Poll - Will this partial closure of marine park affect your future plans to visit Cozumel?

[Brodydog]

I voted I’m going to wait and see how it shakes out.

I don’t currently have a trip booked there but we do usually go once a year along with trips to other destinations. Am I going to wait until they hopefully reopen the southern sites? Yes, because I do love Palancar. Will I go back even if they didn’t reopen the southern sites? Yes, because there are so many other sites I love and I like the atmosphere on the island and all the fabulous food.

So I’m going to wait it out and see what happens. And I have to admit if I had a trip booked already, during the closure, I’d be greatly disappointed but I’d still go.

 

[divegirl1978]

I'm booked the 1st week of November and actually excited about going. Granted my favorite sites are Punta Sur and Isolette, but I'm excited to dive the other wonderful places Cozumel has to offer. Maybe even find some new places to explore. Cozumel has my heart and I will not stop going just because a small part of the reef is closed. I usually go in March as well and closure or not I'll be back in the spring too.

 

[ggunn]

I'm booked the 1st week of November and actually excited about going. Granted my favorite sites are Punta Sur and Isolette, but I'm excited to dive the other wonderful places Cozumel has to offer. Maybe even find some new places to explore. Cozumel has my heart and I will not stop going just because a small part of the reef is closed. I usually go in March as well and closure or not I'll be back in the spring too.

Although I am not planning to change my plans for my trip there in May of next year, either, it's not exactly a small part of the Cozumel reef system that is being closed. Numerically, maybe, but the Palancar and Colombia reefs are the two largest dive areas there.

 

[bgt]

We are booked for 8 weeks in January and February, and are still happy to go. I dove with Aldora for 5 weeks last winter. I enjoyed the northern dives we did as a nice contrast to the south, plus some of the sites are much closer to the harbour, so less time wasted in transit. So I think there will still be lots of diving to do.

 

[mikeycanuk]

Going again for the Xmas/NewYrs weeks. We already booked a casa in town during last years trip but I'm not too bothered. I'd be happy to see some new dive sites

 

[Kmart921]

I'm one of the weirdos who voted for the "decisions are hard" option, since I'm booked for the week of Nov. 9th and haven't decided if I'm still going to go yet.

That said, I think I'm leaning towards still going. As sad as it may be to see, I'm really curious to see firsthand how the corals have deteriorated since I last went in July 2018. And if I didn't go, I probably just wouldn't dive at all that week because nothing else can come even remotely close to how affordable Cozumel is for a single diver.

 

[cvchief]

I picked other. We got a place there.

That being said, I get that Columbia Deep and the Palancars do show off amazing reef structures and Columbia shallows is a great 2 hours meandering around dive, but the boat tends to ALWAYS dive the around Palancar first dive. I totally get it when we have new diver or diver that haven't been there in a year or better and I don't mind it. However I do also enjoy other stuff. Last week we did Bolognes and Chankanaab. Didn't see another diver. It was nice. I have done Palmas, which was all like just little coral heads. FULL of toadfish. Heck I have gone to Paradiso and wander off into the grass and snooped around just to see what I could see. I enjoyed the second part of a Cantarell dive working shallow. Saw my only bat fish in the grass there. We did whatever you call it there by the Naval Station and Tequila bar. That was different. Took a pick with Jacques head. They had build some platforms in there for coral to grow on I guess. Lionfish haven. I wasnt paying attention and look up and I was almost right underneath the Navy's rescue boat with the 4 gigantic outboards, thinking well this is bad....

Anyways, I still haven't heard a reason for the way they are handling the closing that makes sense, but hey maybe we will see some more of the other sites without it being the 'us' voted to not do palancar first dive. Except every other yahoo who would have been at Gardens will now be diving on the quiet spots.

On the bright side, they banned all sunscreen at the state parks to protect the reef. All of them. Including San Gervasio....

You know. Out here close the reef. I still haven't made it out there and now I have to get skin cancer to do it....

 

[ReefHound]

Even banned reef-safe sunscreen? Of course, anything that goes into the ground there ends up in the sea.

 

[cvchief]

Ok we decided it will affect our future visits to Cozumel. We left Coz a week ago. We decided to turn around and come back this Wednesday and grabs some palancar and CS before they close it up.

 

[Sallygirl]

Other.

My husband and I will continue to visit Cozumel. I retire next year, and will have more time, so we may even increase our visits. My husband has stopped diving, I will continue to dive when we visit.
BUT, we have a group of friends with whom we plan an annual dive trip to Coz. (Last summer, we numbered 10.) It is very possible that we will explore other destinations. The core of that group has been visiting Coz for many years. We are the newbies, and began visiting 10 years ago. Each year we talk about planning another location, but we all love Coz and it is a no fuss visit that no one has to plan. In addition to the reef closure, our dive master of many years is now retired and we need to switch to a different dive op. The likely result is we will wait and see, unless the closure spurs one of our group to take the time to investigate and plan an alternative trip.
My husband and I visited grand Cayman last year. Beautiful and easy diving, but an uninteresting top side. Neither of us Wants to return. Bonaire and Curaçao are on the "let's look at this" list. I get mixed comments when I ask people about Bonaire for non divers.

Cozumel is our happy place, and I expect it to stay that way.