Trip Report: Cozumel May 15-22
Who: My wife and I. First time to Cozumel. My wife a newly certified OW diver. Me, certified in 92, but havent dove much over the last 7 years.
Transportation:
DFW to Cozumel direct on Allegro Airlines(FunJet package): Overall, I was very pleased with this segment of the trip. The attendants were nice and courteous, and the airline seemed to run on schedule. The airport in Cozumel was air-conditioned, some thing I didnt expect from other travels in Mexico. It is under remodeling, so the departure area is much nicer than the arrival area. Nevertheless, it was quick and painless each way.
Upon arrival in CZM, I was very impressed with the FunJet operation. Id never done one of their packages, and wasnt sure what to expect. They were very well organized, and got us on our way to the hotel in minimal time. Im sure people have had both good and bad experiences with them, but from my limited perspective, Id have to give them a thumbs up.
Accommodations: Occidental Grand
Located on the far south end of the island, this hotel could be either exactly what you wanted, or not at all what you wanted. It is very nice. The rooms are quite large, and well appointed. Even little touches like hair dryers, irons, stocked refrigerators and the like were standard. Floors were all marble tile or inlay. The hotel is quite literally carved out of the jungle, and they have left as much of the surrounding fauna as possible. It is very quiet, and peaceful. There are two pool areas. One is called the relaxing pool. The other pool area is down by the beach, where there was a DJ, scuba lessons, and a restaurant. We never really made use of either pool, but the people there seemed to be enjoying themselves.
As this resort is an all-inclusive, food is an important topic. The normal dinner and breakfast buffets are served in one location, while lunch is served down by the beach. There is also a reservation only restaurant, and a late night pizza location. We tried 2 different reservation dinners. The Mexican theme was quite good. The steak night was really not. Maybe Im spoiled living in Texas, but I routinely cook better steaks on my grill than we had there.
Probably my favorite meal was breakfast. I enjoyed the breakfast buffet. There was always a wide assortment of pastries and fruits, as well as many different types of hot meal items such as French Toast, Pancakes, sausage, bacon, various Mexican dishes, and a made to order omelet bar. They had several different kinds of juices, and I personally liked their coffee. Absolutely the most wonderful part of the dining experience there was the friendly attentive staff. They were always there to provide whatever you requested, promptly and with a smile.
The dinner buffet was generally ok, various meats, Mexican dishes etc. It wasnt a favorite meal, but there was nothing bad about it. We ate lunch down by the pool a few times, and at this buffet, it seems they skimped on things quite a bit. Fortunately, we only did lunch there twice. We never did eat at the pizza place, though it did look like a nice place to spend some time, outside high atop the restaurant.
We found the hotel staff to always be helpful and accommodating, and one of the more enjoyable aspects of our trip.
An interesting service they had available was on call Doctor. This maybe standard, but we had to make use of this twice. Once, I got a grain of sand stuck in my eye. I dont mean I couldnt get it out, I mean it was firmly lodged in my cornea. No amount of rinsing would remove it, and it was highly irritating. The Doctor met us at his office, where we used some Novocain drops, a syringe, and a plastic tip thing to finally dislodge the offending grain. This was about at 10pm at night. The charge for all this, $60. Try that in the US The second time we used him, was when my wife developed an ear block after her 8th dive. He diagnosed her with a Class 3 barotrauma, and told her not to dive anymore. He also prescribed her some decongestants. Price $45. This might not seem like much, but this Doctor quite literally saved our vacation. It was an important and useful service.
Now for the negatives This place is not inexpensive, and if you are just looking for a place to crash in between diving, and budget is an issue, you might consider someplace else. It is quite far from the rest of the action, and while you will find the dive shops willing to pick you up there, it will limit the locations they will take you to, unless you are willing to take a taxi to town.
We usually struck a compromise, and either taxied into or back from San Miguel, to get a wider variety to our dives. Taking a taxi to or from town ran $15 each way. This was consistent, and no amount of bargaining seemed to change this.
My wife thought the sheets sometimes smelled musty I never noticed, but apparently Im not certified to render judgment on such matters.
Overall, I would recommend this hotel to someone looking for a quiet place to relax, away from a lot of hustle and bustle. It is a beautiful new hotel, and the staff is wonderful. If you are single and looking dont stay here. You will hate it. We saw mostly couples, and a few families.
The Diving
We dove exclusively with Blue Angel on this trip. After searching and reading tons of reviews scattered across cyberspace, I booked all our dives via email dealing with Jeanie. Jeanie was very nice, professional and prompt in all her replies. I found out later, she lives in MO, and works reservations for the shop via the internet. We arranged to do one shore dive by ourselves in front of the shop to work out buoyancy/weight issues, and then do an afternoon 2 tank dive. (They offer free unlimited diving/tanks in front of the shop with multiday reservations.)
Dives done:
Palancar Bricks
Chankanab
Corrodon(?)
Santa Rosa Wall
C-53
Shallow night Dive
Las Palmas
Various other Palancar sites
Reef in front of Blue Angel
Day One
Upon our arrival at the shop we were told that they werent going to have enough people in the afternoon to take a boat out for us, and that they were trying to arrange for another shop to pick us up. Things were not off to a good start
I had made it very clear in my emails with the shop that my wife was a very new diver, and that I wanted her first dives to be both shallow, controlled, and under the watchful eye of one of their best, most patient divemasters. Instead, we were going to be pawned off on another shop that knew nothing of our circumstances. I decided to go ahead and do the shore dive, and see what they worked out.
I felt that they were trying hard to fix things, so I just let it ride. We ate lunch, and then we were told that we would be going out on a Blue Angel boat, with just the two of us. Somewhere in that time frame Jeanie showed up, as she was visiting CZM at the same time we were. I think she sensed things were not going as planned, and she offered to go along on our dive as well. We were very thankful for this. I dont know how to explain it, but having another woman along, helped my wife relax a bit. We were introduced to our divemaster, Jorge and the Boat Captain Arturo.
It seemed that the chaos of this first day was to continue however, as we hurriedly sped toward our dive sight. We would learn later that this was Jorges 4th and 5th dives for the day, and he was not pleased it seemed with taking us back out. Keep in mind, this is my wifes first dive in the ocean, first dive off a boat, and first back roll entry. I was hoping there would be something of a brief or instruction, or something But nope We all entered first leaving my wife on board. She took a couple breaths off her regulator, and found that they had forgot to open the valve. No biggee She rolled off the downwind side boat, and you guessed it . The boat started to go over on top of her. Now to anyone whos done this before, this doesnt seem like a big deal. And had it been me or anyone else, it wouldnt have been. But this whole evolution terrified her. She got real upset, and I think was still crying on her descent. The first dive went rather quickly, and we were back in the boat, and I could tell my wife not really having a good time.
She tried to protest doing another backroll entry, but was eventually convinced there was no other way to enter. Again, I was thinking some instruction might be in order, but none was forthcoming. Fortunately, the second one went better
I will give credit to the Divemaster, he did keep a close watch on my wife underwater, and helped her greatly with her buoyancy. They all seemed somewhat shocked when we told them that this was all a first for her. I had thought this would have been communicated to them by Jeanie, as she was right there with us, but apparently this hadnt occurred. They dropped us off back at the hotel, tired and somewhat frazzled. I contemplated booking with another shop, but decided to give it one more day.
Day 2
(BTW, these will get progressively shorter .) We had the same divemaster as before, and Jeanie also showed up to join us for a dive. The boat arrived a bit later than planned, I was later told this was due to some tank issues with the people that fill their tanks as in they werent filled No biggee We were also joined by a couple from MN. They are experienced divers, and had been diving with Blue Angel for years. They were wonderful to be around, honestly helped my wife out quite a bit. Also along were Alesandro(the owner) and a friend of hers. Day 2 went much better, and Jorge still kept a watchful eye on my wife, and still was helping her with buoyancy issues. Did two dives, and my wife appeared to be starting to see this as fun
Day 3
We took the day off from diving, and rented a Geo Tracker through the hotel rental agency for $66/24hour period. We took off and headed south. We saw the Bob Marley Bar, had drinks at Coconuts(great view!!) Stopped at a couple of markets, and also stopped by San Gervasimo(Mayan Ruins). We ended up back in town by the afternoon, and after some discussion decided to sign up for our AOW. (One can get into the whole advanced debate. I will not, we wanted extra instruction for both of us, and thats how we see the certification. We didnt name it, so please no dissertations on whether or not we should have done the AOW.)
After making arrangements at BA to do this, we left for Chankanaab where we were scheduled to swim and snorkel with the dolphins. (Again opinions vary on the ethics of this, but we did it, if you decide not to thats cool too.) We were lucky enough to be the only two in our group, and got to spend about 40 minutes in the water with the dolphin. It was awesome. Its also very pricey, and while its not something Id pay that much to do again, for a once in life thing, it was pretty cool.
Day 4
We had two guys from CO, the same two from MN, and another couple also from Dallas who had been diving with Blue Angel for years. Jorge told my wife she was gonna be more or less on her own with me these dives as he had to watch a larger group. These dives went wonderful, as it all seemed to click in place for my wife. She did all sorts of swim throughs, along the edge of a wall, and a lot of other cool things. My wife and I ended with the same amount of air. A challenge Jorge had set her up to when this started. I was really proud of my wifes progress, and she was actually having fun, and starting to get what we all see in this activity. The camaraderie on the boat among the other divers was a blast. A most enjoyable day.
We should have let the day end there but due to scheduling, we decided to do the underwater Nav portion of the AOW went we got back to the shop. By now we were kinda tired, and fighting the current in front of the hotel was less than enjoyable.
Matt(or Mateo) was our instructor, and he did his best to make this dive as enjoyable as possible. Unfortunately, my wife messed her ear up during this, and after a trip to the Dr, it regrettably ended her diving for the rest of our trip. Sometimes one should just leave well enough alone
Day 5
I did a twilight dive on Las Palmas for my Fish ID, AOW dive. Fun dive, except for my pressure gauge failing I check my gauge at depth, and found it reading zero yes absolute zero. My first thought was to look for someone to buddy breath with, then I realized, I was breathing just fine. Gauge failure After some communicating the Matt, I decided to give myself a prescribed bottom time in minutes, at which, I would go to the surface. This worked, though it probably wasnt the best move, as I spent the whole remainder wondering if I was going to suddenly run out of air. Nevertheless Las Palmas at twilight is amazing, as all the animals really come out to feed. ( I should add, the gauge was mine, and is in no way reflective of BA rental equip, its more reflective of the crap LDS that serviced my equipment before I left ..but I digress )
The second dive was a much shallower night dive. We stopped at a local shop and scored me a new reg set up, with a working pressure gauge. Back in business, I dropped over the side on my first night dive. Holy Crap! Was that cool!! Lots of Octopus, lobster etc . My wife went along for the ride with us, and again we enjoyed being with Don and Marilee, and Kenny and Leslie. You guys made our trip!
Day 6
We did the deep dive first at Santa Rosa Wall. Not sure why, but I really didnt enjoy this dive as much. Ive been that deep before (108) I guess Id rather be on the top of a reef than beside it. But it was interesting, and we did some neat swim throughs.
The last dive the C-53(I had chosen the wreck dive to round out my AOW). This was my first wreck penetration and it was amazing. The sardines were so thick you could cut them with a knife. This is a really worthwhile dive, if you are into that sort of thing. Going in the first time was kinda scarey, but once in there, I felt completely at home. I look forward to getting more instruction in this area.
Conclusion:
Well thats it. Of course there are lots of detail Im leaving out . The shopping, eating in town etc. all of which is readily available in this forum. I apologize for the length, but figure maybe someone will benefit from it. Id recommend Blue Angel again, but were I to go there again I might also try someone else just to have another reference point. All told my wife and I did 20 dives(including my AOW) for about $600 total. A very good value, imo.
Also to BAs credit, I think they knew our first day was crappy as well. They worked hard at making us happy on the remainder of the trip, and one cant ask for much more than that. I hope it doesnt seem Im being unfair with them. Ive tried to present things as they occurred, the good and the not so good. I am thrilled to have a new dive buddy in my wife. I never prodded her into it, and just patiently hoped one day shed get interested. It took 10 years of marriage for me to get her to ask for dive lessons. Cant wait until the next trip!!
