I dove with Dive Paradise on a Cozumel trip to celebrate my 60th birthday. They have always provided me with great service and, if anything, with their increasing penetration into the Cozumel market, that has only improved. Everyone is pleasant to deal with and seems to have customer service as their #1 goal. One example: they made a mistake and switched one of my non-diving days with a diving day. When I showed up ready to dive but not on the list, they put me on an available boat and went to work in the background on the telephone and radio to figure things out. They picked up my rental gear at the next stop down the island and it was as if there had never been a glitch. The nice thing was that they didn't inconvenience me while they figured out what was going on.
So, having said how good I think they are, and saying that I'd certainly dive with them again, I need to point out an area where they failed, Dear Diver, so you'll know that you can't always count on getting the experience you've paid for. Their website advertises that the express boats carry a max of 6 divers so one day when they put 8 divers in the boat, I spoke up - with a chorus from 3 other divers. The divemaster pointed to the front of the boat where the capacity notice said up to 10 passengers plus 2 crew. I let it slide since it was the first glitch.
Their website also says that on their larger boats, which is what I signed up for on the afternoon dives, if there are more than 8 divers then they split into 2 groups which are dropped apart with a divemaster for each. One afternoon their were 10 divers but instead of spliting us they dropped us as one group with divemasters fore and aft. The problem with so many divers in a drift dive environment is that you waste air and energy trying to stay in place while 40 elbows and knees squeeze in to see whatever the lead DM is pointing out at the moment. What made this an extra pain in the butt is that if you use the Express boat for your morning dive instead of large boat, you have to pay above and beyond what the morning large boat divers pay for afternoon dives. So I paid more for a worse experience.
After the second experience of not getting what the website advertised, I asked if Apple was available at the main location for me to speak to. They said I could do that or I could write in a notebook at this location and she would respond. Because I wanted to stay low key I went the notebook route. A couple of days later I got a second-hand response which said they would continue to fill the Express boats based on capacity and that the larger boat groups SHOULD have been split as stated on the website. They also blew off the idea of updating the website to correct the Express boat advertising.
So, as much as I liked diving with Dive Paradise, beware that you may not get the dive group sizes that they advertise and that you pay for, and that the only response will be, "I'm sorry you weren't satisfied".
So, having said how good I think they are, and saying that I'd certainly dive with them again, I need to point out an area where they failed, Dear Diver, so you'll know that you can't always count on getting the experience you've paid for. Their website advertises that the express boats carry a max of 6 divers so one day when they put 8 divers in the boat, I spoke up - with a chorus from 3 other divers. The divemaster pointed to the front of the boat where the capacity notice said up to 10 passengers plus 2 crew. I let it slide since it was the first glitch.
Their website also says that on their larger boats, which is what I signed up for on the afternoon dives, if there are more than 8 divers then they split into 2 groups which are dropped apart with a divemaster for each. One afternoon their were 10 divers but instead of spliting us they dropped us as one group with divemasters fore and aft. The problem with so many divers in a drift dive environment is that you waste air and energy trying to stay in place while 40 elbows and knees squeeze in to see whatever the lead DM is pointing out at the moment. What made this an extra pain in the butt is that if you use the Express boat for your morning dive instead of large boat, you have to pay above and beyond what the morning large boat divers pay for afternoon dives. So I paid more for a worse experience.
After the second experience of not getting what the website advertised, I asked if Apple was available at the main location for me to speak to. They said I could do that or I could write in a notebook at this location and she would respond. Because I wanted to stay low key I went the notebook route. A couple of days later I got a second-hand response which said they would continue to fill the Express boats based on capacity and that the larger boat groups SHOULD have been split as stated on the website. They also blew off the idea of updating the website to correct the Express boat advertising.
So, as much as I liked diving with Dive Paradise, beware that you may not get the dive group sizes that they advertise and that you pay for, and that the only response will be, "I'm sorry you weren't satisfied".
