Planet Scuba/Hard Rock resort: "Safety conscious and at slow pace", Mar, 2015,by Mr Rodney Bade, SD, US ( 2 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 8148. |
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Comments |
My wife and I stayed at the Hard Rock resort, which is about 10 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen, the last week of Feb. 2015. Planet Scuba would pick us up at the resort at 8:15am and take us to the dive shop located in the gated community of Puerto Aventuras just a mile or so south on the main road. It did take about 15-20 minutes by the time one drives in and out of the resort and the dive shop area. Once at the dive shop gear and tanks were loaded up in the vehicle we were to use for the day. We did the 10 dives in 5 day package. At arriving the dive sites, we would walk down to the entry points, before setting gear up, and get a dive briefing. They have very nice booklet also showing the dives in detail. We would then gear up and the first dive started at 11:27am on average. The average underwater time of dives was 42 minutes, not counting times enjoying the dooms and bat caves at surface mid dive. We generally had 1500-1700psi left on exit. Lunch (sandwich and beverage requested was provided by dive shop) after dive and drive to second site gave us a surface interval of 1 hr. 50 minutes before second dive would start at 2:00pm on average. Planet Scuba would only have max group size of 4 divers per guide and are very safety conscious on the traveling and diving. They would always let the larger groups that were going faster past when meet in the caverns. I would say we were generally back at the dive shop around 4pm or later. The Cenotes are all a little bit different in some way. Max depth ranged from 19-54 ft., except for one dive was 99 feet (Angelita discussed below) Water temps 74-76 degrees and I was very comfortable in a 2-3mm long wetsuit. Visibility most generally limited to the light you carried or the rocks and structure in front of you. It was awesome! The dive on their list of 10 I was most looking forward to was Angelita. As the Planet Scuba website, guide book and sign at the dive site all mention being underneath the hydrogen sulfate layer and being in the salt water in the dark like forest. Being on a county sheriff dive team in the Midwest at home, I am very used to dark and less than 2 feet viz. However, the guide for the day did not allow us to do this. At the dive shop prior to departure and on the way to the tank pickup place for this day only (right on the way), we discussed picking up air tanks (used Nitrox otherwise) so we could do this more safely. But once there the dive guide would not get regular air tanks for us. Even though it was our first day with this guide, the guides we had for the previous two days should have/could have told him we were very capable of doing this aspect of the dive. I was very disappointed I was not allowed to do. In summary I would recommend Planet Scuba as they do only take 4 in a group, are very safety conscious and take much time in the dive briefings, setup, the dive, gear breakdown and travel (almost too much to a fault). |
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Websites | Planet Scuba Hard Rock resort | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | 251-500 dives | ||
Where else diving | Bonaire, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Andros Bahamas, Utila, Play del Carmin, Seattle, Florida, Minnesota and yes South Dakota | ||
Closest Airport | Cancun | Getting There | Hard rock resort offers transportation for the one hour bus ride from Cancun airport |
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | sunny | Seas | calm |
Water Temp | 74-76°F / 23-24°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 2 |
Water Visibility | 100-200 Ft/ 30-61 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | no | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | Followed the guide and stayed on the marked trail. Was not allowed to go through the hydrogen sulfate layer at Angelita :( | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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Sharks | None | Mantas | None |
Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
Turtles | 1 or 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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Corals | N/A | Tropical Fish | N/A |
Small Critters | N/A | Large Fish | N/A |
Large Pelagics | N/A | ||
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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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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