I've booked a trip in December to stay at the Iberostar and will be using Dressel Divers. I've read some threads that talked about staying at this hotel limits you to dive sites due its location on the south end of the island. Part of my decision was the price, hotel rating in TripAdvisor and location. Using the map from Bay Adventures, it seems like there are a ton of dive sites. I'd like to get the most from my dive trip and I have enough time to change the hotel and any advice/feedback would be appreciated.
The map I've been using it at the below URL:
Cozumel dive vacation, Mexico scuba dive - Bay Adventures
I stayed at the Iberostar in April 2008, but didn't use Dressel for several reasons:
Their costs are generally much higher than off-site dive shops
Inflexible dive schedule (as referenced by Scubawife)
Large "cattle" boats 15+ divers of all skill levels
Unfortunately, most dive ops that will pick you up at the Iberostar pier will only go to the southern-most sites. I believe this is due to rising gas costs and time restrictions. On several of the drift dives (Francesca & Delilah), we surfaced so close to the Iberostar pier at the end of the dive, I could have swam there. I also ended up diving the same sites more than once (some 3x) during my stay.
If you drive or taxi ($20 US each way) to the downtown area and use a LDS, you will have more sites to choose from.
However, if you are only doing a few dives, the southern reefs have plenty of variety.
The Palancar sites have alot to offer and Columbia Shallows is one of my favorite sites for marine life.
As for the hotel, the food and rooms were a disappointment. My wife and I became ill on 2 separate occasions and ate off-property for the last several days. There is a thread here describing similar experiences by other ScubaBoard members. The rooms are small and we had a problem with ants all over the closet area. In contrast, we stayed at the Iberostar Grand in Riviera Maya in October 2007 and couldn't have asked for a better stay.
Hope this was helpful. Enjoy your visit to Coz!