Iberostar & Dressel Divers Review

[adamgiles]

Well, some of the reefs. If you stay down south, you will never get taken to many of the more central and northern reefs.

I think you are spot on here. That is one real advantage to an in town dive op.

 

[cicopo]

And how many reefs does the average 7 day visitor get to dive?

 

[ggunn]

And how many reefs does the average 7 day visitor get to dive?

Assuming that you mean that average seven day visitor is there to dive, my WAG is ten.

 

[Skittl1321]

And how many reefs does the average 7 day visitor get to dive?

Looking at my logs, assuming "Palancar" isn't a reef- but Bricks/Gardens etc are separate, I count about 10 in a 7 day visit (5 days of diving, some duplicate visits, some night/afternoon dives).

 

[imoto]

There's a schedule of the reefs they go to on the Dressel webpage. From my experience there is a good chance of duplicating sites if diving for five or six days. Especially if diving morning and afternoon. My last trip with 18 dives in six days we went to paso de cedral three times.

 

[MMM]

I think you are spot on here. That is one real advantage to an in town dive op.

I wouldn't say that it necessarily needs to be an in-town dive op (since most ops leave from caleta anyway). It's really more about where people need to be picked up/dropped off. If the boat is full of folks staying in town or thereabouts, then dive site choices are wide open, up and down the island. But if just one single diver on the boat needs to be picked up down south, then the boat is pretty much limited to diving southern sites.

 

[cicopo]

I did a total of 43 dives years ago when I stayed there for 2 weeks in 2002 & 2003. We did Paso Del Cedral as the night dive both years which will make for at least 1 return visit if you do a night dive with Dressel. Other than that I didn't find we revisited certain reefs any more often than I do using Tres Pelicanos while on a 2 week trip. Dressel even offers Maracaibo Deep when conditions are good & they have enough advanced divers. .

 

[adamgiles]

Was looking at their dive schedule and it looks like if you dove every dive day and night over a 7 day period you will would repeat several dive sites. One would have to pick and choose dive times to avoid repeats in a Sunday through Saturday full 7 day week.

 

[cicopo]

Anyone trying to do 4 dives a day isn't the average vacationer but should be considered a tired but dedicated diver. I ended up doing 4 a day on my last stay for 3 days after having to sit out a few days after a problem with one ear forced me to stay out of the water. I wanted to use up what I had paid for rather than get a credit note for a future trip. This photo shows the schedule as per the sign but I found out it's not accurate & we went to other sites too.

 

[stuartv]

Since numbers were mentioned, let me ask some specifics.

My g/f and I are going to Coz next week (4/21 - 28). We're staying at the Iberostar (which is an AI). Part of the reason for that is that the package I booked seemed to be the cheapest option I could find (barring staying at a less-nice AI).

We are flying from Washington - Dulles. The trip price is $925 per person, total. That is airfare, shuttle to/from the airport, and 7 nights at the Iberostar. From what I see, airfare alone would be about $350 per person. So, we're paying $575 per person for 7 nights stay plus all our food and drinks (including booze). That's $82 per person, per day.

She doesn't dive. That is another reason I picked the Iberostar - so she will have nice spa services, pool, and beach to spend time at while I'm diving. She has no interest in exploring anywhere outside the resort while I'm diving.

My diving (with 3P) will be in addition to that.

Are y'all doing non-AI trips down there for less money than that? Or is it that you pay as much or more, but you feel like you are getting more for your money (e.g. better food and drinks)?

This is really my first trip to Cozumel, so I am all ears on a way to do it "better" next time.