I don't post here much, I hope I am posting in the right place. We got back last week from our 1st trip on the Rocio Del Mar liveabaord to the Socorro Islands.
I think this is new for this year. They require you to fly/arrive to San Jose Del Cabo the night before departure so you will need to book a room for the night. I suggest you call RDM, Brooke can get you better rates on rooms at local hotels. There are a ton of places to stay once you arrive, finding a place to stay closer to downtown or the shore makes the taxi ride in the morning shorter than staying near the airport for the night. We stayed at http://www.elencantoinn.com/index.html it wasn't bad, but make sure you request a room connected to the main office building as they have 2 buildings and once dropped off you will have to drag all your stuff across the street and down the road after checking in if you book a "standard room".
The night before we set up a taxi to pick us up to take us to the dock. Make sure you have a number for the taxi service as the "front desk" is not in exactly at 7am to call them if they fail to show up on time.
Arriving at the dock the staff was great! They help you from the taxi to the vessel and help get your stuff to your room. We had cabin 4 (I think it was 4) it was a double bed in the bow of the boat. I was concerned about being so far forward but I never had an issue sleeping like a baby or feeling ill at night. They have just replaced all the mattresses, they are no longer and really comfortable! All the rooms have opening windows except the forward rooms (obviously to prevent "spray" during travel entering the room). I would have liked a room with an opening window, but the A/C coupled with a mounted fan really made up for it.
The bathrooms are clean and functional with really hot water! Tp is not flushed down the toilet. We have traveled many places where this is a common practice, so no biggie to us. The ship is geared towards divers and it shows! The dive stations are set up that all your dive accessories have a place right at your station and before each dive a fresh tank was ready to go. I read the last review about the RDM and their concern about the height of the station. It is a bit high for shorter people. I am 5'6 and just had to tilt forward a bit to remove the tank from the holder, just remember the bungie cord holding the tank in, lol. There is always someone there to help everyone with anything. There was a petite girl there and the staff was right there everytime to help her with anything she needed.
There are hot showers with rinsing buckets and a mask dip on the main dive deck. Boarding the Panga's were easy from the back dive deck. We had rough seas all week and never had an issue.
The dives: First off the dives were amazing!! We arrived at San Benedicto and dove the "El Boiler". Diving with the Giant Manta's was truly a treat!! We had 4-5 huge Manta's that could not get enough attention! If we went deeper they followed! Safety stops were such a treat with them swimming all around the whole time! But don't miss the other things to see there! We saw Moray eels, Lobster and most all the other things you see on ocean dives! The wall is alive all over! Work your way around the pinnacle and look in all the nooks and crannies! It is hard to pull yourself away from the Manta's but there is so much life there, I hated to miss it all! Visibility was around 80ft and we had high winds the entire trip.
The next dive site was around the back side of the island at "The Canyon". The hammerheads were amazing!! I have to say they seemed much bigger/fatter than I would have expected! Had dozens of them on one dive! 1st dive on one morning we had dolphins everywhere! They swam and played all around the divers!! Again, don't miss the other stuff, we saw 2 octopus's in a mating ritual!! I have never seen that before! Moray eels are abundant! I saw fish I have never seen before, brightly colored parrot fish chartruse colored!! Lots of white tip sharks!
I was truly amazed at San Benedicto island!! Don't forget to look around at the island itself!! The lava flow channels and how the volcano's destruction is truly an amazing sight! Just looking at all the cool geological features of the island is humbling! The black beaches with huge waves crashing over them made this place just that much more magical!
A reviewer mentioned dive times. I never felt forced to surface at any particular time. All they asked was to surface with 500 left as is usual of any dive service. The water temps were in the mid 70's, I had a 5mm semi dry from Waterproof and no hoodie or gloves and was quite toasty! Some of our dives were over 50min. The system they use that works well, is to rotate Panga's. The first group goes out about 15 min before the next til all 3 groups are in the water and separated so as not to be on top of each other. The panga's follow bubbles and while on your safety stop send up a sausage and they are there when you surface. They pick them up and then drop them off at the ship and head out to pick up the next bunch. It is a great system and everyone gets to spend all the time (or air) that they want during every dive.
The downside to the trip was not RDM's fault. Socorro island was closed during the time we were onboard. The Mexican Gov. was doing training drills out at Socorro Island and all Dive boats were denied getting near the island.:depressed:. But we headed off to Roca Partida!
Roca Partida was beyond words! My husband has dove the Galapago's and he said Roca Partida took the cake! First the volcanic island itself is awe inspiring! "Bird poop island" was what we were calling it!! On the surface the ocean swells we very cool to watch! It swelled up and down at least 30-50ft creating a huge wave around the sides of the island! Underwater was surreal! The visibility was around 80ft again, but swimming around from the backside to the front side was a really cool sight! I had white tip sharks swimming next to me closest to the wall, as I looked over you can see how high the swells are by your reference to the wall! The white tips went up 30ft and back down 30ft!!
