Just came back from there in Sept. There is NO information until you get there that was really frustrating! I wrote them multiple times to try to get a sense of what they offered, and never received any real information. Most of that is due to the fact that they do not dive from the hotel itself. I had to take a cab to one ($22 UDS each way) and rolled the other day into a swimming with the dolphins experience. I didn't take the cenotes trip as I was only there 3 days and didn't want to spend most of it on the road driving to different experiences. The desk in the hotel was from Amstar. All of the dives they schedule are with other outfits and vary based on what you choose.
I decided to do the "wreck"/reef the first day. It was a small boat. You took a cab to an alley, walked along the beach and found the boat. The Captain and 2 Dive Masters were great!!! I was so relieved (nothing good ever comes from walk down the alley to the beach and don't go onto the other hotel's property! Esp in Mexico!
). It was a 2 tank dive (what they call their wreck dive). The first dive was the wreck. A boat that was purposely sunk and was in the middle of no where under water (sand all around as far as you could see (visibility was great ~100ft) and the depth was at 90 ft. There was some life and saw some coral, barracuda, lots of rays and some smaller fish. Great dive for my first "real" dive. The second dive of the morning was a reef. No current which was great. Both were led by a Dive instructor/master. Once we got back, had to walk around Now Sapphire to get a cab back to the Jade. Bring lots of water from the hotel. I went to the preferred lounge and got 4-5 bottles of water. They didn't seem to have any on the boat that I could tell. At least I wasn't offered any until I got sick.
The second day, I took the shuttle (that came with the dolphin experience) to the Dreams Cancun. This was a 2 tank reef dive as well. The reef in this part of Cancun had a very strong current. I kept to the Dive Masters side and had 2 wonderful dives. Lots and lots of fish. All 3 reef dives were very shallow. 10-30 ft. Same here for water and food.
I dove alone and as both experiences had a "follow the leader" setup, this wasn't a problem. Was able to hang out the rest of the day with the person I went with.
They offered other experiences south of the hotel as well. Again these were more of a drive but to "Natural Water Parks" These may be good for the both of you. As soon as you get there, go to the Amstar desk and discuss your options and schedule your trips. It is on the left side of the lobby.
There were a few independent dive shops around. The downside to me was the need to take a cab everywhere. Seemed very expensive on top of the dives. These as the gear is included were what I would have expected price wise. There was a sign on the Preferred beach on the rock wall that had a diving flag on it, but never ventured out that way to see what it was. You may want to walk out to the rock wall and see.
Good luck, and I hope you have a great experience.
Katrina
