Dive Review of Aquadives/Aquamarina Suites in
Belize/Ambergris Caye

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Aquadives/Aquamarina Suites, Dec, 2004, by Richard Kollodge, NY, USA . Report 1530.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	On my third trip to Ambergris Caye, January 19-23, I stayed at the Aquamarina Suites hotel in San Pedro and did my diving with Aquadives, a shop located on the beach in front of the Sun Breeze Hotel, a 10-minute walk from my hotel. Aquamarina Suites My accommodation at Aquamarina Suites had a bedroom with two comfortable beds, kitchen/dining area and living room equipped with a sofabed and TV that carries about 50 cable channels from the US and other countries. A balcony overlooked the hotel’s courtyard, small pool and the sea. A small restaurant adjacent to the pool area served solid meals at competitive prices, and the poolside bar served very weak cocktails from about 8 a.m. through about 11 p.m. A little beach fronts the hotel. The water at the shoreline, however, is full of weeds, so wading really isn’t possible. Swimming is possible from the hotel’s dock. Staff were extremely helpful, courteous and friendly. But because the property doubles as a time-share condominium, however, I had to endure a very brief, low-key, low-pressure sales pitch one evening. When I expressed no interest, I wasn’t approached again. My only complaint with the hotel was the limited supply of hot water. Each unit appears to have its own small (five-gallon capacity?) water heater, which empties after the shower runs for a minute or two. Aquadives Aquadives frustrated and disappointed me from my first contact with them. My travel partner and I told the man working the desk that day that we were interested in doing the 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. dives each day. The response was, “It doesn’t matter.” We asked him to explain what that meant, but we were repeatedly met with the same response. When my travel partner and I informed the desk person that we both needed to rent some equipment, we were again told, “It doesn’t matter.” I ignored his reply and said I needed a BC and regulator. He went to the racks and returned with obviously worn-out equipment. My travel partner needed similar equipment as well as a wet suit. When he asked for a full-length suit, the desk person again responded, “It doesn’t matter.” Eventually, someone else came to the desk to finish outfitting us and to finalize our paperwork. The new desk person brought my travel partner the only full-length suit they had. But sadly, the suit had a gaping hole in the back. So my travel partner had to settle for a shortie, which was inadequate for the 78-degree water. The next day, an Aquadives boat collected us from the dock at our hotel and brought us to their own dock in front of the Sun Breeze Hotel, where others came on board. We traveled outside the reef—only five minutes away—to our first dive site. When my travel partner assembled his equipment, his regulator’s second-stage started free-flowing, which could not be controlled by holding a finger over the mouthpiece. The dive master told him not to worry and to use the equipment anyway. When we entered the water, it was apparent that my travel partner’s first stage was also leaking air. The low-pressure hose to my BC had a leak, and the air-dump valves in the back were broken. I, too, had a leak in my regulator. My travel partner’s leaks were so bad that he ran out of air long before everyone else (I still had 1,600 PSI in my tank). Other equipment problems plagued us on every dive: blown o-rings, leaks, broken pressure gauges, and so on. The whole time I was there, I never saw any equipment that was not obviously in disrepair. I constantly worried about equipment failure under water. Miraculously, there were no disasters. Dive masters seemed competent, but their laissez-faire approach concerned me. On our final dive of the trip, the dive master apparently became bored and returned to the boat 20 minutes before the divers and didn’t bother to alert anyone. The staff at Aquadives also clearly suffered from morale problems. On one occasion, the dive master got into a heated argument with one of the office staff. On another occasion, the office staff were fighting with each other. I strongly recommend avoiding Aquadives. I have never seen an operation so shoddy and shabby. My terrible experience with Aquadives confounded me because the shop is apparently owned by the same people who own the Aquamarina Suites, which is a professional, competent and quality operation. The diving Four of our six dives were disappointing because of extensive reef damage and an absence of marine life. Two dives were much better (Hol Chan Cut and Tacklebox Canyon), with healthier coral and more fish. On my previous trips to Belize, the coral seemed generally much healthier and the fish abundant. I don’t know what caused such a change in conditions in only about 18 months. Visibility was about 60 feet, compared with probably 150 feet in the past. I assume the decrease stemmed from the surge and waves brought on by unusually heavy winds.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	51-100 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, Turks and Caicos, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Roatan
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	choppy, surge
Water Temp	78-79°F / 26-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	60-70 Ft/ 18-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Aquadives/Aquamarina Suites in Belize/Ambergris Caye

Aquadives/Aquamarina Suites, Dec, 2004,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Aquadives/Aquamarina Suites in
Belize/Ambergris Caye