Dive Paradise, Costa club hotel in Cozumel

[scuba_guy]

We are planning a group dive trip to Cozumel and want to hear from anyone who has stayed at the Costa Club hotel and dove with dive paradise, any information would be great, if you know of any better deals down there, let me know..
thanks

 

[fredk]

have not been to costa club yet but am going in march, have been told it is very clean comfortable and good food what else do you need besides good diving and coz. will give you that.

 

[Starfish]

My husband and I stayed at the Costa Club and dove with Dive Paradise the week before USA's Labor Day.

Dive Paradise:
Positives -- The crowds were non existant at that time, and we averaged 8 people per large dive boat plus 2 DM's.
When my hubby was sidelines, Dive Paradise did give him a credit for when we return.
We did go to mutiple sights including the Navy ship rigged for non-wreck certified divers (hatches and bulkheads enlarged and guide lines established) so they could go through a wreck.

The negative I had on D.P. were --
Their first day practice (I asked around and every diver got the same first day treatment even with proof of extensive training and many dives) of putting day-1 divers on the slowest boats.

The boat hands/workers insisted on setting up your equipement after the first dive but did not always set things correctly (yes, you should always check!).

When we were in a high current situation, no lines were available for divers to hold on to at the surface while everyone entered the boat.

DP refused to go to some distant sights because of the low loads on the boat (I can only assume they saw it as not enough $$ for the trouble).

Would I dive with them again? Yes.
Would I try another shop. Yes.

The Costa Club is clean and well taken care of.
The staff was helpful.
The on-site restaurant food was good and resonable. For breakfast, I would recommend NOT paying the buffet price and ordering individually dishes, unless you eat the salads and fresh fruit while in Mexico. Or you can take advantage of the all-inclusive. My hubby and I preferred to go downtown for dinner.
The on-site pool is large and clean if you like a post dive swim (we did the first day to help stretch muscles).

While we enjoyed our stay, my husband checked out some other hotels when he had an ear problem and didn't dive for two days. For about the same price, he recommends checking out the Barracuda. Reasons?

They have small refridgerators in their rooms which is helpful for chilling water, and if you eat the dive boat lunch (which everyone did) then getting provisions at the on-island Wal-Mart equivalent is all you need for your afternoon break.

The Barracuda also has a better shower set-up for post dive hanging of your gear with larger bathrooms and tiled floors.
You can take advantage of the padlocked bins at the waters edge. You could get a locker at the Dive Paradise shop, across the street from the Costa Club, but the Barracuda had a better set up.

My hubby did check out the rooms and said they were clean.

Would I stay at the Costa Club again on a package deal? Yes.

Hope this helps. --Starfish newly Medic First Aid certrified last night (08 Feb 2002).

 

[Starfish]

P.S.

You can walk downtown from the Costa Club but it is a bit of a hike. The advatage is that you do pass the Wal-Mart equivalent on the way back were you can get most items except dive equipment as it has a grocery section. The taxi ride is about (at that time) $3.80 one way.

Dive Paradise has a main shop which you also pass if you walk. Near there is a vegatarian & coffee shop restaurant which is excellent, particularly if your hungary for steamed vegtables (we didn't want to eat raw to avoid intestinal trouble later).

Dive Paradise will pick you up from the dock at the Baracuda.

 

[Natasha]

Starfish:
I am wondering if you did the free welcome shore dive with Dive Paradise. If yes, how did it go?
Thanks.

 

[Starfish]

I did "do" the free shore dive with DP.

This consisted of our checking in and confirming the schedule for the rest of the week. I had to specifially ask for equipement (tank and weights) for the shore dive and then I was left on my own (my husband and I were left on our own). They had limited gear at the satellite shop for rent. If you need equipement, make sure you telephone them in advance.

We asked how deep the pier was as we thought we might need to step off from there. There is a rocky cove right at the Costa Club small beach/were the DP satellite store is, but we found we were being tossed around too much when we tried to do a walk-in. The pier is about 12 feet to the water.

The water was clear and there was small coral and fish to look at while you got use to the water, and we did see one small ray (about 8 inches across). I had to adjust weights and had to get back on shore for a couple of pounds. The wave action in the rocky cove made it cumbersome to get to shore, and I bonked my knee on the rock, luckily not doing more then skinning the knee.

