Hi All,
I just returned from a 10-day all-inclusive trip to the Occ Grand Coz with my wife and 3-year-old girl. All in all a great trip! Here are some observations:
We rented a car, as it was only $18/day through Avis, via Expedia. I used to live in Coz, working as a diver for a bit, so we wanted to get out and about a bit. Otro lado, Sunday night fiesta in San Miguel, my friend's restaurant, etc. With the toddler, having a car proved valuable several times.
The property is quite nice, and generally well maintained. That being said (typed), at one point the same empty yogurt cup sat just off of a main path for 3 of 4 days, and a small empty creamer cup for another 3 or 4 days. Seemed like no-one wanted "jurisdiction" and these things just sat there. I left them there out of curiosity re how long it would take for the staff to deal with them. Inexplicable, especially in light of the fact that the grounds are otherwise pretty immaculate.
In any event, check-in was nice, with glasses of welcome bubbly (which was by far the best wine of the week) with re-fills. Nice staffers at check-in. Just after check-in we ran into the sharks. Pleasant sharks, but...This was our first all-inclusive, so we did not know what was up when we were informed by a nice fellow that he would be our concierge, and we needed to check back with him after completing check-in. Obviously, it turns our that we were dealing with the timeshare folks. A bit misleading, but no big deal. Once they knew that we were not interested, they left us alone the rest of the trip.
The rooms are pretty nice, and more than comfy enough. We were in Building 17, top floor, and we loved it. A bit closer to the pools and beach than to the main buildings. They hooked us up with a pack n play for Sofi, although she started sleeping with us in the big bed (king) after the first couple of days (yep, still dealing with that issue now that we are back home--oi...). You get a bath AND a power shower. And a mini fridge. Weird that they stock water very day, but beer only every other day. Every day, the towels were oragamied into cool critters that Sofi loved. We were definitely happy with our digs.
Sofi was a bit too young for the Kids Club and related activities without adult supervision, and we knew this coming in. She is nearly 3, and Kids Club starts at 4. So, through the resort we were able to arrange for Sonia to come in every morning and hang out with Sofi on a hourly basis ($10/hr) while we were diving. Worked out extremely well! Otherwise, Sofi was a little star among the staff and many of the guests. All was great on this score.
The food. Blah. Not so very good. I mean, generally no t hideous, but not so good. Actually, the first couple of days, I zoned in on some slow-cooked stuff like pork tinga that was pretty doggone good, but we saw no more of this after the first 2 days. Also, alot of stuff on the menu (such as mole, which I love) that never materialized. In any event, they were running the buffet and 2 "specialty restaurants" (the Sonora Mexican Grill and Olivos Med). The breakfast was always up in the main buildings, and was always fine. Omeletes to order, French Toast, juices, cereal. Always just fine. And here is a great tip. We were diving daily, so we took to slapping a fresh omelette on a baguette, grabbing some melon, juice and coffee, and schlepping down to the Beach Club next to the dive shop and pulling up a table. Enjoying breakfast on the beach while watching the dive shop attempt to gel.
Lunches were always at the Beach Club. Great place, which helped make up for the lame food. Roasted meats, overcooked and without much seasoning and flavor. All of the chicken tasted the same, regardless of what it was called. The salsas were Ok, and the habanero-based verde was some of the hottest restaurant salsas I have had. Go for it! But lightly...And AFTER diving. While the lunch food was generally lame, we could always find something to lunch on.
Dinners buffets were usually in the main building, but at the Beach Club on Thursdays. If dinners were always at the Beach Club, the lame food would have not been as much of an issue. Like the lunches, meats over-cooked and otherwise pretty duh stuff. "Oriental night" was downright silly! Again, you can always find something short of foul, but that's not saying much. Each guest is "entitled" to 3 dinners per week in the "specialty" a la carte restaurants. Reservations. Collared shirts. Closed-toed shoes. We were offered 6 such dinners, and used 2. First was the Sonoran Mexican Grill, which you would think they would absolutely nail. Downright foul. The second was the Olivo Mediterranean gig, which was a bit better because of the sauces (they seemed to have a decent saucier), but was absurd with the pompous attitudes and the white gloves. Gimme a break. Oh, they also had a decent cheese platter, but unlike in the Med, they served it up front rather than after dinner. I would say leave the formal attire at home and skip the "specialty" restaurants.
