I’ll make this a factual with some commentary and opinion trip report. I took a trip to Cozumel October 15-25 as a predive trip for Indonesia this week.
Iberostar. I wanted to stay on the southern end to be closer to the dive sites, so I stayed at Iberostar as a solo traveler. Since Iberostar is an AI, which is double the price for a single traveler, I had to pay a hefty premium, but it was manageable, as I booked it before IHG bought the Iberostar resort chain. I paid $1650 for 10 nights for the stay, including all taxes, not including the sanitation fee. Today’s price for the same stay as a solo traveler is $2500. I thought the food was quite good, considering it was primarily buffet style. There are a couple of onsite sit-down restaurants, which were also very good. The Mexican food was a bit bland, though, perhaps to cater to the Europeans, which there were many. All drinks are included, and the alcoholic drinks were not watered down, but the quality of a cocktail depended on your bartender.
The grounds of the resort are beautiful and set up so you feel like you’re in the jungle, and the bungalow-style room was mostly comfortable except for a very hard bed. I travel with a blow-up camping pad, so I slept fine. I like very strong and cold air conditioning. Iberostar has literal climate control over your comfort, claiming it’s for the environment. The thermostat will not go below 71 F, but the room never even got that cool because the blower was so weak. However, with my insistence, the maintenance guy came over and disabled the A/C throttle on the first day and brought a fan. The room was very clean and the shower had plenty of hot water with good pressure. The mini-bar is stocked daily with beer and soda, and there are filtered water refill stations throughout the property, so you need to bring your own water bottle.
Alberto’s Beach Club is directly next-door and their nightly very loud bass music could be heard at Iberostar. I stayed in building 24, which is close to the property line, so it was probably louder for me than other parts of the resort. Building 24 is also a short walk to the dive shop.
There’s an unhealthy population of wild coatimundis roaming the grounds scrounging for food and hand-fed by the guests. They were constantly dumpster diving in the trash cans. You’ll also find peacocks, pink flamingos, and iguanas.
Even though you pay about $3 per day in sanitation fees in cash at the end of your stay, you still can’t put toilet paper in the toilet. In addition to the recent steep rise in Mexican government taxes tacked onto the airline ticket, this is another fee that’s collected in Mexico for which I’ve seen no resultant action.
The Weather. I arrived on Sunday and the port was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the season’s first norte. Over ten days, I got to dive six days. Monday was visibly very windy, but Tuesday the waters were calm with a slight breeze, but the port was still closed. The port finally opened at 2:00 p.m., but I still couldn’t dive because Dressel Divers sent everyone home, but I saw several other dive operators whiz by heading to the dive sites. More detail below about Dressel.
The Diving. I was last in Cozumel for a day dive excursion from a cruise ship in December 2022, and I was really impressed with the condition of the reef. It still had the vibrant colors, red corals, bright purple iridescent sponges, purple fans, and very fishy. I was so disappointed at how drastically it has changed. Very little color and mostly brown with bleached coral is what I saw. The purple fans are dying and turning brown. The purple iridescent sponges have turned brown. The corals are covered in seaweed and red algae that’s choking the life out of them. I saw some juvenile fishes but not many adults. The French Angels were still there, and a super big parrot fish. There were a couple of schools of blue chromis at the top of the coral heads. There was a very old loggerhead turtle that’s known to be around and he or she was huge. I saw a couple of other green turtles but not the numbers I’ve seen before. I did see the 8-foot nurse shark under a ledge and the overfriendly green moral eel that’s apparently been fed. Once it saw one of the divers with her camera coming in close, he came out of hiding and took a slow but deliberate lunge at her to check her out. Once it saw there was no food to be had, it went on its merry way.
I did get lucky and we had an eagle ray pass very close to our group, and that was really special. I love eagle rays! Thankfully, nobody went chasing after it, so it did a very calm and slow pass.
