Cozumel Palace - Dive op and Shore Diving?

[okiejeff]

. The Palace gives you $1500 in resort credits for a week stay. That's enough to pay for a week of diving...

But it may not always work out that way...

My experience this week was that between Monday and Saturday, they can only accommodate me on morning dives with points on Thurs-Sat, or half of the possible diving days of my trip. I did not plan on diving every day, but I would have been extremely disappointed if I diid and planned on using points to cover all of my diving. Fortunately I was able to go out with Blue Angel yesterday afternoon, which by the way continues to provide excellent service.

 

[PACKRMAN]

But it may not always work out that way...

My experience this week was that between Monday and Saturday, they can only accommodate me on morning dives with points on Thurs-Sat, or half of the possible diving days of my trip. I did not plan on diving every day, but I would have been extremely disappointed if I diid and planned on using points to cover all of my diving. Fortunately I was able to go out with Blue Angel yesterday afternoon, which by the way continues to provide excellent service.

Why only Thurs-Sat? Was the boat full? When did you find this out? At booking or when you arrived?

 

[Ripple in still water]

Also, did they have all three boats out? There's been some chatter about the new management trying to save money by running only two boats when they can cram everybody on the two. The day they wrongly claimed that I and at least one other person didn't have reservations, it just so happened that they were only running two boats, each of which had, IIRC, 19 divers. They later said that one of the boats had engine trouble. That's possible, though I've seen other ops rent a boat when one of theirs has issues and they've already committed to divers.

 

[okiejeff]

Why only Thurs-Sat? Was the boat full? When did you find this out? At booking or when you arrived?

Arrived Saturday and inquired with the activities desk (they called the dive shop) on about diving. They said dives are not covered with points on Sunday. Checked back Sunday and was told there were boat issues snd they could not make reservations. expressed optimism that they would be resolved and I should check back on Monday and could likely get added for Tuesday. I went to the dive shop Sunday right after this and was able to pay for an afternoon 1 tank trip. Use of points not valid for afternoon or night dives.

Went directly to dive shop on Monday and was told Thursday was the earliest dive reservation I could book using points. No explanation provided other than they were full. They did have a number of people already scheduled in their reservation book.

I have not looked to see how many boats they are running this week, but only noticed one leaving at 8:30 this am, not to say there were not others that I did not see.

 

[Ripple in still water]

I was down a couple of weeks ago and was able to use points for diving on Sunday (morning), so that's baloney about no dives for points on Sunday. You should complain to Palace management. They really need to hear about how (their) dive shop management is encouraging divers to stay elsewhere.

 

[Ron Lee]

Arrived Saturday and inquired with the activities desk (they called the dive shop) on about diving. They said dives are not covered with points on Sunday. Checked back Sunday and was told there were boat issues snd they could not make reservations. expressed optimism that they would be resolved and I should check back on Monday and could likely get added for Tuesday. I went to the dive shop Sunday right after this and was able to pay for an afternoon 1 tank trip. Use of points not valid for afternoon or night dives.

Went directly to dive shop on Monday and was told Thursday was the earliest dive reservation I could book using points. No explanation provided other than they were full. They did have a number of people already scheduled in their reservation book.

I have not looked to see how many boats they are running this week, but only noticed one leaving at 8:30 this am, not to say there were not others that I did not see.

If this is typical...and lies are easy....I would either assume no use of the credits or stay elsewhere.

 

[Mossman]

If this is typical...and lies are easy....I would either assume no use of the credits or stay elsewhere.

It seemed easier when Aqua World had the franchise and they didn't permit use of the credits for diving even if one did have a desire to dive with Aqua World. J used up the max allowed for massages ($300), basically two hours at $150 per. We did the $250 private dinner for two a couple nights, and used the rest of the credits on bottles of wine that were priced at $80 on the wine list and could be found at home for $10 or so.

 

[jmz]

I'm a member at Cozumel palace and visited the aqua safari dive. While in the shop, there were costumers that were upset because they were canceled because of over booking problems. There boats are over filled with too many divers based on my observations. I decided to dive with Dive with Martin. They were AWSOME! And had small groups.

 

[okiejeff]

Also, did they have all three boats out?

Three boats (i.e., Ocean One, Ocean Two and Ocean Three).were in service at some point today (Thursday)

I think I understood that today was Ocean One's first day back in service after having engine work. They are taking it easy on the motor while it completes 50 hrs of break in. By easy, the 08:30 dive trip this morning generally left on time and returned at ~13:30. Dive sites were Dalila and Tormentos.

Entered water for first dive around 10:00 on Dalila reef. Dive was 65 ft for 0:47
SI was 1:08 while in commute back towards CP.
2nd dive was at Tormentos at 55 ft for 0:52 and ending around 13:00

i believe we had 10 divers on board, along with two DMs.

 

[Ripple in still water]

I was down two weeks ago and one of the boats was allegedly out for engine service, back the next day. It is possible they keep having problems with their boats, but it would be interesting to see if, by contrast, it is a story they keep using every couple of weeks to run only two boats when they can cram everybody on two, thus saving money.

---------- Post added July 25th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ----------

Glad you were able to dive yesterday Okie, btw.