diversmith
Contributor
Let me start by saying that the wife and I did a lot of reading here on SB before our trip and we appreciate the helpful threads on resorts and dive operators. We thought we had it nailed for our trip starting at the end of February, but when we went to actually book it, the Grand was sold out:depressed:. We had decided on the Grand due to what we read here and what very nice people had IM'd us about their own trips and diving. After getting denied on the Grand, we looked around some more on Travelocity and figured Park Royal would be good as well. A little out of town and Blue Bubble Divers right across the street, plus the pools and beach area looked pretty nice. We went ahead and booked at PR and our 12 day trip was on.
On arrival, we were a little let down on the location and the overall condition of the resort but it wasn't the end of the world. Then we started getting hit by the timeshare people right away. While we were waiting for our room to be ready, we got the walk around and the sales pitch. Not too big of a deal.....until we went to our room in the new tower! We had booked a garden view room thru Travelocity and we didn't see any garden in sight....just the highway, a dirt lot with some vehicles and the El Cid...oh, and some highway noise We immediately called the front desk to complain and were then taken to another room in the older building, which seemed alright unil we realized it was right down the hall from a travel booking desk! Our room was filled with the sound of phones ringing and people talking loudly....not pleasant and forget about taking a quick siesta. It got worse the next morning. I don't know what was worse, the cruise ship horns in the morning or the peacocks squawking loudly waking us up way too early. And then the phones started ringing again first thing at the travel desk. Down by the water the place was packed and the pools and beach were very crowded. Too many rude people blowing smoke around you and whenever we moved, we always seemed to end up downwind of more smokers. Lots of loud, drunk, trashy people to deal with. Add to this every time we walked anywhere on the property, we were constantly hit up by the same group of sales pitch guys selling time shares and scooter rentals. We were getting very aggravated very quickly. It basically was all downhill from the start. Terrible rooms with crappy beds, rude timeshare people, terrible food, always very loud...forget ever getting a nap, very cold pools, crappy drinks, rude timeshare people, terrible service at the buffets and even reservation restaraunts, rude vendors setting up at night to sell you crappy jewelry, peacocks squawking, cruise ship air horns, and did I mention the rude timeshare people? After several days of this, I tried getting thru to Travelocity to see what could be done. After waiting on hold for over 20 minutes while paying international roaming charges, I hung up. We toughed it out a little longer when we finally agreed we were miserable. We walked outside the PR to rent a scooter to go tour the south side and possibly check out the Grand to see if they might have any last minute cancellations. Once we pulled into the Grand we were blown away. They were very nice and took us on a tour of the property and showed us the rooms. We were hooked! They said they has just a couple of rooms open for the next 5 days and were honest in telling us to book it online for a better rate than they could give us. We rode the scooter back to the PR and jumped online to book it. We had to get out of there before our whole vacation was spent being miserable. We started packing once again (we ended up going to a third room to get away from the noise at the end of the hallway) and had our last few crappy meals at PR. (when I can't finish a chocolate desert, something is very wrong!!!!). We woke up the next morning, ate another so-so breakfast with crappy service and finished packing. PR basically told us to pound sand about a partial refund on checking out early. They were rude and unhelpful to the last minute. We rolled down to the Grand and felt like we had just entered paradise. The winds were starting to die down (we only got one day of diving in with Blue Bubble...they were really nice guys, but small and very beat up boats) and things were looking up.
The Grand is a world of difference compared to PR. What's crazy is the we only paid 700.00 less to book at PR than we were planning on paying for the Grand. PR really should have been about 2000.00 less to make it bearable We were asked ONE TIME about a time share pitch and that was it. The property is incredible, the rooms are just the right amount of fanciness without seeming like you are in some city hotel, the pools are very nice and the beach was incredible. The buffet food was miles ahead of PR's reservation restaraunts and the service was as well. The lunch buffet was so relaxing...nothing like coming off the dive boat and enjoying a tasty lunch while being out in the open air enjoying the views of the ocean. Dive Palancar was a breath of fresh air with their much more modern fleet of boats and helpful divemasters that left us alone to dive our computers. Very short boat rides to the great sites made diving so easy and enjoyable. It reminded us of Anthony's Key in how they run it...set up like a true "dive resort". We ended up geting 5 days straight of outstanding diving with 2 really funny guys who were very, very experienced divers from Chicago that I buddied up with when my wife wasn't diving with me. Our trip was snatched from the jaws of despair and we ended up having a great time at the Grand!
Things we learned this trip...
1. Travelocity is next to useless once you give them your money. I continued trying to work with them on a solution once we arrived back home to no avail. A supervisor never got back to me and I had to dispute it with AMEX. Travelocity sucks big-time!
