Mike, I stayed at the RIU Playacar last year and used their onsite dive operator Scuba Carribe. Did 11 excellent dives with them which covered local reefs where they picked u up and dropped off on the beach infront of the hotel, Cenotes (Cavern diving definitely recommend this ! ) in the middle of the jungle again they picked up form the hotel, and Cozumel where they organised taxis, ferry, dive boat etc. I thought the local reefs were impressive ( well after the local sludge I'm used to peering thru ! ) but Cozumel was something else an absolute must do if while you are there.
We never had more than 4 divers per DM while I was there and the only complaint I had was that on one occasion the mix of divers was completely wrong 7 PADI OW or AOW and 1 complete beginner ( 13year old ) who had trouble with bouyancy and sucked air like a windtunnel, hence the dive was a good 20mins shorter ( maybe a little unfair as it was a 40min dive anyway ) than it could have been.
I took my own gear with me and Carribe "looked after it" in their dive shop saving me the problem of wet dive gear hanging around the room, but I thought the security of it was a little lax ( I didnt actually lose anything ) as on a number of occasions I just walked into the store and helped myself to fins and mask to go snorkelling ( not much worth seeing off the RIU beach ! ) without anyone checking who I was, maybe it was because I had got to know the staff they didnt bother stopping me.
Hope this helps
Steve
