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Comments: We have written many reviews of dive vacations but rarely do we experience this level of personnel treatment, professionalism, and knowledge of the reefs and critters.  From the first contact with Christy Courtney by email, which was promptly replied to with all questions answered clearly and concisely, to meeting her at our hotel to fill out forms and give her our gear, through 13 days of pampered diving; this was truly a great experience.

Cozumel has been a travel and diving destination for us since 1977 and each time we return it changes a little more but this time was totally different.  We found Blue XT Sea and will not have to look any further for the right fit for a dive operation.  We have dived with the cattle boats, the fast boats, the Clubs, and the extended bottom time operations but none of them delivered like Blue XT Sea.  Their boat, Shamu is a twin engine, covered, fast boat that could easily hold 8 divers but there were never more than 6 plus the D.M.  On several of the days it was just 4 divers and on 2 days we were the only 2 plus the D.M.  That was special treatment.

The dive masters, Raul I and Raul II, have been diving these reefs for years and know them like it was their own back yard (which it is).  You tell them what you want to see and they will take you to it.  They chose dive sites that were uncrowded and off the beaten path.   The boat captain, Mago, is always there on the surface to pick you up, help you with cameras and gear, and has your new tank set up for your next dive, always with enthusiasm and a smile.  This is a dive operation that cares about its customers and provides service beyond the dive boat.  They will stay in contact with you after the dives to set schedules, they are prompt, and they rinse and dry your gear after the days diving and have it set up for you on the boat the next day.  If the weather gets bad they can get you out on a bigger boat from a northern harbor in bad weather when other operators have to call off dive days because their harbor is closed.  And if you travel in January, and are an advanced diver, you may just be lucky enough to get to go north and encounter the Eagle Rays who come to those waters that time of the year.  On one dive we saw 21 of the beautiful creatures. 

 All the other reviews you will read on this site about Blue XT Sea describe what a fine operation Christy has and how well she runs it.  They are all correct and yet they have not clearly expressed the reason that seems to set them apart from the other operations.   These Blue XT Sea people LOVE their work, they ENJOY each other, and they want you to have as much FUN as they have.  And they have the energy and ability to make that happen for you.  Now that’s who we like to dive with.  You can try the others, and some are very good, but if you like long bottom times, good fast boats, experience, excellent service, choice dive sites and more FUN, then this is the one.  We felt like family and we plan to return.  

Comments:The service was excellent. This even included assistance from Christi to settle a misunderstanding over the cab fare. The boat "Shamu" was clean, well-maintained and smooth riding despite the choppy sea conditions.The dives were the best I’ve had, hands down. The professionalism of the crew set me at ease. The friendliness of the crew made me feel at home. Without going into long detail, I can say that I will return to Blue XT~Sea Diving for future dives in Cozumel without hesitation.The only bad part about diving with Christi and crew was that I had to leave. Vacations don’t last forever. But the memories of these dives will.

Peter Foerst

Comments: Diving

We debated diving with the onsite operator (Dive Palancar) or selecting a smaller operation.  We chose Blue XT Sea after reading great things about them on several different Cozumel and diving related boards.  We were not disappointed with our decision at all.  We couldn't have asked for better service or a better experience.  We got onto our boat with a maximum of 4 other divers each day while we watched 20 - 30 pile on the Dive Palancar boats.  We knew we were paying a little more than if we had gone with some other operations, but we were ok with that if it meant a more personalized experience for us. Naturally, everything we read about Christi's operation sounded great, so we were anxious to see if she really delivered.  She did!

We are intermediate to advanced divers with right at 100 dives each.  We've been to Cayman several times, Bahamas, Florida, Bonaire and one live aboard trip in the Turks and Caicos.  Despite many opinions, we found Cozumel diving to be superior to any of the places we have been (T & C was a close 2nd).

The day we arrived, Christi (owner) met us in the lobby of the hotel as scheduled.  We completed our paperwork and she actually asked us if we had any special requests for snacks and beverages on the boat.  Since we had never dove in Cozumel before, she explained the different types of dive sites and a typical day of diving with her operation.  She took our gear with her and kept it each day, returning it to the boat washed and ready to go for us. 

