Scuba Club Cozumel Review

[scuba_willy]

I just got back from my first stay on cozumel and thought I would give a brief review of scuba club for anyone thinking visiting. The short note is I would highly recommend it.

A quick background, I have not stayed at a scuba focused hotel before, but have travelled extensively on business and holidays. On the surface, Scuba Club (SCC) has limited amenities - no TV in room, shower instead of tub, one restaurant, and one small pool. However, our room was a spacious with a nice balcony. I had heard`the beds can be hard, but ours was comfortable. There was wireless wifi, which worked well.

Although SCC may be limited in amenities, it more than makes up on it with world class service. I do not use the term lightly, the service exceeded even the swanky hotels I have stayed at on business. There was a limited selection to the three meals a day provided, but I found the quality of the found to be very good and the portions were american sized !!

The dive shop appeared to be a very competent operation and provided the set morning boat dives and other afternoon/night dives depending on guest interest. The sign up was straight forward and everything from check in, eating, to diving was easy for even people as spanish challenged as me !

If you are looking for an unpretentious, small, quiet hotel on cozumel thats big on service - then I would recommend SCC.

 

[Mike]

Although SCC may be limited in amenities, it more than makes up on it with world class service. I do not use the term lightly, the service exceeded even the swanky hotels I have stayed at on business.

Can you give us some examples of how they provided 'world class service'. I'm interested to know what qualifies for this in a hotel with limited amenities.

Thanks,

PS - someone had told me that unless you were diving with a group at the hotel put together from a dive shop back home the diving was frustrating because they had very limited dives going out. True?

 

[tight rope walker]

Willy, did you happen to check out the house reef? What dive sites did you visit? My wife and I are planning a trip there in May of 2010. We have stayed in Cozumel before, but I usually set up dives on a day by day basis so we are not locked in to any one operator. Were you basically happy with the diving? Many thanks...Rich

 

[scuba_willy]

I can see that world class service will depend on pespective. For me it was that everyone was genuinely helpful and wanted to make the stay as good as possible. True its constrained around the set meals, the meal times and the facilities. But all the staff were helpful and attentive. I have stayed at places where the staff are much less friendly and helpful. Perhaps very friendly staff is a better description.

On the dives - you are signed to a dive boat which leaves at 8.30AM and does the usual two morning dive thing - one deep dive off the wall (80- 90+ feet) and one shallower dive (circa 60 feet). The crew try to take you somewhere different every day. In addition the dive shop puts on additional boat dives - wreck dive, twilight/night dive. They need at least 6 people to sign up. It was quiet when I was there, so some of the twilight dives did not happen. The one I wanted to go did go out and there was a wreck dive option. They also tried to accommodate requests for dive sites. On the last day, a number of us wanted to go to Punta Sur to dive devils throat. The crew were up for it, but the weather was not. The two boats I dived from could accommodate 20+ divers. We had about 16 each time and there were two dive groups. Dive times were good - typically c45 mins for the first dive and c55 mins for second. The advantage of having your own group is that SCC has some smaller boats and will do a boat for a specific group. Hence I suspect there is more opportunity to custom your dive sits if you have a larger group. I have only dived one other day at cozumel and hence do not have experience to know if SCC diving was limited or not. It certainly worked out well for me.

The house reef is actually a collection of rock piles, the remains of the old boat pier and the pilings (pillars) of the new pier. Depth is 25' with slow to moderate current. This may not sound exciting, but there is good marine life to be found - schools of grunts and porgy's, peacock flounders, spotted morays, sharptail eels, yellow rays, banded coral shrimps etc. I had great fun photo diving in this area. But not what I would call a reef and I can see that some people may not find it to be very interesting.

 

[tight rope walker]

I forgot to ask, did you end up doing the wreck dive? Also I had read somewhere else that there was a couple there at the same time a wedding was going on. From what they reported, when the club accomadates a wedding, the diving aspect takes a back seat. Did you get a sense of that while you were there? Again......Many thanks

 

[scuba_willy]

I did not do the wreck dive. I heard that it was good with opportunities to penetrate if divers wanted. I did a number of dive sites. The palanchar gardens were good for the reef formations and I liked punta tunich wall- could swim along reef at 60 feet with wall rolling down from there. I also did a night dive at paradise. It was shallow so good for long bottom time and good amount of different marine life. I liked cozumel because all the dive sites were great. I have dived the mainland (mayan riveria) and the difference between cozumel and the sites south of playa del carmen are night and day.

Its difficult to comment on the wedding. SCC is small (about 60 rooms), so I can imagine a large group swamping the hotel somewhat. Its possible it could further constrain the eating arrangements. But i cannot see this affecting the diving and as I mentioned the staff want to make sure you enjoy yourself. Personally I dont think it would be a problem. SCC is close to town, so its relatively easy to escape into cozumel in the evening if the hotel was too busy. Of course it was very quiet when I was there - the experience could be very different when the hotel is packed.

 

[jlyle]

We've stayed at Scuba Club Cozumel once or twice a year for almost twenty years. I've written many trip reports and taken lots of pictures. You will find links here: Jim's Web Page

SCC is our favorite dive destination and we have been to many.

 

[lmorin]

...............

PS - someone had told me that unless you were diving with a group at the hotel put together from a dive shop back home the diving was frustrating because they had very limited dives going out. True?

No. Not true. Been there twice with my wife. No dive scheduling problems of any kind. Put on a boat with 6-8 other divers who we were with for the full week. They weren't with dive shop groups either.

 

[mlove]

I have stayed at SCC many times. I love the hotel and the staff. It would be very difficult for a large hotel to provide the same level of service. The dive staff is great except for one DM who is reckless. Never had a problem w/ boat scheduling. They are good at pairing divers of the same skill levels together on the same boats. I never had my dive time limited.
On most of my stays the boats only get to the very southern dive sites 1 or 2 times in a week. That was ok before the hurricane, but since the hurricane the shallower reefs have been damaged.
I am going to stay at the (large & impersonal) Allegro this year, because of it’s proximity to the reefs.
I will miss the lunches and the wreck dive.

 

[UnderH2OView]

No. Not true. Been there twice with my wife. No dive scheduling problems of any kind. Put on a boat with 6-8 other divers who we were with for the full week. They weren't with dive shop groups either.

Do they match you with 6-8 other divers of your skill? I want to do the devis throat for instance but if there is one new diver on the boat that won't fly.