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CozumelWorld Class Marine Park drift diving, renown cuisine and great hospitality. The island with a Mexican heart and a Caribbean soul! You’ve seen the Corona commercials, come experience the reality.
I've booked a trip in December to stay at the Iberostar and will be using Dressel Divers. I've read some threads that talked about staying at this hotel limits you to dive sites due its location on the south end of the island. Part of my decision was the price, hotel rating in TripAdvisor and location. Using the map from Bay Adventures, it seems like there are a ton of dive sites. I'd like to get the most from my dive trip and I have enough time to change the hotel and any advice/feedback would be appreciated.
Dressel runs on a weekly schedule, so if you're diving with them you won't have a say in what site you dive anyway. Whatever they have on the board for that day/week is where you go. Here's their weekly schedule from their website http://www.dresseldivers.com/en/imag...rios%20ING.JPG
I've booked a trip in December to stay at the Iberostar and will be using Dressel Divers. I've read some threads that talked about staying at this hotel limits you to dive sites due its location on the south end of the island. Part of my decision was the price, hotel rating in TripAdvisor and location. Using the map from Bay Adventures, it seems like there are a ton of dive sites. I'd like to get the most from my dive trip and I have enough time to change the hotel and any advice/feedback would be appreciated.
I stayed at the Iberostar in April 2008, but didn't use Dressel for several reasons:
Their costs are generally much higher than off-site dive shops
Inflexible dive schedule (as referenced by Scubawife)
Large "cattle" boats 15+ divers of all skill levels
Unfortunately, most dive ops that will pick you up at the Iberostar pier will only go to the southern-most sites. I believe this is due to rising gas costs and time restrictions. On several of the drift dives (Francesca & Delilah), we surfaced so close to the Iberostar pier at the end of the dive, I could have swam there. I also ended up diving the same sites more than once (some 3x) during my stay.
If you drive or taxi ($20 US each way) to the downtown area and use a LDS, you will have more sites to choose from.
However, if you are only doing a few dives, the southern reefs have plenty of variety.
The Palancar sites have alot to offer and Columbia Shallows is one of my favorite sites for marine life.
As for the hotel, the food and rooms were a disappointment. My wife and I became ill on 2 separate occasions and ate off-property for the last several days. There is a thread here describing similar experiences by other ScubaBoard members. The rooms are small and we had a problem with ants all over the closet area. In contrast, we stayed at the Iberostar Grand in Riviera Maya in October 2007 and couldn't have asked for a better stay.
Unfortunately, most dive ops that will pick you up at the Iberostar pier will only go to the southern-most sites. I believe this is due to rising gas costs and time restrictions. On several of the drift dives (Francesca & Delilah), we surfaced so close to the Iberostar pier at the end of the dive, I could have swam there. I also ended up diving the same sites more than once (some 3x) during my stay.
This has always been the way it is. I think it's more about logistics and overall customer service considerations for everyone on the boat then today's fuel costs (which are lower in Mexico then in the US).
The current in Cozumel normally runs south to north, so you usually exit your dive north of where you dropped in. If they have to pick up divers at the Iberostar then they head north to dive, and the dive ends even further north, they're then heading back south again to drop off. This leaves those not staying at Iberostar or the other southern resorts to spend more time on the boat. It also increases operating costs by using more gas.
If you felt like you missed out on the opportunity to dive several sites because you were at Iberostar, keep in mind that the other divers who did not choose to stay this far south are in the same position. I've got nothing against the resorts and everyone should choose the accommodations that best suit them, but, after a few trips in a row with divers on the boat staying there, I got a little tired of the limitations and would consider asking before I book to avoid that situation again.
We got the free AOW certification and Nitrox included so our dive site choices may not be open anyway due to the AOW cert requirements. The hotel is probably hit or miss, my guess since I've seen other getting sick from time to time. The boat size is a concern and any idea if you can upgrade to smaller/fast boat?
