Snorkeling or Scuba Diving in Costa Maya?

[mahea]

Hi all, we are going on the Carnival Glory during the last week of Jan. We are planning to go scuba diving in Cozumel, and are trying to decide whether to dive in Costa Maya. It's much more expensive to dive there (even with the non-cruise ship affiliated outfits), and I was wondering if we should just snorkel. Will we see much cooler stuff by scuba diving or is the snorkeling just as good?

[zqvol]

Hi all, we are going on the Carnival Glory during the last week of Jan. We are planning to go scuba diving in Cozumel, and are trying to decide whether to dive in Costa Maya. It's much more expensive to dive there (even with the non-cruise ship affiliated outfits), and I was wondering if we should just snorkel. Will we see much cooler stuff by scuba diving or is the snorkeling just as good?

 

Do some research. I have heard that the dives in Cozumel are drift dives so if you are a beginner be careful. As far as what you can see, it is a big it depends.

 

I have found some ports where I can see just as much snorkeling as diving, and other where it is much better diving.

[ohio_cruiser]

Mahea,

We (my daughter, brother & I) just went scuba diving in Costa Maya on Dec 23rd and had a great time! We did a private dive with Yoland from La Tortuga Azul. We saw many different fish, beautiful coral, a sea turtle and a large lobster just to name a few. Visibility was perfect! This area is also a part of the Belize Barrier Reef System which is the second largest barrier reef in the world (next to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia). Send her an email at (yolandabuceo@yahoo.es) asking her for details. We also snorkeled in Cozumel at Paradise Reef and Dzul-Ha on Dec 26th. Here the coral was less alive from the previous hurricane storm damage but still something to seem.

Kevin

 

Just returned from NCL - Spirit cruise Dec 21-28, 2008

[mahea]

Thanks for the info!

[mahea]

Just wanted to write an update - we ended up going diving, so I still can't say if snorkeling would have been better, but I know that I can recommend the diving! We went with Blue Ocean Safari dive shop, and I can also highly recommend their services. Julie, the friendly owner, is from Texas and is easy to communicate with over email to set up the trip. The dive shop is located in Mahahual, which is ~5min taxi ride from Costa Maya.

 

I went with my fiancé and there were only 2 other divers, a local couple, on the boat. They were doing the AOW class and were with an instructor. We had our own dive master, which was great, because that gave us more bottom time. The shop is right on the beach, and the boat leaves from there. The surface interval is at the beach, where there’s a bar/restaurant and lounge chairs on the beach. One thing to note is that they don’t provide snacks or water (or at least not on that day) during the surface interval, but we had brought our own stuff anyway. The dives were awesome and the dive master was great at pointing out lobsters and other marine life. I can definitely vouch for their competency as divemasters too – I just acquired a 6.5mm wetsuit (yes, even in 78 degree water I need it to stay warm!) and had trouble staying at 15ft for the safety stop (so embarrassing!!) and our divemaster had no problem pulling my buoyant self down to keep me there for the 3 minutes. I think they offer a great service and, again, would recommend Costa Maya/Mahahual diving and Blue Ocean Safari highly!!

[ohio_cruiser]

Mahea,

Glad you had a great dive!

Thanks for the update.

Kevin