PADI Discover Scuba Diving and Day Pass in Freeport

the pontoon boat was awesome, as it brought us close to the healthy reefs. yet, it lacked safety measures for groups larger than 12 divers. the staff did their best inb getting us on and off boat, but was a challenge without railings along the front of the boat. no camera bucket, just a mask rinse bucket. no table to store a camera. no drybag area. storage under the seat so when the boat was crowded, everything got squeezed. the air tanks often needed to be replaced while checking for suitable o-rings, and meeting the gas pressure requirement near 2900. yet, the reefs and the sea life was awesome. just had to rough it out. the dive shop was helpful, and the DM Mike was a gem. he did over and above service for everyone - at the shop, on the boat, and on the shark dives. best part was the shark diving. absolutely a must. visibility was great, between 50-70 feet. just remember to bring a 3-mil or 5-mil wetsuit because the temperatures are a cold 76F down at 60 feet.

When I booked my vacation in advance, the dive shop encouraged to pre pay my dives in advance as well and I did. 1st, the shop doesn't provide alot of options. only once size ALM tanks, no steel, no nitrox. Only one of the 3 guides I had seemed attentive at all, and often guides were not touching base w divers as far as O2 remaining. Not alot of dive planning either. I signed up for 2 shark dives, and 1st went very well. 2 days later, i was on two morning dives before the afternoon dive. there was a diver on the morning dives that was extremely inexperienced. he ran out of 02 about 1/2 through each dive. Normal protocol would be for the guide to end the dive, but he didn't and let the diver use his octopus. The divers buoyancy was a mess as well. Even after the divers proven inexperience he was allowed on the afternoon shark dive. On that dive, the diver was a mess, falling all over the place, erratic, all the things you should't be diving with sharks. the rescue diver had to force him on his belly for the entire duration. In addition, he hit several sharks in the face with his stick and was totally unnecessary. The diver was a safety risk to everyone and should have never been allowed on that dive.Lastly, couldn't complete all my booked dives because of rain one day. my original credit card expired and the shop refused to refund me to another card, or via paypal or venmu. the only option was wire transfer and the fees would negate the refund. I would never give them business again.

Stayed at the Viva Fortuna for seven days since there was a dive shop at the resort. I have over 200 dives and this place was the worst experience I have ever had. They were severely unorganized and rarely ventured out for diving, but they did venture out for snorkelling, which seemed to be there priority. They were happy to take my money and not refund it. Scheduled dives rarely happened and if they did, they were off by hours. The Coordinator, Michael, was very rude and defensive. I ended up falling on the boat with all of my gear on while trying to jump in the water (I have never ever experienced this). The fiberglass on the boat was so wet and slippery; it felt like there was oil on the surface. I fell flat on my face and not one of the staff members did a thing to help me get up, or even seemed to care. The dive master did not give us any briefing prior to our dive. And yes the resort is a dump too.