Cozumel Choices -- help me!

[Jupiter31]

Now THAT is useful information !

Thanks!

But its true; previous 2 trips had rooms on the 3rd and 4th floors - pressure was like a trickle - and you know how you look forward to a hot shower after diving; could not be done.

 

[moonsky]

Have used Christi at Blue XT Sea on two occasions. The first time we found her abrasive, but DM's were good. The second time we returned to her (should have used Dive Martin!) for several days of diving. New DM's this time who were over controlling on shallow/novice dives and then followed dangerous dive profiles and gave insufficient pre-dive briefs on such dives as Devil's Throat. Didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Christi is unprofessional in nature and dealings with customers. We will never use her operation again as she adds stress to our holidays! :shakehead

 

[Moodiejeff]

Have used Christi at Blue XT Sea on two occasions. The first time we found her abrasive, but DM's were good. The second time we returned to her (should have used Dive Martin!) for several days of diving. New DM's this time who were over controlling on shallow/novice dives and then followed dangerous dive profiles and gave insufficient pre-dive briefs on such dives as Devil's Throat. Didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Christi is unprofessional in nature and dealings with customers. We will never use her operation again as she adds stress to our holidays! :shakehead

Oh well... more room on the boat for me!

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, we've used Christi for years now and can't think of a bad thing to say. From day one she's been a total sweetheart and her DMs have always been top notch. I'm not trying to sound like a cheerleader here but we're customers for life... that's how good we've been treated.

As many people have pointed out, there are plenty of dive shops... you just have to find the one that suits you best. Maybe DWM is the right one for you Moonsky

 

[moonsky]

Yep you're welcome to it --- glad to hear you've had a better experience than we did though. Just left a poor taste in our mouths both times.

Her boat captains are first class though.

 

[Jarrett]

Dangerous dive profiles, insufficient pre-dive briefs, unprofessional? Are you sure we are talking about the same Christi? I actually dive with her to get away from those sorts of things that I've experienced at other dive ops down there.

I'm interested to hear what Dive with Martin does differently that you like.

 

[ggunn]

Have used Christi at Blue XT Sea on two occasions. The first time we found her abrasive...

I've known Christi for a while, and I would not call her abrasive. Assertive, sure; you don't get a business up and running in a foreign (to us) country by being a doormat, but I've always found her to be reasonable. If you got crossways with Christi, I'd wager a tidy sum that it wasn't totally her fault.

 

[Christi]

Kim I am sorry that my policies are not to your liking, but they were lined out in advance on both occasions, very clearly. I did in fact make several special accommodations for your group, including rearranging the schedule to allow for a one hour later departure time for you by request, providing a full set of gear at no charge for a member from your group, making special arrangements so that you would not have to come into town at all to complete paperwork or settle your accounts, rearranging the dive schedule to allow you and Oliver to get to Devils Throat (by your request), and deviating from my cancellation policy to accommodate your last minute cancellation.

If you were unhappy with anything at all, you could have addressed these things with me when you came to pick up your refund for the last minute cancellation, or when you called to cancel so that you could join your friends in PDC. You gave me no indication at all that you were unhappy, in fact I found our telephone conversation to be very friendly.

I am sorry that you were not happy with me or my services or crew, but this is something that could have been addressed more appropriately. Instead, two weeks later with no attempt to express these sentiments to me by phone, e-mail or in person you choose to make these complaints in a public forum.

For the record, you were not diving with new divemasters. Pedro, Javier, & Arturo have all worked with me for quite awhile. 3 years, 2 years and 1 year respectively and all have literally thousands of dives here and elsewhere. Pedro has been a Cozumel divemaster for over 10 years, Javier has been a divemaster in Puerto Vallarta and Cozumel for going on 20 years. Arturo was on vacation during your trip.

Ironically, I received this from a member of your group just a few days after your return, along with a photo of the group.

Christi,
Thank you for all of your help last weekend for making our diving experience wonderful. We all had a great time and just wanted to relay that message to you, so from all of us, thank you. You run a very good dive operation and should be commended for that. We really enjoyed diving with Pedro, funny guy. We had a theme to our dive trip and it was making fun of the movie "The Life Aquatic". We all got a good laugh from the flick. As you can see, Pedro participated in the gag. The picture is the front cover for the Cozumel Dive Trip DVD we are making. Hopefully we will see you soon and always, Hookem' Horns!

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Have used Christi at Blue XT Sea on two occasions. The first time we found her abrasive, but DM's were good. The second time we returned to her (should have used Dive Martin!) for several days of diving. New DM's this time who were over controlling on shallow/novice dives and then followed dangerous dive profiles and gave insufficient pre-dive briefs on such dives as Devil's Throat. Didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Christi is unprofessional in nature and dealings with customers. We will never use her operation again as she adds stress to our holidays! :shakehead

Hmmmm I have used her op on several occasions and have always found her to be open and helpful and professional, very friendly....her crew is top notch and always always puts the customer first....I have never dove with a safer operation....

I have used DWM before as well and have nothing bad to say about his op either....but I was with him on San Juan a northern reef there was a family of 7 newbies on the boat that I didn't know and had not dove with and he dropped all of us in 130fsw....I thought that was a real experience for them.....it was a great dive with no problems but you know stuff can happen.....Happy diving....

 

[sharky60]

I am spending a long weekend with a friend in Playa del Carmen in 2 weeks. I am going to head down earlier to do some diving in Cozumel. Since I am alone and on a budget, I've kinda narrowed down my (many, many) choices to:

Blue Angel/Carib Blu

Dive with Martin/Vista Del Mar


I know there are a million dive options in Cozumel but I am forgetting an obvious choice?

Remember I am single, alone, not flush with cash, bringing no gear and LOVE to dive. Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

do you mean Casa Del Mar? either choice would be good, Caribe Blu is more quaint, (although they are both quite quaint), and less price, with the dive op right on the premises, very handy.

Caribe Blu may offer a better rate as a single also, Casa Del Mar may charge a double occupancy rate even for a single. But both are great "divers" hotels. No frills, but comfortable clean rooms, good, friendly staff & good food.

I have dove with both, and highly recommend them both, you can't go wrong using either one.

 

[sharky60]

Have used Christi at Blue XT Sea on two occasions. The first time we found her abrasive, but DM's were good. The second time we returned to her (should have used Dive Martin!) for several days of diving. New DM's this time who were over controlling on shallow/novice dives and then followed dangerous dive profiles and gave insufficient pre-dive briefs on such dives as Devil's Throat. Didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Christi is unprofessional in nature and dealings with customers. We will never use her operation again as she adds stress to our holidays! :shakehead

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Blue XT Sea, it doesn't sound like ANY of the experiences I have heard from Blue XT Sea, and I have personally observed Christi with customers and have noticed nothing but the utmost professionalism.