Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 205,000 divers from around the world discussing all things related to Scuba Diving. To gain full access to ScubaBoard (and make this large box go away) you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:
Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 5,500,000 posts.
Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
Post your own photos or view from well over 100,000 user submitted images.
Gain access to our free classifieds marketplace to buy, sell and trade gear, travel and services.
Use the calendar to organize your events and enroll in other members' events.
All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.
The Occidental Grand Cozumel is a new property just to the south of the original Allegro Occidental. Same corporation owns both.
It is more upscale & expensive than the Allegro, and in fact the two do not allow reciprocal visits. It's quite spread out making it a chore to schlep diving gear & a long walk to the main building from the beach (have to walk over long bridge over a swampy area). Dive Palancar, always onsite at the Allegro, serves the Grand as well. Grand was without a pier for a while, but a new one just opened last month making things considerably more convenient. Also, some of its beach was washed away by the last hurricane, but this has improved.
Rooms are large, handsome & clean, and food is very good. As is customary at many all-inclusives, you are asked to wear long pants, a sleeved shirt & shoes for dining at the specialty restaurants.
If budget isn't serious consideration, I'd chose the Grand over the Allegro.
We stayed at the Grand last Nov and just got back from the Allegro 2 weeks ago. We enjoyed both but the Grand is a clear cut above the Allegro in terms of meals and facilities. We were at the Brisas in July where the food was OK but not as good as the Allegro. Food at the Grand was very good ( I mean you're just not going to get a Texas rib-eye in Cozumel). I would have no qualm about returning to any of the three (so maybe my standards are too low). While Dive Palancar was a perfectly adequate op they are on the conservative side on bottom time and will run shortened SI's (45 to 50 minutes) to stay on their 4 dives per day schedule. If I return, I will probably uses another op to increase bottom time. The southern shallow reefs are worth giving up the frequent trips to town.
Wristshot once bubbled... What is the cost diffential between Allegro and the Grand Allegro? and what do you get for the extra dinero besides better food?
Wristshot
I've seen specials with the cost differential as little as $100.00 per person for a week. But I would guess their list price difference would be on the order of 200.00 to 300.00. The rooms are much nicer and larger but the Grand is only a year old while the Allegro is just starting another refurbishment. Bathroom in the Grand is huge and well appointed. The one in the Allegro --- usually worked. Meals at the Allegro were good but I was disappointed in their main specialty restaurant. All 3 dinner restaurants at the Grand were excellent. Drinks at the Allegro were a bit weak (OK for diving), full strength at the Grand.
Want a good dive trip? The Allegro will do fine.
Want a vacation? Go for the Grand. Wife will love you. In fact, we only did half as much diving in our week at the Grand than we did at the Allegro.
3 years ago a week at the Allegro cost us $1200.00 CDN all in.
This year, a week at Fiesta Americana cost us $1200.00 CDN, all in.
The food was FAR better, The time to the reefs was negligible, the cost for a taxi into town was cheaper, the service was better.
Did I mention the food was FAR better???
Really guys, there's no comparison.
Our whole trip, including ocean diving, Cenotes etc, was cheaper this year than any other time we've ever gone. We did more boat dives, I got to use ALU100's (incl), and we did 2 amazing cenote dives with OUR VERY OWN guide. The guy was incredible, ScubaTony.com. We did our ocean dives with BlueXTSea, the owner (Christi on this board) can set all the diving up for you too.
As to the alcohol, I couldn't tell you. I had 2 beers all week.
Hopefully the fillet mignons I ate made up for it.
I should give honourable mention to Scuba Club as well. It's just about the same price, but the problemI found was, if you went during "slack" time, they wouldn't fire up the boat if enough people weren't going to do the optional afternoon dive. Sure I ended up getting 17 or 18 dives in, but 5-6 of them were shore dives, and the same stretch of beach can get a tad boring after a while. I did love the food though!
But the food still wasn't as good as F/Americana.
The upsude to SCC, is that it is close to town. It had nice rooms too. I felt very secure about leaving my belongings around.
As for the diving, I made a better choice keeping the diving separate from the accomodations. I would do it again the same way, and as such, will probably not go to SCC again.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