Water temps were 84-87 F, and I was told that these were sustained temps all summer. Topside, the temps were 88-92 F with occasional wind and rain showers.
I actually enjoyed the night diving better than the day diving. There was so much more action and critters on the three night dives. More octopus per dive than I’ve ever seen…12, 13, and 15. Lots of lobsters, crabs, basket stars, sharp-tailed eel, a guitar ray, scorpion fish, spotted moray eel, brittle stars, yellow spotted stingray, slipper lobsters, and several splendid toadfish. There were a lot of blood worms clinging to our lights, and one even hitched a ride home with me in my BC (picture attached).
Dive Operators. I did the first two days of diving with Dressel Divers (DD), the next three days with Scuba Tony (ST), and the last day with Tres Pelicanos (TP). In order of my favorites would be ST, TP, DD.
Dressel Divers, Day 1 & 2. This is just a corporate machine running cattle boats to put as many divers as possible onto five boats every day that go to the same sites based on a set schedule. They don’t care when your last dive was; they just want your money. If you haven’t dived in five years, no problem. They’ll take your money. They take full advantage of the marine park rule of a maximum of eight divers to one guide. The first day, there were 4 groups of 8 divers, 4 guides, the captain, and 3 deckhands. So each day, there would be 60 or more divers dropped off at the same site in staggered 15-minute departures. But eventually, underwater, the groups started to blend together.
This is a training operation of new interns, so lots of foreigners who don’t know the dive sites and don’t know answers to simple questions that the local dive guides would know; deckhands who are learning how to handle 32 divers on and off the boat. It was not pretty.
I had great difficulty communicating with them because they’re based in Spain and all scheduling goes through Spain. They offer deals on the website but no pricing, so there’s a lack of transparency. If you buy a two-tank dive, you will pay a $5 “split fee” should you want to dive once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Rental gear is priced by the dive, not by the day. If you book your dives one week before arrival, you’ll get 20% off the prepaid package. However, if you don’t use all the dives in your package, there’s no refund but a voucher good for five years. Nitrox is free.
So, why did I choose them? Well, they were convenient to Iberostar and just a two-minute walk from my room, and I haven’t done cattle boats in awhile and I thought, how bad could it be? It was not for me.
Scuba Tony, Day 3 & 4. Small 6-pack boat, small groups; on the night dives, just four divers. These guys are a stand-out operation with a full concierge service in and out of the water. All staff were super nice and friendly and happy to help. And it felt genuine, like they enjoyed what they were doing and were excited to show you what’s underwater. I would highly recommend them. The only thing that was not my favorite was the ladder. It’s a hook ladder that the captain throws over the side to get back on the boat. It’s not exactly straight in the water and tends to curve downward as you’re climbing up, so the angle is hard to maneuver.
Tres Pelicanos. I only used them on the last day because ST was fully booked. There were nine divers to one guide, an auto-opt-out for me in the future. The captain and guide weren’t so friendly. The guide was just a body in the water to lead the pack. He never looked over his shoulder once to check on his divers, and everyone surfaced whenever they wanted and he never knew it. The guide at one point touched a scorpion fish to make it move. I was shocked. If the guides can’t even lead by example by following the marine park rules about no touching, then what’s the point? I wrote to their office about it, and they said they’d talk to him and that he was just trying to show the divers because they can be hard to see. Really? So that makes it okay?
I know folks here on the board love them and I chose them because everyone talks so highly of them, but this experience has them on my list of operators I will avoid going forward. And I’m not giving them the excuse that it was an off day for the crew. Every day you’re on the boat should be excellence in service and following the marine park rules.
Commentary. Personally, I loathe the marine park rules because after decades, the reef is no better off for it. Divers aren’t killing the reef. Ever seen a turtle munching on the coral? Not wearing gloves or carrying a pointer or a cutting tool is not saving the reef. It’s everyone else that's on the surface that's ruining the reef and marine life. The illegal boat operations, poaching, illegal and overfishing, pollution, dumping, and so much more are killing the ocean.
