Mayan Palace - diving close?

[donooo]

Bottom line. Mayan palace sucks, Spend days , weeks, or hours, it sucks.


From the left coast ,

 

[AmyJ]

Looks like we'll be there around the same time (24-31) - small world isn't it?. I'm trying to remember now why I signed up for only one week instead of two :-(. We've decided not to rent a car - for several reasons. Perhaps we'll change our mind once we get there. I'm there with my wife and parents, none of which are divers (although they're snorkelers). I've signed up for 6-8 dives with Dive Puerto Morelos based on recommendations here on the board, and have asked for those to include a wreck dive, cenote dive, night dive, and lots of reef diving, as well as one day (2 tanks) over in Cozumel. Puerto Morelos is closer to Mayan Palace than Playa Del Carmen, so hopefully it will be a cheap taxi ride over. I'm pretty jazzed. I know I will be doing some touring with my family as well, so we'll see how my dive schedule goes. This is our 2nd trip to Mayan Palace - the first time was in February, and I only got 2 days of diving in then - 3 tanks in Cozumel and 2 in PDC.

Do you guys have a dive-op scheduled yet?

Jerry

Hi, we are working on it. We are also going with our kids (young), parents, and brother, sister in law and niece. My husband and I are the only divers, so we will probably have limited dive time (trying to do the 'family' thing)

This will be our third stay, but we have never dove there (fairly new divers)! so have limited experience in operators. Depending on the good folks here with recommendations.

We are talking with Dennis at Diablo divers. He came highly recommended here on the board and so far has been very accomodating, even willing to arrange a day for the whole family at the cenotes with dives for us, snorkeling for the others and a BBQ lunch! yummy! We don't have anything firm yet, but hopefully in the next day or two will have our act together.

Would any of you all that will be at the mayan palace that week (23-30) like to plan on meeting for a drink some night. I think it would be a real hoot to meet some of the scubaboard folks in person!!

There is alot of great snorkelling and I'm sure we'll be doing some of that... a day at Xel-ha for the kids...etc.

Anyway... let us know ifyou (or anyone) would like to try and set up a meeting time. Sounds like you have some great dives planned. Would love to compare notes!

 

[geraldp]

Would any of you all that will be at the mayan palace that week (23-30) like to plan on meeting for a drink some night. I think it would be a real hoot to meet some of the scubaboard folks in person!!

There is alot of great snorkelling and I'm sure we'll be doing some of that... a day at Xel-ha for the kids...etc.

Anyway... let us know ifyou (or anyone) would like to try and set up a meeting time. Sounds like you have some great dives planned. Would love to compare notes!

Sounds like a great plan. We don't get in until Sunday, so we need to make it after that.

Earlier this year we went to Xel Ha and had a great time. In fact I was pleasantly surprised. They dump you at the top of the river and you can snorkel all the way out to the sea, getting out on occasion for all the disney-like activities along the way. We got the all-inclusive package, so we were able to take advantage of the food and drink all day long as well as all the snorkeling. We weren't sure if we wanted to do that again this time or instead go to Xcaret, which is suppose to have a similar activities. Anybody have any recommendations on that?

I think we're also planning on doing the Chichen Itza tour, as that's suppose to be one of the best ruins in the area, and we didn't get much touring in last trip. My wife is wondering how I'm going to get all those dives in with all the other stuff we're planning

We'll see if any other ScubaBoarders chime in, then I guess we can set a meeting time/place.

Jerry

 

[AmyJ]

Sounds great!!

I'd love to hear more about Xel-ha. We will be going there monday (25th) as we have alot of family members that are new to even snorkeling. The only time I was there was also our first time snorkeling, so we basically got in the water face down and didn't look up until they kicked us out. In reality I don't think we even saw much of the place. so.. where did you go to start the snorkel tour thing?? is it on the train ride? Haven't been to Xcaret.. think we'll save that for when the kids are a bit older, although I've heard the night show is a MUST! and you can get tickets for that seperately, I think.

Chichen Itza is really impressive! Very big and spread out... much different than Tulum. Definitely worth a visit. About 1 1/2 years ago when I was there they were talking about not allowing people to climb the pyramids anymore, but I don't know if they did that or not. It is really pretty cool, but a steep climb. I got forced into going up becuase my 2 + 3 year old insisted they wanted to be in the sky!!!!!!! they climbed right up... people were aghast! But we kept them very close!!

I'll watch here to see if anyone else is interested in getting together for drinks!! Hope to see you next week!!!