Who: My wife and I. First time to Cozumel. My wife a newly certified OW diver. Me, certified in 92, but havent dove much over the last 7 years.
Transportation:
DFW to Cozumel direct on Allegro Airlines(FunJet package): Overall, I was very pleased with this segment of the trip. The attendants were nice and courteous, and the airline seemed to run on schedule. The airport in Cozumel was air-conditioned, some thing I didnt expect from other travels in Mexico. It is under remodeling, so the departure area is much nicer than the arrival area. Nevertheless, it was quick and painless each way.
Upon arrival in CZM, I was very impressed with the FunJet operation. Id never done one of their packages, and wasnt sure what to expect. They were very well organized, and got us on our way to the hotel in minimal time. Im sure people have had both good and bad experiences with them, but from my limited perspective, Id have to give them a thumbs up.
Accommodations: Occidental Grand
Located on the far south end of the island, this hotel could be either exactly what you wanted, or not at all what you wanted. It is very nice. The rooms are quite large, and well appointed. Even little touches like hair dryers, irons, stocked refrigerators and the like were standard. Floors were all marble tile or inlay. The hotel is quite literally carved out of the jungle, and they have left as much of the surrounding fauna as possible. It is very quiet, and peaceful. There are two pool areas. One is called the relaxing pool. The other pool area is down by the beach, where there was a DJ, scuba lessons, and a restaurant. We never really made use of either pool, but the people there seemed to be enjoying themselves.
As this resort is an all-inclusive, food is an important topic. The normal dinner and breakfast buffets are served in one location, while lunch is served down by the beach. There is also a reservation only restaurant, and a late night pizza location. We tried 2 different reservation dinners. The Mexican theme was quite good. The steak night was really not. Maybe Im spoiled living in Texas, but I routinely cook better steaks on my grill than we had there.
Probably my favorite meal was breakfast. I enjoyed the breakfast buffet. There was always a wide assortment of pastries and fruits, as well as many different types of hot meal items such as French Toast, Pancakes, sausage, bacon, various Mexican dishes, and a made to order omelet bar. They had several different kinds of juices, and I personally liked their coffee. Absolutely the most wonderful part of the dining experience there was the friendly attentive staff. They were always there to provide whatever you requested, promptly and with a smile.
The dinner buffet was generally ok, various meats, Mexican dishes etc. It wasnt a favorite meal, but there was nothing bad about it. We ate lunch down by the pool a few times, and at this buffet, it seems they skimped on things quite a bit. Fortunately, we only did lunch there twice. We never did eat at the pizza place, though it did look like a nice place to spend some time, outside high atop the restaurant.
We found the hotel staff to always be helpful and accommodating, and one of the more enjoyable aspects of our trip.
An interesting service they had available was on call Doctor. This maybe standard, but we had to make use of this twice. Once, I got a grain of sand stuck in my eye. I dont mean I couldnt get it out, I mean it was firmly lodged in my cornea. No amount of rinsing would remove it, and it was highly irritating. The Doctor met us at his office, where we used some Novocain drops, a syringe, and a plastic tip thing to finally dislodge the offending grain. This was about at 10pm at night. The charge for all this, $60. Try that in the US The second time we used him, was when my wife developed an ear block after her 8th dive. He diagnosed her with a Class 3 barotrauma, and told her not to dive anymore. He also prescribed her some decongestants. Price $45. This might not seem like much, but this Doctor quite literally saved our vacation. It was an important and useful service.
Now for the negatives This place is not inexpensive, and if you are just looking for a place to crash in between diving, and budget is an issue, you might consider someplace else. It is quite far from the rest of the action, and while you will find the dive shops willing to pick you up there, it will limit the locations they will take you to, unless you are willing to take a taxi to town.
We usually struck a compromise, and either taxied into or back from San Miguel, to get a wider variety to our dives. Taking a taxi to or from town ran $15 each way. This was consistent, and no amount of bargaining seemed to change this.
My wife thought the sheets sometimes smelled musty I never noticed, but apparently Im not certified to render judgment on such matters.