It was too cool! And obviously too hard to explain! There were so many fish!!! Long lines of yellow fin tuna! The fish all swim in long "follow the leader" lines from shallow to deeper! And so many different species!! I swear I saw at least 30 different fish and large groups of them, on 1 dive! My husband even saw a sea lion on one dive (darn I missed seeing it!).
Ok I am realizing, I really can not explain what an amazing trip this was. A writer I am not. Since we could not do Socorro island, we headed back to San Benedicto island. It was so windy we were forced to dive only on the calm side which left us to dive "The canyon" the rest of the trip. I don't say that as a bad thing! Even repeating the dive site did not mean repeating adventures and creatures!
Every dive was something new along with the same cool things before!
The food: The food was great and abundant! The first "meal" in the morning is before the first dive at around 6am. It is fresh fruit with yogurt, bagels and cream cheese, oatmeal or a variety of other "lighter" side things. If you like coffee, you will miss theirs when you leave! I do! There is tea, juice and coffee. When you get back from your 1st dive (and take a warm shower on the dive deck) they have a full breakfast ready to serve! To be honest I am not much of a big breakfast person, so I can only tell you my husband ate really well for breakfast! I would relax up on the top deck with my yummy coffee and enjoy the view! Mark gained 8lbs on this trip!
After the second morning dive they had lunch ready. It is so hard to describe what they served, it was different everyday! They always has a soup! I love soup after diving! It really hit the spot! The whole meal was filling, but not bloating. If you wanted more, just ask!
After the 1st afternoon dive around 2pm they brought out "munchies" for everyone! Cookies, fresh fruit and quesadilla's and the like. You never went hungry! There was always food in the lower lounge room at any given time, day or night. At night it was fruit and non-perishable stuff to nibble on.
After the last dive at 4pm they got ready to serve dinner. Steak, fish, chicken, salad all kinds of delicious food!! There is a set menu but you can ask for more or less if need be. Anyone with special meal needs were addressed! If you don't eat meat or seafood, they had a meal for you! We even had a BBQ on the top deck under the stars!
Some cool memorable times were at night watching the dolphins swimming around the boat! We even had sharks one night swimming in between the Panga's!! And the stars at night!! To many to count!
On our way out from San Benedicto island the dolphins swam along side as if to say goodbye.
Arriving back to San Jose Del Cabo at around 4am, we anchored until daylight. Disembarking was hard for everyone. We met some amazing people and were treated 1st rate by the RDM staff! After exchanging e-mail addy's and saying our goodbyes, RDM arranged for van's to take some to the airport and had cars to drop off those still staying inland awhile longer.
Could not ask for a better trip! We are going to book their Sea of Cortez trip for next year!! I can't wait!!
Thank you for reading this review (if you really made it this far) and if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line! Love to help!
I think this is new for this year. They require you to fly/arrive to San Jose Del Cabo the night before departure so you will need to book a room for the night. I suggest you call RDM, Brooke can get you better rates on rooms at local hotels. There are a ton of places to stay once you arrive, finding a place to stay closer to downtown or the shore makes the taxi ride in the morning shorter than staying near the airport for the night. We stayed at http://www.elencantoinn.com/index.html it wasn't bad, but make sure you request a room connected to the main office building as they have 2 buildings and once dropped off you will have to drag all your stuff across the street and down the road after checking in if you book a "standard room".
The night before we set up a taxi to pick us up to take us to the dock. Make sure you have a number for the taxi service as the "front desk" is not in exactly at 7am to call them if they fail to show up on time.
Arriving at the dock the staff was great! They help you from the taxi to the vessel and help get your stuff to your room. We had cabin 4 (I think it was 4) it was a double bed in the bow of the boat. I was concerned about being so far forward but I never had an issue sleeping like a baby or feeling ill at night. They have just replaced all the mattresses, they are no longer and really comfortable! All the rooms have opening windows except the forward rooms (obviously to prevent "spray" during travel entering the room). I would have liked a room with an opening window, but the A/C coupled with a mounted fan really made up for it.
The bathrooms are clean and functional with really hot water! Tp is not flushed down the toilet. We have traveled many places where this is a common practice, so no biggie to us. The ship is geared towards divers and it shows! The dive stations are set up that all your dive accessories have a place right at your station and before each dive a fresh tank was ready to go. I read the last review about the RDM and their concern about the height of the station. It is a bit high for shorter people. I am 5'6 and just had to tilt forward a bit to remove the tank from the holder, just remember the bungie cord holding the tank in, lol. There is always someone there to help everyone with anything. There was a petite girl there and the staff was right there everytime to help her with anything she needed.
There are hot showers with rinsing buckets and a mask dip on the main dive deck. Boarding the Panga's were easy from the back dive deck. We had rough seas all week and never had an issue.
The dives: First off the dives were amazing!! We arrived at San Benedicto and dove the "El Boiler". Diving with the Giant Manta's was truly a treat!! We had 4-5 huge Manta's that could not get enough attention! If we went deeper they followed! Safety stops were such a treat with them swimming all around the whole time! But don't miss the other things to see there! We saw Moray eels, Lobster and most all the other things you see on ocean dives! The wall is alive all over! Work your way around the pinnacle and look in all the nooks and crannies! It is hard to pull yourself away from the Manta's but there is so much life there, I hated to miss it all! Visibility was around 80ft and we had high winds the entire trip.