Another thing re the food: My wife eventually took to eating alot of salad stuff and ended up getting very ill on the morning of our departure. Had to have a doctor from town make a house call, which only cost $60, plus cost of meds. 2 jabs in the butt, and oral meds as well. Barely made it home. I stuck with fully cooked foods and had no problems. One regret: I failed to take fotos of my wife getting the jabbs in the butt--for posterior posterity!
I know this is alot on food. My wife is a private chef, and we are sort of foodies. All in all, the food is do-able. You can always find something and make it work. And the silver lining: you don't have to worry about gaining weight!
The 3 bars are fine. One Lobby Bar, one at the pool and one at the Beach Club. Mixed drinks are typically made with bargain booze and are a bit weak. However, with a little selection--and tipping!--you can get Absolut and such. And after dinner I usually switched to Jameison rocks, which can't be watered down. Another good one is the Tequila Liqueur neat as a digestive. Beach service can be pretty nice. We tipped a bit for this service and were well taken care of.
The dive operation. Dive Palancar is on-site, although other shops were doing pick-ups for no charge from the resort. We went with a package with DP< and it worked out Ok, although I do have a few issues. First, the shop jocks were pretty clueless about organizing boats and groups. Different boats and guides all of the time, and a game of musical divers where you were with different divers most days. This lead to situations where some divers who wanted to dive certain sites were paired with divers who had just dove those sites the previous day, and vice versa. Also, various experience levels on the same boat, unnecessarily. If you wanted to dive with divers of similar experience, or if you wanted to dive "special trip" sites (such as Maracaibo and Punta Sur), you pretty much had to organize the minimum 6 divers yourself. No sign up board. No information about how the sign-up process works (sign up each day for the following day, but no sign up board). Also, short dives, usually 40 minutes, due to the fact that they run 4 trips per day minimum, and so the boats and guides keep a busy schedule. I am used to 1 hour dives, and I was coming up with heaps of air.
As for the dive guides: as always, it depends on who you get. We had one who took us to Maracaibo, and missed the drop. Missed the dive site completely. And we still had to pay the surcharge. I have guided many dives myself, and I understand that this can happen. I would have been happy to pay for a dive, but having to pay the surcharge was not right. Anyway, after missing the drop, we get back to the dock and the guide starts openly asking for tips--"something for the captain". This was lame. I intended to tip, but when he openly hit us up after missing the dive...And saying it was "for the captain". Then I told him that we don't bring cash to the boat, and we would tip at week's end, he wanted to argue about this mot being the best approach to tipping--only for the captain, remember. We ended up tipping, but a bit less. Our second guide was fine, with good briefings and good drops. But he was really a dive supervisor more than a guide, hovering above everyone and not finding and showing anything. Lobo was our third guide, and he was truly excellent. The briefings were great, and appropriately tailored based on the divers in the group. Always went the extra mile to find the correct drop point (even if he had to jump in first), and always finding cool stuff and pointing it out. Good diver. Again, I have done alot of guiding in many parts of the world, and I highly recommend Lobo--The Wolf!
The diving itself: Coz still has some of the most amazing coral formations, some the size of office buildings! Sure, the wildlife is not overly-abundant, and is next to nothing compared to Asia Pacific. But is is still great diving. Just as when I was working in Coz years ago, Devil's Throat and Cathedral at Punta Sur are still amazing by any standard (my favs). And the wall looked healthy near Maracaibo, although again, we missed the drop. Palancar Caves was still awesome! One disappointment was Santa Rosa. Used to be one of my favs, but it is now frosted with sand. And some of my old favs farther north, such as Tunich, are apparently not even worth diving now. The viz was down, by Coz standards--70 feet maybe?
Phew. Lots of info. Maybe too much, but only cuz I care! Several criticisms, and I would not want to give an overall negative impression. We had a great trip and would do it all over again! Probably will , but may consider outsourcing the dive op thing (and hiring The Wolf privately?). Great resort with a relatively great beach, just workable food, Ok dive op and heaps of great diving right in our own North American neighborhood!
