Occidental Grande....Dive Palancar

[Perfect1]

Good Morning, Heading to Coxumel on 10/13. Has anyone been to Occidental Grande resort or used Dive Palancar operation lately? Any recommendations or look outs? Thanks for your help. Dan

[Christi]

Good Morning, Heading to Coxumel on 10/13. Has anyone been to Occidental Grande resort or used Dive Palancar operation lately? Any recommendations or look outs? Thanks for your help. Dan

Dive Palancar is a safe, professional operation, but they are a resort operation and therefore tend to cater to/attract less experienced once a year vacation divers. For this reason, they also run a tight schedule and run conservative dive profiles. The convenience is that they sell one tank dives where most operations sell the morning dives as two-tank dives due to logistics and demand. The location of the hotel allows them to do this because they can go back to the hotel between each dive...their fuel costs and distance they have to travel is minimal. They have a posted schedule of the dives they are doing, so you can sign up for what you want....but as stated above, they will be very conservative and restricted profiles.

This is fine for some, so really it just depends on what you are looking for. Any operation you choose can pick you up at the hotel, so don't feel restricted to that operation.

Have fun.

[Hawkwood]

Dan,

Have a look here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/205284-divepalancar.html

Two of us provided "reviews" of how Dive Palancar operates.

[awap]

Bring lock and key for the dive lockers.

The two specialty restraurants are quite good but do enforce a "tropical semi-formal" dress code. No flip flops (very light sandles). Men must have long pants (my friend from NC calls them eatin' britches) and proper shoes. I usually wear docksiders and button shirt. Women will want a dress and suitable footwear. Shorts and clean t-shirts are fine in the regular restrauants (also quite good).

If they are not nightdiving so there are no boats to deal with, the night snorkel under the dock is pretty good.

Enjoy

[ggunn]

Bring lock and key for the dive lockers.

The two specialty restraurants are quite good but do enforce a "tropical semi-formal" dress code. No flip flops (very light sandles). Men must have long pants (my friend from NC calls them eatin' britches) and proper shoes. I usually wear docksiders and button shirt. Women will want a dress and suitable footwear. Shorts and clean t-shirts are fine in the regular restrauants (also quite good).

If they are not nightdiving so there are no boats to deal with, the night snorkel under the dock is pretty good.

Enjoy

I haven't brought any long pants to Cozumel for the last 20 years, and I'm not a-gonna start now! ;^)

[MyPC8MyBrain]

And ya need the skeeter repellent there too... Last year they ate the GF alive. I bet she had 50 bites over 5 days. She was even using the 25% Deet. I think I had 2 or 3 without deet. All I have to do is have her along and I'm safe. She must be a tasty treat.

[awap]

I haven't brought any long pants to Cozumel for the last 20 years, and I'm not a-gonna start now! ;^)

I understand. But if you ever chose to stay at the OG, you will miss out on some pretty good AI eating.

[ggunn]

I understand. But if you ever chose to stay at the OG, you will miss out on some pretty good AI eating.

Um, no danger of that, either. ;^)

[parrotheaddiver]

I understand. But if you ever chose to stay at the OG, you will miss out on some pretty good AI eating.

I usually stay at AI hotels in Coz and would never say the food is "pretty good" ...ok would be a stretch.....but OG may be the exception;)

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Perfect1,
Given your dive profile, I think there is a good chance you will be dissatisfied with Dive Palancar. We stayed at the Allegro earlier this year and that is actually the property DP is based out of. They are next door to the Grand and they make a quick pick up at the GRand for each dive. I dove with them for one day when bad weather kept smaller boats from leaving the harbor. Think cattle boat, there was well over twenty divers onboard. We didn't get bellow 80 feet on the "deep" dive. My bottom time was short and I came up with around 1500 psi. But it was the only option that day, and it was better than not diving at all. I would suggest going with a smaller op that can accomodate your skill level. There are several that are very popular on this forum. Keep DP as a fall back for inclement weather and also for night dives if your other op doesn't have any scheduled. Good Luck!

[dimitrik]

Dan,

I stayed at the OG back in May and I will be staying there again the last week of November with my wife and one year old daughter. I've stayed at many AI's over the years and I have to say that the OG rates among the best. The grounds are beautiful, the staff is wonderfull, the beach is nice, the rooms are big and clean and yes, even the food is good for an AI (if you are staying for more than 4 day's I do recommend going into town for dinner a couple of times because buffet food gets old no matter how good it is).

Dive Palancar seems like a good 'resort' operator and I didn't hear any complaints from the people diving with them that I met while waiting for my boat. Some divers did get a little jealous of me when they inquired about my dives and profiles. If shorter and probably shallower dives don't bother you much then i'm sure you will be happy with Dive Palancar.

