PADI AOWD - Mayan Coast - Christmas

[hmb]

Hi,

I'm planning my family Christmas vacation. One of the choices Riviera Maya. Another is is Dominican Rep (see similar question in the Carribean forum).

I'm going to do my PADI Advanced OWD during this trip.

What are the best diveshops to do it with? Extra condition: it should be in/near nice 4 star all inclusive hotel with nice beach, because this is the whole family vacation.

Another question - about AOWD prices. The price is around 300+ USD (including AOWD manual and the basic gear). Is it negotiable? In Ottawa (Canada) it's only 240 Cdn!

Sorry for crossposting.

TIA

 

[Spratman]

I think most are in the $300-$400 range for an AOW. If you know where you are going to be staying, it would make suggestions easier....

Check out Nagel's post. He just got back from a new resort in Riviera Maya.

 

[MI Diver]

My family and I just returned from Puerto Morelos, about 20 min drive south of Cancun. We stayed at the Marina El Cid resort. It was an all inclusive and it was great. My kids loved the pool and the beach was great. The staff was friendly with the usuall game leaders etc. My wife does not dive and she would relax by the pool while we dove. The El Cid Marina is immediatly next door to the resort about a 2 min walk from the pool, and the dive operation was first rate. My 13 year old son and I did the AOW while my older son is already AOW so he just dove with us. Daniell at the center was excellent. We did a shallow check out dive so he could see our ability and we could get a feel for the ocean and dial in our bouancy. Then we went through the AOW dives including a night dive, drift dive, and wreck dive on a old patrol boat sunk as a reef. The wreck dive was at 100' and we worked our way up to that dive over three days. At the end of the experience I would say my diveing ability improved 10 fold not that I still don't have a lot to learn. The resort is kind of issolated so if you want a lot of partying this is not the place. Pueto Morelos is a working port town but it has some nice resturants and is coming along as a "tourist town" over time. One other thing the dive groups where never more than 6 people because they use smaller dive boats from which you have to back roll off of, and after each dive we retruned to the port to set up for the next dive, the ride to the marina from most of the dive sites is only about 5 minutes. Good luck with your search there is no sortage of places that look like they would be great fun to stay at.

Bob

 

[Pez de Diablo]

If you want to give me a call, I might be able to give you an area overview from Tulum to Cancun, hopefully I can help you with making a choice as to where to stay. It's an Edmonton number but I answer it here in Mexico: 780-628-2722. I will be in tomorrow - Thursday - in the afternoon and then I will be unavailable till Wednesday the 13th.

Cheers,

Dennis

PS Today I completed an AOW course with 2 students, we did a scooter dive with Silent Submersion scooters, a wreck dive, a deep dive, a navigation dive and a night dive. My students were fantastic and we had a ball.