Hi All! Well, I completed my first visit to Cozumel in 24 years on Saturday and thought Id post some of my impressions of the hotel, diving and general comments about Coz.
This was an all-inclusive 8day/7night stay at the Casa Del Mar and diving 5 days with Cozumel Marine World.
HotelWe stayed at the Casa Del Mar hotel. The rooms were fine, beds seemed to be too hard, but after a full day of activities, were just fine. Plenty of hot water in the shower most days, although one day, by late afternoon, I couldnt get any hot out of it. There were a couple of English language stations on the tv, but I didnt watch more than a few minutes over the course of a week, so cannot comment on programming. The air conditioning was cold and we turned it off most days by early evening. Housekeeping changed the bedding and towels each day and gave us more towels if we needed them. Didnt try out the fresh water pool or spa, but the pool had a swim up seat area that fronted the bar at the outdoor restaurant. As those whove stayed here know, the dive dock is across the street from the hotel and there was a cross-over provided. There was a game room located downstairs from the lobby which I didnt know about until the day we left. It has a pool table, ping pong table and a fooseball table. Wi-fi was good in the hotel lobby and mostly good in our room. In the restaurant is was spotty.
RestaurantThe hotel has one restaurant/bar area outside. The bar serves stiff drinks! I had to ask for some water to pour into my margarita! Seating is pretty informal, you just find an open table and sit down. They put together a large table for our dive group. The food is not bad, but the menu doesnt change (no specials) so all the meals tend to get old after a while. Tasty items included: (morning) French toast, fruit plate and Mexican eggs, (lunch/dinner) fajitas, nachos, grouper fillet served various ways, and I liked the spaghetti with meat sauce. Some of the people liked the steak Tampiquena, but I found it to be overly salty. One thing that I had forgotten about Coz, the food is not highly spiced. The restaurant offered only Tabasco for a hot sauce, I personally like Tapatio or Cholula. Next time, Ill go to the Mega and pick some up. The chips were accompanied by a pretty good pico de gallo.
Dive boat and crew--As mentioned diving was provided by Cozumel Marine World which has a dive kiosk on the Casa Dal Mar dive dock. Since we had a group of 16 people, they dedicated a boat, the Nunia, to be ours exclusively. That meant we could decide our dive itinerary. I cannot praise this operation highly enough! Our dive masters, Jeremiah and Jorge were great! They gave very good, detailed pre-dive briefings, would watch out for the lesser experienced divers without getting in the way of the others, and had as much fun as we did during the dives. Both were very good about spotting out interesting animals. The boat mate, Charlie, was always there with my camera waiting for me to enter the water without having to ask him to get it. And at the end of the dive, the boat had a nice swim step to remove gear on and then we would move around to the side to go up a ladder making whole thing a no muss, no fuss operation. If you ask, they have a few steel 100 tanks available.
DivingI had last been in Cozumel 24 years ago. This time, the reefs we dove on were: Palancar Gardens, San Clemente, Palancar Tunnels, Yucab, Santa Rosa Wall, the C-53 minesweeper, Colombia, Cedra Wall, Devils Throat and a final reef which I dont remember. Some of our group made two night dives on Paradise Reef. This trip, there seemed to be more turtles, many more nurse sharks and some sting rays. I didnt see a single lionfish on any of the dives. I didnt make the last days diving which was Devils Throat and another shallow reef, but the group which did the dives said that you come out of Devils Throat at 140. I found the deeper reefs to be very beautiful and healthy, but thought the shallower reefs were showing signs of being beat up by hurricanes, development and divers. I remember the shallow reefs as having more colorful coral and sponges than I saw this trip. But Colombia was stunning in its beauty!
The islandI thought Id end my review with some comments about the island. I had previously been to Cozumel in 1983, 1986 and 1991. Obviously there have been many changes over the last three decades. I believe in 1983, there were about 30,000 people living on the island and today there are about 80,000. In 1983 one cruise ship would dock about twice a week, now there are 4-5 per day. Thirty years ago, San Miguel began at the airport road, and pretty much ended at SCC. Now, of course, it goes all the way down to the southern cruise dock. I found many new places to purchase duty-free high end merchandise and very good food, but it seemed like there were less artisans displaying local items. Maybe they had just been pushed off the waterfront due to rising rental fees, but I didnt have enough time to explore the side streets. I saw no iguanas or stray dogs while walking around. Pepes was a place I fondly remember, but this time, I just couldnt justify the $56 for the mixed seafood grill. Last time, in 1991, I believe the same plate was something like $18 or $20. I thought that the hotel was more accommodating (read: upgraded) of the American sensibility of what a hotel should be. In the past, many of the hotels in Coz would have been listed as less than one star, where now they might make 2-3 stars. I thought the dive operations were much more concerned with diver safety than in the pastdefinitely a good thing. Overall, I miss the old feeling of being on a lazy tropical paradise that Cozumel used to be, but then again, the diving is at least as good and maybe better than the old days and the dive operations are light years ahead in safety and just plain fun.