If you are looking for a different experience, other operators pick you up at the OG pier and most of the good dive sites are only 5 minutes away. Last time I went Blue XT and loved it. I was the last person to be picked up in the morning and the first one to be dropped off after the second dive. This made my non diving wife happy because I was always back in time grab some lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach with her.

Enjoy your vacation

Dimitri

[Mayor]

I have booked at the hotel also for the first two weeks of November. Looks like the dive op is fine but I wanted more time under water and deeper dives (dont' we all want that???). With 200 plus dive I would say that you will not be happy with them. Any way let us know how you make out. Mooooooo....

[Hawkwood]

Dan,
I stayed at the OG back in May and I will be staying there again the last week of November with my wife and one year old daughter.
Dimitri

What a hoot! We were there in May and will also be back the last week of November - arriving November 24th to be exact. The place isn't that big, we should try to hook up some time.

[dimitrik]

Absolutely, we will also be arriving on November 24th. Send me a pm and we'll arrange a place to meet at. What dive op are you using?

Dimitri



What a hoot! We were there in May and will also be back the last week of November - arriving November 24th to be exact. The place isn't that big, we should try to hook up some time.

[Perfect1]

Just want to say THANK YOU to all that replied to my question. Some excellent suggestions. Heading south tomorrow. See ya on the bottom........

[ch0ppersrule]

we always stay at the Occ. Grand. Absolutely love it. You can rent a car or mopeds or even a taxi to get into town if you want. It is relatively quiet out there since you only have the Allegro and Iberostar on opposite sides and a little ways away. Friendly staff and wonderful food. All inclusive so you can eat or drink or whatever ALL DAY. We used Dive Palancar at first then on the next trip we started out with them, but they go where the majority of the boat wants to go and since people are always coming and going you might not get to do the dive you want. We use ScubaTony-- the best we dove with-- and I hear Christi is absolutely awesome. I would def stay at OCG and pick a different dive operator. ScubaTony wasn't allowed to use their pier so he pulled up on the beach (not the swimming area) and we put all our gear in his boat and took off for some of the best diving we had. He was so awesome my niece who was freaking out about the night dive fell in love with it she only wanted to do night dives. He made her super comfortable (along with the rest of us).

[torontoscubagirl]

I stayed at the Allegro and dove with Dive Palancar back in February. I am a vacation diver and like my dive-day to be fun and relaxing and that it was. The dive staff were super friendly and went out of there way to make the dive fun. I also enjoyed the fact that we got to back between dives (5 min boat ride -seriously !) because I got to check in with friends on the beach, and grab a snack or a drink between dives. It was great.

The food at the Allegro was actually pretty good. Lots of fresh well seasoned meats and fruits! I heard that the food at the Grande is better and there are fewer kids. Also, the Grande should be patted on the shoulder for trying to be more environmentally conscious! It has maintained some mangrove areas on the resort which functions as a natural fish nursery - very important considering the reef is so close by. (no mosquitos breed there - mangroves are salt water). You should have a great time at the Grand !

Enjoy

[chairmanTARAC]

My wife and I dove with Dive Palancar and I found that on the first dive they were conservative until they knew your actual skill level. Had No problem on later dives with location, depth or time. They will work with you. As discussed on this board there are other fine operators in Cozumel.Its come a long way since the 60's

[marcus8]

I'm with Paradise Hunter on this one. I dove with them for a night dive back in July this year. We wanted to see a more southern site by night. Granted, they didn't know us, but they grouped us with some absolute newbies who kicked the hell out of us til we realized what was going on, then just avoided them like the plague. Everyone in our group surfaced with around 1500psi as they forced us to come up after a 30 minute dive at around 40' depth for the most part. NEVER AGAIN. They were professional and safety conscious which is always good, but the mix of divers was extreme and we really felt screwed by the whole deal. Like I say, never again.

Mark

[stevenralph]

I am headed for the same destination in December. How about useful feedback from your adventure.

[Pegger]

I am headed for the same destination in December. How about useful feedback from your adventure.


We just got back from the Grand yesterday and dove with Dive Palancar six times throughout the week. I didn't find that they limited bottom time at all. Some of the divers would finish earlier than others, but it wasn't because the dive master cut the dive short. The fact that I could decide at any time though out the day, if and how many times I wanted to dive appealed to me the most. No need to pre-book as the boat was never that full at any one time. They also let the divers decide what site we could go to. If you get at least six advanced divers together, they will arrange a trip to Devils Throat. The boat was always on time and run very tightly and when the wind blows they are one of the only ones out on the water.

Regards,
Steve