Cozumel Dive School was a great place to take my open water dive course! We stayed in the dive house and had Carl as our instructor (we were his last students though!). All of the instructors were very friendly and welcomed us into their dive community. Many people come to CDS to take their dive master course and many girls were currently living in the dive house while completing the course. They really bonded and created a great atmosphere with each other in the house and seemed to love the program after staying for many weeks. The open water course was $375 and included 3 nights of accommodations in the dive house. The house was a nice set up - big couches for hanging out, good size kitchen table for communal meals, bbq grill, big pantry with cubbies for storing personal dry food items, and two fridges. While we stayed, the house was pretty well kept. The dorm beds were also full size beds - an unexpected but very welcome surprise. The bathroom was very clean. You supply your own TP, so grab some when you go to the grocery store. It was great to take the course while staying at the house - getting to 8am sessions and making sure you have everything for a day's dive was so easy! It was a bit far from the ferry (about 20 min walking) and center (20-25 min walking depending on how fast you walk), but located just three ish blocks from a great grocery store.
The online training needs to be done in advance and takes 10-15 hours. Don't procrastinate! The training was divided into 3 days. Day 1 - five "dives" in the pool and learning skills/how to set up equipment. Also watch three and a half hours of video. Day 2 - two shore dives to review and practice skills from the pool dives. Day 3 - last day which has a few skills tests and then dives to the reef and a shipwreck that was amazing! We felt very safe learning to dive with Carl and he was always checking to make sure we were practicing proper set up of equipment and skills. He was nearby in the water when we practiced important safety skills and was very encouraging if you needed to try something a second time. The dives were awesome as well - we saw eels, barracuda, giant sea turtles, tons of fish as well as visited a giant shipwreck where we got to swim through parts of it. We can't wait to do it again!
Thank you to CDS - Trevor, Ken, Carl, Tracey, Kai - were all so inclusive of us even though we were beginner divers. We went out with them a few times to dinner and drinks and felt like part of the dive family, despite only being there three days. I highly recommend them - their prices are fair, accommodations are great, and they have created a great community that they love to share with new divers. read more