Adios
I just returned from a 10-day all-inclusive trip to the Occ Grand Coz with my wife and 3-year-old girl. All in all a great trip! Here are some observations:
We rented a car, as it was only $18/day through Avis, via Expedia. I used to live in Coz, working as a diver for a bit, so we wanted to get out and about a bit. Otro lado, Sunday night fiesta in San Miguel, my friend's restaurant, etc. With the toddler, having a car proved valuable several times.
The property is quite nice, and generally well maintained. That being said (typed), at one point the same empty yogurt cup sat just off of a main path for 3 of 4 days, and a small empty creamer cup for another 3 or 4 days. Seemed like no-one wanted "jurisdiction" and these things just sat there. I left them there out of curiosity re how long it would take for the staff to deal with them. Inexplicable, especially in light of the fact that the grounds are otherwise pretty immaculate.
In any event, check-in was nice, with glasses of welcome bubbly (which was by far the best wine of the week) with re-fills. Nice staffers at check-in. Just after check-in we ran into the sharks. Pleasant sharks, but...This was our first all-inclusive, so we did not know what was up when we were informed by a nice fellow that he would be our concierge, and we needed to check back with him after completing check-in. Obviously, it turns our that we were dealing with the timeshare folks. A bit misleading, but no big deal. Once they knew that we were not interested, they left us alone the rest of the trip.
The rooms are pretty nice, and more than comfy enough. We were in Building 17, top floor, and we loved it. A bit closer to the pools and beach than to the main buildings. They hooked us up with a pack n play for Sofi, although she started sleeping with us in the big bed (king) after the first couple of days (yep, still dealing with that issue now that we are back home--oi...). You get a bath AND a power shower. And a mini fridge. Weird that they stock water very day, but beer only every other day. Every day, the towels were oragamied into cool critters that Sofi loved. We were definitely happy with our digs.
Sofi was a bit too young for the Kids Club and related activities without adult supervision, and we knew this coming in. She is nearly 3, and Kids Club starts at 4. So, through the resort we were able to arrange for Sonia to come in every morning and hang out with Sofi on a hourly basis ($10/hr) while we were diving. Worked out extremely well! Otherwise, Sofi was a little star among the staff and many of the guests. All was great on this score.
The food. Blah. Not so very good. I mean, generally no t hideous, but not so good. Actually, the first couple of days, I zoned in on some slow-cooked stuff like pork tinga that was pretty doggone good, but we saw no more of this after the first 2 days. Also, alot of stuff on the menu (such as mole, which I love) that never materialized. In any event, they were running the buffet and 2 "specialty restaurants" (the Sonora Mexican Grill and Olivos Med). The breakfast was always up in the main buildings, and was always fine. Omeletes to order, French Toast, juices, cereal. Always just fine. And here is a great tip. We were diving daily, so we took to slapping a fresh omelette on a baguette, grabbing some melon, juice and coffee, and schlepping down to the Beach Club next to the dive shop and pulling up a table. Enjoying breakfast on the beach while watching the dive shop attempt to gel.
Lunches were always at the Beach Club. Great place, which helped make up for the lame food. Roasted meats, overcooked and without much seasoning and flavor. All of the chicken tasted the same, regardless of what it was called. The salsas were Ok, and the habanero-based verde was some of the hottest restaurant salsas I have had. Go for it! But lightly...And AFTER diving. While the lunch food was generally lame, we could always find something to lunch on.
Dinners buffets were usually in the main building, but at the Beach Club on Thursdays. If dinners were always at the Beach Club, the lame food would have not been as much of an issue. Like the lunches, meats over-cooked and otherwise pretty duh stuff. "Oriental night" was downright silly! Again, you can always find something short of foul, but that's not saying much. Each guest is "entitled" to 3 dinners per week in the "specialty" a la carte restaurants. Reservations. Collared shirts. Closed-toed shoes. We were offered 6 such dinners, and used 2. First was the Sonoran Mexican Grill, which you would think they would absolutely nail. Downright foul. The second was the Olivo Mediterranean gig, which was a bit better because of the sauces (they seemed to have a decent saucier), but was absurd with the pompous attitudes and the white gloves. Gimme a break. Oh, they also had a decent cheese platter, but unlike in the Med, they served it up front rather than after dinner. I would say leave the formal attire at home and skip the "specialty" restaurants.
