augie
Guest
Our family of four went to Cozumel from June 20-30.
We rented a car from ISIS, stayed at a condo at Residencias Reef, and ate all over the island. If you'd like more details on the non-diving aspects of the trip PM me and I can send you a link to a rather long trip report I've posted on a couple of general travel boards. But since this is ScubaBoard:
We did seven days of two tank, morning dives, using Scuba With Alison as the dive op. We were on the Maximus each day with Carlos as the captain and Alison the divemaster.
We were conveniently picked up at the wooden pier in front of the Wyndham Aura each day and neither us nor Alison were charged a fee by either the Aura, or their in house dive op, Dive Palancar.
Including the four of us there were anywhere from six to eight divers on the boat each day. Alison's operation runs two boats, the other one being the Enigma II with Chucho at the helm. Although Alison said that the other divers we dove with liked us, we managed to not dive with any of the other groups more than once. Draw your own conclusions.
I know that there is no "one size fits all" best dive op in Cozumel and that everyone has their favorites. I also know that having used a grand total of two dive ops on Cozumel, and one of those two 10 years ago, does not qualify me to say that any one op is better than another. That being said - here are my observations about Alison's operation:
She answers emails in a timely manner, even if you bother her with a thousand details/questions.
She books up quickly, and often far in advance.
She has a loyal following.
During our dives on this trip I noted:
Briefings were complete, easy to understand, and no one was made to feel foolish if they asked questions they weren't sure about.
Divers safety was given top priority.
Alison paid great attention to detail, but did so in such a relaxed manner that if you weren't paying attention you may not even realize that she had just performed a pre-dive safety inspection on you.
Alison and Carlos help create a fun, family atmosphere on the boat - by the second day we felt like old friends.
We enjoyed the "valet service" - not only having our regs and bcds rinsed, dried, and stored for us each night, but even having them switched to new tanks between dives.
Unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise, the divers basically get to choose the dive sites to go to.
Dive profiles strictly determined by remaining air or computer NDL limits, no pre-set bottom times.
Between dive goodies on offer - usually a good mix of healthy (fruit, snack bars) and not so healthy (chocolate doughnuts) - also always a supply of cold bottled water and sodas available.
She completely put my wife at ease after her long absence from the water, and even though she had evaluated our boys as to what they could handle she still asked us how deep we were comfortable with them going.
Seas were flat all week, the currents were fairly mild, the temps were in the mid to low 80s, and the vis was good. How good? I guess that's relative. I didn't ask anyone for a reading in feet, but most of the time, when looking past the nearest reef formation all I could see in the background behind it was the most beautiful shade of blue...
Prior to this trip I'd only been on four dives in Cozumel, all while visiting from a cruise ship. We dove Tormentos and Paradise in October of '95, and Santa Rosa Wall and Paradise in September of '98.
This time, to the best of my fading memory, we dove (more or less in order): Palancar Caves, Delila Wall, Palancar Gardens, Cedral Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Tormentos, Palancar Horeshoe, San Francisco Wall, Columbia Deep, French Reef, C53, Paradise, Palancar Caves (again - by my request!), and Columbia Shallows.
We saw a great variety of marine life - rays, eels, nurse sharks, lobsters, some of Cozumel's "specialties" - seahorses and splendid toadfish (my first ones of the latter!) and many other fish and reef creatures great and small.
My wife, the stingray freak, hadn't been diving in about three years. On the first dive we entered the site near Palancar Caves in a sandy area just off of the reef. Alison was practically holding Leslie's hand to help her get over her jitters when what do we see during the descent? A large southern stingray feeding on the bottom just below us! Talk about a welcome back to the underwater world!
This was the first chance my boys have had since they have been certified (5 and 3 years ago) to do any diving without weeks or months in between dives and I watched them blossom as divers right before my eyes.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and as we suspected, once we really got to know this place a little, we all fell in love with it.
Keep posting your trip reports, I now know that's how I'll be able to survive until it's time to write my next one!
Edit: Oh yeah - I'll have some pictures up before too long (I hope!)
We rented a car from ISIS, stayed at a condo at Residencias Reef, and ate all over the island. If you'd like more details on the non-diving aspects of the trip PM me and I can send you a link to a rather long trip report I've posted on a couple of general travel boards. But since this is ScubaBoard:
We did seven days of two tank, morning dives, using Scuba With Alison as the dive op. We were on the Maximus each day with Carlos as the captain and Alison the divemaster.
We were conveniently picked up at the wooden pier in front of the Wyndham Aura each day and neither us nor Alison were charged a fee by either the Aura, or their in house dive op, Dive Palancar.
Including the four of us there were anywhere from six to eight divers on the boat each day. Alison's operation runs two boats, the other one being the Enigma II with Chucho at the helm. Although Alison said that the other divers we dove with liked us, we managed to not dive with any of the other groups more than once. Draw your own conclusions.
I know that there is no "one size fits all" best dive op in Cozumel and that everyone has their favorites. I also know that having used a grand total of two dive ops on Cozumel, and one of those two 10 years ago, does not qualify me to say that any one op is better than another. That being said - here are my observations about Alison's operation:
She answers emails in a timely manner, even if you bother her with a thousand details/questions.
She books up quickly, and often far in advance.
She has a loyal following.
During our dives on this trip I noted:
Briefings were complete, easy to understand, and no one was made to feel foolish if they asked questions they weren't sure about.
Divers safety was given top priority.
Alison paid great attention to detail, but did so in such a relaxed manner that if you weren't paying attention you may not even realize that she had just performed a pre-dive safety inspection on you.
Alison and Carlos help create a fun, family atmosphere on the boat - by the second day we felt like old friends.
We enjoyed the "valet service" - not only having our regs and bcds rinsed, dried, and stored for us each night, but even having them switched to new tanks between dives.
Unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise, the divers basically get to choose the dive sites to go to.
Dive profiles strictly determined by remaining air or computer NDL limits, no pre-set bottom times.
Between dive goodies on offer - usually a good mix of healthy (fruit, snack bars) and not so healthy (chocolate doughnuts) - also always a supply of cold bottled water and sodas available.
She completely put my wife at ease after her long absence from the water, and even though she had evaluated our boys as to what they could handle she still asked us how deep we were comfortable with them going.
Seas were flat all week, the currents were fairly mild, the temps were in the mid to low 80s, and the vis was good. How good? I guess that's relative. I didn't ask anyone for a reading in feet, but most of the time, when looking past the nearest reef formation all I could see in the background behind it was the most beautiful shade of blue...
Prior to this trip I'd only been on four dives in Cozumel, all while visiting from a cruise ship. We dove Tormentos and Paradise in October of '95, and Santa Rosa Wall and Paradise in September of '98.
This time, to the best of my fading memory, we dove (more or less in order): Palancar Caves, Delila Wall, Palancar Gardens, Cedral Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Tormentos, Palancar Horeshoe, San Francisco Wall, Columbia Deep, French Reef, C53, Paradise, Palancar Caves (again - by my request!), and Columbia Shallows.
We saw a great variety of marine life - rays, eels, nurse sharks, lobsters, some of Cozumel's "specialties" - seahorses and splendid toadfish (my first ones of the latter!) and many other fish and reef creatures great and small.
My wife, the stingray freak, hadn't been diving in about three years. On the first dive we entered the site near Palancar Caves in a sandy area just off of the reef. Alison was practically holding Leslie's hand to help her get over her jitters when what do we see during the descent? A large southern stingray feeding on the bottom just below us! Talk about a welcome back to the underwater world!
This was the first chance my boys have had since they have been certified (5 and 3 years ago) to do any diving without weeks or months in between dives and I watched them blossom as divers right before my eyes.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and as we suspected, once we really got to know this place a little, we all fell in love with it.
Keep posting your trip reports, I now know that's how I'll be able to survive until it's time to write my next one!
Edit: Oh yeah - I'll have some pictures up before too long (I hope!)
Last edited:
