costa maya diving

[cameron168]

cruising carnival in october.. the cruise line is selling a 2 tank dive for $155 and i found one online from tequila beach dive shop for $89.. any tips or advice from anybody who has been this road??

[cruzegirl]

I still recommend Blue Ocean Safari.... I used them last year in December. I was on a group cruise and our original Carnival excursion was changed, we all needed a new dive op. Contact Phil or Julie at Blue Ocean Safari.....Here's a link to my review. I really liked them.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=457073

www.blueoceansafari.com

[scuba214]

I did a one tank dive from Tequila beach. I didn't reserve ahead of time just walked up and booked the dive. It was just me and the dive guide. It was a small boat we did a back roll off of it. The dive was at 40 canyons reef. Lot's of fish and great coral. I used their equipment which was fine. It was a lot less crowded than the ship tours!!! It worked out good for me because my husband is not a diver so he enjoyed the beach while I was gone. I would use them again.

[tootsiescurly]

We used Blue Ocean Safari in May. They were outstanding. There were 4 of us on the dives and it was outstanding! The price is right and the dives were 2 of the best we had in 4 days.

[Wild Bill]

We took the ship dive here, two years ago, with Dream Time Diving. The boats were small, but they had all new equipment, and the dives were excellent! We went through coral caverns, and saw a turtle, diamond back squid, egg casings, and lobster,etc. Also did a twilight dive, which was very nice.

Since you are still seeing the same reef as in Cozumel, the diving will be good, no matter who you use.

Kathy

[tootsiescurly]

Kathy - Have to disagree. It may be the same reef but Cozumel is infinately better.

[scubamargie]

We've dove in Costa Maya twice. Once with the ship (DreamTime) and once on our own with Blue Ocean Safari. DreamTime is definitely the more professsional outfit, but it has small boats with too many people per boat. The diving was nice (not great) and the DMs seemed capable, but just too many people for us. Blue Ocean Safari was a much smaller group (just the two of us and one other gal), but their boat was tiny with no covering. When we returned for the surface interval the truck with our stuff was gone so no towel, water, etc. Not fun. By the time it showed up we were heading back to the boat for the second dive. Again the diving was just OK, not good viz and not much fish life. This last April we arranged diving with Maya Palms. We prepaid for the diving as required. Sadly we were unable to go so we contacted them a week before our scheduled dive and they said they'd refund the money. They never have. Long story short, Costa Maya is a marginal dive location for us. Yes, we would still choose to dive because we're addicted, and any dive is better than a beach day, but there are lots of better operators and locations out there.