I led a 49-person group to Cozumel during the first week of August of this year. 20 of us also extended our stay for two days and went across to the mainland for ceynote dives and a tour of the ruins of Tulum and Chichen Itza.
Ratings (out of ten stars):
Cozumel Overall: A solid 8
Value for Money: 9.5
Dive Paradise (dive operation): 6.5
Hotel Cozumel: 9 (within its class)
Playa Del Carmen Overall: 9
Dos Ojos Ceynote: 9.5
Dive Shop Mexico: 8
COZUMEL OVERALL:
DIVE PARADISE:
HOTEL COZUMEL:
PLAYA DEL CARMEN & Dos Ojos Ceynote:
Although it wasn’t an “official” group side-trip (because of liability issues I’ll discuss later), the trip to Playa was outstanding. Playa beats Cozumel on the energy scale hands down. The main drag really hops and the restaurants, shops, and clubs are much more interesting. Almost a European kind of vibe. We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of everything and were really liking what we experienced. We had Dive Shop Mexico arrange our Cenote dives and tours and they did quite well. Wasn’t really enough time to establish relationships or friendships, but they came through on everything they promised.
The tour of the Dos Ojos ceynote was as beautiful as I knew it would be. Did not disappoint. To a person, the other 19 in our group all said they felt the same way: Thrilled and awed.
Lines were layed out all over the ceynote with crystal clear water and stalagtites/stalagmites throughout. The leader of each of our small groups was a cave-certified instructor. T’was a wondrous experience.
I did a fair amount of due diligence before we traveled to Mexico and made it plain to everyone I would not even let them talk about this side trip on our group message boards if there was any cave component re our guided dive into their chosen cenote. (Liability issues for my group and such.) Everything I could find on Dos Ojos labeled it cavern-level, except for clearly defined routes into a cave system (into which we did not go). Unfortunately there were some elements of our tour in the ceynote that had decided un-cavern-like features. At one point, midway through the second tour, acting on my suspicions, I stopped for a moment (I was bringing up the rear) and held my dive light in against my chest. Save for the lights of the people ahead of me there was no daylight and no exit to be seen. I did this twice more at different points in the tour. No way out discernable. I think the sheer grandeur of the system kept me from thinking to do this on the first dive. At no time did I feel we were in danger, but that means little and is, perhaps, part of the illusion of a cave system. We all must make decisions about our personal safety. I simply like to have the correct info available to make mine.
TOURS: Tulum and Chichen Itza are both amazing Mayan ruins sites. Although a fairly long shuttle ride from Playa (about 90 minutes and 150 minutes respectively) everyone felt they were well worth the time it took to get there. As for myself I’m very glad I did them.
My group had, by and large, a great experience.
*It's important to understand the dive operation is not owned by the hotel. Two different businesses.
Ratings (out of ten stars):
Cozumel Overall: A solid 8
Value for Money: 9.5
Dive Paradise (dive operation): 6.5
Hotel Cozumel: 9 (within its class)
Playa Del Carmen Overall: 9
Dos Ojos Ceynote: 9.5
Dive Shop Mexico: 8
COZUMEL OVERALL:
Beautiful weather, great diving, excellent vis. Hot temperatures above water. (Temps were most problematic when venturing into town. Very few of the bars are air conditioned. Thank god for Club Dubai.) Energy of town: I rate it a 6 unless the cruise ships were in (usually during the daytime only), then I give it a 7.5. But then, my group and I weren't there for the ambiance in town...
DIVE PARADISE:
I took a much smaller group here two years ago. Based on the strength of our boat Dive Master and the Hotel I decided to bring a larger group back. I actually asked for and received the same great DM (Emilio). Unfortunately there were some problems with the DP Staff (not the boat crew) this time around. Many of the multiple emails I exchanged with Dive Paradise's stateside rep (and he to the DP owner), wherein I set up deals and perks for my people (in addition to the DEMA deal they gave us), apparently didn't get translated to the DP Staff, whose shop was on the hotel dock*. The staff was initially somewhat argumentative when I insisted we had perks coming to us such as $8 nitrox fills, a free shore-dive tank per day (this op didn’t have free shore tanks normally), a free boat night dive, and similar. Thankfully I saved and brought all the emails with me so the proof was there. One could chalk this up to miscommunication perhaps, but I ended up getting into the same, “Yes we DO get xxx” with the seemingly-clueless manager-of-the-moment at least three times.
