Help choosing dive op?

[drrich2]

Some questions you might answer to help the Cozumel regulars (I am not) narrow it down...

1.) How many in your 'small group,' and do you want to fit them all on one boat?
2.) As Lionfish-Eater mentioned, just a few op.s offer 120-cf steel tanks; is that a draw?
3.) How many dives do you want to do per day? If it's 2 or 3, that's one thing, but some thread discussions where people wanted 4 suggested that might be a factor.
4.) Is the place you stay having ready access to a shore dive site an issue?
5.) Do you intend to rent a car or use taxis, or is having a lot within walking distance a big deal?

Richard.

 

[wildbill9]

Blue ETC hands down. Small groups fast boats and exceptional customer service. Really the best, give them a call

 

[Vic K]

Casa Mexicana and Suites Bahia fit your hotel requirement perfectly depending on your budget you can pick either or. Both are very centrally located and walking distance to most places in city. And your stay includes a big breakfast before dives. you will find lot of people here are big supporters of these hotels and rightly so. If looking for a small B & B, you really can not go wrong with Villa Escondida.

Lot of dive Ops handle your Diving gear and store it overnight. Very few take care of your wetsuits also and Tres Pelicanos is one of those. Having said that read Richards questions and try to answer them as they really will point you to right OP/ Place to stay.

Either ways have fun diving in Cozumel. It really is addicting. We are planning to go back second time this year.

 

[NDL_Diver]

There is no "best", but there may be what is best for you. You need to decide what is important. Here are a few things you need to consider when selecting a dive operation. Cost- Obviously, but don't forget you often get what you pay for. There are other things that are more important to consider besides price.

1. Tank Size. You may want to pay for getting a bigger tank. The standard tank size is 80cf, other tank sizeused by dive ops are 90, 100 and 120 cf. I know of three dive operations that use Steel 120cf as their standard tank size. Aldora, Living Underwater, and Liquid blue . Other dive ops have 80cf tanks and offer 100cf as an extra charge. Diving with 120cf will give you a 50% more gas making a longer dive. We normally get 80-90 min dive when we dive with 120cf tank.

2. Speed/size of boat(s), number of divers on board....and if the op has more than 1 boat. The smaller fast boats get you to the Southern sites quickly (unless you are staying at one of the three Southern Hotels). Big slow boats usually mean larger number of divers on board and a looong day.

Cozumel limits 8 divers to 1 Dive Master (DM). However larger "cattle" boats put 2 or or more DM in the water depending on boat size and number of divers on the boat. Some of the cattle boats can have 16 or more divers in the water. They even advertise "No more than 8 divers per group", but they don't say how many groups per boat. They often put a DM in front and one or two on back with a swarm of divers in the middle.

Some intermediate size boats (still fast) will have 2 DM and 10 divers.

Some dive ops have multiple dive boats they can group the move advanced divers together so you are not mixed with new divers who suck their air and force the group to surface. (Not an insult but new divers but they often do no it have proper buoyancy control, seem to like swimming at high speed, and want to be everywhere and see everything).

Most of the boutique dive shops limit 6 - 8 divers per boat, one DM and a boat Capitan. I prefer fast 6 packs or 8 packs because I like to get to the reefs fast and small dive size.

3. Surface interval and location. Beach, beach club, or boat and what snacks and drinks are provided.

4. Departure location and time. What time does the dive op departs and from where? Do they depart from the downtown dock, pick up at your resort dock, , leave from dive shop, pick up at your hotel? Depart 7:30, 8:00 and as late as 9:00. I be leary of the 9:00 depart because that may be a Red flag indicating you may be with Cruise ship passengers (they tend to be newer divers). I like leaving early so I get back in town by 1.

5. Boutique (Full service or not). Do they keep, clean, store and setup your gear if you are diving multiple days?

6. Other: Some dive ops offer fleece Jackets during Ride after dive. Some offer WiFi on board. Do they go to the most Southern reefs or just drop you off at a closer reef to save time and fuel? Do you have input on what site to visit?

So who should I dive with? There are over 80 dive companies on Cozumel. There are dozens of really great dive ops and a dozens more that are ok. I don't believe there are really bad dives ops on Cozumel, they would not last long with all the competition. All I can tell you is a list companies I would dive because what is best for me based upon my preferences. They are, in alphabetical order (# boats - divers per boat):

Aldora (5-6 and 1-12), Blue XTSea (2-6), Tres Pelicanos (2-10), Living Underwater (1-8)

Other highly rated dive Ops that offer service and are often highly mentioned as having quailty fast boats and staff are:
Dive with Martin, Dive with Allison, Liquid Blue, Scuba Tony

If you dive with any of The above dive ops, you should have a great experience.