Other people we dove with that week did some night diving from the pier and said it was worth it. They reported seeing small octupus and rays.

I like to do the Welcome Dives to orientate myself to equipment and get my bouyancy checked.

 

[triggertravel]

Costa Club & Dive Paradise were great!

To make the most of the Costa Club / Dive Paradise experience I recomend:

• All Inclusive Plan (It is really cheap)
• Rent a Car (If you do not get the meal plan as the food and drinks will add up quickly)
• Request Pepe as the DiveMaster (He is really, really good)

Out of all our dive trips this is the one I'd do over and over again. It is a GREAT deal.ut:

 

[triggertravel]

I guess maybe you were looking for more than "they are great"... huh?

Costa Club is not the fanciest hotel - but it was perfect for us - and it always feels good when you get a bargain! I thought the staff was very friendly. The maids were prompt and always left the room very clean. We didn't get the all-inclusive plan - which I believe was $150 pp/per week - and we ended up wishing we had. Even if you are just going to eat their breakfast buffet every morning - it would be worth it. Breakfast ended up being close to $30 for the 2 of us. And we would end up grabbing a beer there every night before going into town - that all adds up to $150 pretty fast! They have tubs in the room, which we converted into a dunk tank! We would dry our gear on the balcony at night.

The biggest complaint I had about the hotel was the beds and pillows. The beds were very hard, but you got used to it after the first night. The pillows were very small! I guess we never did request more - maybe they would bring you some! If you are used to using a couple of full sized pillows - you might consider bringing one.

Dive Paradise's staff were great . Very friendly and entertaining. Pepe's boat was a riot! I definitely recommend their video service. You can hire them individually, or have them shoot the group and buy it if you like it. We loved it - the videographer was very talented, and put together a video that was very entertaining!
I think it was $35 for the group video. Its fun to look back and see the friends we made on the boat!

They had good surface interval food - a fruit, cookies, & cheese plate. They also offered your choice of soda , and had a jug of filtered water on board. If I am remembering correctly - they had a camera table too.

The only problem we had with Dive Paradise was an O ring went out on my wife's tank - and Pepe told us it was my wife's reg. He then stopped the night dive we were on to go and get another reg. We felt bad because we were putting everyone's dive on hold! After the boat got back and we put the reg on the same tank - again - it didn't work (because it was the O ring in the first place). They probably realized that it was just the O ring at that point - but still made on like it was something wrong with the reg to save embarrassment. After the dive Pepe told us we would have to pay for the reg rental too :money:! When we took our rental gear back to our LDS - the reg was fine.

That was our 4th day of diving, and we didn't dive our last scheduled day. The night dive at Las Palmas was a little scary. We weren't very experienced divers at that point (not that we are experts now!) and we kept getting ahead of the group in the fast current. We decided with a bad reg (which really wasn't) and the night dive experience - we would skip our last day. To Pepe's defense - he did get everyone back on the boat and go back to shore for another reg - just so my wife could do the night dive. He was trying to go out of his way to make our experience better - he just didn't get the analysis of the problem correct pps:.


All in all - I would still dive with Dive Paradise Again (nobody's perfect). We had a great time with them!

In town one night we also heard from a diver about his bad experience at Dive Paradise. His computer got smashed because they do not have bungees to hold the tanks up on the boat. So be careful of that!

I hope you have a great time!!

 

[triggertravel]

Originally posted by Starfish
My husband and I stayed at the Costa Club and dove with Dive Paradise the week before USA's Labor Day.

The negative I had on D.P. were --
Their first day practice (I asked around and every diver got the same first day treatment even with proof of extensive training and many dives) of putting day-1 divers on the slowest boats.

The boat hands/workers insisted on setting up your equipement after the first dive but did not always set things correctly (yes, you should always check!).

Just an fyi, when we were there we did not do any first day practice - and also didn't have the boat hands setting up our equipment - just changing our tanks in between dives.

If you have any questions let me know - I would be more than happy to answer them!!

 

[Rooster1]

I was there April last year, The hotel was nice (great pool).
Clean, service was good and not crowded. We never ate there, always went to town. Dive paradise is on site which is convenient.
you can shore dive right there which is cool.