Feedback on the Presidente/Scuba Du please.

[fred3798]

Stayed at Prez for 10 days in March. Dived with Blue XT-Sea for a smaller, more private feel. They picked us up at the Prez and it was seamlessly easy. We rented tanks from Scuba Du for a shore dive at the Prez. They were friendly amd helpful. But we didn't dive with them so can't say more.


Prez is a very nice hotel. Our room was beautiful - much nicer than we expected. Food was quite good at the main beach restaurant. We avoided the fancier Italian dining room because we noticed it was virtually empty every night. We can take a hint. The hotel was a bit quiet. They could have had a bit more music or done something to liven up the bar at night. BEWARE the hard sell for Club Intercontinental on check-in. They give the timeshare folks at the airport a good run in the aggressive sales tactics department.

For those scuba snobs who believe that you must suffer lesser accomodation or have a particular dive spend as a percentage of income, I hope you relish your self-satisfied sense of superiority. I suspect that diver quality has much to do with experience amd commitment and little to do with hotel amenities one is willing to purchase. I have come to diving later in life and am trying to learn while staying at nice hotels. But I can admit that based on dive snob commentary, I did reduce the size of my dive knife so as not to appear to be compensating for my other shortcomings.

 

[iluvcozumel]

As the quote shows, it was a response to the earlier "top hotel has a top op" comment. That poster was pointing out that Cozumel Palace is seen as a "top hotel" but that their on-site dive shop Aquaworld didn't meet his definition of a top dive operator. Overall this can be taken as commentary that merely because a hotel as regarded as good, as in the case of the Presidente, that does not necessarily mean that every service associated with it is necessarily of equal caliber.

The OP was asking about the Presidente, not the Cozumel Palace........ Aqua World.... Scuba Du.... maybe same caliber of dive ops.....totally different hotels.....

 

[Brules]

Without Antonio there.....find another op.

 

[Mossman]

Stayed at Prez for 10 days in March. Dived with Blue XT-Sea for a smaller, more private feel. They picked us up at the Prez and it was seamlessly easy. We rented tanks from Scuba Du for a shore dive at the Prez. They were friendly amd helpful. But we didn't dive with them so can't say more.

Prez is a very nice hotel. Our room was beautiful - much nicer than we expected. Food was quite good at the main beach restaurant. We avoided the fancier Italian dining room because we noticed it was virtually empty every night. We can take a hint. The hotel was a bit quiet. They could have had a bit more music or done something to liven up the bar at night. BEWARE the hard sell for Club Intercontinental on check-in. They give the timeshare folks at the airport a good run in the aggressive sales tactics department.

For those scuba snobs who believe that you must suffer lesser accomodation or have a particular dive spend as a percentage of income, I hope you relish your self-satisfied sense of superiority. I suspect that diver quality has much to do with experience amd commitment and little to do with hotel amenities one is willing to purchase. I have come to diving later in life and am trying to learn while staying at nice hotels. But I can admit that based on dive snob commentary, I did reduce the size of my dive knife so as not to appear to be compensating for my other shortcomings.

I didn't see any dive snob commentary here, just people pointing out facts. I acknowledged that there may be some serious divers staying at the Presidente, but that they'd be more inclined to research the best dive op for them, not just use the house dive op out of convenience. It seems that in your case at least, I was correct.

As there are many places to dive besides Cozumel, I was looking at it from a global perspective. Some divers with means go on a diving vacation, where they do a couple dives in the morning, sit around their fancy hotel in the afternoon. Cozumel is perfect for those sort of divers because most dive ops orient to the two morning dive format, whereas afternoon boat trips are few and far between and don't usually offer the same site options, and shore diving is only decent in a few areas and not very popular relative to other more shore-friendly islands like Bonaire. Other divers with means go on a dedicated dive trip, which means they want to dive mornings, afternoons, and nights. Cozumel, while attracting some of this crowd to places like Scubaclub that have decent shore diving and more boat dive options, really doesn't perform as well as other locales in this respect. On the other hand, there are dedicated dive resorts in places like the Caymans and Roatan where people just go to dive. The entire island of Bonaire is pretty much the same. On Bonaire, there is exactly one "fancy" hotel, and dozens of places ranging from budget to slightly upscale that facilitate divers making 4 or more dives a day. Even more extreme are liveaboards, where divers are making 4-5 dives a day from a floating "hotel".

A deluxe liveaboard can cost $2-3K/week per person, sometimes even more depending on the locale. (By 'deluxe' I mean Aggressor-like). That's $300-$400 per day per person, probably more than what one would spend at the Presidente, where I see (courtesy of divetrip.com) that a Beach Front Superior room with dive package (6 x 2 tank) can be had for $2,114 a week and a Pool View for only $1,433/week pp. (The liveaboard will provide meals and basic drinks, usually just beer and wine, or sometimes no booze at all, but offers much more diving than 2/day).

