Comments re: "Dive Palancar" at Allegro Hotel and Occidental Grand Hotel -Punta Sur

[vancouverdiver]

I am staying at the Occidental, first time in Cozumel.

Would Pro-Dive be the closest alternative, and would I need prior booking to dive with them?

Just wondering also how flexible other dive ops (eg blue xt ) are with picking up from pier at hotel, or would I have to travel to their dive ops.

Many thanks

When are you going to the Grand? We are going in August, and I would love to hear what you thought of the Grand, which charter you dove with, etc.
Thanks. Hope you have a great trip!

 

[Skydiver1]

When are you going to the Grand? We are going in August, and I would love to hear what you thought of the Grand, which charter you dove with, etc.
Thanks. Hope you have a great trip!

Np prob, will let you know. Going in two weeks for 10 days. Will be my first time there, and was just on here exploring other convenient possibilities other from Dive Palancar.

It's a very long trek for me from Europe, and should have probably just gone back to Egypt, but a change of scenery will be nice!

 

[DandyDon]

Np prob, will let you know. Going in two weeks for 10 days. Will be my first time there, and was just on here exploring other convenient possibilities other from Dive Palancar.

It's a very long trek for me from Europe, and should have probably just gone back to Egypt, but a change of scenery will be nice!

Ten days, nice. Hope you get in a day or two of snorkeling with Whale Sharks, maybe Cenote diving, and maybe a day of the better mainland ruins along with the great reef diving.

 

[scubajackson]

if you want to do cenotes, whale sharks and cozumel reef dives, again i think Prodive would be the best option, as they offer all of this inhouse, meaning they operate these tours. most other ops will send you with another dive shop from the mainland for cenotes (pro dive has own ops right there in puerto aventuras, plus will pick up at the ferry - i did that with them). Also they are operating their own whale shark safari and guarantee the encounter!
they will also give you a 10% discount for prebooking, and if you dive a medium size to big package, yo'll end uyp paying evcen less than with dive palancar.
whoever you go with- have fun! (and let us know..)

 

[T Can Dive]

I would be a little carefull about diving from there... I have heard a few reviews reciently and 3 people got CO poisoning from the tanks and were almost killed. this is probley 99 percent unlikely to happen again, but you should bring a CO reader with you. Just a heads up

p.s. im not trying to bust on "Dive Palancar" at the Allegro Hotel and Occidental Grand Hotel" im just looking out for my fellow divers

 

[DandyDon]

I would be a little carefull about diving from there... I have heard a few reviews reciently and 3 people got CO poisoning from the tanks and were almost killed. this is probley 99 percent unlikely to happen again, but you should bring a CO reader with you. Just a heads up

p.s. im not trying to bust on "Dive Palancar" at the Allegro Hotel and Occidental Grand Hotel" im just looking out for my fellow divers

Dive Palanacar did have some issues that may well have been CO but no one on the island had a low range analyzer of any kind last I heard, and I even tried to help the owner find one in some email exchanges. They are no longer at Allegro I don't think, but then I'm going to test air from any source anyway.

 

[bobtruck]

Pro Dive is not the Dive shop at the Allegro. Dive Palancar is not there now.

 

[Esox69LB]

I spent a week there in April, Pro-Dive had just began operations. Nitrox was not being used yet. So, what gives? Are they still at the Allegro? How common are CO issues? How is a diver to know if shops are checking for CO? We did a Cenote Dive and stopped in the middle of a jungle "where the air is clean" for our tanks, quite impressive and made sense... Air they compress has no city smog.

 

[DandyDon]

I spent a week there in April, Pro-Dive had just began operations. Nitrox was not being used yet. So, what gives? Are they still at the Allegro?

I think all the Nitrox on the island comes from one source, the big fill station that air supplies most Ops that don't have compressors. Odd that they didn't have any but then some Ops do require night before requests for Nitrox because it has to be retrieved from the fill station. As to your other questions...

How common are CO issues?​

Even DAN admits that they don't really know, which is a real sore point for me. But then DAN only knows what is reported and CO deaths are easy to hide usually, reported as drownings; deaths are generally rare in recreational scuba so one might think that CO death in particular are only a part of that - which sounds good but not enough for me. Anyway, the word I got in emails with DP was that no one could be found on island with a CO tester to check the tanks.

How is a diver to know if shops are checking for CO? ​

You inspect their compressor to see if one of these is inline...

If anyone ever sees one on Coz I'd like pics please; I don't think there is one anywhere. They do cost about $1,000 USD to set up plus educated maintenance and I guess no one there thinks that the extra pennies/tank is needed.

I check every tank. My dive bud who makes half of my trips with me saw his first 5ppm reading in New Mexico last month. I don't think he supported my cynicism before then. He dived the tank content that he knew it was 5 ppm and not 50, but most of you divers don't know.

We did a Cenote Dive and stopped in the middle of a jungle "where the air is clean" for our tanks, quite impressive and made sense... Air they compress has no city smog.​

On the road to Dos Ojos? I know that station, pretty impressive - but I did smell smoke from charcoal production that day. I did not know enough to look for that CO inline monitor back then, but I did check my tanks.

Oh the 5 ppm we saw last month was in a town of 2,000, no smog, electric compressor, best situation - but it still happens. Worse is possible.

So if you don't test your tanks yourself, all you have is "deaths are generally rare in recreational scuba so one might think that CO death in particular are only a part of that," as even with the inline monitor I test. But if those odds are good for you, cool; I am such a cynic that I had seatbelts before hey were required and wear an inflatable vest on moving diving boats - even tho I am not a safe person by nature.

 

[Esox69LB]

Pro-Dive was planning to offer free Nitrox, their O2 mix just was not quite in tolorance in April. As I understood, they were (are) blending their own Nitrox