Overall, I would recommend this hotel to someone looking for a quiet place to relax, away from a lot of hustle and bustle. It is a beautiful new hotel, and the staff is wonderful. If you are single and looking dont stay here. You will hate it. We saw mostly couples, and a few families.
The Diving
We dove exclusively with Blue Angel on this trip. After searching and reading tons of reviews scattered across cyberspace, I booked all our dives via email dealing with Jeanie. Jeanie was very nice, professional and prompt in all her replies. I found out later, she lives in MO, and works reservations for the shop via the internet. We arranged to do one shore dive by ourselves in front of the shop to work out buoyancy/weight issues, and then do an afternoon 2 tank dive. (They offer free unlimited diving/tanks in front of the shop with multiday reservations.)
Dives done:
Palancar Bricks
Chankanab
Corrodon(?)
Santa Rosa Wall
C-53
Shallow night Dive
Las Palmas
Various other Palancar sites
Reef in front of Blue Angel
Day One
Upon our arrival at the shop we were told that they werent going to have enough people in the afternoon to take a boat out for us, and that they were trying to arrange for another shop to pick us up. Things were not off to a good start
I had made it very clear in my emails with the shop that my wife was a very new diver, and that I wanted her first dives to be both shallow, controlled, and under the watchful eye of one of their best, most patient divemasters. Instead, we were going to be pawned off on another shop that knew nothing of our circumstances. I decided to go ahead and do the shore dive, and see what they worked out.
I felt that they were trying hard to fix things, so I just let it ride. We ate lunch, and then we were told that we would be going out on a Blue Angel boat, with just the two of us. Somewhere in that time frame Jeanie showed up, as she was visiting CZM at the same time we were. I think she sensed things were not going as planned, and she offered to go along on our dive as well. We were very thankful for this. I dont know how to explain it, but having another woman along, helped my wife relax a bit. We were introduced to our divemaster, Jorge and the Boat Captain Arturo.
It seemed that the chaos of this first day was to continue however, as we hurriedly sped toward our dive sight. We would learn later that this was Jorges 4th and 5th dives for the day, and he was not pleased it seemed with taking us back out. Keep in mind, this is my wifes first dive in the ocean, first dive off a boat, and first back roll entry. I was hoping there would be something of a brief or instruction, or something But nope We all entered first leaving my wife on board. She took a couple breaths off her regulator, and found that they had forgot to open the valve. No biggee She rolled off the downwind side boat, and you guessed it . The boat started to go over on top of her. Now to anyone whos done this before, this doesnt seem like a big deal. And had it been me or anyone else, it wouldnt have been. But this whole evolution terrified her. She got real upset, and I think was still crying on her descent. The first dive went rather quickly, and we were back in the boat, and I could tell my wife not really having a good time.
She tried to protest doing another backroll entry, but was eventually convinced there was no other way to enter. Again, I was thinking some instruction might be in order, but none was forthcoming. Fortunately, the second one went better
I will give credit to the Divemaster, he did keep a close watch on my wife underwater, and helped her greatly with her buoyancy. They all seemed somewhat shocked when we told them that this was all a first for her. I had thought this would have been communicated to them by Jeanie, as she was right there with us, but apparently this hadnt occurred. They dropped us off back at the hotel, tired and somewhat frazzled. I contemplated booking with another shop, but decided to give it one more day.
Day 2
(BTW, these will get progressively shorter .) We had the same divemaster as before, and Jeanie also showed up to join us for a dive. The boat arrived a bit later than planned, I was later told this was due to some tank issues with the people that fill their tanks as in they werent filled No biggee We were also joined by a couple from MN. They are experienced divers, and had been diving with Blue Angel for years. They were wonderful to be around, honestly helped my wife out quite a bit. Also along were Alesandro(the owner) and a friend of hers. Day 2 went much better, and Jorge still kept a watchful eye on my wife, and still was helping her with buoyancy issues. Did two dives, and my wife appeared to be starting to see this as fun
Day 3
We took the day off from diving, and rented a Geo Tracker through the hotel rental agency for $66/24hour period. We took off and headed south. We saw the Bob Marley Bar, had drinks at Coconuts(great view!!) Stopped at a couple of markets, and also stopped by San Gervasimo(Mayan Ruins). We ended up back in town by the afternoon, and after some discussion decided to sign up for our AOW. (One can get into the whole advanced debate. I will not, we wanted extra instruction for both of us, and thats how we see the certification. We didnt name it, so please no dissertations on whether or not we should have done the AOW.)
