Carlos Diver
Contributor
Spent five nights at Sabor from June 2-7. Dove two days with Living Underwater, a day with Scuba with Alison and a night dive with house op Dive House. Ill break my report down my sections.
Flight down was easy enough, connecting through Atlanta and got into Cozumel about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. However, it was a packed flight and since I was one of the last people off the plane I waited just over an hour to get through immigration. Luckily I had a book on me and just read the entire time, so it went ``quickly.'' Grabbed some pesos from the bank ATM and got my ride to Sabor.
Hotel was Sunscape Sabor. I had stayed at Secrets my last trip and will be again in Nov. However, I got a good rate so I booked Sabor this time. I toured it when I was at Secrets and knew it would be fine. I booked the basic room and was upgraded to a pool-view junior suite with king bed. The room was huge, and being a corner room it had a nice wrap-around terrace with a jaccuzi. I spend very little time in my room, in fact nothing but the bed was touched (had a sofa, chair, two bar stools and a table with four chairs). The room is dated, but that wasnt unexpected. I knew Sabor is one of the more ``economical'' family AIs on the island and I wasnt expected five stars. Likewise I was happy with the food selection. The buffet was good and the sit down places all had something very, very good on the menu. Mexican was as good as what I have had in town (I know some people wont like hearing that
and the ocean views from the buffet place and the SeaSide are A+. Being a family resort there were plenty of teens and kids. Until the last day, it wasnt an issue. Most were well behaved and didnt get in the way. Last day it seemed they had enough of being quiet and everywhere you went someone's toddler was crying or screaming. Overall, I had no major complaints about the place and would go back for the right price, though I consider Iberostar (usually comparatively priced) to be a slightly better all-around resort.
Diving. Okay, enough of stuff you dont care to read haha. I did two days of diving with Living Underwater (four dives) a day with Scuba with Alison (two dives) and added a last minute night dive with Dive House (Hotel's dive op).
Living Underwater is my preferred dive op in Cozumel. Jeremy and his crew are fantastic. No need to be a cheerleader, if you dive with him you will go back, it is really that simple. Our dive sites for the two days were: Palancar Gardens, Columbia, Punta Sur and Cedral Pass. All dives were fantastic (I am very easy to please while diving). The Cedral Pass dive might have been my favorite dive of all time to this point. Turtles, turtles and more turtles. I seriously lost count of the turtle sightings that day. I was up to at least 7 or 8. Likewise we saw two schools of barracudas, a nurse shark, a splendid toadfish and even killed a lionfish for good measure. All the usual suspects, lobsters, blue angels, a spotted eel, yellow snappers and groupers all came out on this dive. Just a great, great dive. Visibility was great on all dives and I was usually reading 83 degrees on my computer. However, Jeremy was going on vacation so the first two days of my trip is all he had. He is off for the rest of June and I wish him a safe and happy trip. The only down side was my new spring straps decided to divorce my fins on the first dive entry. Everyone chipped in and tracked them down, but I felt like an idiot. Ill be exchanging them for smaller ones.
Scuba with Alison was my backup for this trip and she was able to fit me in for a day. I dived with her back in 08 while on a cruise stop and knew I would get a great trip using her. She is very professional and friendly. Our dive sites were Palancar Caves and a return trip to Cedral. Both good, fun dives and was very happy with choosing Alison and would recommend her anytime.
Dive House is the house op for Secrets and Sabor. Walking out of lunch their shop is right across the walkway, so on my next to last day I went over and asked if they had any night dives schedules. They had one that night and still had space, so I went ahead and reserved. Overall, I would not recommend this op. I felt the dive guide was fine and the boat crew was okay. However, I hadn't seen a cattle drive like that since my ex-girl friends's family reunion. 11 divers on a night dive is just too many people. There was barely enough room on the boat to gear up. They did have two guides and dropped us well, but too many times on the dive it felt crowded (which is tough to do in the open ocean) and people were running into each other trying to see things. The dive itself was fine. We dove San Clemente and we saw an octopus out on the hunt, crabs and several other nice critters. The final straw though was they rough handled my equipment. I had a brand new Atomic regular and when i went to dunk my gear back in my hotel room, the exhaust deflector from my reg was missing. I double checked my bad and nothing. It was dark (obviously) when i put my gear into my bag on the boat so I didnt notice it then (that is partially my fault.) but I know the reg was intact when i took off my gear to climb the ladder. The next day I went to ask if they had found one on the boat and of course nothing. It's an easy and cheap replacement, but it is not something that should have happened.
Flight home was bittersweet and I breezed through Customs and Immigration in Atlanta. Last time I came home I spent an hour waiting to clear security in Atlanta. No issues this time. I was through Customs and rechecked through security in probably 5 minutes.
Now it is back to cooking my own meals and back to work tomorrow. November, come swiftly!
