John Mathieson
Registered
Just got back from a GREAT 2 week stay in Cozumel (first time there). Stayed in the new Occidental Grand Cozumel Hotel - it just opened in October, and is between the Iberostar and Allegro. We found it on the web in September, but did not book as the rack rates are very high, especially over Xmas. So we booked a ski trip.
But - come mid December and El Nino - NO SNOW - no skiing. What to do with 2 weeks booked off work over Xmas?
Looked on the web again - found the same hotel at one-third the September price - fantastic - about $970 USD per person for a family of six, including accommodation, all food and drinks, and airfare Vancouver BC to Cancun direct. Unbelievably cheap.
The hotel is smallish for an all inclusive - about 220 rooms - and beautifully laid out on well landscaped grounds. The shoreline mangrove swamp has been preserved in part, as Mexican environmental protection laws are coming to have some effect on development (no beachfront rooms) with a huge pool / restaurant complex right on the beach. The beach had been about 70 yards of natural sand - but a storm in July washed most of it away - but it is already coming back. No problem with a nice sandy entry to the water.
The rooms are very large, and elegant - marble floors and fixtures, huge bathrooms with separate shower and bath - really quite a bit nicer than most all inclusives - much nicer than the Allegro or Iberostar. Rooms are in 3 story villas each with 22 or 24 rooms- about 9 all together.
Food was really good. Much better than I would have eaten at home - main buffet was great, plus 3 reservation/menu places. No shortage of fresh fruit, fish and healthy stuff plus lots of not-so-healthy stuff. Plus enough booze to float a navy. (wasted on me, a non-drinker). Even with all the free booze, the place was not plagued with obnoxious drunks.
About half the guests were specifically there for the diving - and a really nice mix of interesting people. Great people to talk to on the dive boats. Most people were from the US, quite a few Canadians from Toronto or Montreal, plus Germans, Poles and a delightful transplanted Brasilian. Quite a few families.
But, not much time for chatting on the boats - Santa Rosa wall is 3 minutes away. Palancar, Columbia, Cedral, San Francisco, Francesca, Dalila - all within a few minutes.
The local dive op is Dive Palancar - I have read some up and down comments about them on the board, based upon their Allegro operation (Occidental and Allegro are owned by the same corporation) - but I have to say I have nothing but good things to say about them. They have very good equipment (brand new Mares gear just arrived Dec 26 after languishing in Mexican customs for months) - all computers - nice new wetsuits, etc. Their boats are really good - the main boat Oystier is very comfortable with a nice entry / exit platform - lots of room. The number of divers in a group varied a lot - sometimes just my son and I on our own boat, sometimes two groups of 8 divers plus 2 students with 3 or 4 divemasters / instructors.
The staff was extremely accommodating, safety conscious, and friendly. Dives were adapted to the level of the divers, ranging from beginners to hard core. Boat captains managed to keep the groups well separated so you didn't feel like you were in a crowd, and yet picked you up quickly and efficiently - even on the couple of days when the currents went all wacky and took people in different directions.
Instructors were excellent - my 13 year old son did his PADI OW checkout dives with Oscar - a really solid teacher. Even though there are supposed to just be 4 dives, I saw him take one somehwhat nervous fellow on 8 or 9 dives before he would sign him off - no extra charge - he just wouldn't let someone go until he was happy with their diving. Petra and Ricardo were the other two intructors, and after watching them quite closely for the 2 weeks, I think they were also first rate.
Four dives a day routinely (9, 1030, 2 and 330 approx) plus night dives M W F - plus any other dives you wanted to do and get 6 people together for. Costs were about the same as most of the other operators, and it was just so easy - you didn't have to book anything much in advance - just stroll over from your pool chair and jump on the boat whenever you felt like it!
Custom dives were no problem - I did a couple with my newly certified 13 year old - and a couple of deep ones with my older boy and some friends we met. No problem doing a Maracaibo trip - $15 extra - but the weather didn't cooperate on the two times we tried - westerly winds closed the port to boats under 40 feet. They also do Nitrox.
There is no dock or pier for the hotel - but I found out it is just because they have been waiting for a year for their permit - it was supposed to be built in time for the opening, but the bureaucrats have frustrated their plans. Should be in sometime this year. Still, beach entries were fine for us - they managed to get the boats in very close to shore - but with a bit of wave action might be a problem for anyone with a handicap, bad back or other physical limitation.
Several other dive ops picked up guests from the hotel - Black Shark and Blue Angel were there most days, plus several others. No problems.
The other staff in the hotel was, for the most part, very engaging and friendly. (A couple of grumps at the front desk).
Not too much for teenagers to do at night there - and it was a bit far from town for excursions - 150 peso cab ride each way. But - the diving!! so easy, so close - and so great.
The rack rates are ridiculously high - but check out discount operators. A large number of really nice people from Colorado had come with Apple tours - even lower price than we got.
I haven't really even talked about the diving per se - but lots of others on this board have, and all I can say it was even better than I had been led to expect.
