Cozumel for Christmas - Pro Dive vs. Scuba Life Cozumel

[Diver Rick]

Hey all, I know this may open a can or worms, but I have to ask:

We are staying at the Occidental Grand, Dec 22-19/16. We want to 3 days of 2 tank dives while there. We are both very experienced divers, all of our own equipment, and only need tanks & weights.

Anyone with an opinion about Pro Dive (on site) vs. Scuba Life Cozumel (who will pick us up at the Grand's dock)

Pricing is comparable, but I've red that Pro Dive runs crowded cattle boats, and Scuba Life has smaller & more personal service.

Pro Dive offers free Nitrox, and convenience of on site shop for rinsing & storage, but fixed departure times.
Scuba Life offers mix of tanks so I can use a 100 cf, wife will use 80, and flexible departure times.

I've done as much research as I can think of, and can't find anything to help me decide one way or the other.

Any info would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Brules]

Pick whatever Op you want (if they will pick up at the OG) as they all will handle your gear (ie: you get off the boat and leave whatever you want with the OP - they will rinse and store and bring the next day - cant beat it!)....some wont handle wetsuits though. So you have a lot more choices than the 2 above. If it is only the 2 above, I would go Scuba Life (never heard of them) as most on sites suck and run cattle boats which adds more suck.

My dive op recommendation is go to Trip Advisor and pick from the top 20 ops there. Around SB the favorites here seem to be: Tres Pelicanos, Aldora, Dive with Martin, Blue XT Sea (I have used and loved it), Living Underwater and a few others that I can't remember but I am sure ppl will post. All of these ops are top notch steller best of the best ops that you cannot go wrong with. All run small 6-8 person boats with max dive times and a few run big 120 cu/ft steel tanks for 90+ min bottom times.

Good luck!

 

[Ron Lee]

What do you want from a dive op? I need shade, large tanks and a beach surface interval. I also want to go to northern and southern dive sites when possible. I may only get one of Barracuda or Maracaibo diving six days. On one trip I got Maracaibo on my first day and Barracuda the next.
This was with Aldora but I have been diving with them beaucoup years.

You can get a beach surface interval using the hotel dive op. If they have three dives a day you could do the morning dive, take a break and eat lunch during the second scheduled dive and then go on the third dive.

You need more info on what you want to see if either...or another dive op...is one of your better options.

 

[jonhall]

Dove with Pro Dive 2 years ago and wouldn't hesitate to dive with them again especially if I were staying right there. They happened to be the only outfit that provided transportation (they set up the taxi) from the resort I was staying at on the opposite end of the island. Their boat is large so they can, and did, take many divers out, but they also have multiple dive guides and split you into groups. Still got as much attention as I wanted on the boat. The boat was clean, had room to move, and had shade near the front of the boat.

They are located right by the National Marine Park, so many of the sites are only about a 10 min. boat ride. Dive times were between 50-60 minutes and DM's were knowledgeable about the sites. They took us back to their pier for the surface interval to switch out tanks.

Sounds like for you, it comes down to whether flexible times and tank size are more important than the convenience of diving on site and having your gear close by. I will say that with Pro Dive, knowing that they had a set departure time and basically did the same routine each day (but different sites), made it easy to schedule for other activities during the day. By far beat the previous year I was in Coz and the surface interval, with a different dive op, was spent at a beach bar...never knew how long we were going to be out.

Thought when I was there in 2013, that the dock was only used by Pro Dive but maybe that has changed. Might double check that.

Hope you have a good trip!

 

[Charles2]

I dove with ProDive during a couple of vacation trips to Playa Del Carmen. I found them to be very professional as well as convenient to the resort. They did list the dive destinations for the next day or two and you could certainly know when to show up for whichever dive you wanted. I loved the convenience and the free nitrox. The boats were never crowded. If you want to dive the Cenotes while there, they will handle that as well. It's a good shop.

 

[kerrycorcoran]

If you're open to other Dive Ops, I can tell that the wife and I have been incredibly pleased with Dive with Martin. We stay at the Cozumel Palace and have an onsite Dive Op which we can use at a significantly reduced price ($13 for 2 tank dive per diver as we able to use credits for staying at the Palace), however we choose to go with Dive with Martin as they pick us up (at the Palace) and they have very personalized diving and fast boats.

 

[sefuchs]

IMHO Scuba Life Cozumel is fantastic. I've dove with a couple of the others DOs which all were good but these guys are over the top. The boat is fast and comfortable, maybe can accoumodate 10 divers but never had more than 7 with 2 DMs. JP & Carlos are young (maybe 30) but very professional and safety concious. They work hard to maximize a dive profile to match your diving skills. Most of our dives were 60-70 minutes with at least 1 hr SI. Good snacks of fruit, cookies, gatorade, water between dives. I really didn't price shop but i'd pay a few extra $$ to go with Scuba Life. They are very flexible on schedule and special trips.

 

[Diver Rick]

IMHO Scuba Life Cozumel is fantastic. I've dove with a couple of the others DOs which all were good but these guys are over the top. The boat is fast and comfortable, maybe can accoumodate 10 divers but never had more than 7 with 2 DMs. JP & Carlos are young (maybe 30) but very professional and safety concious. They work hard to maximize a dive profile to match your diving skills. Most of our dives were 60-70 minutes with at least 1 hr SI. Good snacks of fruit, cookies, gatorade, water between dives. I really didn't price shop but i'd pay a few extra $$ to go with Scuba Life. They are very flexible on schedule and special trips.

Thanks very much for the info. We did end up booking with Scuba Life. I got a really good vibe from the emails back and forth with JP, and also heard all the things that you've mentioned from several other sources. The fear of crowded boats with the on site operator where we are staying scared me away.

My wife and I are very experienced, and just want a few days of easy, no hassle diving during this trip, and JP put together a competitive package deal for us that suits our needs perfectly.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Diver Rick]

Just a quick report that we were very happy we booked with Scuba Life Cozumel.

1st class operation, great folks. I'll use them again, and won't hesitate to recommend them!