First time to Coz and first real dive!

[SeaHunt82]

Hey friends!

Well I'm sorta new to diving. Been certified with for a while now but looking at my first blue water dive this December in Cozumel, Mexico. We are going on a cruise so I'll only have one day to get a dive in, or snorkeling at the very least. I know many of you have been down that way so I'm looking for any and all guidance.

What I'd really like to know is what are yall's favorite places to dive/snorkel and what dive shops should we check out?

Thanks!

[RonFrank]

You will have a limited opportunity to dive Coz from a Cruise ship. First you need to determine when you will be on the island. Then figure out the boat schedules. Most dive boats leave in the morning between 7:30-8:30 and many offer PM trips leaving at 12:00-1:30pm. The PM trips return between 3:30-7:00pm. If those times work than pick an op and book it. If they don't you can either book through the cruise, or try and find an op that caters to cruise times.

There are some advantages to booking with the cruise, but not many and mostly its very expensive vs. a standard dive op. The big advantage is they won't leave you behind. Call a few ops in Coz and discuss with them. They are in a much better place to answer your questions than I, or most SB folks. Also you may want this moved to the Coz forum......

[rivers]

There are quite a few ops in Coz that will have a later boat going out to accommodate for cruise ships. call around/email
and ask

[SeaHunt82]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll move it.

[Bombay High]

What exactly are you refering to as blue water dive ?

[RonFrank]

Blue water dive means deep, like 6000 feet of ocean below, and only blue water as far as the eye can see. I don't think the Op understood that. I will move this to the Coz forum.

[RonFrank]

This has been moved from basic discussions and the duplicate thread titled '
First time to Coz and first real dive.' has been deleted as there was no activity on it with the exception of a :popcorn:

[Mike]

Diving in December increases the likelyhood of your diving being scrubbed because of winds closing the local port that the dive boats all come out of.

I'd advise to book through your cruise ship to lessen the issues associated with what you may face if the dives are scrubbed or even worse you get on the roller coaster ride of maybe they will maybe they won't be scrubbed... and you have to deal directly with a local dive shop with the wait and see what happens... maybe we can go out... wait... oh can't do it, maybe we can do the second dive... oh wait some more.. oh maybe not....oh, sorry not going to happen but thanks for hanging out all day, and now about getting your money back....

The cruise ship will be cut and dry, yes you're going, no you're not go do something else and here is your money back.

[joel smith]

I will also be doing my first dive in coz from a cruise ship in nov. We are diving with Aldora they will wait on you and take you out when you get there.Check them out personally I use steel 100 tanks and thats what they use 120 - 100 .Aldora Divers of Cozumel (http://www.aldora.com/)

[Elonna]

I recommend seeing Santa Rosa Wall and Palancar Reef/Gardens if you can. Both are absolutely beautful!

[Nursediver]

You are making your first real dive in a spectacular place! Columbia Deep and Columbia Shallow would be good for you. The shallows are a great shallow dive, great for beginner, and you will see lots of life. Although, I must say, there are no bad dives in Cozumel. Have a great time!

[Jackie]

I would go with the cruiseship. at least you can be pretty sure that they will not have you diving a wall and that it will be a conservative dive plan.
The excellent point was raised that the time of year and weather raises its own set of issues.

[cvchief]

I don't think you have to be afraid to pick your own shop. Why subsidize the cruise lines with your dive business? Scuba with Alison Scuba Dive Cozumel | ScubaWithAlison (http://www.scubawithalison.com/) is the op I go with and we have one day cruisers alot. You will get to dive your whole tank and you won't go to anything more challenging than you or she thinks you can handle. No problemo. I am quite sure a ton of other good ops out there will do the same. I don't know why an op kicking back to the cruise ships is an indication of it safety level.

I guess I might ask about the refund policy. I know some treat that differently, but just check it out ahead of time. I know having dove with cruisers for their first time in Coz, they seemed to appreciate having contacted Alison directly and were able to ask all those first timer questions and worry about little details and all. I know I did that the first time we came down. As a matter of fact, if you read the praise on SB for Coz shops, most of the one's that get lots of mentions also have notes about how responsive they are to email and such. It seems to me that this prior to arrival communication is just about as important to people as the actual trip.

[SeaHunt82]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I like the idea of investing in the local economy rather than putting back into the big cruise ship pot. We may wind up just snorkeling since my wife is not a certified diver. Either way it's gonna be awesome. I'm totally pumped. Our last trip wat our honeymoon on Maui. Again without her cert I opted to snorkel. So Lord willing this time I can convince her she needs her cert as well.

[cvchief]

Well, if you can't get her certified in time, consider a split trip. Some ops can sometimes bring a snorkel guide along for her and then you can still get a dive in. Or maybe give her the basics and then let her do a discover scuba with you?

[budaman]

We've booked our own & used the cruiseline dives on our cruises to Cozumel. There would have to be some very unusual circumstances to cause you to miss departure if you were to book dives on your own. many of the cruiselines use AquaWorld, so you would be on a large boat with 16 - 24 other divers. Even though they split you up into groups of 8, with a DM, that's still a lot of people going into the water in a short period of time. It will also take up more of your time on the island, limiting what you may be able to do after diving.

If you don't get to dive, and want to spend some time snorkeling with your wife, I would suggest catching a cab and going to Corona Beach. Good snorkeling, easy access, cold beer, good margaritas & decent food. Main thing, you wouldn't be surrounded by tons of people....you'll probably be ready to see fewer crowds as you'll likely be spending the week with a minimum of 2000 others. Spend a few hours there & then head into San Miguel for some sightseeing & shopping before having to head back to the ship.

Main thing.....have fun while you're there!

Mike