Scuba Club Review

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I stayed at SSC back in June and really enjoyed the hotel and restaurant. The rooms were very Spartan-like, which I enjoyed. My biggest beef with the stay was that there were just not enough dives offered for me. I am used to doing 4-5 dives per day when on a dive vacation and aside from the 2-tank morning boat dives, there just wasn't enough. I signed up for every list for a boat dive that was available and ended up doing the C-53 wreck 3 times and Paradise reef 3 times. I also dove the house reef 6 times. Those 3 sites got pretty repetitive for me. A 2-tank afternoon dive was only offered once throughout the week. What stinks is if there is not enough people that sign up in the afternoon then the charter is cancelled. I did not mind the long boat rides to get to the southern part of the island. I just wish there was more opportunities to dive more of the southern dive sites throughout the week aside from the 2-tank morning dives. Everything got very repetitive for me so the last day instead of diving, I signed up for the Whale Shark trip in Isla Muejeres, which was amazing and highly recommended to everyone. There were easily 75-100 whale sharks that day and it truly made the trip. If I return to Cozumel, I was eyeing Iberostar, which looks to be a bit more expensive when including the diving but being much closer to the better southern sites and having 4-5 dives available per day seems like a win-win for me. My next trip is to Playa del Carmen in January to dive 17 different cenotes and do a bullshark dive, so I am psyched for that for now.
 
I dove the c-53 2 times and enjoyed it but only did it the second time because my kids loved it. The SCC boats must be slow as I have heard the "long boat rides" quite a few times from people who have stayed there. I was at Blue Angel and the rides were 25-30 mins tops to the southern sites. The only ones we didnt dive were Maricaibo and Punta Sur, mainly because I didnt think my oldest son was experienced enough. All the othe ones we dove. You may want to look at other ops like Aldora which will get you there as well. Doesnt SCC have more divers on board than the usual 6 pack? It may be harder for them to group experience levels together if they use cattle type boats. There are so many dive ops I dont think you need to limit yourself to an all inclusive resort which may have you paying for things you have no interest in.
 
The SCC boats must be slow as I have heard the "long boat rides" quite a few times from people who have stayed there. I was at Blue Angel and the rides were 25-30 mins tops to the southern sites. Doesnt SCC have more divers on board than the usual 6 pack? It may be harder for them to group experience levels together if they use cattle type boats. There are so many dive ops I dont think you need to limit yourself to an all inclusive resort which may have you paying for things you have no interest in.

When I dove with SCC last December there were about a dozen divers on the boat and two DMs. We dove in two groups of about six. They seemed to have enough divers to group us by experience levels with a dozen or so on one boat. I didn't feel crowded. I didn't time the boat rides but 25-30 minutes to the southern end of the island sounds about right. They apparently have a rule (not sure but it might be a government rule) that you have to have a one hour surface interval between dives so the ride to the next site was usually leisurely.

I didn't feel like I was paying for anything that I wasn't using. Breakfast and lunch are included but dinner is extra so you can opt out if you prefer to go to town to eat. Drinks etc are extra so those who don't drink are not paying for someone else's booze.
 
When I dove with SCC last December there were about a dozen divers on the boat and two DMs. We dove in two groups of about six. They seemed to have enough divers to group us by experience levels with a dozen or so on one boat. I didn't feel crowded. I didn't time the boat rides but 25-30 minutes to the southern end of the island sounds about right. They apparently have a rule (not sure but it might be a government rule) that you have to have a one hour surface interval between dives so the ride to the next site was usually leisurely.

I didn't feel like I was paying for anything that I wasn't using. Breakfast and lunch are included but dinner is extra so you can opt out if you prefer to go to town to eat. Drinks etc are extra so those who don't drink are not paying for someone else's booze.
I guess I wasn't clear about paying for thing that werent being used. This was directed at Iberostar, which is an very all inclusive type place. From what I hear SCC has a few different boats, some slower, some faster. SCC regulars can probably be more specific. I have heard complaints in the past that forst time or non repaeat clients were put onto slow caatle boats.
 
The other slightly annoying thing that happened was that I really wanted to dive devil's throat at some point during the week and told the dive shop on the first day. I'm pretty sure I started annoying everyone because I was asking about it everyday, however no boat went the whole week because there wasn't enough experienced divers on any boat to be able to go. Unfortunately you're at the mercy of everyone else that is on the boat.
 
The other slightly annoying thing that happened was that I really wanted to dive devil's throat at some point during the week and told the dive shop on the first day. I'm pretty sure I started annoying everyone because I was asking about it everyday, however no boat went the whole week because there wasn't enough experienced divers on any boat to be able to go. Unfortunately you're at the mercy of everyone else that is on the boat.

Yet I have seen them take rather new, marginally skilled divers to devil's throat. I believe it is more about WHO wants to go.

They don't have any fast boats, only slow and slower, and I am sure that effets their site choices. But, if someone who brings them a lot of business requests a specific site, they will probably accomodate.

If you want more control over site sellection, you eitherr need to fill their boat or stay elsewhere. If you stay at SCC and want to do pm boat dives, you can always slip next door and catch a dive paradise boat.
 
There are dive ops that will do afternoon dives with less than 6 divers. Some will go with 2 or 3.
Take a walk around and talk to some of the other dive shops. I did one day as I could not get on a boat at my shop and found a few others that could get me on a pm boat.
 
There are dive ops that will do afternoon dives with less than 6 divers. Some will go with 2 or 3.
Take a walk around and talk to some of the other dive shops. I did one day as I could not get on a boat at my shop and found a few others that could get me on a pm boat.

I'm pretty sure he would have to leave the SCC grounds to meet their boat, though. I don't think SCC allows other ops to use their dock.
 
There are dive ops that will do afternoon dives with less than 6 divers. Some will go with 2 or 3.
Take a walk around and talk to some of the other dive shops. I did one day as I could not get on a boat at my shop and found a few others that could get me on a pm boat.

We're afternoon divers, (no alarms while on vacation), and dive with Blue Magic. Not unusual for me and the boss to be the only ones on the boat. Really nice op - top to bottom.
 
Were doing all afternoon dives next week....last year, we hooked up with a DM named Juan who took just my wife daughter and I for the whole week for afternoon dives! Yes, one must ask around and be a bit persistent, but nice!
 
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