Iberostar. I wanted to stay on the southern end to be closer to the dive sites, so I stayed at Iberostar as a solo traveler. Since Iberostar is an AI, which is double the price for a single traveler, I had to pay a hefty premium, but it was manageable, as I booked it before IHG bought the Iberostar resort chain. I paid $1650 for 10 nights for the stay, including all taxes, not including the sanitation fee. Today’s price for the same stay as a solo traveler is $2500. I thought the food was quite good, considering it was primarily buffet style. There are a couple of onsite sit-down restaurants, which were also very good. The Mexican food was a bit bland, though, perhaps to cater to the Europeans, which there were many. All drinks are included, and the alcoholic drinks were not watered down, but the quality of a cocktail depended on your bartender.
The grounds of the resort are beautiful and set up so you feel like you’re in the jungle, and the bungalow-style room was mostly comfortable except for a very hard bed. I travel with a blow-up camping pad, so I slept fine. I like very strong and cold air conditioning. Iberostar has literal climate control over your comfort, claiming it’s for the environment. The thermostat will not go below 71 F, but the room never even got that cool because the blower was so weak. However, with my insistence, the maintenance guy came over and disabled the A/C throttle on the first day and brought a fan. The room was very clean and the shower had plenty of hot water with good pressure. The mini-bar is stocked daily with beer and soda, and there are filtered water refill stations throughout the property, so you need to bring your own water bottle.
Alberto’s Beach Club is directly next-door and their nightly very loud bass music could be heard at Iberostar. I stayed in building 24, which is close to the property line, so it was probably louder for me than other parts of the resort. Building 24 is also a short walk to the dive shop.
There’s an unhealthy population of wild coatimundis roaming the grounds scrounging for food and hand-fed by the guests. They were constantly dumpster diving in the trash cans. You’ll also find peacocks, pink flamingos, and iguanas.
Even though you pay about $3 per day in sanitation fees in cash at the end of your stay, you still can’t put toilet paper in the toilet. In addition to the recent steep rise in Mexican government taxes tacked onto the airline ticket, this is another fee that’s collected in Mexico for which I’ve seen no resultant action.
The Weather. I arrived on Sunday and the port was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the season’s first norte. Over ten days, I got to dive six days. Monday was visibly very windy, but Tuesday the waters were calm with a slight breeze, but the port was still closed. The port finally opened at 2:00 p.m., but I still couldn’t dive because Dressel Divers sent everyone home, but I saw several other dive operators whiz by heading to the dive sites. More detail below about Dressel.
The Diving. I was last in Cozumel for a day dive excursion from a cruise ship in December 2022, and I was really impressed with the condition of the reef. It still had the vibrant colors, red corals, bright purple iridescent sponges, purple fans, and very fishy. I was so disappointed at how drastically it has changed. Very little color and mostly brown with bleached coral is what I saw. The purple fans are dying and turning brown. The purple iridescent sponges have turned brown. The corals are covered in seaweed and red algae that’s choking the life out of them. I saw some juvenile fishes but not many adults. The French Angels were still there, and a super big parrot fish. There were a couple of schools of blue chromis at the top of the coral heads. There was a very old loggerhead turtle that’s known to be around and he or she was huge. I saw a couple of other green turtles but not the numbers I’ve seen before. I did see the 8-foot nurse shark under a ledge and the overfriendly green moral eel that’s apparently been fed. Once it saw one of the divers with her camera coming in close, he came out of hiding and took a slow but deliberate lunge at her to check her out. Once it saw there was no food to be had, it went on its merry way.
I did get lucky and we had an eagle ray pass very close to our group, and that was really special. I love eagle rays! Thankfully, nobody went chasing after it, so it did a very calm and slow pass.
Water temps were 84-87 F, and I was told that these were sustained temps all summer. Topside, the temps were 88-92 F with occasional wind and rain showers.