After making arrangements at BA to do this, we left for Chankanaab where we were scheduled to swim and snorkel with the dolphins. (Again opinions vary on the ethics of this, but we did it, if you decide not to thats cool too.) We were lucky enough to be the only two in our group, and got to spend about 40 minutes in the water with the dolphin. It was awesome. Its also very pricey, and while its not something Id pay that much to do again, for a once in life thing, it was pretty cool.
Day 4
We had two guys from CO, the same two from MN, and another couple also from Dallas who had been diving with Blue Angel for years. Jorge told my wife she was gonna be more or less on her own with me these dives as he had to watch a larger group. These dives went wonderful, as it all seemed to click in place for my wife. She did all sorts of swim throughs, along the edge of a wall, and a lot of other cool things. My wife and I ended with the same amount of air. A challenge Jorge had set her up to when this started. I was really proud of my wifes progress, and she was actually having fun, and starting to get what we all see in this activity. The camaraderie on the boat among the other divers was a blast. A most enjoyable day.
We should have let the day end there but due to scheduling, we decided to do the underwater Nav portion of the AOW went we got back to the shop. By now we were kinda tired, and fighting the current in front of the hotel was less than enjoyable.
Matt(or Mateo) was our instructor, and he did his best to make this dive as enjoyable as possible. Unfortunately, my wife messed her ear up during this, and after a trip to the Dr, it regrettably ended her diving for the rest of our trip. Sometimes one should just leave well enough alone
Day 5
I did a twilight dive on Las Palmas for my Fish ID, AOW dive. Fun dive, except for my pressure gauge failing I check my gauge at depth, and found it reading zero yes absolute zero. My first thought was to look for someone to buddy breath with, then I realized, I was breathing just fine. Gauge failure After some communicating the Matt, I decided to give myself a prescribed bottom time in minutes, at which, I would go to the surface. This worked, though it probably wasnt the best move, as I spent the whole remainder wondering if I was going to suddenly run out of air. Nevertheless Las Palmas at twilight is amazing, as all the animals really come out to feed. ( I should add, the gauge was mine, and is in no way reflective of BA rental equip, its more reflective of the crap LDS that serviced my equipment before I left ..but I digress )
The second dive was a much shallower night dive. We stopped at a local shop and scored me a new reg set up, with a working pressure gauge. Back in business, I dropped over the side on my first night dive. Holy Crap! Was that cool!! Lots of Octopus, lobster etc . My wife went along for the ride with us, and again we enjoyed being with Don and Marilee, and Kenny and Leslie. You guys made our trip!
Day 6
We did the deep dive first at Santa Rosa Wall. Not sure why, but I really didnt enjoy this dive as much. Ive been that deep before (108) I guess Id rather be on the top of a reef than beside it. But it was interesting, and we did some neat swim throughs.
The last dive the C-53(I had chosen the wreck dive to round out my AOW). This was my first wreck penetration and it was amazing. The sardines were so thick you could cut them with a knife. This is a really worthwhile dive, if you are into that sort of thing. Going in the first time was kinda scarey, but once in there, I felt completely at home. I look forward to getting more instruction in this area.
Conclusion:
Well thats it. Of course there are lots of detail Im leaving out . The shopping, eating in town etc. all of which is readily available in this forum. I apologize for the length, but figure maybe someone will benefit from it. Id recommend Blue Angel again, but were I to go there again I might also try someone else just to have another reference point. All told my wife and I did 20 dives(including my AOW) for about $600 total. A very good value, imo.
Also to BAs credit, I think they knew our first day was crappy as well. They worked hard at making us happy on the remainder of the trip, and one cant ask for much more than that. I hope it doesnt seem Im being unfair with them. Ive tried to present things as they occurred, the good and the not so good. I am thrilled to have a new dive buddy in my wife. I never prodded her into it, and just patiently hoped one day shed get interested. It took 10 years of marriage for me to get her to ask for dive lessons. Cant wait until the next trip!!
