jonhall
Contributor
Titled this thread a little different as I had a few different experiences on this trip.
Part 1: Resorts and Dive Ops
Stayed 1 week at the Coral Princess Golf & Dive Resort with Pepe Scuba as its onsite dive op and 1 week at El Cid La Ceiba with Babieca Dive Center as its onsite op.
The Coral Princess is a nice resort in the north hotel zone, but closer to town than other resorts in the north zone. Good food in their restaurant, but closes very early. Staff is eager to please. Beach area built up on the iron shore, nice infinity pool, and a small dock area where one can snorkel. No scheduled resort activities. Bar on the beach - swim up bar was closed. Less 'people traffic' being north of town - look forward to going back to this resort. El Cid La Ceiba is south of town close to the International and Puerto Maya cruise ship terminals. Stayed here in the past, but would probably stay someplace else in the future. If ECLC was my only choice, I would stay there. Rooms are okay (have a lot of humidity when doors get opened a lot) and have been upgraded since I was there in 2012. All-inclusive is optional and can be for number of days that you select. They have an activity schedule, but there wasn't much or any participation. Great toiletries are provided. Beach area is built up on the iron shore, small pool, and a pier where other ops can pick up for diving/fishing. Area is also good for snorkeling.
Pepe Scuba at Coral Princess is a good dive op. The only reason I can think that it is not mentioned more often here on SB is that more divers on SB tend to stay farther south. They have a very good following of repeat customers. In the week I was there, 2 boats went out each morning and there were a few afternoon boats going out as well as a boat for a single resort diver. When I arrived, I did a guided shore dive from the dock to test out some new gear and get my trim in order, since it had been 2 years since last dives. The guide was actually taking a new diver who had never been in the ocean on the dive - she just held on to the buoy rope and drifted along. Not a lot to see on this shore dive, but it was nice getting wet. From that point, my routine was dive a day, take a day off. Pepe Scuba has fast boats that get you to the sites in the marine park pretty quick. I almost was going to take taxis farther south and dive with someone else - glad I didn't. Prices are a little higher than other ops (maybe for boat gas since they travel farther) but they offer multi day discounts. They stayed on schedule - we were in the water for 1st dives by 9:30 or earlier each day. They asked everyday where people wanted to go and would try to avoid repeating a site you did.Best dive of the trip was with Pepe as we did Punta Sur - Cathedral. Great conditions, no other dive boats to be seen. They have rinse tanks and will store your gear. Rental gear looked to be in good shape. Except for Cathedral all dives were 60+ minutes. They also pick up from other piers to the south.
Babieca Dive Center at ECLC was convenient for a day, but they don't go out until 9:30 AM which I wasn't a fan of. Did only one day of diving with them - on my off day I noticed that the diving group was waiting around at 10:15 as air tanks had not arrived. They didn't get out until 10:30. As it turned out, the next day they got off to a late start again but I had decided to dive with someone else because of the time. On my one day diving with Babieca dive, the diving was good. The DM allowed everyone to dive their air - my dive times were 55 and 65 minutes. There is a rinse and drying station and they will keep your gear. There was a group of 6 divers who went out every morning, did afternoon dives every day, and did 1 night dive with Babieca. Although the group dove everyday, they were frustrated by the late start times also. They are on the expensive side and I didn't find the staff to be very personable.
Roberta's Scuba Shack (less than a 5 minute walk from ECLC) is well organized. Used PayPal to pay for the one day I did with them. Five boats went out and Roberta, I assume, kept things moving. A display board has dive groups and DMs/boats listed. It is announced that dive time is 700 psi or 1 hour - my times were 55 and 68 minutes. Didn't feel like the DM would have forced anyone up. Very busy place with shore diving and afternoon dives happening. Nice rinse station and they store gear. DM also asked which sites people would like to dive.
Ended my diving at this point. Water was as warm as 84º F on entries - never felt a shock from cold water and I wore a shorty. Water was pretty calm and flat a couple of days. Current was not noticeable on a few dives but nice to ride on others. Saw many eagle rays, lobsters, nurse sharks, turtles, barracuda, splendid toadfish, pufferfish, stingrays, and tropical fish, but only 2 lion fish, both on my last dive. Great swim throughs on several dives. Dives I liked least, even though you can see some good stuff, are the dives where they take snorkelers and those that other ops visit quite a bit as 2nd dives, like Paso del Cedral. Started my shore dive with 12 lbs (should have looked in log book after 2 years) but ended with 18 thanks to DM. Stayed at 18 remainder of time - probably could have gone to 14-16 after a few dives but decided to stay with what I knew was getting me down. I forgot how hungry I got after a first and second dive - thank goodness for snacks/pastries/water/sodas with all 3 ops. Thought I was going to do more shore dives but it didn't work out - From El Cid up to Tikila Beach Bar is pretty popular for these dives day and night. Since my buddy couldn't dive (broken ankle) I was always the loner on the boat. The only op that gave me a dive buddy was Roberta's - I got the DM, not that we stayed together, but I didn't stray too far.
Had my gear serviced before trip - went to pick it up the day before Thanksgiving - had a small hole in Zuma BC - replaced it with a new AquaLung Zuma, which is a travel BC. Without going into the story, I wound up going back the day after Thanksgiving and got a new AquaLung i550c air integrated dive computer. Left next day for Coz. Love the bigger numbers, only 2 buttons, bluetooth feature to set things like air/nitrox and date/time from iPhone as well as to download dives to its dive log app, but more importantly, to my current dive log app (DiveLog DT) from moremobilesoftware.