"Shamu" picked us up on time each morning between 8:00 and 9:00 (depending on what we had decided the day before).  We dove for 5 days, and logged 13 dives each but wish we had planned for a longer trip.  We ended up adding third tanks a couple of days and one night dive to get some more dives in.  One day we were the only couple on the boat and the rest of the week there were two other really nice couples on the boat.  We were all right on par with each other as far as experience level and air consumption, so we weren't limited by anything but weather one day, so we stayed close to the hotel.  They did have a second boat two of those days that had more novice divers.  One of our concerns was that BXTS only has one boat, so we were curious to see how they handled mixed level divers.  They didn't let us down.

Raul was our dive master all week and he was GREAT!  He is professional, safe and fun at the same time.  Christi's captain Hector a/k/ Mago was also a great guy.  Raul and Mago took care of everything for us including changing out tanks and hanging our wetsuits to dry while we relaxed at either Palancar beach or Nachi Cocom during our surface intervals.   We were provided with dry towels, parkas, water, fresh fruit, juice, granola bars and a box lunch on our three tank days.  We were very spoiled by the end of the week. 

Christi joined us for two days as well which added to the fun.  She is a great gal (and a fellow Texan I might add).  I have so much admiration for what she has done and how she runs her operation.  I wish I had the guts to do what she has done.  It is clear that her crew respects her and she respects them as well.  It was very refreshing.

I won't bore anyone with the details of each dive, but I will give a summary.  Overall the water temperature was 84, visibility was anywhere from 80 to 100 feet, and currents were mild to moderate according to Christi and Raul, although they felt pretty strong to us some days. Our bottom times averaged between 50 minutes to a little over an hour on the shallower dives.  We saw turtles, nurse sharks, eagle rays, splendid toadfish (only in Cozumel), giant lobsters, barracudas, seahorses, pipefish, nudi branches, pipe horses, scorpion fish and the list goes on.  Our dives included: 

Day 1:
Columbia
Delilah

Day 2:
Punta Sur Cathedrals
Palancar Gardens

Day 3:
Santa Rosa Wall
Cedral Pass

Day 3:
Delilah - night dive

Day 4:
Cantarrell
San Juan
Yucab

Day 5:
Palancar Caves
Delila
La Francesa

Comments: I recently (August 16-26, 2003) dove with Christi and her shop including doing my checkout dives with her for my OW certification. Christi was prompt and very professional throughout the whole pre-vacation process via e-mails and phone calls. She worked out a nice deal for me for doing my certification and 3 other two tank dives later in the week with Blue XT Sea.

My tickets were totally screwed up and I needed to change travel dates 2 days before I was scheduled to land in Coz. Christi still was able to work with my changes and start my checkout dives the first day I arrived. She even through in a freebie for me and gave me all 4 of my OW dives off a boat instead of 2 of them off the shore as originally planned. She communicated very well throughout my checkout dives to let me know how I was doing and had very good things to say about my progess.

After my initial real dive (post C-card), I was not very happy with my air consumption or my bouyancy - both of which were very good on my OW dives. She gave me good advice and encouraged me to talk more about my concerns with Raul, her other DM. Raul and I dove together later that week and we I had a very good experience with him as well. He too, gave me good feedback when I asked about how I was doing and we had 2 excellent dives - just the 2 of us - off of Tunich and Palmas later in the week.

My final dives were with another couple and Raul and we did Columbia and Tormentos. These were excellent dives, not so much for the visibility, which was a little murky due to a storm the day before, but because by this point I was doing pretty tight swim throughs and successfully maintaing neutral bouyancy with little effort.

Being a small shop, Christi and Raul can give a lot of individual attention to their clients and students. I hope that as they succeed and their business grows, and it will, they will continue to maintain this level of attention.

We were on a couple of reefs with some of the larger ops and their DM's couldn't keep their groups together. At one point we watched a gaggle of people crashing their way across part of the reef dragging gauges and alternate air souces through the coral. Christi, Raul, and the captain of their boat made sure we were properly suited up and that all gauges were tucked away and hoses clipped onto our BC's. They also showed a great respect for the reef and the marine park.

