Cozumel La Babieca dive shop

[Stratoda]

We will be staying at the El Cid/La Cieba for a week. Can anyone give any feedback on La Babieca the dive sop there?

 

[la_diver]

Stayed at la ceiba at the first of the month (march 2009). We dove with La Babieca and Dive with Martin which is right next door. Thought Louis with La Babieca was an excellent dive master the only draw back was they fill up quickly and have only limited space and you need to book a package in advance or as soon as you get there in order to be able to dive daily. We had to use Dive with Martin as well as la Babieca because we wanted to make at least 2 dives a day and La Babieca was full on certain days. Because of this we were able to dive everyday even when some other divers couldn't but we missed out on the cheaper packages because we split between the two dive companies. Dive with Martin Packages were cheaper but liked the la Babieca dive master better. Louis went out of his way to point out seahorses and other hard to find critters and he did watch out for everyone in the group (small groups 6-8 divers only). Dive with Martins dive master Tony never ask us anything and never pointed anything out, He just went down and took off, when you got low you were on your own as far as a safety stop.. sorry but that is the truth. None of us were beginners so maybe he assumed we knew what to do but all in all they were good dives. If you take a time share tour you can get a significant discount on your dives, we didn't do that but did see the prices and they were quit a bit cheaper. P.S. don't trust the price on the internet for La Babieca they were not the same once we arrived at El Cids and the dive shop did not publish their prices, you had to wait till they opened at 9 am. Dive with Martin opened at 7 and left at 7:30 in order to beat the crowd and dive with martin is located on the cruise ship pier right next to El Cid, it is about a 5 minute walk (right next door) and if the gates are closed just tell the guard you are diving with martin and they will let you pass thru the employee only gates. Next time we go we will probably dive with La Babieca even if it is a little more just because of the ease of going out right from the El Cid pier plus Louis was great and my wife felt more comfortable with him plus he allowed us to pick were we wanted to go. Dont forget your dry bad and towels only La Babieca gave us towels and in March it was cold coming back in. Need anymore info just ask! Hope this helps.

 

[JayNeal]

We just returned from our send trip to Cozumel. We spent two weeks both times and dove with Babieca and Luis was our wonderful dive master. Last year, they had to farm us out next door due to Luis not being available. That was not fun and we were on our own. Being new to drift diving at that time was a little uncomfortable. The boat was big and FULL of people. Other than that one experience, we spent all the rest of the days with Luis. We love it because they don't take more than 8 people. If they have more, they will get another boat going. Luis is amazing. His safety and customer service is great. He is serious about his customers enjoying their dive and will do anything to make that happen. We would not consider going anywhere else. If he ever goes anywhere else, we will follow him. We found pricing to be the same as listed on the internet, EXCEPT that they gave us a break in the pricing, due to two weeks of us 6 diving everyday. Tanks are Free for shore diving, also. We did the timeshare talk and got the discounts plus a free car for a day. We wound up paying just slightly over 1,000 for two people for diving 2-3 times each day for two weeks. Not bad. We did email Carlos ahead of time and let him know we were coming, but made no reservations with deposits, etc. They would just ask her daily if we wanted to dive the next day. I recommend this dive shop in every way.

 

[rromero2]

Yes we stayed in this resort (La Cieba) and yes we dove with the in-house dive shop (Babieca). Oct 2008 and June 2009 each for one week and one more time in Oct 2009. This is a great little resort with an even better dive shop. Read the reports on Travel Advisor or just take our word, you will definitely enjoy your time here. LA Diver and JayNeal is right on on their report about the dive shop. Luis is a great dive master and the dive shop offers daily fast boat with no more than 8 on the boat. You even get unlimited shore dive and they have scuba locker on the site. There is even an old wing from an airplane that was used in a film just on the other side of the roped area. Tons of fish by the wing. Dive prices goes down with multiple dive days. I think you will enjoy staying and diving at this resort. We love it.