So why would a hardcore diver limit onesself to the Presidente and only 2 dives a day, when he or she can spend more money to go on a liveaboard to make 4-5 dives a day? It's not a matter of being a dive snob. There are plenty of well-off divers around the world as it's not the cheapest hobby one can find, but hardcore divers would rather spend their money on a dive trip where they can get more "bang for their buck" and the Presidente is really not the best place for that. The Presidente is the place for dive vacationers. That said, these aren't hardfast categories. I've gone from being a really hardcore diver, willing even to dive in cold water, to a wussy warm-water hardcore diver that stays at dive resorts and on liveaboards, to a dive vacationer where I'm happy just doing my two dives a day and sitting around the resort afternoons and nights for relaxation's sake, it really depends on my mood. Another reason, besides taking a vacation instead of dive trip, for a hardcore diver to stay at the Presidente is if he/she has a non-diving spouse/SO. But the majority of well-off hardcore divers are going to be somewhere else, probably a different locale entirely.

The OP was asking about the Presidente, not the Cozumel Palace........ Aqua World.... Scuba Du.... maybe same caliber of dive ops.....totally different hotels.....

The response was directed to another poster who suggested that top hotels have top dive ops. Cozumel Palace was mentioned as an example of a top hotel that does not have a top dive op. Surely you can understand the logic of presenting a counterexample to an asserted claim in order to disprove such claim?

 

[randykiw]

I have stayed at el Prez several times over past few years. It is by far the best hotel on the island, but you will pay for it. You will need a cab to get back and forth to town but it is not that big a deal. I have also used scuba-du a few times. They are not a bad dive shop. The key is there are several boats, 2 larger ones and 2 or 3 small ones. The large ones are where they put less experienced and students on. The small fast boats get all the more experienced divers. Being on the smaller boats was much better; they did not limit your bottom time and a smaller group of divers (less than 8). But I have to say all the diver masters I dove with were very good, at least the ones on the fast boats. But like others have said most any outfit will pick you up on the dock.

 

[iluvcozumel]

I didn't see any dive snob commentary here, just people pointing out facts. I acknowledged that there may be some serious divers staying at the Presidente, but that they'd be more inclined to research the best dive op for them, not just use the house dive op out of convenience. It seems that in your case at least, I was correct.

As there are many places to dive besides Cozumel, I was looking at it from a global perspective. Some divers with means go on a diving vacation, where they do a couple dives in the morning, sit around their fancy hotel in the afternoon. Cozumel is perfect for those sort of divers because most dive ops orient to the two morning dive format, whereas afternoon boat trips are few and far between and don't usually offer the same site options, and shore diving is only decent in a few areas and not very popular relative to other more shore-friendly islands like Bonaire. Other divers with means go on a dedicated dive trip, which means they want to dive mornings, afternoons, and nights. Cozumel, while attracting some of this crowd to places like Scubaclub that have decent shore diving and more boat dive options, really doesn't perform as well as other locales in this respect. On the other hand, there are dedicated dive resorts in places like the Caymans and Roatan where people just go to dive. The entire island of Bonaire is pretty much the same. On Bonaire, there is exactly one "fancy" hotel, and dozens of places ranging from budget to slightly upscale that facilitate divers making 4 or more dives a day. Even more extreme are liveaboards, where divers are making 4-5 dives a day from a floating "hotel".

A deluxe liveaboard can cost $2-3K/week per person, sometimes even more depending on the locale. (By 'deluxe' I mean Aggressor-like). That's $300-$400 per day per person, probably more than what one would spend at the Presidente, where I see (courtesy of divetrip.com) that a Beach Front Superior room with dive package (6 x 2 tank) can be had for $2,114 a week and a Pool View for only $1,433/week pp. (The liveaboard will provide meals and basic drinks, usually just beer and wine, or sometimes no booze at all, but offers much more diving than 2/day).

So why would a hardcore diver limit onesself to the Presidente and only 2 dives a day, when he or she can spend more money to go on a liveaboard to make 4-5 dives a day? It's not a matter of being a dive snob. There are plenty of well-off divers around the world as it's not the cheapest hobby one can find, but hardcore divers would rather spend their money on a dive trip where they can get more "bang for their buck" and the Presidente is really not the best place for that. The Presidente is the place for dive vacationers. That said, these aren't hardfast categories. I've gone from being a really hardcore diver, willing even to dive in cold water, to a wussy warm-water hardcore diver that stays at dive resorts and on liveaboards, to a dive vacationer where I'm happy just doing my two dives a day and sitting around the resort afternoons and nights for relaxation's sake, it really depends on my mood. Another reason, besides taking a vacation instead of dive trip, for a hardcore diver to stay at the Presidente is if he/she has a non-diving spouse/SO. But the majority of well-off hardcore divers are going to be somewhere else, probably a different locale entirely.


The response was directed to another poster who suggested that top hotels have top dive ops. Cozumel Palace was mentioned as an example of a top hotel that does not have a top dive op. Surely you can understand the logic of presenting a counterexample to an asserted claim in order to disprove such claim?

Yes, I understand, and tend to agree that just because it is the best hotel doesn't mean they have the best dive op. In my opinion the best dive op has his own accomodations.........

 

[fred3798]

Livea board in October. Oops but its an expensive one. Sorry.

 

[Mossman]

Livea board in October. Oops but its an expensive one. Sorry.

The Aquacat is medium-priced at $2,395/pp.

Here's an example of an expensive one:

Galapagos Aggressor I &
Galapagos Aggressor II:
Jan. 5, 2012 - June 7, 2012
........... deluxe $4,795; master suite $4,995
Jun. 7, 2012 - Dec 26, 2013
.......... deluxe $5,195; master suite $5,395

Sorry.