Dive Review of Scubaquatic/Excellence El Carmen in
Dominican Republic/Catalina Island

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Scubaquatic/Excellence El Carmen: "Dominican Republic - Catalina Island", Aug, 2017, by Raymond Fischer, VA, United States ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 9719 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Catalina Island offers decent diving - wall from 35' down to 130', lots of shallow coral formations scattered in 25-45' of water. Water was 78F, vis was 75-100'. I was surprised by the abundance of smaller life on the coral - juvenile drum fish, skates, wrasse, grouper, etc. populate the shallower coral formations. I did not see any larger marine life. I also saw no lion fish - the dive operators apparently actively remove them when found. From the tourist hotels on the east side of the island - it's an all day trip - 1.5 hours in a bus to the boat, 4-5 hours between diving and a beach lunch on Catalina, then the 1.5 hours back. I do not know if there are any hotels near Catalina, but staying in the El Carmen area and diving Catalina is not something to plan on if you want to do multiple days of diving. It's expensive, time consuming and if you are looking for fantastic diving - it's not there. The diving on Catalina is definitely "OK", and if it was a 20 min boat ride I'd do it 2-3 days easy. Scubaquatic was decent, they provided full dive gear to everyone (though some of us brought our own). No one ever asked me for a C-Card. Tanks were all newish (2011) alum 60's - 80's - though several were out of VIP / Hydro.
Websites	Scubaquatic Excellence El Carmen
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida Keys, Gulf of Mexico, Hatteras, Belize, Bonaire, Cayman, Turks, Bahamas, Cozumel, Cancun
Closest Airport	Punta Cana	Getting There	Multiple carriers
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	76-78°F / 24-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Depth / time.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Scubaquatic/Excellence El Carmen in Dominican Republic/Catalina Island

Scubaquatic/Excellence El Carmen: "Dominican Republic - Catalina Island", Aug, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Scubaquatic/Excellence El Carmen in
Dominican Republic/Catalina Island