Operator offering 3 daily dives? And lodging with meal plan?

[Streydog]

Just to give you what I have experienced. I just started diving too and started coming to Cozumel July of 2015 but I was very bad on air starting out. First trip I stayed at the Coral Reef Inn and did their package with Dive Paradise. Did the three dives a day package. Was a great price and had a great time. The afternoon dive was always at Paradise reef though, at least I was getting bottom time. I had fun with Dive Paradise. The inn is not real close to many restaurants but had a full kitchen along with a grill on the roof for all to use. I was able to get a locker outside of Hotel Barracuda, where I met the dive boat, so I didn't have to haul my gear. The next 4 trips I have made I stayed closer to town: Hotel Plaza Cozumel ($50 per night) Suites Bahia ($45) and 2x at Casa Mexicana ($78). All three include breakfast only but as stated earlier there are many places to eat close by. The last 4 trips I have made I have dove with Aldora initially due to their larger tanks. You sound like you don't have a problem with air but I did, working on improving that. The good thing is they have several boats and they do a good job pairing you up with divers of similar abilities, helping extend bottom times. I have only had a few dives under 60 mintutes in the last 45 dives or so and they were either due to issues with other divers or deeper than usual dives. In October I don't know if they could guarantee a single tank afternoon dive each day but after 2 70- 80 minute morning dives you might want to skip some. Not trying to be an Aldora cheerleader, don't have experience with other ops. I am pretty frugal (cheap) so have not done the AI south of town. Planning on going down again in October as well

 

[cmrangel]

I just got back from a trip and stayed at the Allegro Cozumel and dove with Pro dive Mexico (on site dive operation). Full plan, great beach and pool area. I really liked diving with Pro Dive Mexico. Free nitrox and 4 boat dives a day and a couple night dives per week. DM's were great. They are down south so the boat ride to the dive sites was really quick. Only drawback was that it is far from town. If you want to go downtown, it is about a 15 to 20 min taxi ride and $180 peso's. For me, the full plan with drinks at a good beach and pool and a great operator like Pro Dive was much more important. Had a blast and will be going back.

 

[AZjohn]

Carole, I not a season pro at Cozumel like many that post here but, I do like the way you want to dive and stay on your vacation (it's similar to my preference).

Basiclly, diving a lot (during daylight hours) is my top priority when I go on a diving trip. Tried many OP's that said they have afternoon dives but need to get X amount of divers before they could commit getting me out in the aftternoon. That rarely ever worked out until my 5th trip to the usland and found Blue Angel (from many suggestions here on SB).

There I finally found what I perfer. Non stop diving in the morning and afternoons (I think afternoons are two tanks also). They never told me they needed to find more divers to do the trip, it was always on.

What I appreciated also is they have a great restaurant and bar on property. To be honest, after 4 dives a day I really don't want to go out and explore looking for food/drinks and entertainment. I'm happy to just put on a dry pair of shorts and tee shirt and stroll over for a bite to eat and talk to the other divers stories of the day and then crash early to start it all over again in the morning.

Blue Angel does have free breakfast in the morning before all the boats start taking divers out. They don't offer a AI for lunch and dinner but found all their food and cold drinks are very fair priced for their quality.

Suggest you try them out as it sounds like you might enjoy it as much as I do now.

Cheers,
John

 

[diverokc]

FYI- I dive with dive paradise. They wont do the afternoon dive unless they have 4 people also. I'm kinda old and 2 morning dives are usually enough for me.

 

[elora_c]

Sounds like you might be good on air. Just curious...were those average depths or maximum depths?

Maximum depths. My computer doesn't show averages. Are there computers that do? Looking at the profiles, the deeper dives were about 20-25 min at around 70'. I'm a petite female, which I think helps with the consumption.

What size of tank were your using? Useful thing to log in your log book to help you comparatively analyze your gas consumption.

AL80s. Only thing I've ever used.

 

[elora_c]

Are you not interested in doing a 2-tank afternoon dive at all?

