I just got back from Coz where I used Dive with Martin. It was my first time there so I cannot compare to anything else but overall I was pleased and would dive with them again if I go back. My girlfriend felt they were fine too, but said said might want to try someone else next time just for comparison.
We first emailed DWM and set up a package. We were required to send in a $150 deposit ahead of time.
When we got to their "shop" my first reaction was 'Oh crap, shouldn't have gone cheap'. It was basically a small kiosk at the side of the pier, and when I asked if they had a bigger dive shop someplace the guy pointed to a bunch of ruins on the pier and said that that used to be it... I asked about the free shore dives (as promised in the packages) and pick up from the hotel, and was told that the shore was full of rubble because of Wilma so people weren't allpwed to dive there and there was some problem with pickups too. At this point I was about to ask for my deposit back, in fact I did... but the guy then said the boat (when available) could take us 2 minutes out of the shore, so we could do our free "shore dives" there and he promised to make the pickups work as well, which he did though one morning the pickup guy was 20 min late.
I was still a bit hesitant because it didn't look like they'd even have enough space to store our gear in the kiosk, but somehow they maanged. We had our own gear so I never got to try theirs but it looked like your basic rec gear and I didn't hear anyone complain about it. We did have to get two tank o-rings replaced (leaks), but that's not unusual and they DM were equiped with extras.
The dive boats and dives were good. We used AL80's which were fine for us since we were generally the last ones out of the water anyway, and they would let people with good air consumption stay longer while those with bad air consumption surfaced early, and mostly the dives tended to end for my gf and I when our air was starting to get low. I was usually back on the boat with 30-50 bar. An exception to that was a dive to Punta Sur, which the DM considered advanced and didn't want the group breaking up. On the boat they gave us free water and pieces of fruit. O2 was also available for emergencies.
The DM's set the gear up most people, and would probably have set it up for us too if we had asked, but since we were using backplates, wings and can lights they left it for us to do - and frankly I prefer to do it myself anyway.
On the last day of diving, I saw another couple get on the boat in the morning and speed off, as they were leaving I shouted 'hey, what dive site are you going to' and was told Punta Sur. Another boat pulled up and the DM said they would probably go to Paradise Reef. No one had asked for our preference, which would definately have been Punta Sur, so I ran to the kiosk and asked if I could still get to the Punta Sur boat and they said okay. The other boat was faster so it caught up with first boat and we switched. Make sure you discuss the next day's diving options the night before.
Now there was no food available on the boat other than water and pieces of fruit, so eat a big breakfast or bring your own food. The first day we didn't realize to do this because the pickups were at 7.30 and no breakfast places were open around us so we went hungry. The boats also picked people up from other loacations before heading to the dive sites so it probably an hour or two after the boat left the internation pier before we actually got to the dive sites. There were around 5-8 people on the boats we used, not including the captain and DM.
In addition, Dive with Martin promised us that we could use independent doubles if we wanted (as long as we could rig them up on our own), but we never ended up making use of this option because my gf didn't want to practice for the cave course we were about to take and we didn't need the extra volume.
So that was my experience. Sure there were a few hiccups, but the DWM was always very flexible and tried to make everything work, which is why I would use them again. Also, they have a tech operation (King Divers) which I intended to try out but never did - maybe next time.