 

[shiekarj]

We will be staying at the Mayan Palace-Riviera Maya from Oct. 25th - Nov 3rd. Out of 6 people only my husband and I are divers, and would like to fiind out if there is a good, safe, convenient dive op anywhere close to the hotel.

I am having trouble finding a diagram that shows where the hotel is in that area, and I'm not sure if the Mayan Palace-Riviera Maya is the same, or not, as the Mayan Palace-Cancun.

Any help?

7 of us (including small children) stayed at the Mayan Palace in June 2004. I was the only diver in our group. We rented a car and drove about 10 minutes north to Puerto Morelos. If Cat Brown won't put a plug in for her dive shop, I will... :07: They made me feel welcome and they took great care of me! Not crowded at all!!! I have a journal posted at:
http://www.rcicommunity.com/planning/journal.asp?JournalID=33576

It is mostly information about the Mayan Palace, but I also posted some basic info about Dive Puerto Morelos.

Wish I were going with you... Have fun! Let me know of you have questions.

Karen
Denver, CO

 

[geraldp]

7 of us (including small children) stayed at the Mayan Palace in June 2004. I was the only diver in our group. We rented a car and drove about 10 minutes north to Puerto Morelos. If Cat Brown won't put a plug in for her dive shop, I will... :07: They made me feel welcome and they took great care of me! Not crowded at all!!! I have a journal posted at:
http://www.rcicommunity.com/planning/journal.asp?JournalID=33576

It is mostly information about the Mayan Palace, but I also posted some basic info about Dive Puerto Morelos.

Wish I were going with you... Have fun! Let me know of you have questions.

Karen
Denver, CO

Thanks Karen for the journal link. The text on the resort matches pretty closely our experience last February, although we stayed in the regular portion of the resort (a downgrade from the Grand Mayan). In fact we got a hot deal for $200 for the entire week in the 1-bedroom (no kitchen) room. It was still very nice. This time however we're staying in the 2-bedroom w/kitchen.

Glad to hear I picked a good dive op. As the only diver in your group did you have troubles finding buddies?

Jerry

 

[shiekarj]

No, Jerry, I did not have any trouble finding a buddy. For my check-out dives, it was just myself and the instructor. For other dives, the shop scheduled me with another family. The shop eliminated any worry.

Karen

 

[geraldp]

Sounds great!!

I'd love to hear more about Xel-ha. We will be going there monday (25th) as we have alot of family members that are new to even snorkeling. The only time I was there was also our first time snorkeling, so we basically got in the water face down and didn't look up until they kicked us out. In reality I don't think we even saw much of the place. so.. where did you go to start the snorkel tour thing?? is it on the train ride?

The snorkeling starts at the end of the train ride. Swimming through the mangrove roots was unique. I swam into a small lagoon and found a huge grouper hanging out. Along the way you can get out and climb rock walls and jump off. They have a long rope bridge you can get out and walk across (one rope to stand on, one rope to hang onto). In the middle it gets a little dicey. By the time you get back to the start of the train ride there's a bunch of smaller lagoons that are loaded with fish. It took us about 2-3 hours to float out to the main entrance area, and by that time we were pretty waterlogged. The All-Inclusive ticket, though spendy was really nice. It allowed us to get out and eat and drink anywhere along the way. There were several restaraunts, desert shacks, and bars to choose from. After lunch we walked all around the park on the trails. The floating bridge was fun to walk across when the water was choppy. It was a great day.

Jerry

 

[paulaH]

Hello, my name is Paula, I was in the Mayan Palace and did my certification with Rafael and his team (Jerry, Danny and Capi). They are a great group but I've heard that they will be moving out of the Mayan and opening up a Diveshop in Cancun. Does anybody have the contact information for Rafael? ( email. tel number..anything?) I need to talk to him about my PADI certification. I went there June 1st...and I still do not have my PADI cert.
any information, please you can email me PaulaHermanB@hotmail.com
even the website would be useful!!! This is sort of urgent, sinc I am planing on going to Mexico again ina month and I would like to have my certification....

thanks, a lot!!

Paula

Check out the on-site dive operation at Mayan Palace. Rafael Redondo is the DM/instructor, a former aquaworld instructor. Nothing spectacular for the reef dives (and somewhat overpriced, so I'd go elsewhere for those), but go for the cenotes dive. When I was there in May, we were the first in the cenote that morning (there was a big group from aquaworld behind us, but we were early enough that they were just getting in as we were finishing), and Rafael was a great guide. Plus, it will be a small gorup (there were 4 of us). And Rafael's wife made great sandwiches for our snack. I think it was $130 for the two cave dives, including transportation, equipment, and food (not tip), which was reasonable for the area.