I actually enjoyed the night diving better than the day diving. There was so much more action and critters on the three night dives. More octopus per dive than I’ve ever seen…12, 13, and 15. Lots of lobsters, crabs, basket stars, sharp-tailed eel, a guitar ray, scorpion fish, spotted moray eel, brittle stars, yellow spotted stingray, slipper lobsters, and several splendid toadfish. There were a lot of blood worms clinging to our lights, and one even hitched a ride home with me in my BC (picture attached).
Dive Operators. I did the first two days of diving with Dressel Divers (DD), the next three days with Scuba Tony (ST), and the last day with Tres Pelicanos (TP). In order of my favorites would be ST, TP, DD.
Dressel Divers, Day 1 & 2. This is just a corporate machine running cattle boats to put as many divers as possible onto five boats every day that go to the same sites based on a set schedule. They don’t care when your last dive was; they just want your money. If you haven’t dived in five years, no problem. They’ll take your money. They take full advantage of the marine park rule of a maximum of eight divers to one guide. The first day, there were 4 groups of 8 divers, 4 guides, the captain, and 3 deckhands. So each day, there would be 60 or more divers dropped off at the same site in staggered 15-minute departures. But eventually, underwater, the groups started to blend together.
This is a training operation of new interns, so lots of foreigners who don’t know the dive sites and don’t know answers to simple questions that the local dive guides would know; deckhands who are learning how to handle 32 divers on and off the boat. It was not pretty.
I had great difficulty communicating with them because they’re based in Spain and all scheduling goes through Spain. They offer deals on the website but no pricing, so there’s a lack of transparency. If you buy a two-tank dive, you will pay a $5 “split fee” should you want to dive once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Rental gear is priced by the dive, not by the day. If you book your dives one week before arrival, you’ll get 20% off the prepaid package. However, if you don’t use all the dives in your package, there’s no refund but a voucher good for five years. Nitrox is free.
So, why did I choose them? Well, they were convenient to Iberostar and just a two-minute walk from my room, and I haven’t done cattle boats in awhile and I thought, how bad could it be? It was not for me.
Scuba Tony, Day 3 & 4. Small 6-pack boat, small groups; on the night dives, just four divers. These guys are a stand-out operation with a full concierge service in and out of the water. All staff were super nice and friendly and happy to help. And it felt genuine, like they enjoyed what they were doing and were excited to show you what’s underwater. I would highly recommend them. The only thing that was not my favorite was the ladder. It’s a hook ladder that the captain throws over the side to get back on the boat. It’s not exactly straight in the water and tends to curve downward as you’re climbing up, so the angle is hard to maneuver.
Tres Pelicanos. I only used them on the last day because ST was fully booked. There were nine divers to one guide, an auto-opt-out for me in the future. The captain and guide weren’t so friendly. The guide was just a body in the water to lead the pack. He never looked over his shoulder once to check on his divers, and everyone surfaced whenever they wanted and he never knew it. The guide at one point touched a scorpion fish to make it move. I was shocked. If the guides can’t even lead by example by following the marine park rules about no touching, then what’s the point? I wrote to their office about it, and they said they’d talk to him and that he was just trying to show the divers because they can be hard to see. Really? So that makes it okay?
I know folks here on the board love them and I chose them because everyone talks so highly of them, but this experience has them on my list of operators I will avoid going forward. And I’m not giving them the excuse that it was an off day for the crew. Every day you’re on the boat should be excellence in service and following the marine park rules.
Commentary. Personally, I loathe the marine park rules because after decades, the reef is no better off for it. Divers aren’t killing the reef. Ever seen a turtle munching on the coral? Not wearing gloves or carrying a pointer or a cutting tool is not saving the reef. It’s everyone else that's on the surface that's ruining the reef and marine life. The illegal boat operations, poaching, illegal and overfishing, pollution, dumping, and so much more are killing the ocean.
