Moon Palace Cancun Dive Options

[divebag]

I will be staying at Moon Palace in Cancun and understand they have an arrangement to refer resort guests to Aquaworld with a short van ride to the Aquaworld marina.

Does anyone know of other good quality options for diving from Moon Palace that would be easy and quick to get to that has good equipment rentals and good service. I am looking for convienience and short taxi rides. I will be arriving Jan 23rd for 7 days.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Alvaro from AlwaysDiving or Ben & Jorge from ScorpioDivers. Small groups, professional and flexible, experts on the reefs of the area and all around nice people.

I looked at Aquaworld once. But I have a strong personal aversion to cattle boats. I love the solitude you can find while diving, and diving with 30 other people is not something I'm willing to do.

 

[pharmguy]

I will be staying at Moon Palace in Cancun

Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort south of the airport or the Palace that is in Cancun proper?

Scorpiodivers gets high marks for good reason. I was unable to hook up with them for a dive or two but they went above and beyond to try to accommodate my schedule. I will be seeking them out in July because of the that.

Jason

 

[Spratman]

I would not advise AquaWorld. They major in cattle boat dives. Tons of people on the boats, lots of ScubaBob's and snorkelers too. Scorpio Divers you should definitely check out. I would stick with the smaller operations that cater to you, rather than you working around them. ESPECIALLY, if you are an experienced diver.

Good luck and happy diving!

 

[Zeke XA3]

Dirty Dog and Spratman, have you been on these cattle boats, can you post pictures of this???

Do you mean the boats that take up to 30 divers that when full still have space for people to lay down and sunbathe on the top deck? Hardly a definition of a cattle boat!

As for moon palace. AW have a small boat that takes up to 12 servicing the Moon Palace and Moon palace only. When i was last there we would have between 0-8 people per trip max!

Leaves from the pier at moon palace and drops you back there! Would love to here if that is still going on there!

 

[Spratman]

Yeah, they have big boats, so what? I've been within spitting distance of these boats when they started the lemming march. Again, if you don't care, by all means, go with AW. I wouldn't recommend them to any experienced diver and many that do dive with them won't do it again.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Dirty Dog and Spratman, have you been on these cattle boats, can you post pictures of this???

Do you mean the boats that take up to 30 divers that when full still have space for people to lay down and sunbathe on the top deck? Hardly a definition of a cattle boat!

As for moon palace. AW have a small boat that takes up to 12 servicing the Moon Palace and Moon palace only. When i was last there we would have between 0-8 people per trip max!

Leaves from the pier at moon palace and drops you back there! Would love to here if that is still going on there!

No, I've never been on them. I don't need to be on them, because I can see 30-40 people on them. As I said (clearly, I thought), I have no interest in diving with a crowd.

 

[Zeke XA3]

Spratman - No scubaBobs with A/W and no snorkellers on the dive boats either.

Dirty Dogg - Dive group is the same as any other dive op - 4-6 average divers per DI max of 8 on a busy day.

But yes the dive boats can have a lot of people on board but they go to the same sites and have just a good an operation as the smaller dive sites. I personally like to be able to walk around a boat during my journeys rather than sat in the skiff not being able to move

But to the OP as you can see plenty of options depending on what you prefer.

 

[DocVikingo]

Check Undercurrent (Scuba Diving Magazine, Undercurrent Reviews Dive Resorts, Liveaboards, & Diving Gear) for it's reviews and sidebars on Aquaworld.

Here is the most recent review I was able to locate (not Undercurrent):

"Concalvo; Denver, Colorado; Jan 2, 2011

I didn't think it was possible to have a bad diving experience in Cozumel given the number of outstanding dive sites! Aquaworld is not capable of delivering anything but a bad experience. They are incredibly disorganized, have very poor equipment and do not follow safe diving practices.

I cannot understand why a high quality resort like the Cozumel Palace would allow Aquaworld to operate on their property. First, immediately on arriving at the Palace, I went to the Aquaworld shop to confirm our long pre-booked, prepaid reservations. They had no records of any reservations and it took multiple arguments over the next 12 hours before they finally acknowledged our arrangements.

Every day we had to be at the dock at 11:00AM to take their boat to their other shop to pick up other people and get equipment. The other shop is a mob scene where it is survival of the fittest. By the time everything gets sorted out and you get to the dive site, you hit the water for the first dive at about 1:00PM (2 hours from when you arrive at the dock).

The equipment is awful! Many leaks in valves, connections and BCDs. The divemasters are "babysitters" and just float along with the group rather than pointing out sights and paying attention to the rather large group of divers. We had two divers get separated from our group and surface elsewhere. In between dives, there was no mention of pressure groups, surface intervals, etc... We simply raced to the next site and got ready for the next dive. In at least one case, the surface interval was 45 minutes after an 85 - 90 foot depth dive. I also plan to contact PADI to share my concerns that Aquaworld is a PADI certified dive shop. I have also complained to the Palace Resorts.

Bottom line is that the diving in Cozumel is too good to be ruined by a horrible operation like Aquaworld. I encourage anyone to utilize other reputable shops in Cozumel such as Aqua Safari. This is the shop that was formerly at the Palace during our trip a couple of years ago. I found them to be very competent, safe and able to offer a number of flexible options.”

As others have said, Scorpio Divers // Scuba Diving // Diving the way it should be.// Scuba Diving Cancun Puerto Morelos Cozumel Cenotes, among others, does a fine job.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[Zeke XA3]

I would point out that we were talking about Canucn A/W operations, it is well know around that for some reason the Cozumel operation seems to be consistently below the rest of A/W standards.