Diving with Scuba Caribe in Playa del Carmen

[polyester1970]

I just got back from a week in Playa del Carmen and mostly dove with Scuba Caribe who's the operator at the hotel. I picked them because I only wanted to do one tank per day so I could spend more time with my family, and Scuba Carbie seems like the only ones that do this. The other reason is they're attached to the hotel I was staying at and a couple dive ops I talked to required me to drive/taxi to their shop downtown which, to me, wasn't worth it for one dive.

I haven't really been disappointed with a dive operator too much before, but then again I usually search SB for recommendations so I probably usually dive with the better ops, I guess. One thing I didn't like was they time their dives to be out of the water by 40 minutes! That usually meant starting the ascent around 30 minutes. ...really short dives and I'd come up with plenty of air left.

They also don't provide drinks, water or snacks after dives...water is always nice.

On the plus side, the dive masters I went with were very friendly.

Regarding the dive sites themselves, at least the sites I visited were not that impressive. It was only OK, but I expected that since I've been there before. One really cool thing I saw there that I've never seen anywhere else was a school of about 15 tarpons (big game fish, about 3-4' in length).

 

[cwhitpan]

Which Hotel were they associated with if I may ask? That is very odd they don't even provide water.

Thanks for the post!

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Scuba Caribe is found in just about every hotel in our "Hotel Zone" here in Playa. And if it's not them then it's Dressel Divers. Both are cattle boat type of shops.

 

[LJC]

I have just returned from Playa del Carmen and can wholly support the comments made here. Maximum dive time is 45 minutes and the dive sites are not great. No consideration is given to your certification level or dive experience despite the operator requesting it. The dive guides are friendly but the boat operates from one hotel although there is a centre at each hotel. It was clear that there was no communication between the actual guides and the people taking the bookings. On a positive note they did however offer water at the end of the dive on one occassion.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

These are cattle boats. They put as many people on the dive boat as they can and they don't care if you come up with 1500 PSI. They keep a schedule that they live by, with no flexibility, that is why you are getting out of the water with half a tank left. Smaller dive shops, which you will find in the heart of Playa del Carmen should cater to your experience level and if there are large groups there will be at least two guides so that way if some of the group goes low on air there is another guide to keep diving with the remaining divers. At least that is how we do it and I am pretty sure that is how Playa Country Boy does it as well.