We would go back in a minute. It was perfect for the six of us - 3 divers, 3 nondivers. I got all the dives I could manage, without my wife and other kids feeling abandoned.
Two thumbs up.
But - come mid December and El Nino - NO SNOW - no skiing. What to do with 2 weeks booked off work over Xmas?
Looked on the web again - found the same hotel at one-third the September price - fantastic - about $970 USD per person for a family of six, including accommodation, all food and drinks, and airfare Vancouver BC to Cancun direct. Unbelievably cheap.
The hotel is smallish for an all inclusive - about 220 rooms - and beautifully laid out on well landscaped grounds. The shoreline mangrove swamp has been preserved in part, as Mexican environmental protection laws are coming to have some effect on development (no beachfront rooms) with a huge pool / restaurant complex right on the beach. The beach had been about 70 yards of natural sand - but a storm in July washed most of it away - but it is already coming back. No problem with a nice sandy entry to the water.
The rooms are very large, and elegant - marble floors and fixtures, huge bathrooms with separate shower and bath - really quite a bit nicer than most all inclusives - much nicer than the Allegro or Iberostar. Rooms are in 3 story villas each with 22 or 24 rooms- about 9 all together.
Food was really good. Much better than I would have eaten at home - main buffet was great, plus 3 reservation/menu places. No shortage of fresh fruit, fish and healthy stuff plus lots of not-so-healthy stuff. Plus enough booze to float a navy. (wasted on me, a non-drinker). Even with all the free booze, the place was not plagued with obnoxious drunks.
About half the guests were specifically there for the diving - and a really nice mix of interesting people. Great people to talk to on the dive boats. Most people were from the US, quite a few Canadians from Toronto or Montreal, plus Germans, Poles and a delightful transplanted Brasilian. Quite a few families.
But, not much time for chatting on the boats - Santa Rosa wall is 3 minutes away. Palancar, Columbia, Cedral, San Francisco, Francesca, Dalila - all within a few minutes.
The local dive op is Dive Palancar - I have read some up and down comments about them on the board, based upon their Allegro operation (Occidental and Allegro are owned by the same corporation) - but I have to say I have nothing but good things to say about them. They have very good equipment (brand new Mares gear just arrived Dec 26 after languishing in Mexican customs for months) - all computers - nice new wetsuits, etc. Their boats are really good - the main boat Oystier is very comfortable with a nice entry / exit platform - lots of room. The number of divers in a group varied a lot - sometimes just my son and I on our own boat, sometimes two groups of 8 divers plus 2 students with 3 or 4 divemasters / instructors.
The staff was extremely accommodating, safety conscious, and friendly. Dives were adapted to the level of the divers, ranging from beginners to hard core. Boat captains managed to keep the groups well separated so you didn't feel like you were in a crowd, and yet picked you up quickly and efficiently - even on the couple of days when the currents went all wacky and took people in different directions.
Instructors were excellent - my 13 year old son did his PADI OW checkout dives with Oscar - a really solid teacher. Even though there are supposed to just be 4 dives, I saw him take one somehwhat nervous fellow on 8 or 9 dives before he would sign him off - no extra charge - he just wouldn't let someone go until he was happy with their diving. Petra and Ricardo were the other two intructors, and after watching them quite closely for the 2 weeks, I think they were also first rate.
Four dives a day routinely (9, 1030, 2 and 330 approx) plus night dives M W F - plus any other dives you wanted to do and get 6 people together for. Costs were about the same as most of the other operators, and it was just so easy - you didn't have to book anything much in advance - just stroll over from your pool chair and jump on the boat whenever you felt like it!
Custom dives were no problem - I did a couple with my newly certified 13 year old - and a couple of deep ones with my older boy and some friends we met. No problem doing a Maracaibo trip - $15 extra - but the weather didn't cooperate on the two times we tried - westerly winds closed the port to boats under 40 feet. They also do Nitrox.
There is no dock or pier for the hotel - but I found out it is just because they have been waiting for a year for their permit - it was supposed to be built in time for the opening, but the bureaucrats have frustrated their plans. Should be in sometime this year. Still, beach entries were fine for us - they managed to get the boats in very close to shore - but with a bit of wave action might be a problem for anyone with a handicap, bad back or other physical limitation.
Several other dive ops picked up guests from the hotel - Black Shark and Blue Angel were there most days, plus several others. No problems.
The other staff in the hotel was, for the most part, very engaging and friendly. (A couple of grumps at the front desk).
Not too much for teenagers to do at night there - and it was a bit far from town for excursions - 150 peso cab ride each way. But - the diving!! so easy, so close - and so great.
The rack rates are ridiculously high - but check out discount operators. A large number of really nice people from Colorado had come with Apple tours - even lower price than we got.
I haven't really even talked about the diving per se - but lots of others on this board have, and all I can say it was even better than I had been led to expect.
We would go back in a minute. It was perfect for the six of us - 3 divers, 3 nondivers. I got all the dives I could manage, without my wife and other kids feeling abandoned.
Two thumbs up.
