Dive Paradise or Tres Pelicanos

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Rockit31

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Location
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I am planning a trip in April and will be staying at Hotel Cozumel. The shop that is onsite is Dive paradise. this will be my first time open water diving after recently receiving my certification. I've read great things about Tres Pelicanos on this forum and was wondering which outfit would suit me best? Obviously, there is the convenience of Dive paradise being located right on the premises. Would tres pelicanos pick me up at the dock?
 
I just got home from Hotel Cozumel & diving with Tres Pelicanos (again). They pick you up at the side of the road (at about 7:45 AM) & drive to / from the marina. Big difference between them & Dive Paradise when comparing the small boats is the lack of shade on the DP boats. Their large boats have shade but also large groups too.
 
Newly certified, best bet is some valet company with maybe a private dive master the first day. Smaller boat, more attention to you - don’t fall into a large crowd.
 
I loved my dives with Dive Paradise. I find them to be professional and provide as much assistance as you need. I've not dived with the other place, so I can't compare them. Dive Paradise has always fulfilled my needs, and since they are an advertiser, there's no question I'm going there.
 
my vote is to make your life as easy as possible for this trip. i would not be messin around with having to be picked up and driven to the marina etc. it is a pain in the a**. i am sure you will be just fine with the in house shop. perhaps down the road, if you make coz a regular destination, you might wanna shop around til you find something that works better for you if you dont like dive paradise. but for now. don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.
btw....you can do some nice easy / shallow shore dives at hotel coz. we see all kinds of critters there., especially at night. i would suggest hooking up with some other more experienced divers to do this though.
 
The house reef has resident sea horses too. It's a bone crushing 20ft max, but I have dove it a number of times.
 
Don't let the pickup routine for 3P's bother you. It is very simple and I never had any issues.

I would STRONGLY recommend a private DM for at minimum your 1st Coz dive trip. I did this for my 18 yr old son who was just certified and had just a few OW dives. We had 3P's setup the DM and he was awesome! My son really appreciated the 1 on 1 quality instruction and feedback.
 
In December I was diving with 3P's and they/we were picking up and dropping off a couple of divers who were staying at the Cozumel Hotel & Resort for a week and chose to dive with 3P's. It was really easy for them and they had done it in prior years. However, as you appear to be new to diving, I'd say you'd be just fine keeping it simple with their on-site dive op, Dive Paradise.

I haven't stayed at Cozumel Hotel & Resort but have heard good things about it. From what I've heard, go with the AI option over the breakfast only plan. The AI option only costs a few more bucks more (literally a few more bucks) and that gets you 3 meals per day + drinks. I've heard the AI option upgrade is SO cheap from the breakfast only plan that they could go into town and pay for dinner when they wanted to without thinking they lost $ by doing so and they always had the option to stay put at the resort and dine there whenever they didn't feel like heading out.

Looking at the Dive Paradise website... 7 days of AI accommodations at the resort with 14 dives with Dive Paradise for $1,234 per person? That is some good value for your AI with diving dollar. I beat the 3P's drum here but for your first trip to Coz and being new divers, I say keep it easy and simple and book the dive and stay package through Dive Paradise. Others here may disagree but they have probably been diving the island for decades (I'm going on 18? years now myself) but when visiting a new dive destination it is much easier and less stressful to book it all at once with an AI option if available and forget about it. If you decide to return to coz after this trip then you can start playing around with all the various accommodations and independent dive ops than can service you. Just my thoughts.
 
I had my wedding at the Cozumel Hotel. We have a time share on the mainland though, so I haven't been back, but I plan to.

It's a great place. It's literally only a few steps to walk from your room into the water for shore diving. As stated above, if you're new, dive paradise is a good way to get your feet wet and it's reasonable.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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