Recommendation needed for Cozumel Intro Dive Course

[fredwooch]

My son and I are going to be in Cozumel on a cruise and we want to take an introductory diving course. (I dove once about 10 years ago; he's never dived before.) We've checked with a couple of operators that we found over the internet who can accommodate us, but I was hoping to get some recommendations from some of you who may have personal experiences with them. Safety, of course, is our top priority. We were also wondering whether it would be better (especially given the conditions after Wilma) if our first dive was a shore dive or off a boat, since most operators seem to offer only one or the other.

 

The operators who seem to be able to accommodate us include: Blue Angel Dive Shop, Papa Hogs, Michael Beasley, Cristina Roman (Dive With Cristina), and Cozumel Cruise Excursions.com (I don't know who they use as the actual dive shop).

 

Does anyone recommend or not recommend any of the above? Is there anything we should particularly be looking for?

 

Appreciate any help . . .

[bruce-r]

Your best choice for first time in scuba gear for your son would be a pool experience. If you could do a pool discover scuba at home before the cruise, it would make doing a discover scuba in Cozumel a lot easier and probably safer.

 

The better diving will be done from a boat. I wouldn't use one of the online excursion brokers like cozumelcruiseexcursions.com unless you know for sure who you are really going with. Those brokers don't conduct any of the excursions, they just do the bookings, kind of like the cruiselines do.

[Chalker Guy]

I expect that all of the operators are good, but I can only speak for one. We used Papa Hogs 4 years ago for a resort scuba dive, and were very pleased. My son who is a certified diver also used them for a series of dives, and was also pleased. The instructor was very good and had a lot of patience with my wife, who had problems with her mask sealing. We got personalized instruction for our group of 3. The dive was from the shore right by the shop, and when we were done, we snorkeled there for another couple of hours. The price was right, only $55 per person. We just walked in with no reservation, and we started right away. You may note that Papa Hogs had serious damage from Wilma, but are back in operation. Also, Villa Blanca reef (just offshore) was seriously damaged. Reports are that there is little coral left, but fish are plentiful.

[Sandra*]

We also used Papa Hogs for our dive and they were great. Very professional and I felt very comfortable diving with them. We were in a small group and the price was reasonable for 2 tank dives. We took the boat out to the Palancar (sp?) reef for a wall dive and were so impressed with it and the crew. I would recommend them to anyone and will use them again myself if we're back in that neck of the woods.