Need quick Idea's!!! Coz trip might be canceled

[rottielover]

Hi all,

My wife and I were scheduled to fly to Cozumel this Sat. with our Dive shop group. The dive shop is calling me back shortly with the information from the travel agent... If our trip to Coz. is canceled, my wife cannot reschedule her vacation with her work. (long story)...

Anyway, I was thinking about trying to use the money we'd get back to head to Hawaii instead... But I've never been there, and I don't know anyone that's gone there to do any diving...

We're OW certified and were planning on 5 days of 2 tank boat dives with unlimited shore diving, and we were signed up to do our AOW course while there....

We'd be bringing all our own gear, sans tanks and weights...

Anyone have idea's on a good dive op that I could book last minute with? What are the water temps this time of year? Are there any resorts on the islands similar to the dive resorts in Coz ?

Sorry about the last minute thing, but since the wife's boss won't let us reschedule we're in a real bind!

Maybe there is another diving dest. we should be looking at other than Hawaii ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Damselfish]

There's shore diving in Hawaii but not specifically at resorts, there's no dedicated dive resorts in Hawaii like some other places.

If you want dive resorts and shore diving, you might consider Bonaire or Curacao. Many options there. Some options on Grand Cayman as well.

(Quite possible you won't be able to do any of these places for the price of Coz if that's an issue, depending where you were staying and what kind of airfare deal you had.)

 

[rottielover]

Well since my wife cannot reschedule her vacation at work, I really have no choice but to throw our Christmas money at this, along with whatever funds we'll get back from the canceled trip, (still waiting to hear back from the dive shop)...

I got a PM saying that Dominican Republic has some good diving resorts.... I'm doing all kinds of web searches for last minute deals....

 

[Damselfish]

I've never gone to the Dominican Republic as I have never heard that it has good diving, or dive resorts at all. Quite the opposite. Great deals on sun&beach vacations, yes.

You can often get decent airfares to Cayman. You might try Sunset House or Cobalt Coast, which are both dive resorts with shore diving. Sunset House is a less expensive place. Cobalt Coast I prefer as it is much nicer and I prefer the dive op there, DiveTech. (You can actually shore dive at Cobalt Coast, or at the other DiveTech location nearby which is better.) There are a few other places on GC to shore dive but those are the easiest places to stay and dive. Or you can look into Compass Point on the East End of GC, another dive resort but no shore diving there. Their op is Ocean Frontiers. You could also stay at the Reef Resort which is fancier and dive with OF, it's not too far and they will pick you up. Since you are a new diver and haven't done AOW yet Sunset House might be your best option to get in more shallower easier dives, as DiveTech does mostly the North wall. The first dive of the day with OF is also generally going to be a wall that starts somewhat deep.

Bonaire or Curacao airfare is often high but there are lots of places to stay there and great shore diving for cheap, often right off your hotels dock. Good places for a newbie. I won't even suggest a place on Bonaire as others will, almost anyplace on Bonaire can be considered a dive resort. On Curacao for your first time I would suggest checking into Habitat (quiet and out of the way, great shore diving), Sunset Waters (even further out of the way), or Lions Dive (near town, much more activity in the area, shore diving available but I'm not crazy about it). The Marriott is very nice (more of a regular resort) but said to have a decent shore dive and dive op.

 

[TheRedHead]

You may be able to do St. Croix for close to the price of Cozumel. You can shore dive as well as boat dive. You can also find a lot of bargains in the Bahamas. Check last minute deals on the travel sites. Sorry about your Coz trip. It is one of my favorite places to dive.

 

[rottielover]

I can't seem to find anything on the websites, I'm thinking that because this is soo last minute, I'm going to have to call, or go see (in person) a travel agent.

 

[diversteve]

I'd cancel the trip even if they don't if you can get your money back. Wilma's supposed to bounce off the Yucatan Peninsula right near Coz so even if it misses, the viz is going to be awful and the reefs all sanded over.

Since Cuba's catching it, my guess would be that Cayman is/did too. At least enough to stir up the water. They're both on the backside of the hurricane. Although I haven't heard anything either way. Cayman's wickedly expensive if that's a concern. Although I think their bookings are down since there's some uncertainty about it post-Ivan so you might be able to get a good deal at Sunset House or possibly Comfort Suites or the Marriot. Airfare from Miami is fairly reasonable.

