OC Grand question

[scottyroz]

I will be staying there from June 13-20 and i was wondering if the hotel includes free shore diving, rentals, etc. ? Is there even shore diving by the hotel?

 

[ScubaTexas]

There is no shore diving at the Grand (and very little on Cozumel itself). My experience has been that the dive shop is separate from the resort and the stay at the resort does not include free use of dive gear or free dives.

 

[scottyroz]

thanks for the response

 

[Shader]

thanks for the response

Quite the contrary actually. Dive Palancar is the Grand Cozumel's and Occidental's dive op and on their website they say you can shore dive for free as quoted:

"Shore dive anytime to fine tune your buoyancy - adjust your weight belt or simply refresh your abilities in shallow water before you go any deeper - no charge, we want you to have a safe and enjoyable vacation. Allegro's Beach is ideal.."


Granted the shore diving is not exciting it is a good idea for divers wanting to get comfortable before they go out on the boat.

 

[Canucklehead]

The "shore dive" from the Allegro and I assume the Grand as well, is strictly for tuning your buoyancy and checking out your rig. I did see a lobster one time snorkling in the swim area off the Allegro last year, but there is no reef to be seen.

 

[scottyroz]

I would imagine that they expect you to dive with them if you use their stuff to fine tune your skills

 

[Canucklehead]

I would imagine that they expect you to dive with them if you use their stuff to fine tune your skills

Although I'm staying at the Allegro, I plan to do most of my diving with a different dive op this time around. However, I will be doing some dives with Dive Palancar (mostly night dives) so I don't feel too guilty grabbing a couple of cylinders the day we arrive to do a bouyancy check. To quote the Dive Palancar web site:

Shore dive anytime to fine tune your buoyancy - adjust your weight belt or simply refresh your abilities in shallow water before you go any deeper - no charge, we want you to have a safe and enjoyable vacation. Allegro's Beach is ideal.. Dive Palancar

I'll probably mitigate whatever guilt I feel by tipping whomever slings the tanks out of the rack for me a couple of bucks....

 

[diverincanada]

I just got back from the Grand and can concure that there is nothing but sand and more sand at the beach (unusual for Cozumel as you probably know).

Not much shore diving in Cozumel except... has anyone checked out the site www.shorediving.com . You have to drill down a few pages but they list about half a dozen shore dives to be done in Cozumel. I can't say I have done any of them but I might be worth a look.

C

 

[ggunn]

Not much shore diving in Cozumel except... has anyone checked out the site www.shorediving.com . You have to drill down a few pages but they list about half a dozen shore dives to be done in Cozumel. I can't say I have done any of them but I might be worth a look.

C

I just tried, but I wish their web designer would set up their pages to run without having to load a bazillion java applets just to show the basic info. There is such a thing as overkill on whistles and bells.

I am on a Unix box right now, and I don't have install privileges, and the firewalll blocks Java from coming in and installing itself, so their page is unintelligible to me.

 

[Shader]

The sites listed on the shorediving.com are:

Playa Bonita
Hotel Barracuda
Hotel La Cieba - Villablanca Wall
Villablanca Hotel
Chankanaab Park
Palancar park
Punta Sur Park
Casa Del Mar
Coz Airplane

Has anyone tried shore diving on the east side of the island? I know it's a bit rough over there but was wondering if there are any good sites.