Hi;
Some answers for you....
I am actually headed to Belize in early March...one week on the Nekton Pilot and one week diving off Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye. I was there in 2005 but couldn't dive due to a broken collarbone but loved the place enough to head back.
You will find Dennis and his staff very accommodating in terms of teaching your son. They use a sheltered area called the Caleta for confined water training and this works out well. For the open water portion of the training they will sometimes split off with an instructor and the student with the experienced divers heading off with a Dive Master or, if they keep the group together, surfacing as people air out without forcing everyone else out of the water. Like Cozumel, diving in the Playa area is "live boat" drift diving (with minimal current compared to Cozumel) and both the boat captain and assistant are very good at bubble tracking. Generally they surface at around 700 PSI. Do try the Cenotes....that area is famous for them and Dennis and Martin (an instructor who works for him) are accomplished cave, cavern and cenote divers. Other than your son...who would be on a shorter leash...the dive masters there keep you close enough for safety but give you enough latitude to enjoy your dive. You should correspond with Dennis in advance and one suggestion I might have would be for your son to do the book learning part of the course in advance and that will give him more time to enjoy the vacation and get right into the diving. Feel free to tell Dennis that I mentioned his name....maybe that will earn me a beer next time I am down there.
By the way Cozumel has come back very well (we went there in November as part of this trip) and the reefs look good. I use Living Underwater there and I know that Dennis recommends them along with Blue Xtacy as dive ops to use and can make arrangements with them on your behalf should you want to do a day trip over.
In terms of travel from Cancun airport to the Grand Xcaret there are several private shuttle services that work out of the airport but they should be booked in advance. This link:
Cancun Airport Transfers - Best Rates in Cancun on Private Transfers is only one of several and you should Google search to check prices. We paid (for two people) around $90.00 plus tip round trip with us paying about 60% on the first leg and the balance on the return trip. They are reliable (at least they have been on three trips so far) and will have a sign with your name on a hand held board outside the arrivals area. The people inside the arrivals area who try to grab you are to be avoided as they are trying to trade your transportation in exchange for a time share pitch. If you have pre-booked your transportation then it is easy to brush them off and look like you know where you are going....just outside and you will see various vans parked. This (other than taking a public bus) is the most economical way to travel...especially with a group. It does look like prices may have gone up since we were there last November.
Proper attire is a sore point with me as they do accept jeans as being "long pants" and I have dress shorts that are nicer than some jeans that I have seen. Sorry just a rant! Yes they do allow jeans and prefer a collared shirt (I really can't recall if I saw t-shirts at dinner) so it is not that formal. I took a pair of chinos for the a la carte restaurants and then would change back to shorts after dinner. The most popular restaurants are the steak house and the seafood restaurant and those are the reservations to go after first. They seemed a lot looser with getting additional reservations on the last trip...just keep going back to the conceige desk and asking. Another method is to be reasonably generous to your waiter and get additional reservations from him. The buffet is actually pretty good and they offer one in the main building and another down by the water. The beach is man made and is just a lagoon but quite well done. Depending on your tolerance for pool side games you might try out the quiet pool which we preferred and we requested a building adjacent to that because we knew that is where we would hang out when not diving. Building 5 or 6 would be a good choice and they are central so more convenient to both the main building and the ocean. There is a husband and wife team that often work the bar at that pool and they are great.
The internet in the rooms when we were there was marginal. They had a difficult to use keyboard and went through the television and it was far from high speed. I believe that the "Club" building has wireless. There is wireless that covers the lobby area and an access card can be purchased and there is also a business center with terminals where you can pay as you go. I found that taking my own laptop was the way to go since I could do work and answer email while enjoying a drink (or two) in the lobby bar.
You should also consider spending a day or part of it in Playa Del Carmen....great town with lots to see and do. The Xcaret Park (passes included in your package) is very worthwhile and the evening Mayan show is worth attending.
The hotel is very nice and the staff are great so I think you will enjoy it.
Have fun and if there are any other questions let me know.
Ross Ruddick