One of my concerns with that was timing issues. If the boat has to come all the way back up to town, I am worried there wouldn't be enough time to eat lunch before heading back out for the afternoon dives. Another reason why I want the restaurant on site, so I can just dump my stuff off in the locker, stop by my room for a minute, eat lunch, and then get ready to go out again.

As for the twilight/night dives - 2 concerns about that. One, I've never done a night dive, and was kind of hoping to have a private/guided trip my first time. Not sure I'd be comfortable just jumping into it with a group of strangers. Second, it seems like a more exhausting schedule. The afternoon would be free for relaxing, but then it would be a busy evening. Seems like the schedule would be: wake up early, eat a big breakfast, do 2 dives getting back early afternoon, eat a big lunch, rest, go out for twilight/night dive (with a snack in between), get back to the hotel, shower, sleep. Might be a bit much. Oh, and concern 3 - I get cold really easily and need the sun to warm me up between dives. Not as easy to warm up at night.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll check out/contact Blue Angel and 3P today.

 

[ggunn]

I agree that Blue Angel may be your best bet; I always stay there, myself. But afternoon dives are nearly always done only if there are a minimum number of divers who want to go; otherwise the dive op takes a loss. If you are the only one who wants to go, it's a lot to ask of an op to take the hit just to make you happy. That said, there are nearly always a lot of divers staying there and if you campaign a little your chances of getting a couple of others to go out in the afternoon are pretty good.

And don't be nervous about going on a night dive. It's easy peasy and you'll see critters that you won't see during the day.

 

[MMM]

Maximum depths. My computer doesn't show averages. Are there computers that do? Looking at the profiles, the deeper dives were about 20-25 min at around 70'.

Oh, that is a pretty short dive! Were you out of air, or were you diving with an op that made you come up with the worst air user in the group? (And hence your concern?) All of my computers show averages. I dive with two (ScubaPros) and have a third (Tusa) as an "extra" back at the house.

 

[DjDiverDan]

And don't be nervous about going on a night dive. It's easy peasy and you'll see critters that you won't see during the day.

AMEN! I understand having the nervous jitters about your first night dive - I was exactly the same way, and I damn near backed out of my first night dive. I had visions of dropping into a pitch black abyss (something like my AOW checkout dives at Possum Kingdom Lake west of Fort Worth - once you got below 35', you needed a dive light just to see your hand in front of your mask) and getting swept away. But once I got in, that went away quickly, and by the end of the dive, I was absolutely hooked. I even turned off the dive light to let my eyes adjust so I could see the bioluminescence when you waved your arms in the water. It's like a walk during twilight - not pitch black at all, and you see a TON of stuff, like octopuses, crabs and lobsters and nurse sharks out hunting on the reef, that you never see during the day. I got back on the boat after my first night dive and couldn't wait to do it again.

 

[elora_c]

Oh, that is a pretty short dive! Were you out of air, or were you diving with an op that made you come up with the worst air user in the group? (And hence your concern?) All of my computers show averages. I dive with two (ScubaPros) and have a third (Tusa) as an "extra" back at the house.

Sorry, that was unclear. The dives were all 45-60 min. They started deep and then came up. So, we spent about 20-25 minutes at 70' or deeper, and then 25-35 minutes slowly ascending to about 40', and then the 3 min safety stop at 15'. Everyone surfaced on their own. Which I really liked because I was down there 5-25 minutes longer than some people.

My problem was actually that as the last diver up, my surface interval was shorter than everyone else's. At the time of purchase, I didn't realize that my Cressi Leonardo is ultra-conservative, and I had to be careful of no-deco. I got Nitrox certified to offset that. Earlier this summer in the Turks & Caicos, I ran into the same problem (stayed down longest, had short no-deco on the second dive when using air) and the DM said the computer was being ultra-conservative. She gave me a backup to wear, and i tried the nitrox. The backup gave me tons more time, as did the nitrox. So now I'm in the market for a new computer, as well.