Last minute I doubt you'll get a flight to Bonaire that you can afford. Last summer they were about $1650 with no advance purchase. And the nightlife is non-existent compared to a place like Coz. If you do want to try it there, the (semi)AI resorts are Buddy Dive/Lions Dive, Capt. Don's Habitat, The Plaza Resort, Harbour Village and the Divi Flamingo. All of them have their own websites with contact info for direct booking. Most of them offer a meal plan in addition to packages with room/diving/car rental. but I think you'll find it's easier/cheaper to just buy your meals/food locally. Just about everybody offers unlimited shore diving packages for around $100/wk. You can also bundle a couple days of boat dives for less than $100 more. We did 3 days of boat diving which was probably too much, one alacarte dive we did in the afternoon cost us $18. The Town Pier night dive which you do with your DM cost $20.

I think you'll have the same problem with Maui. We can really only afford to go there when we book pretty far in advance. But the diving is great, we always see thousands of reef fish, turtles, sharks, Manta's almost every trip. You'd have to stay at a regular hotel/resort/condo and drive to the dive boat locations, that's how it's done there. Book something either near Kihei or near Lahaina to be close to the action. And you'll need a car to get to/from the diveboats/shoredive sites.

And Lahaina would have similar nightlife to Coz if that's one reason you're going. Although on a smaller scale.

Another option that might be more affordable is Oahu. There's good diving away from Honolulu, plenty of nightlife in Honolulu and plenty of places to get away if you rent a car. And the flights will be the most reasonable of any of the Hawaiian Islands. Should be able to find affordable hotels also. I wouldn't stay in Waikiki though, unless you like CROWDS!!!.

Maybe the Bahamas also, Nassau is similar in size/nightlife to Coz, but the diving now is pretty much exclusively with Stuart Cove's as they've put most of their competition out of business. Not the quality of diving you would have seen in Coz though. You could spend a non-dive day(week) at Atlantis alone. SC will pick you up at most any hotel in Nassau, there's a couple reasonable ones on Cable Beach and a Holiday Inn downtown that has the best prices every time I've looked.

Edit: Just saw on the news that Belize is catching it from Wilma now, so that's out. And I'd guess Roatan has the same problem, otherwise try Cocoview or Anthony's Key Resort. Possibly you could get in there at the last minute but they're dedicated dive resorts, not much else to do on Roatan except that. No nightlife/shopping to speak of.

 

[kidspot]

Maui has some fairly good shore diving as well as good boat diving. I'd recommend staying in Kihei if you want mostly boat diving as that is where most of the Molokini boats leave from. I prefer the shore diving in the Lahaina area, because the vis tends imho to be better. I also think there are more shore diving opportunities in the Lahaina area, though that's probably just because I live there

Aloha, Tim

P.S. water temps have been 81-82* lately and shore diving vis in the Lahaina area about 50ft (not the best we have, but not the worst either) Vis at Molokini the other day was about 200ft - beautiful!

 

[rottielover]

Well, the latest update from the Shop and Travel agent is that our trip is on... (Can't cancel unless they do, if we cancel we get nothing back, if they cancel we get a refund)....

Anyway, the last thing I heard was that our Travel Agent has a couple of employee's on Vacation and staying at the Scuba Club Coz... and they are saying this:

"We just heard from our Travel Agent. As of right now, US Airways and Scuba Club will be open and flying on Saturday. We could have a few flight delays but not cancelled. Two of their agents are actually on vacation and staying at Scuba Club so they are getting pretty regular updates from them. The storm is hitting right now and they said the dive boats will not be going out on Saturday or Sunday but should be back to a normal schedule on Monday. Our agent will be calling tomorrow afternoon to give us another update so I will let you know when we hear from her."

For now, I guess I'm still going, assuming that Cozumel is still on the map after Wilma is done with it

 

[Fin59]

Hey, you really didn't want to settle for anything other than Cozumel anyway did you? Haha. We will be there next Saturday, Oct 29. Good luck!