Any experiences with the local Scuba shops?

[Grenadyr]

I'll be cruising into Costa Maya in November and am trying to setup a 2 tank dive for my daughter and I.  Anyone have any experiences with the local dive shops they could share.  Thanks in advance.

[crewsweeper]

Selma at Nomad Divers is a great dive guide.  My Canadian friends use her whenever they go to Mahahual.  They can set up up with a number of choices for tanks and dive sites depending on your experience and time in port.  They do go to the Banco Chinchorro reef area, a protected area supposedly with fantastic diving and sea life.

 

http://www.nomaddivers.com/

 

Dr. Dive at the Ya Yas is another good choice. They are also PADI and conduct day dives to many sites.  Not sure with they wait for several to make a group or take smaller parties.  As the owners also own YaYas, they may get walkons.

 

https://www.doctordive.com/

 

There's also Dreamtime Divers which get s good reviews and Mahahual Divers.  But my friends haven't used either.

 

 

[Soundview77]

My daughter and I dove with Dreamtime a little over 2 years ago, booked through the ship (Royal Caribbean).

 

We were met at the pier and shuttled through town then down the bumpy coastal road, about a 3 mile ride.

 

.....took care of the paperwork, got fitted for gear, loaded it onto the dive boat that was anchored in shallow water and off we went. The 2 dive sites were not far from the shop, both were reef dives. The equipment was in decent shape and the Divemaster was competent.

 

The group I was with was a total of 8 (Boat operator, Divemaster, 6 divers).

 

I didn't take any pictures of the actual boat I was on but I clicked around and found this picture that gives

a good idea of the type of boat I dove from. I'm not sure what other dive boat(s) are in their fleet.

 

Would I dive with them again? Yes.

Would I look at other dive operations in Costa Maya? Yes, for variety.

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Soundview77

[Grenadyr]

Thanks for the information, I'll be checking into those shops to see what they have to offer.

[kac911]

On 5/12/2019 at 5:57 PM, Grenadyr said:

I'll be cruising into Costa Maya in November and am trying to setup a 2 tank dive for my daughter and I.  Anyone have any experiences with the local dive shops they could share.  Thanks in advance.

 

Did you end up setting up some diving in Costa Maya?  We will be there in Dec and wondering the same, and if you've already done the research you could save me the trouble!  Thanks.

[Grenadyr]

We ended up setting up a reservation for a two tank dive with Doctor Dive on 13th of Nov.  They are charging us $95 each for the two tank dive and $25 each for the equipment rental.  I will try to remember to post a follow up with our experience when we get back.  We're also diving with Sun Divers when we stop at Roatan if that is another stop for you.

[Grenadyr]

So we dove with Doctor Dive last week and had a great time.  We had to provide our own transportation which amounted to about $20 each way for a cab for my daughter and I.  If you haven't been to Costa Maya before you will have to find  your way out of the shopping area, through the tour vendors, and keep walking until you get out of the main gate to find a taxi.  Not a bad walk but if you're carrying a lot of gear it could be a pain.  We arrived at Yaya Beach club and hung out on the porch overlooking the beach while we waited for our boat and equipment to be ready.  There are shops, bars, booths, and vendors aplenty to keep us entertained before and after the dives.  We dove as a group of six with a divemaster at a location pretty close to the shop.  They took care of all the equipment and chose great dive locations with lots of sealife to observe.  They return to the shop between dives and provide fresh fruit to snack on while they swap out the tanks.  Overall it was a great experience and would happily dive with them again.

[c-leg5]

2 hours ago, Grenadyr said:

So we dove with Doctor Dive last week and had a great time.  We had to provide our own transportation which amounted to about $20 each way for a cab for my daughter and I.  If you haven't been to Costa Maya before you will have to find  your way out of the shopping area, through the tour vendors, and keep walking until you get out of the main gate to find a taxi.  Not a bad walk but if you're carrying a lot of gear it could be a pain.  We arrived at Yaya Beach club and hung out on the porch overlooking the beach while we waited for our boat and equipment to be ready.  There are shops, bars, booths, and vendors aplenty to keep us entertained before and after the dives.  We dove as a group of six with a divemaster at a location pretty close to the shop.  They took care of all the equipment and chose great dive locations with lots of sealife to observe.  They return to the shop between dives and provide fresh fruit to snack on while they swap out the tanks.  Overall it was a great experience and would happily dive with them again.

