Staying at Barcelo Maya Colonial/Tropical

[TMJJS]

I'm planning on getting my class and pool work out of the way and then getting certified while staying at this resort. I understand Dressel Divers operates the dive shop here. I have also emailed Jason (playacountryboy) at Fantasea about diving. However, Jason is a ways away and would cost some money to take taxis back and forth.
I read some of the threads on Dressel and it's obviously mixed even though the ones I read were over a year old.

What suggestions would you have for my family to complete their Open Water Diver certification and do some dives while staying at the Barcelo Maya Colonial/Tropical?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

[TMJJS]

As an update, we are now planning on getting the open water dives done before coming down to Mexico, so we should be Open Water certified when we get there!

Does anyone have recent experience with Dressel Divers at the Barcelo Maya? With a younger son not diving, any other dive operation recommendations in the area?

 

[yak]

I've stayed at BM in April 07, April 06, and April 02. I've dove onsite with Dressell each time, except the cenote dives, which were with Dennis from Diablo Divers. Dressel runs a decent operation, but being a resort, they tend to have a lot of student and Discover Scuba divers. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as you're new divers, but something to be aware of. Their prices are a bit higher than dive operators in town, but they are very convenient, and when you're done diving, you're right back at the resort, no taxis, etc.

They have a brand new pier that is situated centrally between the old and new Barcelo's, so it's easy to get on and off the boats.

The DM turnover is high - there was only one guy there last year that I recognized from the previous year, so if you read stories about a bad DM, it's likely that he/she has moved on.

If you book a dive package in advance, you can save 15% off their rates. You can contact them to get the latest rates here.

And they have some nice maps of their dive sites here.

Here's their "normal" schedule. The first 8:30 row lists the deeper dives for experienced divers.

They run two boats, so they can easily break up divers into groups of experienced and less experienced divers. Sometimes they might have boat problems and use just one boat. They will often drop two groups separately in that case, so that the experienced divers can have a longer dive.

The 10:00 and 1:30 dives will almost always include OW students or Discover Scuba divers, as they are shallow dives.

Since you are newly minted OW divers, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do the later dives, they will be nice easy dives, and will give you the opportunity to see things at a slow pace.

You can also find out a ton of information about the resort on this site.

Hope this helps.

 

[DSR-3]

When we stayed at the BM in '06, I dove with Dive Aventuras in Puerto Aventuras. Dove with them again last year. Both times they were great to dive with, and they picked-up & returned me to the BM. As I recall it was ~$5 to take a cab.
Now that Dennis/Diablo owns Aquanauts in PA, I will be trying them for reef dives, and I'm cenote diving with them in May. I've had an excellent experience with Dennis.
-Eric

 

[Diver Di]

We stayed at the Barcelo Beach resort in February and dove with Dressel Divers. They run a decent operation. My only complaint was that the boats could be crowded. Since it is a large resort, the dives (and boats) are pretty much full each day. Since the boats are on the narrower side, the guy sitting across from you would invariably hit you with his fin as he put them on (and vice versa). All the entries are backrolls.

The good news is they broke up the groups into experience levels and we never had more than 5 divers on a dive so once you got underwater it was fine. It was the same for other groups from what I could tell.

We bought a package of dives and split it among 3 people. They also gave us a discount for paying cash. Just negotiate, they'll probably do something for you.

I have a trip report on my website. I'm new here so I don't want to put the link but if you click on my name, go to my homepage and then the Mexico tab, you'll find it. Feel free to email me with any questions.

Dianne

 

[O.M.O.H.]

So far there have been only three dive ops listed here. Dressel, which is on hotel premisses, Diablo Divers, and Dive Aventuras.

Anything else?

 

[TMJJS]

We are certified!
Looking to finalize our decision, so thanks for the replies so far and I welcome more if anyone has more opinions.

 

[krbailey]

I received my OW with Dressel in October 2007. On on each of my open water dives, the entire group had to wait on the bottom until I finished my lesson (10-15 minutes). One one dive, after I did my lesson, two divers did the Navigation part of their AOW while I kneeled on the bottom. I didn't think this was fair to the other divers. If you have the time, I suggest a trip to Cozumel, where there are far more dive options and dive sites to choose from.

 

[Dectek]

There is a Dive op a short distance from there. It is in Xpu-ha and they can pick up at that hotel. It is almost walking distance. Bahia Divers .It used to be run by my favorite DM (Stefano Pedroni). In November he sold the operation and in May he moved to Canada. He told me he highly recommends and trusts them but I have a hard time getting them to return my emails. For that reason they lost out on our dive dollars on our last visit.
Looks like your list is getting just a little bit longer.

 

[Pez de Diablo]

So far there have been only three dive ops listed here. Dressel, which is on hotel premisses, Diablo Divers, and Dive Aventuras.

Anything else?

Diablo Divers is now Aquanauts. Diablo Divers purchased Aquanauts March 2007 and we moved into the Aquanauts shop - and exanded it.