The next dive site was around the back side of the island at "The Canyon". The hammerheads were amazing!! I have to say they seemed much bigger/fatter than I would have expected! Had dozens of them on one dive! 1st dive on one morning we had dolphins everywhere! They swam and played all around the divers!! Again, don't miss the other stuff, we saw 2 octopus's in a mating ritual!! I have never seen that before! Moray eels are abundant! I saw fish I have never seen before, brightly colored parrot fish chartruse colored!! Lots of white tip sharks!
I was truly amazed at San Benedicto island!! Don't forget to look around at the island itself!! The lava flow channels and how the volcano's destruction is truly an amazing sight! Just looking at all the cool geological features of the island is humbling! The black beaches with huge waves crashing over them made this place just that much more magical!
A reviewer mentioned dive times. I never felt forced to surface at any particular time. All they asked was to surface with 500 left as is usual of any dive service. The water temps were in the mid 70's, I had a 5mm semi dry from Waterproof and no hoodie or gloves and was quite toasty! Some of our dives were over 50min. The system they use that works well, is to rotate Panga's. The first group goes out about 15 min before the next til all 3 groups are in the water and separated so as not to be on top of each other. The panga's follow bubbles and while on your safety stop send up a sausage and they are there when you surface. They pick them up and then drop them off at the ship and head out to pick up the next bunch. It is a great system and everyone gets to spend all the time (or air) that they want during every dive.
The downside to the trip was not RDM's fault. Socorro island was closed during the time we were onboard. The Mexican Gov. was doing training drills out at Socorro Island and all Dive boats were denied getting near the island.:depressed:. But we headed off to Roca Partida!
Roca Partida was beyond words! My husband has dove the Galapago's and he said Roca Partida took the cake! First the volcanic island itself is awe inspiring! "Bird poop island" was what we were calling it!! On the surface the ocean swells we very cool to watch! It swelled up and down at least 30-50ft creating a huge wave around the sides of the island! Underwater was surreal! The visibility was around 80ft again, but swimming around from the backside to the front side was a really cool sight! I had white tip sharks swimming next to me closest to the wall, as I looked over you can see how high the swells are by your reference to the wall! The white tips went up 30ft and back down 30ft!!
It was too cool! And obviously too hard to explain! There were so many fish!!! Long lines of yellow fin tuna! The fish all swim in long "follow the leader" lines from shallow to deeper! And so many different species!! I swear I saw at least 30 different fish and large groups of them, on 1 dive! My husband even saw a sea lion on one dive (darn I missed seeing it!).Ok I am realizing, I really can not explain what an amazing trip this was. A writer I am not. Since we could not do Socorro island, we headed back to San Benedicto island. It was so windy we were forced to dive only on the calm side which left us to dive "The canyon" the rest of the trip. I don't say that as a bad thing! Even repeating the dive site did not mean repeating adventures and creatures!
Every dive was something new along with the same cool things before!
The food: The food was great and abundant! The first "meal" in the morning is before the first dive at around 6am. It is fresh fruit with yogurt, bagels and cream cheese, oatmeal or a variety of other "lighter" side things. If you like coffee, you will miss theirs when you leave! I do! There is tea, juice and coffee. When you get back from your 1st dive (and take a warm shower on the dive deck
) they have a full breakfast ready to serve! To be honest I am not much of a big breakfast person, so I can only tell you my husband ate really well for breakfast! I would relax up on the top deck with my yummy coffee and enjoy the view! Mark gained 8lbs on this trip!After the second morning dive they had lunch ready. It is so hard to describe what they served, it was different everyday! They always has a soup! I love soup after diving! It really hit the spot! The whole meal was filling, but not bloating. If you wanted more, just ask!
After the 1st afternoon dive around 2pm they brought out "munchies" for everyone! Cookies, fresh fruit and quesadilla's and the like. You never went hungry! There was always food in the lower lounge room at any given time, day or night. At night it was fruit and non-perishable stuff to nibble on.
After the last dive at 4pm they got ready to serve dinner. Steak, fish, chicken, salad all kinds of delicious food!! There is a set menu but you can ask for more or less if need be. Anyone with special meal needs were addressed! If you don't eat meat or seafood, they had a meal for you! We even had a BBQ on the top deck under the stars!
Some cool memorable times were at night watching the dolphins swimming around the boat! We even had sharks one night swimming in between the Panga's!! And the stars at night!! To many to count!
On our way out from San Benedicto island the dolphins swam along side as if to say goodbye.
Arriving back to San Jose Del Cabo at around 4am, we anchored until daylight. Disembarking was hard for everyone. We met some amazing people and were treated 1st rate by the RDM staff! After exchanging e-mail addy's and saying our goodbyes, RDM arranged for van's to take some to the airport and had cars to drop off those still staying inland awhile longer.
Could not ask for a better trip! We are going to book their Sea of Cortez trip for next year!! I can't wait!!
Thank you for reading this review (if you really made it this far) and if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line! Love to help!