I will be returning, hopefully in January 2004, and hope to complete my AOW with Christi at that time.  Over time I may try other shops on the island for the experience or when Christi can't accomodate me, but this experience has sold me on small shops and small boats and I will most certainly dive with Blue XT Sea again and again.

Comments: My family of five just returned from a vacation to Cancun.  My wife and oldest son obtained their scuba certification just before we left for our vacation.  My wife and son wanted to scuba dive and the rest of us wanted to snorkel.  I was anxious to find a dive shop that would be sensitive and patient with two new divers and at the same time be able to accommodate those of us who wanted to snorkel.  I didn't want those who snorkeled to limit the experience of those who wanted to dive.  I began to search the Internet to find an appropriate dive shop for my family.  I looked at many large dive shop operations, but didn't feel comfortable with them.  Finally, I found Christi at Blue XT Sea Diving.  From the very first time I emailed Christi until we met her on the day of our dive, I felt comfortable with her and confidant in her abilities.  She reassured me that she could take all of us on one boat and we would all have a quality experience.  Christi was so patient wit
 h me as I continued to email her with questions.  I must have emailed her 50 times with various questions before our dive and everytime her response was quick and reassuring.  Christi is just a very personable, friendly and professional person!  We were on a boat with only two other divers.  Christi was the personal dive master for my wife and son.  She was so helpful and sensitive to their limited experience.  She provided them with the experience of a lifetime.  The rest of us had our own snorkel guide.  He was amazing.  He would dive 50 to 60 feet just to point things out for us that we would have missed otherwise.  The entire experience was wonderful.  While on our vacation, we had many wonderful experiences, but the time spent with Christi was the highlight of our trip.  Christi has a first class, professional operation and I will be recommending her dive shop to everyone I know.  

Comments: We took a cruise to Cozumel at the beginning of August.  I learned about Christi's operation on a Scuba message board.  I emailed her several times to arrange the dives and get information.  She always responded promptly to my messages.  The whole process was very smooth and she was very patient answering all of my questions.  My girlfriend was just recently certified and nervous about the dives.  We expressed our concerns to Christi who was happy to work with her through the dives.  Christi was great working with her through the jitters of the first dive.  Overall doing business with Christi was great and we definitely plan on using her again in the future.

Comments: Christi owner of Blue XT Sea, is clearly a detail, service-oriented business woman, who offers industry professionalism divers dream about while on vacation. 
We journeyed back to the El Presidente to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary with our 14 and 12 year old open-water certified diving sons.  Traveling with 2 pelicans of equipment for 4 divers in adverse weather is enough to try any patient,red-eye flying, and fun-seeking family. 
After 15 hours of travel, we arrived in Cozumel at the beginning of a tropical storm and could of boated on the streets instead of drove.  Christi met us at our hotel even though her street was flooded and whisked our gear away to store and set up for us.  The peace of mind and comfort of leaving our gear to her staff- the fabulous Raul- with "no worries" every afternoon was an incredible luxury. 
We usually dive Akumal this time of year due to the nesting turtles, and in Akumal you have to lug your gear and wash-down after every dive-zapping one of energy after days of repetitive diving. With Christi there were none of these time consuming hassles.  The morning after our arrival, Christi arrived on-time at the Presidente dock with gear ready to go and weight belts filled.  In addition,she assisted us with weights for our 14 year old who has grown into a man and gained 50 lbs since his last dive.  Her flexibility and careful attention aboard the boat, under the water, and on shore will guarantee a word of mouth growth in her business.  We are accustomed to diving with pony-bottles.  It became clear to us after the first 2 dives that Christi and dive master-Raul were as safety conscience about diving rules as our family.  The hassle of filling a redundant system would have been an unnecessary burden since there are only 2 fill stations on the island with approx. 130 div
 e operators.  On a side note, Delta Airlines wanted to charge us $80 per leg of our flight to carry 'scuba tanks'.  We have a pocket in our BC designed for them so we convinced the airline that they were 'pony-bottles' not 'scuba tanks' and saved ourselves from an additional $480 surcharge.
After 2 days of diving I elected to use Nitrox, Christi accomodated my request and only charged what she is charged $10 extra per tank.  It was refreshing that she asked for my certification card!  The marine life we experienced and viewed due to Christi and Raul's local knowledge was fantastic!!! Our bottom times ranged between 40-70 minutes- deepest dive 85'.  Plenty of bottom time to satisfy any micro/macro interested diver. We spent our entire 5 days underwater, including night snorkeling at the El Presidente-, which has a plethora of fun creatures for a non-certified night diving 12-yer old to view. He got to witness several octopus ink...well worth the food tab he ran up in 5 days.  For my 14 year old diving Palancar and the wreck were his highlights...the wreck is a perfect starter for a confident diver with great BC control. 
By the way, the Cozumel message boards spend alot of time dealing with Big Boat vs. Small boat operators...Christi's "Shamu" is a well equipped, fast, sea-worthy vessel, with a wonderful conscientious captain.  We were paired up with equal ability divers on the days our boys didn't dive. My last experience with a "large boat" was on the Great Barrier Reef in slightly choppy water with 30-40 people aboard smoking and hurling over the side...Personally, I'll take a fast small boat with less than 8 people over a large boat anytime.
Our only regret is that our time was shortened due to additional vacation plans.
Thank you Christi for such a memorable second honeymoon diving experience!  You have raised the bar for the industry...diving with you is the difference between flying first class and coach and you are first class all the way!!!
Relaxed diving wife-Lena G.G. Peterson-accompanied by husband-Wade and thrill-seeking- sons Atley & Andrew