Part 2 in next post.
Part 1: Resorts and Dive Ops
Stayed 1 week at the Coral Princess Golf & Dive Resort with Pepe Scuba as its onsite dive op and 1 week at El Cid La Ceiba with Babieca Dive Center as its onsite op.
The Coral Princess is a nice resort in the north hotel zone, but closer to town than other resorts in the north zone. Good food in their restaurant, but closes very early. Staff is eager to please. Beach area built up on the iron shore, nice infinity pool, and a small dock area where one can snorkel. No scheduled resort activities. Bar on the beach - swim up bar was closed. Less 'people traffic' being north of town - look forward to going back to this resort. El Cid La Ceiba is south of town close to the International and Puerto Maya cruise ship terminals. Stayed here in the past, but would probably stay someplace else in the future. If ECLC was my only choice, I would stay there. Rooms are okay (have a lot of humidity when doors get opened a lot) and have been upgraded since I was there in 2012. All-inclusive is optional and can be for number of days that you select. They have an activity schedule, but there wasn't much or any participation. Great toiletries are provided. Beach area is built up on the iron shore, small pool, and a pier where other ops can pick up for diving/fishing. Area is also good for snorkeling.
Pepe Scuba at Coral Princess is a good dive op. The only reason I can think that it is not mentioned more often here on SB is that more divers on SB tend to stay farther south. They have a very good following of repeat customers. In the week I was there, 2 boats went out each morning and there were a few afternoon boats going out as well as a boat for a single resort diver. When I arrived, I did a guided shore dive from the dock to test out some new gear and get my trim in order, since it had been 2 years since last dives. The guide was actually taking a new diver who had never been in the ocean on the dive - she just held on to the buoy rope and drifted along. Not a lot to see on this shore dive, but it was nice getting wet. From that point, my routine was dive a day, take a day off. Pepe Scuba has fast boats that get you to the sites in the marine park pretty quick. I almost was going to take taxis farther south and dive with someone else - glad I didn't. Prices are a little higher than other ops (maybe for boat gas since they travel farther) but they offer multi day discounts. They stayed on schedule - we were in the water for 1st dives by 9:30 or earlier each day. They asked everyday where people wanted to go and would try to avoid repeating a site you did.Best dive of the trip was with Pepe as we did Punta Sur - Cathedral. Great conditions, no other dive boats to be seen. They have rinse tanks and will store your gear. Rental gear looked to be in good shape. Except for Cathedral all dives were 60+ minutes. They also pick up from other piers to the south.
Babieca Dive Center at ECLC was convenient for a day, but they don't go out until 9:30 AM which I wasn't a fan of. Did only one day of diving with them - on my off day I noticed that the diving group was waiting around at 10:15 as air tanks had not arrived. They didn't get out until 10:30. As it turned out, the next day they got off to a late start again but I had decided to dive with someone else because of the time. On my one day diving with Babieca dive, the diving was good. The DM allowed everyone to dive their air - my dive times were 55 and 65 minutes. There is a rinse and drying station and they will keep your gear. There was a group of 6 divers who went out every morning, did afternoon dives every day, and did 1 night dive with Babieca. Although the group dove everyday, they were frustrated by the late start times also. They are on the expensive side and I didn't find the staff to be very personable.
Roberta's Scuba Shack (less than a 5 minute walk from ECLC) is well organized. Used PayPal to pay for the one day I did with them. Five boats went out and Roberta, I assume, kept things moving. A display board has dive groups and DMs/boats listed. It is announced that dive time is 700 psi or 1 hour - my times were 55 and 68 minutes. Didn't feel like the DM would have forced anyone up. Very busy place with shore diving and afternoon dives happening. Nice rinse station and they store gear. DM also asked which sites people would like to dive.
Ended my diving at this point. Water was as warm as 84º F on entries - never felt a shock from cold water and I wore a shorty. Water was pretty calm and flat a couple of days. Current was not noticeable on a few dives but nice to ride on others. Saw many eagle rays, lobsters, nurse sharks, turtles, barracuda, splendid toadfish, pufferfish, stingrays, and tropical fish, but only 2 lion fish, both on my last dive. Great swim throughs on several dives. Dives I liked least, even though you can see some good stuff, are the dives where they take snorkelers and those that other ops visit quite a bit as 2nd dives, like Paso del Cedral. Started my shore dive with 12 lbs (should have looked in log book after 2 years) but ended with 18 thanks to DM. Stayed at 18 remainder of time - probably could have gone to 14-16 after a few dives but decided to stay with what I knew was getting me down. I forgot how hungry I got after a first and second dive - thank goodness for snacks/pastries/water/sodas with all 3 ops. Thought I was going to do more shore dives but it didn't work out - From El Cid up to Tikila Beach Bar is pretty popular for these dives day and night. Since my buddy couldn't dive (broken ankle) I was always the loner on the boat. The only op that gave me a dive buddy was Roberta's - I got the DM, not that we stayed together, but I didn't stray too far.
Had my gear serviced before trip - went to pick it up the day before Thanksgiving - had a small hole in Zuma BC - replaced it with a new AquaLung Zuma, which is a travel BC. Without going into the story, I wound up going back the day after Thanksgiving and got a new AquaLung i550c air integrated dive computer. Left next day for Coz. Love the bigger numbers, only 2 buttons, bluetooth feature to set things like air/nitrox and date/time from iPhone as well as to download dives to its dive log app, but more importantly, to my current dive log app (DiveLog DT) from moremobilesoftware.
Part 2 in next post.