By the second day it was clear there were more problems going on with the DP Staff than mere miscommunications. In addition to the long rides to and from the dive sites ( a necessary evil when you stay in a hotel close to town), we found ourselves stopping, on almost every trip, at their other pier to pick up tanks… because they hadn’t calculated numbers correctly. Or an O2 analyzer. Or to get GAS for the boat. This added much time to an already-long dive day. In the words of one of the boat crew (who professed the fault was not their own, but rather the DP Staff’s lack of planning and logistics), this was “really bad”. They could see the look of disbelief and frustrationon our faces when we, once again, had to stop on the way to a site to pick up a Nitrox tank or similar.
Significant portions of the DP Staff were projecting a decided "I don't want to be bothered" attitude when even the most innocuous question was put to them. They also tried to insist my people pay up-front for things I had already arranged for them to pay at the end of their stay. (Made my people feel like single-dive tourists coming in off the street rather than a valued group doing a multi-day stay.)
Still on the second day, I asked to be put in touch with the owner by phone. She said she would look into my assertions of Staff problems and try to iron it out. On the third day when yet more, niggling problems occurred with the staff I again asked to talk to the owner on the phone. I suggested to her there were some serious concerns being voiced to me by members of my group and I asked her to come to the location in person and iron them out. She said she didn’t know if she could make it… and how did I like the Dive Paradise t-shirts they had given us? Three times in two separate conversations she deflected my voiced issues by asking about those t-shirts. Hey, the t-shirts were nice, no doubt about it, but don’t try to blow t-shirt smoke at me whilst I’m articulating problems about your Staff to you!
Now, SOME of this can be attributed to the normal “administrative goings on” that a trip leader goes through in coordinating a large group. It’s simply that this went beyond the pale. I worked very hard to get the best deal possible for my group. I gained quite a few very nice concessions during my planning phase with their rep. It’s part of the reason WHY I chose this operation. Neither the perks, nor the rep’s pleasant attitude, got translated to the Staff. There were multiple instances (some witnessed by myself, some related by my members) of Staff uncaring attitudes. To be fair, there were also a couple really nice guys working at DP. I wish it had been the norm.
After the fact I was told (by an alleged close friend of the owner) that the owner had some medical issues during that time. If that was true then her second-in-command sure dropped the ball...whoever that was. And, though it’s not my business to know of her medical conditions, an “I’m having some personal issues right now that may prevent me from meeting you or attending to your issues” might have helped me understand. But then, my problem was with her STAFF as much (or more) as it was with her. Too, I find that when there’s a pervasive “attitude” amongst a Staff (anywhere, not just at DP), that “attitude” or culture of customer-disregard is flowed from the top down. I don’t know for a fact this was the case at DP, but it’s been my experience in the past.
Well, why did Dive Paradise even rate the 6.5 stars you DID give them, you ask? Simple: The boat crews and DMs were excellent. My group had three boats and reviews from my members were all positive – to extremely positive. There were no complaints and many raves from my people. Everyone enjoyed the diving (Coz is a well-known and an amazing dive destination. I’ll not go on about it here.) and it went a long way towards ameliorating the issues surrounding the staff. If I had any criticism of the DMs at all I would say they were a little too dogmatic when choosing the times to end the dives. Fairly conservative. (All my group was Advanced or higher.) One of the crew shared that there were enough diver deaths on the island, every year, that the major operators got more conservative in response. Ok, I’ll buy that.
If I could divorce the Boat crews from the Staff I would definitely recommend these guys. A+. Since I can’t, I give DP a borderline grade.
By the second day it was clear there were more problems going on with the DP Staff than mere miscommunications. In addition to the long rides to and from the dive sites ( a necessary evil when you stay in a hotel close to town), we found ourselves stopping, on almost every trip, at their other pier to pick up tanks… because they hadn’t calculated numbers correctly. Or an O2 analyzer. Or to get GAS for the boat. This added much time to an already-long dive day. In the words of one of the boat crew (who professed the fault was not their own, but rather the DP Staff’s lack of planning and logistics), this was “really bad”. They could see the look of disbelief and frustrationon our faces when we, once again, had to stop on the way to a site to pick up a Nitrox tank or similar.