Comments: Christi and her staff were fantastic!!  It you want VERY personalized service, choice dive sites, small dive groups, fast boats, dependability and honesty, this is the place for you!!  Email me with any questions!!  I've been diving in Cozumel since 1993 and never had a bad experience but this one was definitely worth recommending.

Comments: My husband and I recently returned from Cozumel and had a wonderful vacation.  Diving with Christi and her company Blue XT Sea was truly the highlight of our vacation.  We stayed at Casa Mexicana which was a jewel of a hotel and we have probably found our new hotel home in Cozumel.  The location was perfect, rooms were clean, staff was very accommodating and the breakfasts were wonderful, all of this at a very reasonable price. 
 
Now to the highlight of the trip, the diving and service was the best we have ever received from a dive operation in Cozumel, or anywhere for that matter.  We have dove with another operation in Cozumel for the past 3 years, but were very unhappy with the level of service we received on our last trip, so we decided to try a new operation.  From our initial contact with Christi, I knew we were choosing the best operation for our needs.  She promptly responded to our e-mails and answered our questions thoroughly.  She is definitely not the least expensive on the island, but the personal service and quality of the dives were well worth every penny.  The saying you get what you pay for was well illustrated by Christi and her crew. 
 
The day we arrived, Christi met us at our hotel so that we could fill out our paperwork and go over the week's dive schedule.  She was so accommodating and flexible, we were amazed.  We are used to shop's completely dictating our departure times and the dive sites, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.  Most mornings we went out at 8:30, but we wanted to do a mid-day dive one day and she accommodated us and we departed at 11:00 one day. 
 
There were two couples with us for the first 4 days, one couple the 5th day, and the 6th and 7th day we had the boat and crew all to ourselves.  Even though there were only 6 of us on the boat, Christi sent an additional divemaster two days to help a less experienced diver.  After the first two days, he was much more comfortable in the water, so he went with the rest of the group, but Christi arranged for a larger tank for him since his air consumption was still a little much.  This was going above and beyond in my opinion.  It made all of us happy since all skill levels were accommodated in an unobtrusive way.  Our bottom times averaged 50 to 60 minutes with very nice multi-level profiles. 
 
