Playa del Carmen Diving

[npole]

OW/AOWD/... It really depends by the dive op, let's say they use the certification to discriminate the experience, in the end they are interested in how comfortable you're in the water and about your overall experience. Whenever the cenotes are a very easy dive, due to the calm (and fresh) water, it's not like diving on a shallow reef, buoyancy and being able to handle an emergency is a so much important (in some passages you have the rock above your head for a fair distance.. you cannot just swim up in case of a problem).
I went with Dressel (Iberostar) for both Cenotes and Bull Shark, they were asking people to have the AOWD (at least) ...because probably they are used to more "holiday divers" and they won't risk to put a diver that only did 10 dives in the Carribean in a dangerous situation.
I'm frankly not sure why some of the cenotes there are classified as normal dives, while they are clearly something else (cave; even without going in the cave part, where there's one), maybe it's a matter of marketing and finding divers with the cave certification is too much (money wise): where I live, going in passage with tens meters overhead and pitch black (without torches) is cave, not OW.

 

[Da real diver]

I do have my aowd. I think I am going to go ahrad and give this a try. As far as light for this dive, would a regular hand held dive light work?

 

[jonhall]

I went with Dressel (Iberostar)

Same here. For me and my buddy (who were actually getting AOW cert), I think it was that they had seen us dive a couple of days and the next day we did the Taj Majal cenote. Actually the 1st cenote was my 100th dive. Definitely a lot of the 0-40 ft as mentioned by @Dogbowl. Also quite a bit of having rock above, but swam into some nice cavernous areas with an opening to the sky. So although it is a cavern dive, there are times it's like a cave (I am imagining this since I've not done a cave dive.)

As far as light for this dive, would a regular hand held dive light work?

A small handheld light is good, but DM's will most likely provide them. You will also be able to see because of other divers lights.

 

[driftwood]

I do have my aowd. I think I am going to go ahrad and give this a try. As far as light for this dive, would a regular hand held dive light work?

A regular dive light will work. You just need to have enough burn time for a 45 minute dive.

Cenote diving is a different beast. You will be moving slowly. You need to keep your trim horizontal so you don't kick up silt. You especially need to have very good buoyancy control. In a lot of places there isn't much room from the floor to the ceiling. I did a couple hour of practice in a local lake (Spring Lake, San Marcos) that had the same water temp and density as the Mexican cenotes before the trip

 

[Scubanoobi]

I've stayed at the Paradisus in PDC twice, the reef diving is just OK there, I've seen worse, but I've also seen much better. There is a dive shop onsite, however they are stupid expensive for what you get ($75 USD per dive, no packages). If you try to contact them before you go, you will get the generic Cancun parent company and they will give you much more reasonable prices (even if you confirm the location you're diving at), however when you get there, the prices are $75 per dive. If you're doing a lot of diving, go with another dive shop. The shop was OK, just way overpriced.

 

[Da real diver]

I'm sorry I'm kind of confused. Are you saying that the dive shops or $75 per dive and the hotels a lot more expensive than that or the hotel is $75 a dive.

 

[Scubanoobi]

I'm sorry I'm kind of confused. Are you saying that the dive shops or $75 per dive and the hotels a lot more expensive than that or the hotel is $75 a dive.

Sorry, the on-site dive shop is $75 per dive, doesn’t matter if they give you a better price online, it’ll be $75 when you get there.

 

[islanddream]

The cenotes are much colder than the ocean. A heavier thermal protection is important. When we dived the cenotes the water temp was in the low 70's but that was in the month of April (years ago).

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake has a constant temp of 72 degrees, about the same as the cenotes in the Yucatan. Counter intuitively, the shallower the aquifer feeding the springs the colder it is.

 

[npole]

3mm suit is OK in the cenotes, probably you'll be comfortable in a 5mm as well, but outside you will struggle a lot, and in certain places you need to carry your stuff along the path down to the entrance, so don't put heavy stuff on you... you're in Mexico not in Canada.