Cozumel advice needed!

[muha]

Hi everyone!

I am planning my vacation in Cozumel. I would be very grateful if people how dove there share with me how can I arrange two-week diving vacation in the end of January. I would be very happy to know the weather condition (visibility, water temperature), the best and cheapest way to flight from London, quiet budget place to stay (basic accommodation is okay) and of course good dice center.
Thank you very much in advance!
Dive safely!!!!!!!!

[weaponeer]

Muha,

I recommend that you read the "stiky post" here in the Cozumel topic for information about weather, diving and dive ops. As far as the best way to travel and where to stay, go to Expedia, Hotwire, Travelocity, or any of the numerous travel sites available on the web. You can compare costs and itineraries very easily using the travel sites.

[cicopo]

There are several good dive ops that can arrange a hotel & dive package, there are decent budget priced hotels (Hotel Pepita gets very high marks) and there are countless good dive ops, but the smaller ops don't need to discount their services (especially that time of year) but some cattle boat ops might slightly discount a 2 week package.
Vis then is usually excellent but it can be ruined by a storm coming down from the north (a notre) and water temps are usually high 70's on the surface and mid to high 70's at depth.
You might want to contact any or all of these but there will hopefully be more added by others, but these are the ones I know of just add www &. com to each; scubatony, aldora, aquasafari, bluextseadivers, divewithmartin, scubawithalison.
You can also find more names here
Scuba Dive Cozumel: Cozumel Scuba Dive (http://www.travelnotes.cc/cozumel/links/diveshops.html)

[Dave Zimmerly]

Book as soon as possible. January 23 - 30 is Caranval and getting a room might be difficult.

Regards,
Dave (aka "Squirt")

[ggunn]

Book as soon as possible. January 23 - 30 is Caranval and getting a room might be difficult.

Regards,
Dave (aka "Squirt")

Good advice, though it may already be too late.

[reefmadness]

Hi everyone!

I am planning my vacation in Cozumel. I would be very grateful if people how dove there share with me how can I arrange two-week diving vacation in the end of January. I would be very happy to know the weather condition (visibility, water temperature), the best and cheapest way to flight from London, quiet budget place to stay (basic accommodation is okay) and of course good dice center.
Thank you very much in advance!
Dive safely!!!!!!!!
Hi
As far as dive operators are concerned, I'd strongly recommend staying away from Aqua Safari. I had a very bad experience with them when I was first certified. They were not friendly to me at all and they didn't seem too sympathetic towards new divers. Not sure if the same people are there, so it may be better now, but best to proceed with caution. Best advice, go with your gut and wait until you meet the folks at whatever shop you are interested in. Also, drift diving is NOT necessarily for beginners. I'd say Bonaire or Curacao are MUCH better bets.
Happy Diving!

[bvmjethead]

Hi
As far as dive operators are concerned, I'd strongly recommend staying away from Aqua Safari. I had a very bad experience with them when I was first certified. They were not friendly to me at all and they didn't seem too sympathetic towards new divers. Not sure if the same people are there, so it may be better now, but best to proceed with caution. Best advice, go with your gut and wait until you meet the folks at whatever shop you are interested in. Also, drift diving is NOT necessarily for beginners. I'd say Bonaire or Curacao are MUCH better bets.
Happy Diving!


Hi.

All due respect you might want to take a couple things into consideration. Like it or not a person with 2 posts is not going to carry much weight here, unless your last name is French and is spelled Cousteau.... :D

You stated in your own post that "drift diving is NOT necessarily for beginners" so I'm not sure I understand why you have made your first 2 posts here on Scubaboard to say bad things about Aqua Safari.

You were a beginner diver trying to dive in Cozumel, they (Aqua Safari) were uncomfortable taking you out for some reason we do not know, most likely they tried to convey that to you politely and you probably took offence.

I don't see anything wrong with a dive op refusing service to someone as long as it's a polite refusal.

Even if it's percieved to be rude it's no reason to write them off as a bad dive op unless there is a history of being rude to potential clients.

Just my .02 psi

[parrotheaddiver]

Hi.

All due respect you might want to take a couple things into consideration. Like it or not a person with 2 posts is not going to carry much weight here, unless your last name is French and is spelled Cousteau.... :D

You stated in your own post that "drift diving is NOT necessarily for beginners" so I'm not sure I understand why you have made your first 2 posts here on Scubaboard to say bad things about Aqua Safari.

You were a beginner diver trying to dive in Cozumel, they (Aqua Safari) were uncomfortable taking you out for some reason we do not know, most likely they tried to convey that to you politely and you probably took offence.

I don't see anything wrong with a dive op refusing service to someone as long as it's a polite refusal.

Even if it's percieved to be rude it's no reason to write them off as a bad dive op unless there is a history of being rude to potential clients.

Just my .02 psi


DITTO!!!!!

plus this thread is two months old....so I believe that reefmadness is just trying to slam a dive op on a public forum :no......

[driftin' by]

plus this thread is two months old....so I believe that reefmadness is just trying to slam a dive op on a public forum

Might I add that the incident he/she is referring to occurred "many years ago" according to the post in the other thread.

Give me a freaking break! I can't wait to see what infinite wisdom reefmadness imparts upon us in post #3.

[ggunn]

Might I add that the incident he/she is referring to occurred "many years ago" according to the post in the other thread.

Give me a freaking break! I can't wait to see what infinite wisdom reefmadness imparts upon us in post #3.

I smell a troll.... ;^)

[diveborg]

I smell a troll.... ;^)

They don't smell so good either.

[reefmadness]

the amount of years doesn't matter.

what happened, nevertheless, happened.

bestow that.

[1KWIK_69]

I smell a troll.... ;^)

Not trying to stir things up but just because reefmadness is new to this forum
doesn't mean he doesn't have a lot of experience. I don't know him so I really
don't care much except to say he's entitled to his opinion and to express it to
other members based on his experience. I personally have had good experiences
with Aqua Safari. I did my first Cozumel dives with them in 99 and a good friend
did his referal cert with them in 2001 as well as his first two boat dives after
he passed. They took great care of us. The only reason I started diving with
another operator is because I prefer going with a smaller operator because you
get more input on where you go and aren't so much of a number to them.
I'm new to this forum but not new to Cozumel or to internet forums for that
matter. I know how easy it is for long time users to pick apart newbies and
criticize them for things they do theirselves, but maybe you guys should give
us newbies a little break now and then. :thumb:

Only five weeks to go until my sixth trip! Wooooot!

[KOMPRESSOR]

Hi.

All due respect you might want to take a couple things into consideration. Like it or not a person with 2 posts is not going to carry much weight here, unless your last name is French and is spelled Cousteau.... :D

You stated in your own post that "drift diving is NOT necessarily for beginners" so I'm not sure I understand why you have made your first 2 posts here on Scubaboard to say bad things about Aqua Safari.

You were a beginner diver trying to dive in Cozumel, they (Aqua Safari) were uncomfortable taking you out for some reason we do not know, most likely they tried to convey that to you politely and you probably took offence.

I don't see anything wrong with a dive op refusing service to someone as long as it's a polite refusal.

Even if it's percieved to be rude it's no reason to write them off as a bad dive op unless there is a history of being rude to potential clients.

Just my .02 psi


Might I add that many US citizens have gotten so used to pattering around other people in such a polite and careful way that you've also ended up taking offence from the slightest gesture that MIGHT resemble personal criticism?...
-This fella may very well have taken offence of some situation. Hey, who knows. Maybe for no reason at all, so I'll second you on that one bvmjethead. Although you and I should definitely not discuss politics! :lotsalove:
:eyebrow:



(Ok, ok! The Germans aren't that far off the description either!! :D )

[ggunn]

Not trying to stir things up but just because reefmadness is new to this forum
doesn't mean he doesn't have a lot of experience.

When I suggested he might be trolling, it had nothing to do with his experience or lack of it. Trolling is being inflammatory for its own sake; he joined a forum and the very first thing he does is drag up some old threads just to vent his spleen over something that happened three years ago (which he may very well have brought upon himself) and berate a dive op. That's pretty much textbook trolling.

[1KWIK_69]

When I suggested he might be trolling, it had nothing to do with his experience or lack of it. Trolling is being inflammatory for its own sake; he joined a forum and the very first thing he does is drag up some old threads just to vent his spleen over something that happened three years ago (which he may very well have brought upon himself) and berate a dive op. That's pretty much textbook trolling.

I don't see it that way. Who knows what really happened three years ago.
I'm sure there's two sides to it, but if I had something that I felt was that
bad of an experience with a business, even three years ago, and I saw that
someone was looking for opinions on it, I would tell them my experience.
On the flip side, I haven't dove with Aqua Safari in several years but they're
still the same company so I tell people how good my experience was.
I know when I'm looking for opinions so I can make a big choice, I want
as many as I can get so I can take them all into consideration, good or
bad, including how long it's been since their experience, and then I make
up my mind. When I asked about Wyndham, I appreciated all the comments
including the negative ones from way back.

P.S. Some of us newbies who find this board and really like it right off
the bat might be inclined to dig through old posts while daydreaming
about being down there instead of being stuck here in the snow!

Can't we all just get along? ;)

[ggunn]

Can't we all just get along? ;)

We can certainly agree to disagree.

Peace,

[Hinalo]

In this case there was definitely something disingenuous about reviving a dormant topic to slag a dive op. He could have added his two cents in any of the current "which dive ops to use" topics.