multi day dive packages?

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They are the only fill station on the island. It was explained to me if someone has a compressor and started to fill tanks for others that your compressor would stay having issues or disappear very mafiaesque.
 
glad i saw this thread. i was going to start a similar one today.
we have been searching a number of web sites and emailing a bunch of operators. i am impressed at how fast the responses have been actually. it is a nice change from what i am used to. haha but i would like to add a few things from my point of view after trying to plan this trip.
we found a number of operators that do not offer multi day packages. a lot do. but we seemed to have found most of the ones that dont. this is something we are not accustom to.
we have traditionally paid 25 to 30 u.s. per dive (we usually buy a 5 day two tank package each) on just about every trip we have ever been on. and have never paid more than 38 u.s. and that was on a very expensive island.
i find that the over all cost to dive here is quite high considering that it is mexico. i may be wrong, but i was told the u.s. dollar is very strong against the peso this year. i would have thought that the pricing would reflect this. does it not make sense that if you were getting 13 pesos for every dollar last year but are getting 17 or 18 this year (was told it was as high as 20 recently) wouldnt the shops be adjusting prices to be more competitive ? there costs to run the operations would not change, but they are making quite a bit more money if we pay them in u.s. compared to past years.
the 15 or 16 % tax is also something that seems crazy to me. and i live in canada where we pay insane taxes on everything. add in the park fees and the total cost to dive here is similar or higher to countries we have been to with a much much higher cost of living.
we have decided to focus more on shore diving this trip to control our budget and will only be doing maybe a few days of boat diving.
i know coz is known as a great dive destination and we are very much looking forward to returning but it seems to me that the costs are way out of line compared against all the other costs to go there.

to the OP.....we found dive with martin seemed to have the best pricing. they even give a discount if you are kind enough to bring in some clothing for donation which i thought was pretty cool.

Gas in Mexico continues to rise as the gas here drops. Boats burn gas.
 
They are the only fill station on the island. It was explained to me if someone has a compressor and started to fill tanks for others that your compressor would stay having issues or disappear very mafiaesque.

There is another fill station but they wouldn't rent tanks to me. I can't remember what it is called but it is hidden in the jungle.
 
I'm certain you must have misunderstood the price you could personally rent nitrox tanks for at Meridiano.

Nitrox has never ever been that low since they started doing nitrox fills - and those of us with accounts get a slightly lower rate than the general public. We charged $10 for nitrox up until a few years ago and had to up to $12 - we don't get colume discounts. The larger southern resort ops have their own compressors because they have to and they do enough volume for it to be cost effective - not to mention Meridiano won't deliver tanks that far south.

As far as the other costs involved and pricing - there are many expenses that factor into our (dive shop) prices - many that you would not possibly know about (nor should you be expected to). It's not just he tanks, fills, fuel and staff - there is Soo much more. I can assure you that pricing not only reflects the quality of the amenities and services, but the wages and benefits of the staff. For example, i have 3 staff members that have been with me for over 12 years - the others 2 and 5 years respectively. That speaks volumes here in the island and is worth something. Dave has covered this topic very well on many occasions so I'll Leave it at that :)

Is there any chance they charge dive shops with compressors more? I don't begrudge you what you charge and I know you are not getting rich in the dive business so I'm not butting in here to complain about dive pricing but we rented tanks from Meridiano and while not as cheap as on the mainland, they were cheap! If I could rent tanks for that much money here I certainly wouldn't own 20 odd tanks and a compessor.
 
Is Meridiano the only fill station on the island that fills with Nitrox?

They are the only fill station on the island. It was explained to me if someone has a compressor and started to fill tanks for others that your compressor would stay having issues or disappear very mafiaesque.
Is Linmar not still in business? Their website is having some hijack issues, but maybe they just don't know about that.

There is another fill station but they wouldn't rent tanks to me. I can't remember what it is called but it is hidden in the jungle.
I think Linmar is at the marina. Are you sure this jungle station was on Cozumel?
 
Really sure. We don't go that many places!
 
Really sure. We don't go that many places!
OK, I remember one in the jungle south of Playa del Carmer on the mainland. On Coz, I am thinking it must have been a dive Op's compressor.
 
They are the only fill station on the island. It was explained to me if someone has a compressor and started to fill tanks for others that your compressor would stay having issues or disappear very mafiaesque.
Rumor mongering. Do you have any evidence to support that claim?
 
Ok I should add a disclaimer: "I was told by one of the divemasters:"

But it does seem to not be unexpected fro competition to be scarce on an island in Mexico.
 
Ok I should add a disclaimer: "I was told by one of the divemasters:"

But it does seem to not be unexpected fro competition to be scarce on an island in Mexico.

For the record, I have no reason to believe that Meridiano would do such a thing, or anyone else. We just ran into a poorly designed model of Bauer compressors ($50 k per pop) and supposedly the best you can get…Ha! Ha!

Got 4,500 hours out of them before real problems started, where as they have a quoted life expectancy of 10,000 hours.

Meridiano does not punish us for having our own compressors and we pay whatever anyone else pays—well actually we pay 50% more as our tanks take 50% more air and at much higher pressure and work for them. When our compressors are down we do lose money and that sucks when you are on a very thin margin to begin with.

Do ya'll feel sorry for me now?

Dave Dillehay
 

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