Guests of Sunscape, Secrets & Residencias Reef

[gopbroek]

Did I mention: beach pickups or Paradise beach pier? The pier to the North is on an area with small cliffs and no beach access, I believe you would have to walk out to main road and then up to its access road unless there is a trail thru the Las Ventanas Villa. Not sure who owns that pier but I believe Dive Palancar or Dive Paradise runs a satellite dive op/shop out of a truck at the entrance to the pier

 

[Christi]

There is a concrete pier on the north end of the property. Who owns that pier? We have stoped there more than once to pick up a mask or fins that were misplaced and had to be brought down.

That pier is known as the Sand Dollar pier because they built it and were the in house dive shop for The Reef Club/Wyndham for many, many years. It's now operated by Dive Palancar and they have the concession right for that pier - also a charge for that pier and a lot harder entry and exit from small six pack boats - it's great for the large boats.

Also, not sure there is access from the hotel anymore - I believe it is blocked off - and it can only be accessed from the street - I could be wrong here.

 

[drrich2]

If a dive op. does pickups from a resort with a pier fee, and opts to instead have customers wade out from the beach to the dive boat, does that ever get reflected in lower review ratings on Trip Advisor? Or people leaving reviews where they mentioned having to wade out to the boat?

I ask because while on Scuba Board the 'backstory' of such matters may get explained, vacation divers planning trips who don't come here & mainly use Trip Advisor may be put off by that. How many people reading a review talking about wading out to a dive op.'s boat will assume that's common practice, and pass on them to dive with another dive op. they didn't read that about?

I've heard day boat crew at other destinations mention Trip Advisor so I take it such reviews matter to their businesses.

Richard.

 

[NDL_Diver]

Not until people start voting with their wallet AND telling the the resort (resort corporation) why they are not comming back or booking, will things start to get better. Resort corporate my have no idea why bookings are down or why customers are not returning.

TA may be getting better about negative reviews, but if real customers complain to corperate or can post honesty on TA about the issue, things may change.

I think corporate may not know there is an issue.

It would be different if these AI are not run by locals and not from thousands of miles away.

 

[cicopo]

To the best of my knowledge Secrets / Aura etc leases the rights to the name & is owned by a group of investors who likely have a management company running things. Not sure if that's current but Tennis player Rafael Nadal was a part of the investor group.

 

[NDL_Diver]

The $2 fee is reasonable it is the way it is collected. It could be as easy as the guest providing a room number and name to the dock guard and the fee charged to the room.

 

[Christi]

The $2 fee is reasonable it is the way it is collected. It could be as easy as the guest providing a room number and name to the dock guard and the fee charged to the room.

excellent solution if they need to charge

 

[imoto]

"Like Iberostar, I think most reasonable people should avoid these places and I will urge my hundreds of customers to look elsewhere for a hotel. Those idiot bean counters may think they can squeeze a few bucks out of each guest but I wonder how much empty rooms may cost them."

Or perhaps the DO might wonder how many divers they're missing by not picking up at the resort.

 

[Saboteur]

Don't dive ops on Cozumel run shuttle vehicles and take guests to the operators dock?

 

[cicopo]

No they don't & nor do the resorts. Taxi Union rules with an iron fist when it comes to transporting tourists.