Significant portions of the DP Staff were projecting a decided "I don't want to be bothered" attitude when even the most innocuous question was put to them. They also tried to insist my people pay up-front for things I had already arranged for them to pay at the end of their stay. (Made my people feel like single-dive tourists coming in off the street rather than a valued group doing a multi-day stay.)
Still on the second day, I asked to be put in touch with the owner by phone. She said she would look into my assertions of Staff problems and try to iron it out. On the third day when yet more, niggling problems occurred with the staff I again asked to talk to the owner on the phone. I suggested to her there were some serious concerns being voiced to me by members of my group and I asked her to come to the location in person and iron them out. She said she didn’t know if she could make it… and how did I like the Dive Paradise t-shirts they had given us? Three times in two separate conversations she deflected my voiced issues by asking about those t-shirts. Hey, the t-shirts were nice, no doubt about it, but don’t try to blow t-shirt smoke at me whilst I’m articulating problems about your Staff to you!
Now, SOME of this can be attributed to the normal “administrative goings on” that a trip leader goes through in coordinating a large group. It’s simply that this went beyond the pale. I worked very hard to get the best deal possible for my group. I gained quite a few very nice concessions during my planning phase with their rep. It’s part of the reason WHY I chose this operation. Neither the perks, nor the rep’s pleasant attitude, got translated to the Staff. There were multiple instances (some witnessed by myself, some related by my members) of Staff uncaring attitudes. To be fair, there were also a couple really nice guys working at DP. I wish it had been the norm.
After the fact I was told (by an alleged close friend of the owner) that the owner had some medical issues during that time. If that was true then her second-in-command sure dropped the ball...whoever that was. And, though it’s not my business to know of her medical conditions, an “I’m having some personal issues right now that may prevent me from meeting you or attending to your issues” might have helped me understand. But then, my problem was with her STAFF as much (or more) as it was with her. Too, I find that when there’s a pervasive “attitude” amongst a Staff (anywhere, not just at DP), that “attitude” or culture of customer-disregard is flowed from the top down. I don’t know for a fact this was the case at DP, but it’s been my experience in the past.
Well, why did Dive Paradise even rate the 6.5 stars you DID give them, you ask? Simple: The boat crews and DMs were excellent. My group had three boats and reviews from my members were all positive – to extremely positive. There were no complaints and many raves from my people. Everyone enjoyed the diving (Coz is a well-known and an amazing dive destination. I’ll not go on about it here.) and it went a long way towards ameliorating the issues surrounding the staff. If I had any criticism of the DMs at all I would say they were a little too dogmatic when choosing the times to end the dives. Fairly conservative. (All my group was Advanced or higher.) One of the crew shared that there were enough diver deaths on the island, every year, that the major operators got more conservative in response. Ok, I’ll buy that.
If I could divorce the Boat crews from the Staff I would definitely recommend these guys. A+. Since I can’t, I give DP a borderline grade.
HOTEL COZUMEL:
My group and I really loved this hotel. The group manager made me feel valued when I was setting up the deal… and the hotel staff followed through on that implied promise. Pleasant people all-around, from the restaurant waitstaff, to the front desk gals, to housekeeping, to the entertainment crew. It’s an all-inclusive hotel (with booze) if you buy that type of package from them. For us, since we were focused on the diving, that was the way to go.
The food was very good (with a nice variety), but not amazing. Buffet-style. One of my people fancies himself a food critic and I had to stop him shortly into a tiny diatribe to remind him we didn’t pay for the Waldorf Astoria. He quickly agreed and chowed down with the rest of us. Carving stations, eggs to order, tasty desserts. My only negative comment: Cut-up hot dogs are NOT a breakfast item!
I also liked their snack bar out by the pool. If you got hungry outside of meal times they always had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, nachos and assorted other snack foods available. (As much as you wanted.)
The hotel rooms were clean and spacious. This is a large, attractive hotel and the equally-large swimming pool was gorgeous. The big Jacuzzi saw some of us in it every night. If you didn’t feel like going into town (or diving) the entertainment crew usually had some kind of production or music occurring on the large outdoor stage within the hotel compound.
