Won a trip...now who do I dive with??

[SavetheSharks]

Hi,

I was lucky enough to win a trip to Playa del Carmen...Xcaret to be exact. We won a week stay at the Occidental Grand Xcaret. I have been diving in Cozumel a few times, and dove with Marina Dive Center a few years ago in Puerto Morelos and liked them alot. I have not been diving in Playa before so I am wondering if anyone has suggestions? We are also planning on snorkeling with the whale sharks. We did that a few years ago in Holbox and thought it was amazing. Sounds like most of the shops go to Punta Sam which is a closer. Also any other suggestions are welcome too. I know we are staying right at Xcaret, but is Xcaret worth going to? Is it pretty much a zoo? I saw where you can swim with the dolphins and nurse sharks, but I am totally not a fan of swimming with "caged or in this case "swimming pooled" animals. Not a fan of zoos in general. Would much rather seem them in the wild or not at all basically. Thank you for your suggestions.

 

[DeerCreekers]

Lucky you! We just got back from staying 10 days at Xcaret (have stayed there before several times and really love the hotel). DO NOT USE THE DIVE OP IN THE HOTEL. It is called Baracuda Dive and it has very unsafe dive practices (two years ago when we used them it was unsafe and then last week when a friend of ours didn't listen and wanted to add one more day of cenote diving to the trip. He was taken with a group of 4 other divers, they did a cenote dive at Dos Ojos with only half of them having lights (OMG); made the whole group sit in the van as they filled the tanks in town; picked up the sandwiches in town before taking them to the cenotes).
Anyway, our group last week used ecodivingtours@gmail.com and were totally satisfied with the operation. Great cenote dives with an outstanding guide (Victor). Great pre-trip email planning, good prices, they picked us up at Xcaret, good food, soft drinks and water and just a fun group to dive with (Jose, Jamie and Ashleigh)....and they kept us up on the World Cup results while we were diving..really, what more could you ask for.

 

[idocsteve]

Lucky you! We just got back from staying 10 days at Xcaret (have stayed there before several times and really love the hotel). DO NOT USE THE DIVE OP IN THE HOTEL. It is called Baracuda Dive and it has very unsafe dive practices

You might want to avoid posts such as this given the current litigation ScubaBoard is currently involved with.

Just say'en.

Big difference between posting what you did, as compared to say something like this:

"I cannot recommend Bug-aBoo divers because when I dove with them a year or two back the dive master fed one of the air hots to a Maco Shark".

 

[DeputyDan]

When you take your "Free trip" take all paperwork and all correspondence with you.
Do this to prove what you won versus what "THEY SAY YOU WON"

Many years ago my daughter and I attended parent/child space camp.
There was a father/daughter there from California because the daughter had won a contest in a magazine.

The space camp staff were less than pleasant to them the whole time. They would also not honor most of the "prizes, etc." that the child supposedly won. The dad called the mom back in California and had her Fed Ex all the information to him in Florida. The space camp folks only honored the extras once he had the proof in hand.

I thought it was mighty tacky of them (the space camp folks). But anyhow - that's the reason for my advice!

 

[SavetheSharks]

When you take your "Free trip" take all paperwork and all correspondence with you.
Do this to prove what you won versus what "THEY SAY YOU WON"

Many years ago my daughter and I attended parent/child space camp.
There was a father/daughter there from California because the daughter had won a contest in a magazine.

The space camp staff were less than pleasant to them the whole time. They would also not honor most of the "prizes, etc." that the child supposedly won. The dad called the mom back in California and had her Fed Ex all the information to him in Florida. The space camp folks only honored the extras once he had the proof in hand.

I thought it was mighty tacky of them (the space camp folks). But anyhow - that's the reason for my advice!

Thanks for the advice. I think it will work out for us, it was all set up through Apple Vacations. We will definately print everything out though.

 

[SavetheSharks]

Woo hoo! We got some dives and the whale shark trip set up with Geofish. Can't wait until we go.

Any thoughts out there about Xcaret itself? I am not a big fan of zoos and that is what I am sort of imaging the place to be like. PLease let me know if I am really wrong about that. Also, are there zip lines there too? That may be sort of fun.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

We went to Xcaret in December during a family trip and it was actually kind of nice. It's huge, with as many things as there are to see & do we didn't even see everything in one day. They have several long underground rivers which you can float through. They have a couple beach access points with snorkeling (saw a large green moray eel swim about 10 feet below me in shallow water). In both the rivers & ocean you can see the mixture or salt & freshwater.

The animal sections didn't feel that much like a zoo. They have turtles, dolphins, nurse sharks, manatees, tropical birds, butterfly pavilion and more. They have a equestrian horse show near the Mexican restaurant in the afternoon with traditional dress. They have several restaurants all over the property but we only ate at the Mexican buffet by the horse stables and it was surprisingly VERY good, authentic and with tons of different choices. I was just telling my husband today over a tamale that I've never had a better tamale than the strawberry flavored one at Xcaret.

At the end of the day they have a pretty impressive show that goes over Mexico's history starting with pre-Hispanic Mexico (which was the best part of the show). I wasn't really sure what to expect before visiting and actually had a pretty good time.

I have some photos of Xcaret from our trip:

COZUMEL DEC 2009 - bumblebeeimages' Photos- powered by SmugMug
Xcaret - Cancun most amazing eco park

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Underground river entrance

Snorkeling beach near Dolphins

Example of Mayan Living

Mexico Show

Characters of the Mexico Show

 

[Cmaustin]

I stayed at the Occidental Xcaret a couple years ago. Aside from getting stitches from a pool grate I had a great time. The night show is worth seeing at Xcaret and the underground river was a lot of fun. Personally I liked Xel ha better if I had to choose between the two.

 

[DeerCreekers]

When you stay at Occidental Grand Xcaret, you get to enter Xcaret thru their personal entrance (which is on the side of the property and right next to the hotel lunch buffet. But don't bring your hotel towel because you wont need it and they won't let you take it off the property. And now that you have been let in on this info, you can have a good laugh at the pile of towels left at the entrance to the eco-park). The properties literally butt up right next to each other. If you buy your tickets on the Xcaret property its $36 each instead of around $60. Have been several times (because free entrance used to be included for everyone staying at Xcaret but they stopped that last year). I am also not a fan of "zoos" the feel of zoos. Totally different vibe here. I would say it it really worth a day, simply for the turtles exhibits alone. Under gound river is neat too (but cold, which will be the only "cold" water you will be in in the Rivera Maya). Hint though, food is really expensive and walking back to the lunch buffet at Xcaret is very close and easy. If you plan on eating the majority of your food at the hotel and just walking back over...its very doable and will save you alot of money. You can exit and enter thru the special hotel entrance as many times as you want for the day you buy your ticket.
I am sure you've probably read about the hotel on line. It's huge. Get ready to do alot of walking, but embrace that fact instead of complaining about it. Chances are as you walk you will see lemers, tapers, iguanas the size of small dogs, deer and other various wild life...totally cool.
Also, for those that complain about AIs watering down the drinks (all AI's do it), simply ask them to make whatever drink you've ordered a certain way as you watch them make it (mas tequila please, or mas "whatever"), they will do whatever you ask without batting an eye.
The taxi ride into PDC is $10 each way.