Quick edits with pictures. Also, I forgot (I dont know how) that the Secrets beach had a turtle nest. I know that is rare on the west side, and I hadnt seen once since I was in Hawaii many years ago. Great to see it.
Flight down was easy enough, connecting through Atlanta and got into Cozumel about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. However, it was a packed flight and since I was one of the last people off the plane I waited just over an hour to get through immigration. Luckily I had a book on me and just read the entire time, so it went ``quickly.'' Grabbed some pesos from the bank ATM and got my ride to Sabor.
Hotel was Sunscape Sabor. I had stayed at Secrets my last trip and will be again in Nov. However, I got a good rate so I booked Sabor this time. I toured it when I was at Secrets and knew it would be fine. I booked the basic room and was upgraded to a pool-view junior suite with king bed. The room was huge, and being a corner room it had a nice wrap-around terrace with a jaccuzi. I spend very little time in my room, in fact nothing but the bed was touched (had a sofa, chair, two bar stools and a table with four chairs). The room is dated, but that wasnt unexpected. I knew Sabor is one of the more ``economical'' family AIs on the island and I wasnt expected five stars. Likewise I was happy with the food selection. The buffet was good and the sit down places all had something very, very good on the menu. Mexican was as good as what I have had in town (I know some people wont like hearing that
and the ocean views from the buffet place and the SeaSide are A+. Being a family resort there were plenty of teens and kids. Until the last day, it wasnt an issue. Most were well behaved and didnt get in the way. Last day it seemed they had enough of being quiet and everywhere you went someone's toddler was crying or screaming. Overall, I had no major complaints about the place and would go back for the right price, though I consider Iberostar (usually comparatively priced) to be a slightly better all-around resort.Diving. Okay, enough of stuff you dont care to read haha. I did two days of diving with Living Underwater (four dives) a day with Scuba with Alison (two dives) and added a last minute night dive with Dive House (Hotel's dive op).
Living Underwater is my preferred dive op in Cozumel. Jeremy and his crew are fantastic. No need to be a cheerleader, if you dive with him you will go back, it is really that simple. Our dive sites for the two days were: Palancar Gardens, Columbia, Punta Sur and Cedral Pass. All dives were fantastic (I am very easy to please while diving). The Cedral Pass dive might have been my favorite dive of all time to this point. Turtles, turtles and more turtles. I seriously lost count of the turtle sightings that day. I was up to at least 7 or 8. Likewise we saw two schools of barracudas, a nurse shark, a splendid toadfish and even killed a lionfish for good measure. All the usual suspects, lobsters, blue angels, a spotted eel, yellow snappers and groupers all came out on this dive. Just a great, great dive. Visibility was great on all dives and I was usually reading 83 degrees on my computer. However, Jeremy was going on vacation so the first two days of my trip is all he had. He is off for the rest of June and I wish him a safe and happy trip. The only down side was my new spring straps decided to divorce my fins on the first dive entry. Everyone chipped in and tracked them down, but I felt like an idiot. Ill be exchanging them for smaller ones.
Scuba with Alison was my backup for this trip and she was able to fit me in for a day. I dived with her back in 08 while on a cruise stop and knew I would get a great trip using her. She is very professional and friendly. Our dive sites were Palancar Caves and a return trip to Cedral. Both good, fun dives and was very happy with choosing Alison and would recommend her anytime.
Dive House is the house op for Secrets and Sabor. Walking out of lunch their shop is right across the walkway, so on my next to last day I went over and asked if they had any night dives schedules. They had one that night and still had space, so I went ahead and reserved. Overall, I would not recommend this op. I felt the dive guide was fine and the boat crew was okay. However, I hadn't seen a cattle drive like that since my ex-girl friends's family reunion. 11 divers on a night dive is just too many people. There was barely enough room on the boat to gear up. They did have two guides and dropped us well, but too many times on the dive it felt crowded (which is tough to do in the open ocean) and people were running into each other trying to see things. The dive itself was fine. We dove San Clemente and we saw an octopus out on the hunt, crabs and several other nice critters. The final straw though was they rough handled my equipment. I had a brand new Atomic regular and when i went to dunk my gear back in my hotel room, the exhaust deflector from my reg was missing. I double checked my bad and nothing. It was dark (obviously) when i put my gear into my bag on the boat so I didnt notice it then (that is partially my fault.) but I know the reg was intact when i took off my gear to climb the ladder. The next day I went to ask if they had found one on the boat and of course nothing. It's an easy and cheap replacement, but it is not something that should have happened.
Flight home was bittersweet and I breezed through Customs and Immigration in Atlanta. Last time I came home I spent an hour waiting to clear security in Atlanta. No issues this time. I was through Customs and rechecked through security in probably 5 minutes.
Now it is back to cooking my own meals and back to work tomorrow. November, come swiftly!
Quick edits with pictures. Also, I forgot (I dont know how) that the Secrets beach had a turtle nest. I know that is rare on the west side, and I hadnt seen once since I was in Hawaii many years ago. Great to see it.
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