dnhill
Contributor
Arrived on Saturday March 5th and returned March 13th. We stayed at Iberostar on the south end of the island. Stayed there because there were three non-divers and they wanted a beach and the all-inclusive type environment. The property is now about four years old and beginning to show some wear. We were there twenty months ago and it still looked new at the time. The food was good, not great in my opinion. We did go into town several times for evening meals (cab fare $17.00USD each way for four people).
Diving was supposed to start on Saturday afternoon. When I arrived, I was told there would be no afternoon dive. I always want to get the diving started when I hit the island, so I try to take an early flight out of Houston. The last four trips that I scheduled afternoon dives, only Living Underwater carried out the dive. I understand that this may be difficult for the operators to go back out in the afternoon or schedule a night dive on Saturday, but I still wanted to go.
So I started diving with Blue XT Sea on Sunday and was with them on Monday and Tuesday as well. The diving was good and the service was good to. On one day there was a couple that had some major problems none of them the fault of Blue XT. When the captain was giving instructions of when to do the back roll off of the boat, the lady (call her Jane) did not wait for the signal from the captain and went in on top of another diver. This resulted in a laceration on Janes head that looked like stitches may have been in order. Jane aborted the dive. Her husband (lets call him Dick) went on and continued the dive without her. The DM instructed all divers to let him know when reaching 1000psi. Dick was one of those divers that swims all over the place instead of just going with the current and looking here and there. I was getting down to about 1500psi when the DM started checking what everyone still had in the tanks. Dick stuck up two fingers and I was really impressed that he could do all of that swimming around and still have 2000psi left. Turns out however, that he had 200 psi left and had not looked at his gauge. He went to the DM and the DM started to get out his Octopus for Dick to breath on, but Dick started a pretty rapid ascent from about 60 feet. It did not look to me like he slowed down or let air out of his BC. However, he did not complain of any problems after the dive. To my knowledge he did not suffer any adverse affects.
Back to Blue XT, they use aluminum 80s, but my dives lasted about an hour anyway on the first two days. On the third day the DM said we were coming up at 700psi or 45 minutes, but that dive lasted 53 minutes anyway. They were efficient and on time. We had tried to schedule a night dive for Monday or Tuesday, but that did not happen either.
Wednesday was take the family to PDC and Xel-Ha day. No diving, but fun.
Thursday and Friday was with Liquid Blue. Roberto and Michaela run a very fine operation. They are among the friendliest people I have met in Cozumel and the operation was second to none (I compare them with the operations I have been with over the years both in CZM and other places) They use the steel 120s which I really enjoy. My dives with them were always well over an hour. Roberto was excellent at pointing out the unusual. I am getting better at finding things on my own, but am still amazed at some of the things he sees. My most amazing dive of the week was when we did a blue water entry to Santa Rosa Wall. I must admit I did not hit my inflator hard enough and went a little deeper than the plan, but all was well. I had taken my video camera all week and was a little tired of messing with it, so I did not carry it on either dive on my last day. Of course that is when we came across the largest eel known to man (well me anyway), turtles that were not afraid and came within an arms length, and barracuda that were a little too friendly for comfort. I was the only diver on this Spring Break Trip, but was able to meet very nice folks on this trip.
I am able to recommend both of these operators without hesitation.
Now when is my next trip?
dnhill
Diving was supposed to start on Saturday afternoon. When I arrived, I was told there would be no afternoon dive. I always want to get the diving started when I hit the island, so I try to take an early flight out of Houston. The last four trips that I scheduled afternoon dives, only Living Underwater carried out the dive. I understand that this may be difficult for the operators to go back out in the afternoon or schedule a night dive on Saturday, but I still wanted to go.
So I started diving with Blue XT Sea on Sunday and was with them on Monday and Tuesday as well. The diving was good and the service was good to. On one day there was a couple that had some major problems none of them the fault of Blue XT. When the captain was giving instructions of when to do the back roll off of the boat, the lady (call her Jane) did not wait for the signal from the captain and went in on top of another diver. This resulted in a laceration on Janes head that looked like stitches may have been in order. Jane aborted the dive. Her husband (lets call him Dick) went on and continued the dive without her. The DM instructed all divers to let him know when reaching 1000psi. Dick was one of those divers that swims all over the place instead of just going with the current and looking here and there. I was getting down to about 1500psi when the DM started checking what everyone still had in the tanks. Dick stuck up two fingers and I was really impressed that he could do all of that swimming around and still have 2000psi left. Turns out however, that he had 200 psi left and had not looked at his gauge. He went to the DM and the DM started to get out his Octopus for Dick to breath on, but Dick started a pretty rapid ascent from about 60 feet. It did not look to me like he slowed down or let air out of his BC. However, he did not complain of any problems after the dive. To my knowledge he did not suffer any adverse affects.
Back to Blue XT, they use aluminum 80s, but my dives lasted about an hour anyway on the first two days. On the third day the DM said we were coming up at 700psi or 45 minutes, but that dive lasted 53 minutes anyway. They were efficient and on time. We had tried to schedule a night dive for Monday or Tuesday, but that did not happen either.
Wednesday was take the family to PDC and Xel-Ha day. No diving, but fun.
Thursday and Friday was with Liquid Blue. Roberto and Michaela run a very fine operation. They are among the friendliest people I have met in Cozumel and the operation was second to none (I compare them with the operations I have been with over the years both in CZM and other places) They use the steel 120s which I really enjoy. My dives with them were always well over an hour. Roberto was excellent at pointing out the unusual. I am getting better at finding things on my own, but am still amazed at some of the things he sees. My most amazing dive of the week was when we did a blue water entry to Santa Rosa Wall. I must admit I did not hit my inflator hard enough and went a little deeper than the plan, but all was well. I had taken my video camera all week and was a little tired of messing with it, so I did not carry it on either dive on my last day. Of course that is when we came across the largest eel known to man (well me anyway), turtles that were not afraid and came within an arms length, and barracuda that were a little too friendly for comfort. I was the only diver on this Spring Break Trip, but was able to meet very nice folks on this trip.
I am able to recommend both of these operators without hesitation.
Now when is my next trip?
dnhill