This was an all-inclusive 8day/7night stay at the Casa Del Mar and diving 5 days with Cozumel Marine World.
HotelWe stayed at the Casa Del Mar hotel. The rooms were fine, beds seemed to be too hard, but after a full day of activities, were just fine. Plenty of hot water in the shower most days, although one day, by late afternoon, I couldnt get any hot out of it. There were a couple of English language stations on the tv, but I didnt watch more than a few minutes over the course of a week, so cannot comment on programming. The air conditioning was cold and we turned it off most days by early evening. Housekeeping changed the bedding and towels each day and gave us more towels if we needed them. Didnt try out the fresh water pool or spa, but the pool had a swim up seat area that fronted the bar at the outdoor restaurant. As those whove stayed here know, the dive dock is across the street from the hotel and there was a cross-over provided. There was a game room located downstairs from the lobby which I didnt know about until the day we left. It has a pool table, ping pong table and a fooseball table. Wi-fi was good in the hotel lobby and mostly good in our room. In the restaurant is was spotty.
RestaurantThe hotel has one restaurant/bar area outside. The bar serves stiff drinks! I had to ask for some water to pour into my margarita! Seating is pretty informal, you just find an open table and sit down. They put together a large table for our dive group. The food is not bad, but the menu doesnt change (no specials) so all the meals tend to get old after a while. Tasty items included: (morning) French toast, fruit plate and Mexican eggs, (lunch/dinner) fajitas, nachos, grouper fillet served various ways, and I liked the spaghetti with meat sauce. Some of the people liked the steak Tampiquena, but I found it to be overly salty. One thing that I had forgotten about Coz, the food is not highly spiced. The restaurant offered only Tabasco for a hot sauce, I personally like Tapatio or Cholula. Next time, Ill go to the Mega and pick some up. The chips were accompanied by a pretty good pico de gallo.
Dive boat and crew--As mentioned diving was provided by Cozumel Marine World which has a dive kiosk on the Casa Dal Mar dive dock. Since we had a group of 16 people, they dedicated a boat, the Nunia, to be ours exclusively. That meant we could decide our dive itinerary. I cannot praise this operation highly enough! Our dive masters, Jeremiah and Jorge were great! They gave very good, detailed pre-dive briefings, would watch out for the lesser experienced divers without getting in the way of the others, and had as much fun as we did during the dives. Both were very good about spotting out interesting animals. The boat mate, Charlie, was always there with my camera waiting for me to enter the water without having to ask him to get it. And at the end of the dive, the boat had a nice swim step to remove gear on and then we would move around to the side to go up a ladder making whole thing a no muss, no fuss operation. If you ask, they have a few steel 100 tanks available.
DivingI had last been in Cozumel 24 years ago. This time, the reefs we dove on were: Palancar Gardens, San Clemente, Palancar Tunnels, Yucab, Santa Rosa Wall, the C-53 minesweeper, Colombia, Cedra Wall, Devils Throat and a final reef which I dont remember. Some of our group made two night dives on Paradise Reef. This trip, there seemed to be more turtles, many more nurse sharks and some sting rays. I didnt see a single lionfish on any of the dives. I didnt make the last days diving which was Devils Throat and another shallow reef, but the group which did the dives said that you come out of Devils Throat at 140. I found the deeper reefs to be very beautiful and healthy, but thought the shallower reefs were showing signs of being beat up by hurricanes, development and divers. I remember the shallow reefs as having more colorful coral and sponges than I saw this trip. But Colombia was stunning in its beauty!
The islandI thought Id end my review with some comments about the island. I had previously been to Cozumel in 1983, 1986 and 1991. Obviously there have been many changes over the last three decades. I believe in 1983, there were about 30,000 people living on the island and today there are about 80,000. In 1983 one cruise ship would dock about twice a week, now there are 4-5 per day. Thirty years ago, San Miguel began at the airport road, and pretty much ended at SCC. Now, of course, it goes all the way down to the southern cruise dock. I found many new places to purchase duty-free high end merchandise and very good food, but it seemed like there were less artisans displaying local items. Maybe they had just been pushed off the waterfront due to rising rental fees, but I didnt have enough time to explore the side streets. I saw no iguanas or stray dogs while walking around. Pepes was a place I fondly remember, but this time, I just couldnt justify the $56 for the mixed seafood grill. Last time, in 1991, I believe the same plate was something like $18 or $20. I thought that the hotel was more accommodating (read: upgraded) of the American sensibility of what a hotel should be. In the past, many of the hotels in Coz would have been listed as less than one star, where now they might make 2-3 stars. I thought the dive operations were much more concerned with diver safety than in the pastdefinitely a good thing. Overall, I miss the old feeling of being on a lazy tropical paradise that Cozumel used to be, but then again, the diving is at least as good and maybe better than the old days and the dive operations are light years ahead in safety and just plain fun.
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