Our divemaster was Raul and he ranks up there in the top 5 easily.  He has been working with Christi for the past couple of months and while we were there, they solidified a contract, so he will be on her team indefinitely, and is an excellent asset to her company.  He is professional, responsible, patient, speaks excellent English, educated, funny, and he takes great pride and respect with what he does.  He is also an instructor, so he was able to help us refine our diving throughout the week.  He has been diving in Cozumel for the better part of 7 years if I remember correctly. He showed us so many little things that I have never seen before and took us on tours of the reefs unlike the usual tours.  We dove every site we wanted to and the ones we wanted to dive again, we did!  We dove some of the popular reefs, plus Maracaibo, Punta Sur, and Columbia and the wreck, which as quite a treat.  There are millions of silversides that have taken up residency there.  I used to hate
  the wreck, but it was definitely a new experience on this trip.  We wanted to go to the north, but the conditions were too rough the last day when we planned to go, but there is always next time.  I just cannot say enough about the quality of the dives and how truly enjoyable the entire experience was. 
 
On the boat (which has recently been renovated and is very comfortable) we were provided with fruit juices, purified water, fresh fruit, cookies, and dry beach towels.  Raul and the new captain, Santos set up our gear and took excellent care of us.  We spent nice long surface intervals at either Nachi Cocom or Playa Palancar.  One of the biggest treats was that we didn't have to haul our gear back and forth each day.  Christi and her crew took our equipment each day, washed it and had it set up and ready to go for us each day, WOW!
 
Although Christi was not diving with us this trip (she was very busy running the business and wasn't feeling well for diving, we call her the land diver), we saw her everyday either at the pier in the morning and/or at the surface interval.  She was always there to make sure everybody had what they needed and to take care of any issues (which there weren't).  This I have NEVER seen from another operation, very professional!  One morning there was a small routine maintenance problem with the boat, so they were running about 15 minutes late to pick us up.  Christi came to the pier where we were being picked up to let us know what was going on.  We are used to boats being 30 to 45 minutes even an hour late, so this really impressed us.  She promises to be in the water with us on our next trip, because we will definitely be diving with her operation again and again! 
 
In summary, this operation is one to watch!  Christi vows to keep it small and personal, but she will be turning away divers due to overbooking in no time if she keeps up the way she is going.  She had a full boat most of our trip, but it was still a small and fun group.  The level of service and quality of the crew and the diving profiles are superb in my opinion.  Kudos to Christi and the crew of Blue XT Sea Diving!  Keep up the excellent work, we can't wait to be back!
 
Karen and Dave Baker
Round Rock, TX

Comments: We had a great time diving with Blue XT Sea. My 12 year old son did his four certification dives on this trip and it was great. I am cerified but hung around to watch and was very impressed with the level of care that was used to make sure that new divers are trained properly. I wish my certification experience had been like his! Christi from Blue XT Sea did an excellent job organizing us before and after we arrived in COZ. This was a great trip and a great dive op. I would not hesitate using them again and would highly recommend Blue XT Sea to everyone.

Posted by Kas on 12/09/02

Just a quickie to let you all know that I enjoyed very much diving with Christi for the 10 days I was in Cozumel. Had a great time diving with her and the many others that I got to meet and dive with, inculding the ever so talented and very cool guy, Greg the Glassman...thanks for the use of your facilities, and Im sorry I never made it back to the gallery to purchase one of your awesome glassworks but I lost my wallet on the last day I was there.,.>BUMMMMMMER>... Also got to meet and dive with Kim, Tom, and Carl & Jeanne who I dove with all of the time and the ever so excellent dive master Oracio from Living Underwater and Roberto who took me to the dark side...Can you say NARKED...  It was great to meet and dive with you all, same time next year Carl & Jeanne?

 Saw many spotted Eagle Rays, they are so awesome, I cant get over how beautiful they are.  Huge green Morays, Turtles, and for some reason the Splendid Toad Fish were out in full force.  What an awesome site, and yes, the normal reef fish that were abundant and colorful.

Restaurants were great as usual, Prima, La Cocay, La Mission, French Quarter, Coconuts, etc etc, I could go on and on but Im back at work and have lots of crap to fix cause when the cats away, well you know the rest of the story..

Christi is a great dive OP, I would recommend her highly..

Kas

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