Another thing re the food: My wife eventually took to eating alot of salad stuff and ended up getting very ill on the morning of our departure. Had to have a doctor from town make a house call, which only cost $60, plus cost of meds. 2 jabs in the butt, and oral meds as well. Barely made it home. I stuck with fully cooked foods and had no problems. One regret: I failed to take fotos of my wife getting the jabbs in the butt--for posterior posterity!
I know this is alot on food. My wife is a private chef, and we are sort of foodies. All in all, the food is do-able. You can always find something and make it work. And the silver lining: you don't have to worry about gaining weight!
The 3 bars are fine. One Lobby Bar, one at the pool and one at the Beach Club. Mixed drinks are typically made with bargain booze and are a bit weak. However, with a little selection--and tipping!--you can get Absolut and such. And after dinner I usually switched to Jameison rocks, which can't be watered down. Another good one is the Tequila Liqueur neat as a digestive. Beach service can be pretty nice. We tipped a bit for this service and were well taken care of.
The dive operation. Dive Palancar is on-site, although other shops were doing pick-ups for no charge from the resort. We went with a package with DP< and it worked out Ok, although I do have a few issues. First, the shop jocks were pretty clueless about organizing boats and groups. Different boats and guides all of the time, and a game of musical divers where you were with different divers most days. This lead to situations where some divers who wanted to dive certain sites were paired with divers who had just dove those sites the previous day, and vice versa. Also, various experience levels on the same boat, unnecessarily. If you wanted to dive with divers of similar experience, or if you wanted to dive "special trip" sites (such as Maracaibo and Punta Sur), you pretty much had to organize the minimum 6 divers yourself. No sign up board. No information about how the sign-up process works (sign up each day for the following day, but no sign up board). Also, short dives, usually 40 minutes, due to the fact that they run 4 trips per day minimum, and so the boats and guides keep a busy schedule. I am used to 1 hour dives, and I was coming up with heaps of air.
As for the dive guides: as always, it depends on who you get. We had one who took us to Maracaibo, and missed the drop. Missed the dive site completely. And we still had to pay the surcharge. I have guided many dives myself, and I understand that this can happen. I would have been happy to pay for a dive, but having to pay the surcharge was not right. Anyway, after missing the drop, we get back to the dock and the guide starts openly asking for tips--"something for the captain". This was lame. I intended to tip, but when he openly hit us up after missing the dive...And saying it was "for the captain". Then I told him that we don't bring cash to the boat, and we would tip at week's end, he wanted to argue about this mot being the best approach to tipping--only for the captain, remember. We ended up tipping, but a bit less. Our second guide was fine, with good briefings and good drops. But he was really a dive supervisor more than a guide, hovering above everyone and not finding and showing anything. Lobo was our third guide, and he was truly excellent. The briefings were great, and appropriately tailored based on the divers in the group. Always went the extra mile to find the correct drop point (even if he had to jump in first), and always finding cool stuff and pointing it out. Good diver. Again, I have done alot of guiding in many parts of the world, and I highly recommend Lobo--The Wolf!
The diving itself: Coz still has some of the most amazing coral formations, some the size of office buildings! Sure, the wildlife is not overly-abundant, and is next to nothing compared to Asia Pacific. But is is still great diving. Just as when I was working in Coz years ago, Devil's Throat and Cathedral at Punta Sur are still amazing by any standard (my favs). And the wall looked healthy near Maracaibo, although again, we missed the drop. Palancar Caves was still awesome! One disappointment was Santa Rosa. Used to be one of my favs, but it is now frosted with sand. And some of my old favs farther north, such as Tunich, are apparently not even worth diving now. The viz was down, by Coz standards--70 feet maybe?
Phew. Lots of info. Maybe too much, but only cuz I care! Several criticisms, and I would not want to give an overall negative impression. We had a great trip and would do it all over again! Probably will , but may consider outsourcing the dive op thing (and hiring The Wolf privately?). Great resort with a relatively great beach, just workable food, Ok dive op and heaps of great diving right in our own North American neighborhood!
Adios