Aquaexcursions — Local services in Playa del Carmen

AVOID- horrible experience. Terrible instructor, rubbish PADI video from the 80’s and most of all they are RUDE. Husband and I booked PADI course on our honeymoon, the instructor was inpatient and unapproachable, I felt pressured into diving in the sea before I was ready, and i ended up having a panic attack. Decided to end the course as we didn’t want to ruin our honeymoon but were told we could only use credit and not get refund. Attempted to book other activities but 75% of what they offer is diving, and when we tried to book fishing it was always full. Communications manager arranged meeting to discuss our complaint before our departure, however it turned into them (coms manager, instructor and shop manager) basically telling me that it was all my fault and that I was too “emotional”. No apologies, no respect. They are a terrible company and the last straw is that they offered a partial refund in exchange for us NOT posting any reviews! Hush money!? Even the concierges at Grand Sirenis (where the shop we used was located) said this had happened several times before. With so many diving shops and instructors in Playa Del Carmen, make sure you choose a company that will not rob you and insult you in...

We did a half day excursion while staying at the Grand Sirenis Riveria Maya which included snorkeling with the giant turtles, going to an animal sanctuary, and finally swimming in a cenote.

The guides were good. We had an old captain that took us out that sped through the ocean like he was being chased by pirates, but the crew was really nice.

We did see the turtles while snorkeling, but fair warning every excursion company snorkels in roughly the same area leading to overcrowding. One tour guide from a different company yelled at me repeatedly because I was blocking his group. I was trying to get out of their way, but was trying to fix my snorkel. It did not stop the screaming.

The animal sanctuary was soooo sad. It smelled horrendous. The conditions were terrible. And the mosquitoes were the size of baseballs. I would have paid extra to skip that part.

The cenote was gorgeous and easily the best part. We spent around 30 - 40 minutes doing some light exploring.

Overall it was a decent excursion, but not the best...

We booked a total of six dives with Aqua Excursions in October 2022. The first four made up the necessary dives to complete our open water certification. Our instructor was Joel, and he was awesome. Basically, we just did fantastic dives around 4 different reefs and demonstrated the required skills for the course either at the beginning or end. There was a tonne of marine life to see just a short boat ride out from our resort beach at the Grand Palladium Colonial. Joel even let me spear a lion fish. The best part is that we could do our surface intervals in the resort, and the pool and Las Olas restaurant are right next to the dive shop. The downside was that you have to walk over a bunch of sharp rocks and coral to get to the boat, and we were barefoot. I highly recommend watershoes. Also, be sure to check with the dive shop before ordering a video. We did, but there was no photographer, so we didn’t get any video,...