Not sure why the taxi fare was so high? It shoud have been a flat rate of $8 per cab each way to the malecon for 4 people.

[Grenadyr]

19 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

Not sure why the taxi fare was so high? It shoud have been a flat rate of $8 per cab each way to the malecon for 4 people.

 

That would be my ignorance showing.  I looked back at the email I was sent from Doctor Dive and it said $16 round trip, not each way as I had remembered.  I also haven't been in a taxi in over 10 years or so I have no idea what they generally cost.  Ooops.

[c-leg5]

31 minutes ago, Grenadyr said:

 

That would be my ignorance showing.  I looked back at the email I was sent from Doctor Dive and it said $16 round trip, not each way as I had remembered.  I also haven't been in a taxi in over 10 years or so I have no idea what they generally cost.  Ooops.

LOL, Sounds better!

[StCroixCruiser]

I dove with Mar Adentro in October.  It was an awesome day of diving.

 

I arrived for my lion fish hunt 2 tank dive only to be asked if I wanted to cancel due to high seas. I said I was game if they were. A small open dive boat was quickly exchanged for a 45' cabin cruiser Searay. It was me, the captain, his deck hand, the dive shop owner, and a divemaster (retired American military).  No extra divers... so an amazing private excursion.  

 

First dive was quite a ways north from the cruise port on some pristine reef much further than the shops take normal 2 tank dives.   There was a little chop bouncing the boat at anchor, but reboarding after the dive was just a matter of timing the swells. The 2nd dive was even further north. They said they'd never done that area of reef before and we were going to explore.  The ocean completely laid down flat at that site.  We had a longer kick to where the reef began with a little current to fight, but again arrived at a beautifully pristine reef full of life. The reef at both sites was a maze of coral head fingers, each running about 100-150 yards in length parallel with many others before a short break and another cluster of finger reefs beginning.  The runnels between coral fingers were filled with sand. The fingers were close together, which had you swimming in coral lined alleys with no surge. The coral fingers ranged from 10-25 or so feet high from the sandy bottom.  The cruise out from the port was full of waves.  They kept watching me to see if I was ok or about to panic... but I'm a licensed captain with years of open ocean sailing experience and I was having a blast. It had been about 8 years since I had last gone spear fishing (used to live on St Croix), so killed fewer lionfish than I was used to but still put about 16 in the catch tube over 2 dives.  Two of the littlest ones escaped.

 

They offered fresh fruit between dives, bottled water, as well as beer after dives were done.  I used their gear as I was visiting off a cruise ship and not diving in any other ports. The only drawback was the reg didn't have a computer and the air gauge was rudimentary. I trusted them to watch their computers and we had long dives and weren't cut short by an arbitrary dive time as happens on many excursion dives.

 

The dive shop also does regular 2 tank dives on the reef just off the Majahual seawall and the divemaster said the sites are in good shape and full of fish.  I hope it stays that way.

 

The dive was booked through the ***** excursions email I received for my back to back cruises.  They offered a 2 tank dive with equipment for $99 or a 2 tank lion fish hunt safari with equipment for $199.  I opted for the latter knowing it was less likely to be a "cattle boat" experience (while wondering if it would really be worth the extra $$) and wasn't even vaguely disappointed.  If we had taken the smaller open dive boat 20 miles up the coast in high seas, it wouldn't have been as pleasant.

 

It was an excellent dive excursion and I wouldn't hesitate to dive with Mar Adentro again.  I am a PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer (instructor) as well as a boat captain.  This outing on a day when the ocean was topped with heavy surf wouldn't have been for everyone.  The staff was attentive and professional and it looked like they were really enjoying getting to explore new reef areas, too.  If you are a less experienced diver, their dive offerings along the malecon are likely better than many other Caribbean locations since Majahual hasn't been inundated with tourists for decades like other popular dive locations.

[StCroixCruiser]

ok, it didn't want me to post the name of the cruise booking site I had used that provided the excursion info where I found this dive operation, which is odd since it's related to cruise critic.  It starts with Vacations and then ToGo.