Trip Report: Spring Break Oasis Cancun and Mayan Aqua Dive

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

idratherbedivin

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
140
Reaction score
5
Location
Washington, DC
# of dives
200 - 499
Just got back yesterday from an unbelievable trip to Cancun for spring break. I went with 3 of my friends for 8 days and stayed at the Oasis Cancun. We are all high school seniors. We got to the airport nice and early the flights weren't any problem at all except for a little switching so a family could sit together. Surprisingly I was allowed to carry on my clearly oversized guitar in its case and put it in the overhead compartment, which I was very happy about because it is so fragile. When we finally arrive at the resort we are all amazed. The resorts in Cancun are enormus but the Oasis Cancun/Grand Oasis complex was one of the biggest I saw during the trip. Everywhere we looked in the lobby we saw kids on spring break.
First thing after checking in we get a corona and head to our rooms. We immediately change for the beach and walk out to one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen. A 3 km pool with multiple pool bars and then the nice white sand and vibrant turquoise water. The drinks at the resort are pretty watered down, but that is probably a good thing because you start drinking as soon as you wake up. I would definitely not reccommend this resort during spring break to anyone who doesn't like rowdy teenagers because there are drunk teenagers yelling all day and night. And yes I mean all night, we were at the bar at 5 am multiple times. The food for the Oasis Cancun is terrible but nobody really cares cause everything tastes good after a bunch of drinks. If you want good food stay at the Grand Oasis, their restaurants looked much better. I went one time snorkeling with the resort affiliated Aquaworld and had a terrible time. The reefs are roped off so you can not go over them you have to watch from outside and you must wear a life vest and go with a guide. I would not reccomend them for anything.
I was supposed to go diving on the 4th day of the trip but I had a really rough night the 3rd night and didn't make it. Ben from Mayan Aqua Dive tried really hard to get ahold of me for the dive but couldn't so I felt kind of bad. I had gotten home at 5 after being kicked out of a club so there was no waking me up. Turns out the dive that I missed they had 100+ visability and saw a pack of 30 eagle rays. I guess that is what I get for drinking too much. The next night I take it easy so I can wake up for my diving. I show up about 20 minutes late because I had trouble figuring out the bus situation but Ben was very helpful. I immediately filled out a form and got right on the boat without having to handle my rented equipment. Everything on the boat was done for me. I of course checked to make sure my air was on but that was really all I had to do. We went to an 80 foot wreck, with about 8 divers and 2 dive guides - one being ben. The current was pretty strong which I wasnt used to but I enjoyed learning how to handle the current. The dive was great we saw 3 eagle rays and 2 morays plus tons of huge angelfish. The second dive of the day was a 50 foot drift dive that was a ton of fun. It was my first drift dive and I loved it. On my second to last day of the trip I went for another morning 2 tank dive. I was told we were going out farther because we had more experienced people diving today. I was happy because I know that most operations just take you to the closest possible place, but not Mayan Aqua Dive. We did 2 50 foot reef dives that were really cool. A lot of swimthroughs and just huge schools of fish of all kinds. All in all the dives were awesome and the crew made it incredibly easy for me to dive. Ben, the owner, is just a great guy all around and you can really tell he loves diving. He was really friendly and it was awesome to see a dive op owner not too much older then me.


I am sure you will read this Ben, so thanks again for the dives. I will try to visit you while I am in college, I have seen $60 dollar flights from Miami to Cancun so I am sure I will get down their a few times. And if you are ever in Southern Florida shoot me a pm I would love to dive with you.
 
Nice write up. I know you did quite a bit of drinking however, a 3km pool??!! :rofl3:

You could have swam up to Ben's location!! Okay, enough of that. We'll be staying at the Royal Caribbean on this trip. Most of the sane people avoid Cancun during spring break. Only thing more dangerous than that is when Manxie has the SAS boys in town...

I hope you tipped his crew well, after holding the boat for twenty minutes...:D Next trip, try less alcohol and more diving.

Glad you had a great time!
 
Nice report. I remember the college spring break days.... Now midnight is about as late as it gets for me.

$60 airfares from Miami...Let me know if you see those again, I would love to grab a cheap flight down there. I always seem to end up paying $4-500 round trip.
 
I stayed at the Grand Oasis in Cancun, it is night and day from the Oasis Cancun.
They originally dropped me at the Oasis, went to check in thinking, wow what a dump.
They said at the counter, you are not booked here, you are booked at the Grand Oasis.
So they took us over there and now we are talking, this place was 5 star, brand new, very nice, good food and drinks. The lady in the room next door kept getting naked and yelling, "get naked, you're in Cancun" :D

I would avoid Cancun like the plague during spring break, but I do like the diving there, couple of nice wreck, plenty of fish, and SI choices abound.
Glad you survived
 
Haha yeah the pool is clearly not 3 km but it can seem like that if you try to walk it near the end of the day :wink: It is actually a quarter mile which is pretty huge for a pool, the biggest in cancun if i am not mistaken. I would have loved to do more diving but the trip was a birthday present for my friend and all of my friends were none divers so I didn't feel right about leaving them every day. As for the flights from Miami, check spirit for their special deals. You can get some pretty great deals if you don't want to fly prime times. The Grand Oasis is just unbelievable. We walked through their one day and it was so incredibly nice. If you are on a student budget though then the regular oasis is fine cause that is where all the kids are anyways. I can see why anyone not part of the spring break crowd would hate being anywhere near cancun during that time it must be awful. A ton of fun for us though :) I didn't actually have any money the day I was late so I couldn't give any tip that day but my next dives I hope I made up for it. I don't know what the standard tip is down their but for my budget $25 dollars seemed like a lot.
 
Just got back from a beautiful trip to Cancun and dove the "Lost Reef" and the "Church Arches" drift dives. They picked us up and took us back to the hotel with no issues. The dive masters had us all ready and in the water promptly and even helped me with my temp mind/body conflict (panic attack) as it'd been seven-plus years since I last dove (no refreshers)... Guess my mask filling with water and my ears not equalizing was all my brain could take with the regulator in my mouth. Our dive master was great and got me calmed and into the dive without resurfacing or other issue. Once on bottom - it was just like it used to be and we saw sharks, tons of fish, eels, lobster, crab and a giant green sea turtle. These guys really know how to drift the reef...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom