Wanting advice on place to stay & dive in COZ asap please!

[seastarr2]

I would also check out Deep Blue (www.deepbluecozumel.com). They also have fast boats, small groups, nice beach SIs, etc. I think they were $62/2 tank dive when I was there a few weeks ago.

 

[scubawife]

Marg,
You are awesome!! Thanks for the number crunching. Am I interpreting your last sentence correctly- that Blue Angel's boats are more advanced and can take divers to more sites than Living Underwater can? Also, was it your choice to end your dives at 58 minutes and come up with so much air left. I ask because I just can't ever see me making that choice. Jackets and towels could be very much appreciated in rainy or cooler weather since I usually only wear a skin when I dive.

Keep those thoughts comin' SB'ers - ya'll are fantastic!

I'm pretty sure she's saying that you can get to all the dive sites you'd want and good bottom time with Blue Angel ONLY if you get one of their advanced boats.

I know from experience that Jeremy (Living Underwater) will take his divers where ever they want to dive. There is no dive site - including the northern sites, those furthest south and the east side - that LU doesn't go to.

And if I interpretted that wrong I know Marg will correct me when she gets back to this thread.

 

[Christi]

Marg,
You are awesome!! Thanks for the number crunching. Am I interpreting your last sentence correctly- that Blue Angel's boats are more advanced and can take divers to more sites than Living Underwater can? Also, was it your choice to end your dives at 58 minutes and come up with so much air left. I ask because I just can't ever see me making that choice. Jackets and towels could be very much appreciated in rainy or cooler weather since I usually only wear a skin when I dive.

Keep those thoughts comin' SB'ers - ya'll are fantastic!

I think you completely missed her point.

That while LU is significantly more expensive at first glance, with all of the added services of LU they are a great value for what you get and NOT really any more expensive then the lower priced ops when you calculate out the $ per minute of bottom time. Her dives with LU were longer and in the end only 4 cnets per minute more than BA.

So it turns out (at least for me) that cost per minute between each of the ops is negligible. So once cost is removed as a factor, then you need to think about what other amenities are important.

 

[thebes11]

One of the most important amenities for me is magic tricks on the surface interval!


As far as lodging, I loved staying at Vista Del Mar. Inexpensive, but beautiful rooms with ocean views. Not on the water, but right across the street! It's right by the McDonlads, so your right downtown. We could see the cruise ships but were never bothered by any noise. Only complaint, and it's minor for me, was the water in the shower wasn't always hot. Always warm, but sometimes would not make it to hot. Gisela, the manager, is just a doll, and really caters to her guests.

When I get home, I'll post the topside video from our stay in '05 showing how beautiful the rooms are.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

One of the most important amenities for me is magic tricks on the surface interval!


As far as lodging, I loved staying at Vista Del Mar. Inexpensive, but beautiful rooms with ocean views. Not on the water, but right across the street! It's right by the McDonlads, so your right downtown. We could see the cruise ships but were never bothered by any noise. Only complaint, and it's minor for me, was the water in the shower wasn't always hot. Always warm, but sometimes would not make it to hot. Gisela, the manager, is just a doll, and really caters to her guests.

When I get home, I'll post the topside video from our stay in '05 showing how beautiful the rooms are.

We stayed there over Christmas this year Christi hooked us up...a very nice hotel...we had a ocean view that was outstanding....I would go to sleep looking out over the balcony to the beautiful Caribbean sea....we had plenty of hot water and the shower head worked great....kingsize bed, large shower...good size closet....only small complaint and I wouldn't even call it that... would be if they had a small dresser to put clothes in but....we used the vanity and laid our shorts tshirts etc there...so it worked out great....I loved being intown where you could sit out on the balcony and watch life happen....very nice....Thanks Christi

 

[MMM]

Sorry to take so long to get back to you as harbour was closed this a.m. so I went to the beach for the day. No, you are not interpreting my number crunching correctly (as Christi has correctly interpreted). You need to get onto a boat with advanced divers at Blue Angel to pull the bottom times I did. Not all are, so your miles may vary. No, it was not my choice to end the dives when I did with Blue Angel (hence coming up with 1100 lbs=. That was when the dives ended, in part due to deco times as Blue Angel strongly avoids doing deco dives. Jeremy (at LU) will due deco dives provided divers are willing (he asks in advance) and air permits. On the dives when I came up with 900 lbs, it would have been when I was diving with the 120s and deco time was a big factor for divers. I think my longest deco time has been 13 minutes (my Suunto Cobra automatically adds in 3 minute recommended safety stop so actual deco time was about 10 minutes). But regardless, these were LONG dives at depth.

And no, there isn´t much difference in site choice. Blue Angel will take you to advanced or southern sites as will LU. However, it seems that for the former some sort of 24 hour advance permission is required (never have found that when Jorge is DM but maybe that´s the situation with other DMs there). As the owner of LU, Jeremy can and does make that decision on the spot, based on what he knows the abilities of the divers on the boat. You ain´t going to an advanced site if he hasn´t seen you dive but then that is the case with pretty much all ops.

However, I did a bit of a forehead smack at 4 a.m. this morning when I woke up with a thunderbolt and realized I had miscalculated the cost per minute. Long story short, I forgot that a 2 tank dive means I need to double the average number of minutes before dividing to get the cost per dive. Plus I remember that my Blackberry (which I hadn´t turned on for 3 weeks) has a calculator and I needn´t do all this by longhand division and multiplication. Math ain´t my strong suit. (Thank God for dive computers.) So I was out by a fair sized factor. Instead of 4 cents per minute difference, it´s more like about 10 cents per minute difference between the two ops, in Blue Angel´s favour. I want to stress that this is the cost difference for my profiles only! Again, your miles may differ. I also remembered a few other factors to consider...like whether or not you prefer steel tanks or aluminum, whether you like to stay with the same DM. Or where you are staying (if staying at Caribe Blu, then Blue Angel offers a HUGE convenience factor). For me, I´m bicycling to dive shops which was about 30 minutes to Caribe Blu and 45 minutes each way to the Caleta where LU is. Depending on your perspective, that´s a positive or a negative. Personally, I like the exercise.

Hope this helps.

Marg

Marg,
You are awesome!! Thanks for the number crunching. Am I interpreting your last sentence correctly- that Blue Angel's boats are more advanced and can take divers to more sites than Living Underwater can? Also, was it your choice to end your dives at 58 minutes and come up with so much air left. I ask because I just can't ever see me making that choice. Jackets and towels could be very much appreciated in rainy or cooler weather since I usually only wear a skin when I dive.

Keep those thoughts comin' SB'ers - ya'll are fantastic!

 

[MMM]

Just one more thought as I ramble along here. I mentioned to Jeremy last night that I´d be interested in doing another night dive while I´m here. He said none of his other divers had any booked thereby making a boat dive cost prohibitive but if none of there were interesting in adding a night dive, he´d be willing to come and do a night shore dive with me so I could get another one in. That ought to tell you a lot about this guy.

Don´t get me wrong as there are lots of great dive ops on the island, including Blue Angel, which I really like diving with. But you also need to factor customer service in to the equation.

 

[chickmama]

check out www.aldora.com they have the steel tanks also and most of our times we come back with 500 psi When i have dove with other ops I always had alot of air left 1000-1500 with Aldora we stay down until we run out of air. Most of my dives have been way over an hour with Aldora. And they go to the far sights like Devils Throat, Punta Sur etc. They will take you just about anywhere you want to go if weather permits. They are well worth the extra money you pay for them. And their Villa is fantastic. Right on the water and just a few seconds to the boat from your room. They also will keep your gear and bring it back to pick you up the next day unless you want to do a beach dive. They have a nice new pool and a place to wash your gear and a place to hang it up. The smaller rooms for 2 people run $79. a night but well worth it and very very clean and plush. with a microwave, fridge and table in every room. Some of the bigger rooms of course run more money but they sleep alot more people and have a living room full kitchen and 2 full bedrooms with either 2 king size ofrqueen size beds in each room. If you dont stay there at least check them out while you are in cozumel. If you want a cheaper room Vista Del Mar is a great place to stay We use to stay there until we discovered the Villa. The Vista is downtown where the villa is north of town. The taxi ride to town was $3-4 depending on the taxi driver. but well worth it to me for the quieter atmosphere. Hope this helps.

 

[1gromit]

Hi Landlocked,

Well, at the very least, you've got a lot of good info to sort through!

Your first post mentioned "it's all about bottom time to me!" - in which case I'd definitely recommend Living Underwater, as I don't think you'll get better bottom times anywhere, in addition to excellent customer service (including taking care of al your gear, including wet suit). I chuckle when I look at my log from my December dives with LU: 88, 79, 91, 75, 89, 92, 69, 75, and 122(!!) minutes

HOWEVER, there are many other SUPERB ops on the island, many which have been mentioned in this thread (Blue Angel, Liquid Blue, Aldora, Blue XT Sea, others), and these ops have strong backing from lots of satisfied customers. I don't think you'll go wrong with any of them.

What's notable to me is how competition has created so many great dive ops in Coz. I'm heading to Curacao this weekend for 10 days of diving, and there are few if any ops to compare with any of these Coz ops. (I know, it's 'shore diving' mecca, but still - you should see the dive op recommendations on the ABC forum "great op, they only go out with about 20 people on the boat. But there's usually one DM for every 10 or 12 people...") Makes Coz ops look all the better! Wish I could take any of the above mentioned Coz ops to Curacao!!

 

[scubawife]

What's notable to me is how competition has created so many great dive ops in Coz. I'm heading to Curacao this weekend for 10 days of diving, and there are few if any ops to compare with any of these Coz ops. (I know, it's 'shore diving' mecca, but still - you should see the dive op recommendations on the ABC forum "great op, they only go out with about 20 people on the boat. But there's usually one DM for every 10 or 12 people...") Makes Coz ops look all the better! Wish I could take any of the above mentioned Coz ops to Curacao!!

Hmmm, franchise opportunity? Maybe one of these Cozumel shops could become the next Red Sail Sports with locations in all the best Caribbean dive destinations.