Note: The free booze you get in the “booze-included” package was beer, wine, and well liquors with a smattering of middle-shelf brands thrown in. Very nice.
The secure, hotel-owned dive lockers out by the dock meant you never had to carry wet gear into the hotel or your room. My only criticism of the lockers is that they were too small for 2 diver’s gear. Difficult to get all your… and your partner’s… gear in there. A nice convenience though.
In short, the hotel was WELL worth every cent we paid for it (and a bit more). Very recommended. (I also understand that different dive ops can pick you up at that hotel dock… even though DP maintains a scuba shop there.)
The food was very good (with a nice variety), but not amazing. Buffet-style. One of my people fancies himself a food critic and I had to stop him shortly into a tiny diatribe to remind him we didn’t pay for the Waldorf Astoria. He quickly agreed and chowed down with the rest of us. Carving stations, eggs to order, tasty desserts. My only negative comment: Cut-up hot dogs are NOT a breakfast item!
I also liked their snack bar out by the pool. If you got hungry outside of meal times they always had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, nachos and assorted other snack foods available. (As much as you wanted.)
The hotel rooms were clean and spacious. This is a large, attractive hotel and the equally-large swimming pool was gorgeous. The big Jacuzzi saw some of us in it every night. If you didn’t feel like going into town (or diving) the entertainment crew usually had some kind of production or music occurring on the large outdoor stage within the hotel compound.
Note: The free booze you get in the “booze-included” package was beer, wine, and well liquors with a smattering of middle-shelf brands thrown in. Very nice.
The secure, hotel-owned dive lockers out by the dock meant you never had to carry wet gear into the hotel or your room. My only criticism of the lockers is that they were too small for 2 diver’s gear. Difficult to get all your… and your partner’s… gear in there. A nice convenience though.
In short, the hotel was WELL worth every cent we paid for it (and a bit more). Very recommended. (I also understand that different dive ops can pick you up at that hotel dock… even though DP maintains a scuba shop there.)
PLAYA DEL CARMEN & Dos Ojos Ceynote:
Although it wasn’t an “official” group side-trip (because of liability issues I’ll discuss later), the trip to Playa was outstanding. Playa beats Cozumel on the energy scale hands down. The main drag really hops and the restaurants, shops, and clubs are much more interesting. Almost a European kind of vibe. We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of everything and were really liking what we experienced. We had Dive Shop Mexico arrange our Cenote dives and tours and they did quite well. Wasn’t really enough time to establish relationships or friendships, but they came through on everything they promised.
The tour of the Dos Ojos ceynote was as beautiful as I knew it would be. Did not disappoint. To a person, the other 19 in our group all said they felt the same way: Thrilled and awed.
Lines were layed out all over the ceynote with crystal clear water and stalagtites/stalagmites throughout. The leader of each of our small groups was a cave-certified instructor. T’was a wondrous experience.
I did a fair amount of due diligence before we traveled to Mexico and made it plain to everyone I would not even let them talk about this side trip on our group message boards if there was any cave component re our guided dive into their chosen cenote. (Liability issues for my group and such.) Everything I could find on Dos Ojos labeled it cavern-level, except for clearly defined routes into a cave system (into which we did not go). Unfortunately there were some elements of our tour in the ceynote that had decided un-cavern-like features. At one point, midway through the second tour, acting on my suspicions, I stopped for a moment (I was bringing up the rear) and held my dive light in against my chest. Save for the lights of the people ahead of me there was no daylight and no exit to be seen. I did this twice more at different points in the tour. No way out discernable. I think the sheer grandeur of the system kept me from thinking to do this on the first dive. At no time did I feel we were in danger, but that means little and is, perhaps, part of the illusion of a cave system. We all must make decisions about our personal safety. I simply like to have the correct info available to make mine.
TOURS: Tulum and Chichen Itza are both amazing Mayan ruins sites. Although a fairly long shuttle ride from Playa (about 90 minutes and 150 minutes respectively) everyone felt they were well worth the time it took to get there. As for myself I’m very glad I did them.
My group had, by and large, a great experience.
*It's important to understand the dive operation is not owned by the hotel. Two different businesses.
( you did notice that they were located with the Hotel Cozumel right? You do realize the Hotel Cozumel is a bargain hotel right? The dive shops not going to be drastically different, wouldn't you think?)