One last note, I tend to stay away from resort dive ops. They tend to be larger cattle boats and often has a set scheduled of dive sites and do not choose sites based upon group ability. Also, all resort except Iberostar and Scuba Club allow other Dive Ops to pickup at there pier.


Al

 

[AdivingBel]

I stayed & dived with a group at Blue Angel earlier this year. It was a nice mix. On the water, good rooms, pool, shore dive, boat options (both fast & large), very good restaurant, very short cab to downtown. Not really an AI, but the restaurant is good enough you could treat it as one. No reason you HAVE to leave the property if you don't want to (not sure why you wouldn't though as that's part of the fun of Coz, IMHO ). Not a cheerleader, but it was a nice stay and a different option. My personal fav is Villa Escondida/Tres P because I've stayed multiple times and really like the folks, but everyone has there own preferences and Blue Angel was a nice change of pace for me. YMMV. Good luck & have fun.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

We dive with Aldora for the steel 120 tanks, 90 minute dives, lots of boats....I think 6 or 7 so you are grouped with divers of your skill level, they can dive when the port is closed since they have a 40+ foot boat available (in 6 trips this has never been an issue though) and they pick up less than a block from Casa Mexicana. Sharif and Mauricio are two of the best dive masters we have ever used...ever.

We stay at Casa Mexicana since it is OCD clean, comfortable beds, incredible breakfast buffet, and is in town so within close walking distance of almost everything we enjoy about Cozumel.

Villa Aldora was nice, but North of town. After 5 knee surgeries, my "walking distance" is shorter than most. It was very quiet, beach are was nice, sea conditions were a little rough for night diving while we were there so I can't really speak to the shore diving, but we would stay there again.

For dive ops, I can also recommend Blue Magic and Dive With Martin from personal experience and would not hesitate to dive with Tres Pelicanos or Blue XTSea based on their following on this forum and reputation as top tier dive operations.

Good luck, safe travels.

 

[mike_bayer]

Lots of good ops that I can recommend - Dave/Aldora, Steve/Tres Pelicano, Blue Angel. I would also agree that you are better off avoiding the big resorts in house shops unless you like the cattle boat experience.

Villa Aldora and Blue Angel are both a short walk into town (about 1 mile north and 1 mile south) If you want to stay right in town, I'd book one of Tres Pelicanos packages.

 

[Sloeber]

Hi,

In my experience Cozumel is filled with many excellent dive operations. Along those lines allow me to add one more to that list.

At Salty Endeavors we provide a maximum of 6 divers plus staff on our private fast boat, we will maintain and clean all your gear each day (including wetsuits!) and have it ready on the boat for you the following morning, we offer pick-up service at any pier in Cozumel (even north of town!) that allows public docking, and our Divemaster is a world-renowned marine fish and coral expert who has written over 100 publications on marine fish and corals (plus managed coral farms for reef-restoration). Simply put we make diving as easy and fun as possible for you, and provide you with the most experienced and educated staff possible. We are a new shop in Cozumel (less than 1 year as a shop, but living and diving here 3 years) so we won't show up in the history of this forum but our Trip Adviser page (linked in my signature) will clearly demonstrate our service and skill. A simple Google search of our Divemaster's name (Henry C. Schultz, III) will undoubtedly show you he is second to none on Cozumel in regards to reef, marine fish, and coral knowledge.

If you have any questions give us a shout. Happy diving!

 

[judydivescoz]

Hi,

In my experience Cozumel is filled with many excellent dive operations. Along those lines allow me to add one more to that list.

At Salty Endeavors we provide a maximum of 6 divers plus staff on our private fast boat, we will maintain and clean all your gear each day (including wetsuits!) and have it ready on the boat for you the following morning, we offer pick-up service at any pier in Cozumel (even north of town!) that allows public docking, and our Divemaster is a world-renowned marine fish and coral expert who has written over 100 publications on marine fish and corals (plus managed coral farms for reef-restoration). Simply put we make diving as easy and fun as possible for you, and provide you with the most experienced and educated staff possible. We are a new shop in Cozumel (less than 1 year as a shop, but living and diving here 3 years) so we won't show up in the history of this forum but our Trip Adviser page (linked in my signature) will clearly demonstrate our service and skill. A simple Google search of our Divemaster's name (Henry C. Schultz, III) will undoubtedly show you he is second to none on Cozumel in regards to reef, marine fish, and coral knowledge.

If you have any questions give us a shout. Happy diving!

I have been diving with Henry Schultz at Salty Endeavors and woul not hesitate to recommend him. He is knowledgeable, very safe and fun to dive with. His boat Libra II has always been my favorite boat to dive from in Cozumel. If you have questions or need something specific you should shoot him an email! Salty Endeavors - SCUBA diving on the incredible reefs of Cozumel Mexico!