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Pepe Scuba Dive Shop has provided convenient and nice dive experiences out of the Coral Princess Hotel for decades. This trip left me concerned they have entered a period of decline. More importantly, safety issues created during our trips made me rethink if I ever want to return to Cozumel to dive. The natural life was quite good with the reefs in relatively great shape. However, I was very concerned on our first dive that divemaster Manuel did not seem to notice that one of the 9 divers under his charge had trouble descending and had to return to the boat. He seemed far more focused on pointing out wildlife than making sure our party stayed together, a bit shocking since 2 of the divers were making their first open water dives. This was particularly concerning since the crowded conditions meant we encountered at least 2 other large dive groups during each dive. The second day, dive master Roberto was asked to provide a deeper dive than the ~50 foot dive from the first day. His selection of a dive spot where we never could get to the wall or deeper than 60 feet due to the strong current raised a lot of questions about site selection. Both second dives were very disappointing. On the first day, the boat noise was incessant. On the second day, boat noise was oppressive for about 75% of the time. To top that off, the party was on the surface for about 15 minutes before the boat came to recover us. I needed to push away from the boat while one of the less experienced divers was having difficulty removing her fins before climbing the ladder with her gear on and I wanted to move away from the rotating propeller. Amazingly, she almost landed on me when jumping back into the water after removing her gear as I approached the ladder. Drift diving can be great, requiring very little effort and convenience of not having to navigate back to the boat. However, I’m going to seek locations where I am in more control of the conditions and seek smaller dive boats where my personal safety is at lower risk both during and at the end of the dives. - via 