We got the free AOW certification and Nitrox included so our dive site choices may not be open anyway due to the AOW cert requirements. The hotel is probably hit or miss, my guess since I've seen other getting sick from time to time. The boat size is a concern and any idea if you can upgrade to smaller/fast boat?
As far as I know, Dressel only has the big boats. Perhaps some who stays at Iberostar and dives with them could tell you for sure.
I have stayed at Iberostar in Playa and will be back there again this december. They have small boats over there, but I am pretty sure on Cozumel, its only the larger boats. I plan on going over to Cozumel for about two days of diving, we are going with friends who wanted to stay in Playa. I dont mind taking the ferry over and getting picked up at the dock, so its no biggy. I dont plan on using dressel though because of the price, there seems to be a lot of other better options out there.
We dove in Cozumel in February. We stayed at the Iberostar, but dove with Palancar Dive Shop (which is at the Occidental). They picked us up at the Iberostar pier each morning and afternoon.
We watched the Dressel Divers get on large boats, but everyone seemed happy enough. With Palancar, we were on various sized boats. Sometimes there were 16 divers, but they only have 8 per divemaster, so even though there were more on the boat, we actually dove as two smaller, separate groups.
We made 15 dives and 2 night dives. Most of our diving was in the South, but that's where we wanted to dive. Once we went North to dive the C53 wreck. We didn't dive all of the sites, and we only repeated once or twice (for example, diving a site once during the day, then again at night). We found the reefs to be recovering nicely, and we saw LOTS of turtles, sharks, and lots of large fish.
A friend, who is a divemaster and also owns a home in Cozumel, told me that the diving along the northern shore is prettier (due to less hurricane damage), but also more risky. He said that in the North, you really have to know where to start and stop your dives or else you might get lost and/or swept away!
The Iberostar was great. The food was good, although one of us got sick on the last day.
All in all, we would do it again. The diving was fantastic, and we liked the Iberostar a lot.
We stay at Iberostar Coz 2-3 times a year. We love the close proximity to the reefs..ya get on the boat and in 5-10 minutes you are in the water. None of us have ever gotten sick from the food.
We use Dive With Martin. small boats,less expensive and great divemasters. I would never use Dressel Divers ! check out their dive site on the computer and you'll see what great prices they have for package deals.
We stayed at Iberostar for the first time in May. We usually stay at Allegro but due to the renovations and new ownership they are going through we booked Iberostar. We enjoyed Iberostar very much. The food was better than Allegro and the overall resort was better than Allegro. We dive with a private operation that has no problems taking us where we want to go so I can only comment on what I saw/heard about Dressel Divers while we were there. Dressel seems to cater to the "New diver"/infrequent divers. Also, the groups that we saw going out with Dressel seemed to be quite large. 15-17 people. With that said, the people that we spoke to that dove with Dressel did not have anything bad to say about them. I cannot comment on not getting to choose your dive site. We did not ask anyone about that. I also heard from a few people that they are expensive. Cannot really comment on that either since I do not know what they are charging. Dive with Martin (mentioned above) is a great dive op. They take smaller groups of about 6 people out. They are very reasonably priced and they will let you dive the sites that you want. About how far north they are going to go I don't know. Their shop is at the international pier in town so you could probably dive as far north as you wanted but you may have to take a cab back to Iberostar.
About the food... I kind of chuckle every time I hear people talk about getting sick from resort food in Cozumel and then blaming the resort. If you are someone that does not travel out of the country frequently, you have a much greater chance of the food in Cozumel or anywhere else for that matter making you sick. When I first started going to Cozumel about 10 years ago I too got sick a few times. Ever since I have never had a problem. I think your body just has to get use to the change in food.
With that said, this is just my opinion and observation. I in no way endorse any dive op over the other. Maybe even try a couple of different dive ops during your vacation and find which one you like the best. Just remember, it’s your vacation. Have fun, dive lots, and remember... your diving, you could be sitting behind your desk at work only dreaming about it!!!!
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