Diver Kat
Contributor
I'll 2nd the suggestion for Scuba with Alison .... for all the great reasons cv listed above. I wish I had found her when we did our first blue water dives right after getting certified, but we didn't stumble across her DO until a few years later when we were coming in off a cruise ship. We've been diving pretty much with her ever since. You might tell you're friends to look at a few websites, send out a few e-mails with questions, and see which dive op meets their needs. Also something for them to consider is (and ask about), depending on the time of ship arrival, they may not be able to make the departure time for the morning boats. One of the reasons we originally tried Alison is that she was able to change her departure time a bit so we had time to get off the ship and get to her.
And sorry Don, but here I have to disagree with you. Even though it may be a 1 day dive stop, as new divers what occurs can seriously affect how they look at both diving, and diving Cozumel going forward. Our 2nd day of blue water dives - shortly after getting certified - were with a DO on Coz which did not handle things well at all. In all our correspondence setting up the dives, we made sure they were aware we were brand new. They promised to take care of us accordingly. Once there, the person who handled everything with us was off island that day, and those handling the boat schedule tried to put us on a boat to dive Devil's throat. Luckily, we had read enough around the forum to know that was a really stupid suggestion and refused. Needless to say, we eventually did get some dives in but the whole experience was very frustrating and unnerving. It didn't put me off diving (though it could have!) but it did put me off Coz quite a bit. Eventually we decided to give Coz another try and things went much better, using various dive-ops (Papa Hogs & Blue Angel.) I can honestly say that my comfort level (and air consumption!) really fell into sync once I started diving with Alison. I relaxed more & more and dives lasted longer & longer. This is why I (and maybe others?) recommend her so highly. I don't know who is the 'best' dive op on the island, I just know which one suits my wants & needs so that I have a great experience diving every time. (Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now!!!)DandyDon:
