Cozumel Palace Questions

[cjh]

This is my first post on ScubaBoard, but I've been lurking here for quite a while. This place is a great source of information.

My wife and I are planning a Cozumel trip for October. We're leaning towards staying at the Palace. My questions are mainly about the diving options there.

Can we book with any operator and get picked up at the hotel dock?

Do they have dive lockers for gear storage, and are they only available if you're diving with Aqua Safari?

I hear snorkling is not bad in front of the hotel, can you shore dive there? If so, does anybody know what they charge for a tank?

About the hotel itself, I read one trip report that said they had a "no shorts" rule for dinner but it was not enforced. What was the experience of others who have been there?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[sharky60]

Yes, almost all dive ops will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel dock. The only places where they usually don't pick up at is in the northern hotel zone.

Usually if a hotel has dive lockers, if you are staying there, you can use them regardless of the dive op you use, contact the hotel to be sure.

Yes, from what I've heard the shore diving in that area is pretty nice. A lot of times if you are doing multiple boat dives with a dive op they will let you do unlimited shore dives for free. If you are using a different dive op than the hotel's then I'd contact the Aqua Safari to see what they charge. I stay at a different hotel and don't use their dive op, but from what I remember the charge for a tank is around $3US.

The hotel is so new, I don't know if they enforce the no shorts rule or not, generally if you are dressed nice and not in beach wear they will be pretty cool about it. we've stayed at the Occidental Grand and they have the same rule for their "reservation only" restaurants, I just took a pair of light weight caribbean style long pants and aloha style shirts and wore them so it wasn't an issue. The restaurants were very nice so dressing up a little was really apropriate. This rule seemed more aimed at men than women, by the way, my wife wore summer dresses or skirts which she felt were cooler anyway.

 

[diveborg]

I would expect to pay at least $6 a tank for rental.

 

[sharky60]

$6 may be more correct, it's actually been a couple of years since I've had to rent tanks, because of the free unlimited diving thing.
You know how your brain works sometimes, you get a price of something in there and no matter how much time has passed you think it still costs the same.

 

[texashark]

This is my first post on ScubaBoard, but I've been lurking here for quite a while. This place is a great source of information.

My wife and I are planning a Cozumel trip for October. We're leaning towards staying at the Palace. My questions are mainly about the diving options there.

Can we book with any operator and get picked up at the hotel dock?

Do they have dive lockers for gear storage, and are they only available if you're diving with Aqua Safari?

I hear snorkling is not bad in front of the hotel, can you shore dive there? If so, does anybody know what they charge for a tank?

About the hotel itself, I read one trip report that said they had a "no shorts" rule for dinner but it was not enforced. What was the experience of others who have been there?

Thanks,
Chris

The didn't enforce the no shorts rule.