LB, here's a cut & paste of my trip report to there from 5 years ago.
In my experience, all of the operators are pretty similar, same boat size, # of passengers, the structure of their trips. That could've changed as this has become more popular. I don't remember who I used for the whale shark outing, but I'm pretty sure I just went down to the dock & found out who had boat space available & reserved my spot the afternoon before I wanted to go out.
One thing I would recommend. There's a "whale shark festival" in Isla Mujeres that should be about the time that you want to go. It's geared more toward educating the operators & boat crew (I think I was the only tourista in the audience) and takes some research to find, but if you geek out on the science & biology of whale sharks, it's worth checking out.
Trip report:
Now that the gear's been unpacked, rinsed and dried, the mail's been open, and I'm caught up at work, I thought I'd jot some quick notes about the trip.
Isla Mujeres - What a great island!
Small, golf carting around it takes a little over two hours; we managed to circumnavigate it with the boat going to two dive sites and the return to the dock. No Bubba Gumps or Domino's here. If you need your Mickey D's, this place aint for you. Every meal I had was fabulous though, and sometimes we picked a place just off the cuff.
We stayed at Posada del Mar, not a fancy hotel, but nice enough. It's walking distance from the ferry and Hidalgo Street (where alot of the restaurants & shops are), and has an open air restaurant & bar with a nice view of the beach which is right across the street. I found a cool little boutique hotel, Casa Ixchel that I may stay at next time. It's a little ways from downtown, but with a golf cart only a short ride, and has a GORGEOUS view of the east side of the island with waves rolling in just feet from the pool & the patio.
We dove with Aqua Adventures. They were very nice, but I'd be inclined to try someone else next time. Even though our max depth on any dive was 43 fsw, we generally returned to the surface with half a tank left, and nobody was anywhere near pushing a no-deco limit, the DM's generally called the dives at 45 minutes. I'd hoped to dive with Enrique's Unique Dives, having heard good things about him, but that day got blown out.
Viz wasn't that good because of recent storms. I'd like to see what optimal viz is there. We still saw some cool stuff - an underwater sculpture garden, a few squid, the aforementioned whale sharks
, some big friendly turtles and my first lionfish
.
Topside they had some great stuff too, including a private island that was floating on 100,000 empty water bottles. It was small, but big enough for a house. We got to enjoy the prettiest zip line I've ever seen, going from the cliffs out over the water & then back to the beach. I was able to try my hand at conch shell trumpeting near there as well.
Definitely an island worth revisiting. I really liked the vibe!
The second half of the week was spent in Cozumel at Scuba Club. The resort is definitely family oriented and the guests tend to be, shall we say, "more sedate" than I'm used to.
Food wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. The dive op there was FANTASTIC however. We were never rushed to finish the dives. As people ran low on air the DM buddied them up, sent them to the surface and stayed down with those of us remaining. My last dive there, on Paradise was 71 minutes.
The diving never disappoints in Coz. We saw lots of big grouper, some good cleaning station activity, and a BIG puffer. The best though was on the night dive when we came across a tiger paw standing straight up on the reef spawning!
All in all, one heck of a trip!
They probably do pass by between feeding areas.
Hiring a private boat should not be needed tho, and wow would that be expensive. After I swam with one of the giants for a while, I needed a rest anyway before I went again.
