. I do not recommend it for hard core divers since the majority of the dives sites are nice, but not comparable to Bonaire or Asia. However, Puerto Rico offers something that others destinations cannot offer: many family activities, luxury hotels and numerous outdoor activities.

We visit the rainforest, a must do activity, beautiful hiking and waterfalls, we visit the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo, it was okay, but too crowded , we went zip lining and of course visited Old san Juan and many white sand beaches in Luquillo and Vieques. It was a great trip for my whole family

Now, let’s talk about diving: I dove with several dive operators since we stayed there for two weeks. La Casa del Mar and Sea ventures in Fajardo and Island Scuba Puerto Rico in Guanica.

Island Scuba is a small operation well organized with a small boat and nice dive sites, but nothing special to mention above any other dive operator in the Caribbean. The divemaster was paying more attention about taking pictures than taking care of the divers.

Sea ventures, they have two shops, one in Fajardo and one in Humacao. The boats were not well maintained plus the service is average to poor. We were not able to dive in Fajardo since they did not have enough people and they canceled the trip. We were told the same day….We dove in Humacao even that weather was not very good and seas were very rough, the boat was a jet boat so, the ride was not fun but the sites are not too far. The sites were nice with enough sea life to enjoy but very bad visibility. Service onboard was not really good, just average.

La Casa del Mar, they are located on a luxury hotel, a Waldorf Astoria, so that give us, some expectations about the service and we were not wrong. The service that these guys provide is remarkable; they really go the extra mile to make the divers feel comfortable. They provide a clean towel after diving, offer water and refreshments during all the trip, chips, salsa and great fruit salads platter.

We went out 3 days with them. We dove Culebra, one hour ride on a very clean Newton 46’. The dives were nice, typically Caribbean sea life and decent visibility. Onboard we have a great lunch, refreshments, fruits, bread and even free beer after the last dive. After the dives, we did make a stop in Luis Pena, a beautiful white and beach and we were the only ones there. A beautiful day and so relaxing. It is so great to find people that they really enjoy making customers feel happy.

Second day we dove Diablo and it was great since a very short ride from the Hotel and the dive was good enough, clear water and large amount of small creatures but what really make our day it was a manatee who join us the whole dive . Service onboard was as great as the day before.

Third day, Saturday, we dove in St Thomas, we left casa del mar at 7:00 am and the fast Newton 46’ take us to the first site in 2 hours. I will say that this site, sail rock is a world class diving, 100’ + visibility, 150’ deep pinnacles , large fish, nurse sharks and many turtles keep you busy the whole dive. Second dive was even better , we dove a wreck WIT Shoal, a 360’ long wreck with a lot of selife and good areas to penetrate. It was an amazing dive. Back onboard the same first class services and we did a 2 hours stop in St Thomas for tax free shopping and lunch. It was great.