27 days to PDC... LDS/Diving advice?

[diver@35]

We're going to PDC on 11/18 for 2 weeks. Questioning whether to get a package deal (3 2-tank PDCs, 1 Ceynote, 1 Coz, etc.) through a single LDS or break up the trips between different LDS.

Any thoughts on the packages versus ala carte?

We're staying at Ceiba Del Mar in Puerto Murelos. Has anyone dove Puerto murelos before? The adverts for Ceiba say that excellent diving is "just 500 meters from our beach", but the skeptic in me wonders..

And I'm considering Tank Ha as an LDS. Any opinions on Tank Ha would be most appreciated.

Cheers...er...HADIOS :dazzler1:

 

[catbrown]

Hola Amigo

You are coming to the right place! You are coming to Puerto Morelos (not Playa del Carmen by the way - they are world's apart although only 20 mins drive) and the reef is 300 metres off shore, diving is a little further. If you do a search on Scubaboard you will find a lot of information on diving in the Puerto Morelos area.

There are excellent dive operators in Puerto Morelos my shop amongst them (that's as loud as I like to blow my own horn) . Frankly you would be wasting your money splitting the package up as you go to the same locations anyway. The only difference is Cozumel - we reccomend you to another operator over there and just book you in with them and let them know that you've been diving with us. We tell you how to get there under your own steam or we can book a transfer for you as well.

Tank Ha is good but A LONG WAY from here, you don't want to spend your vacation on the highway!

Ceiba Del Mar is an excellent small hotel, trust me you will not want to do much but hang there and visit us in the village, dive, and bicycle back, maybe come back into the village for dinner (various great restaurants), late drink at the Habanero bar and home again.

If there is anything else you'd like to know about the area please ask!

best fishes......cat

Hola Scubaboard friends I'm back from my travels - RedSea/Sipadan/Australia!

 

[beachbum70635]

I just got home an hour ago from Puerto Aventuras. I won't give a report on the resort we stayed at but, I can and will highly recommend a dive op for the area. Diablo divers (Dennis Weeks) will go way above and beyond to make sure you have a good time. We did 4 ocean dives with him and were satisfied beyond my expectations. I tried to talk my wife into a cenote dive but she is still too new to diving to feel comfortable with diving an enclosed area so we passed on the cenotes. After I sucked an al80 down in 30 mins on the first dive, Dennis went home and got 2 steel 80's so we could get some more bottom time on the next dives. This was the first ocean dive for my wife and Dennis stayed with her on the surface until she was comfortable and ready to descend. When I go back to that area, a dive op will be one thing I won't have to look for. www.diablodivers.com will be my first choice. Scot Watson
QOUTE==diver@35]We're going to PDC on 11/18 for 2 weeks. Questioning whether to get a package deal (3 2-tank PDCs, 1 Ceynote, 1 Coz, etc.) through a single LDS or break up the trips between different LDS.

Any thoughts on the packages versus ala carte?

We're staying at Ceiba Del Mar in Puerto Murelos. Has anyone dove Puerto murelos before? The adverts for Ceiba say that excellent diving is "just 500 meters from our beach", but the skeptic in me wonders..

And I'm considering Tank Ha as an LDS. Any opinions on Tank Ha would be most appreciated.

Cheers...er...HADIOS :dazzler1:[/QUOTE]

 

[homework]

We're going to PDC on 11/18 for 2 weeks. Questioning whether to get a package deal (3 2-tank PDCs, 1 Ceynote, 1 Coz, etc.) through a single LDS or break up the trips between different LDS.

Any thoughts on the packages versus ala carte?

We're staying at Ceiba Del Mar in Puerto Murelos. Has anyone dove Puerto murelos before? The adverts for Ceiba say that excellent diving is "just 500 meters from our beach", but the skeptic in me wonders..

And I'm considering Tank Ha as an LDS. Any opinions on Tank Ha would be most appreciated.

Cheers...er...HADIOS :dazzler1:

I've been to both PDC and Cozumel about 10 times. This is what I do. For cenote diving, I get in touch with Dive Mike. I think the dive shop is on Calle 6 between 5th ave and the beach. He's speaks great english, is very professional and can either take you to a centote (My favorite is Chuk Mul, or Dos Ojos) or he has plenty of contacts for some "freelance" DM's who are certified. Cenote's are a specialty and there didn't seem to be a whole lot of shops with cavern certified staff. Most outsource it...While in PDC, don't miss out on some decent diving there.

For Cozumel diving, I've been using Dimi Divers for years. The staff is great, the boat, although not the fastest Cozumel has to offer, it is big and it you can "hang" out on the roof and relax during the trip out to the dive sites. They also serve a nice lunch during the dive interval, and ususally they'll go dock at a local beach. Lunch is usually chicken, spaghetti, peanut butter and jelly on rolls, various soda's and drinks. I'm a Dive Master myself and am pretty picky about dive operators.

 

[Ondeen]

I went there about four years ago. There was a lot of sea grass in the shallows so swimming wasn't great. I did get to do some dives, though. I didn't see anything really awesome but I was impressed with the condition of the reefs. There were clouds of fishes which I've not seen for years. How is it now? If the beach is cleaned up, it could be very nice.

Aquafinna