2. Park Royal is a complete rip-off considering the price in relation to other resorts.
3. If you really are looking for a true "getaway vacation" don't even bother staying anywhere close to or in town. Downtown basically exists just to rip off the cruisers and there is nothing to see or do worthwhile there. If your idea of fun is to be constantly hustled to buy fake cubans or overpriced, supposedly duty-free items you can get online much cheaper, then by all means head into or stay in town. The food wasn't that great either...I have had much better mexican food back home in Southern California. I was shocked at how crappy the in-town hotels looked compared to the pics on Travelocity. Any of the big name bars are also a rip-off...again they just exist to rip of the cruisers. Anyplace close to town and by the highway will have tons of noise, sirens, horns etc. I ended up getting pissed off after getting hassled so much and we left. Completely unimpressed and it is by no means "quaint".
4. If you stay down south the good dive spots are all a short ride away and you get to spend more time enjoying yourselves on the beach.
5. You must dive Devil's Throat...one of the best dives I have ever been on.
6. We lost track of the sharks, eagle rays, big morays, turtles and big lobsters...it was awesome!
7. There is a big difference in the quality of rooms between the Grand and the Allegro even though they are both owned by Occidental. We had some people that bumped over from the Allegro to the Grand and they said they were much happier with the rooms at the Grand.
8. If you are on a tight budget and just want to dive, be warned that the less expensive places are less expensive for a reason. Don't expect peace and quiet, nice views or even decent service and food. But you will enjoy the diving
9. I don't mind doing back rolls off of small crappy boats but for someone like my wife who is newer to the diving thing, Dive Palancar is the way to go for people like her. I also enjoy having room to move around and keeping my stuff dry so that is something to think about as well
I am not trying to offend anyone with my findings...just trying to give our view on how things went down for us. I wish we had really known about the huge difference between the "town and southern area" thing.
BTW, I have been diving since 1983 and became a PADI instructor in 1986 and spent 2 years teaching in the Middle East. I have been diving from South Africa to Hawaii and many places in between in all sorts of boats and conditions and have seen my fair share of dive ops. I am not a novice diver or traveller to say the least and definitely do not have to be pampered. I just gave up my instructor cert last year and my wife was my last student, certifiying her in '08. We can hardly be considered "travel snobs"...we just like to have some peace and quiet and have some fun without being bothered. We ARE NOT 5 star hotel types and are not too picky when it comes to food, just in case you are wondering if we are ovr picky types
I know this is kind of a long post but I hope it helps some people out when they plan a trip to Coz If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
On arrival, we were a little let down on the location and the overall condition of the resort but it wasn't the end of the world. Then we started getting hit by the timeshare people right away. While we were waiting for our room to be ready, we got the walk around and the sales pitch. Not too big of a deal.....until we went to our room in the new tower! We had booked a garden view room thru Travelocity and we didn't see any garden in sight....just the highway, a dirt lot with some vehicles and the El Cid...oh, and some highway noise We immediately called the front desk to complain and were then taken to another room in the older building, which seemed alright unil we realized it was right down the hall from a travel booking desk! Our room was filled with the sound of phones ringing and people talking loudly....not pleasant and forget about taking a quick siesta. It got worse the next morning. I don't know what was worse, the cruise ship horns in the morning or the peacocks squawking loudly waking us up way too early. And then the phones started ringing again first thing at the travel desk. Down by the water the place was packed and the pools and beach were very crowded. Too many rude people blowing smoke around you and whenever we moved, we always seemed to end up downwind of more smokers. Lots of loud, drunk, trashy people to deal with. Add to this every time we walked anywhere on the property, we were constantly hit up by the same group of sales pitch guys selling time shares and scooter rentals. We were getting very aggravated very quickly. It basically was all downhill from the start. Terrible rooms with crappy beds, rude timeshare people, terrible food, always very loud...forget ever getting a nap, very cold pools, crappy drinks, rude timeshare people, terrible service at the buffets and even reservation restaraunts, rude vendors setting up at night to sell you crappy jewelry, peacocks squawking, cruise ship air horns, and did I mention the rude timeshare people? After several days of this, I tried getting thru to Travelocity to see what could be done. After waiting on hold for over 20 minutes while paying international roaming charges, I hung up. We toughed it out a little longer when we finally agreed we were miserable. We walked outside the PR to rent a scooter to go tour the south side and possibly check out the Grand to see if they might have any last minute cancellations. Once we pulled into the Grand we were blown away. They were very nice and took us on a tour of the property and showed us the rooms. We were hooked! They said they has just a couple of rooms open for the next 5 days and were honest in telling us to book it online for a better rate than they could give us. We rode the scooter back to the PR and jumped online to book it. We had to get out of there before our whole vacation was spent being miserable. We started packing once again (we ended up going to a third room to get away from the noise at the end of the hallway) and had our last few crappy meals at PR. (when I can't finish a chocolate desert, something is very wrong!!!!). We woke up the next morning, ate another so-so breakfast with crappy service and finished packing. PR basically told us to pound sand about a partial refund on checking out early. They were rude and unhelpful to the last minute. We rolled down to the Grand and felt like we had just entered paradise. The winds were starting to die down (we only got one day of diving in with Blue Bubble...they were really nice guys, but small and very beat up boats) and things were looking up.
The Grand is a world of difference compared to PR. What's crazy is the we only paid 700.00 less to book at PR than we were planning on paying for the Grand. PR really should have been about 2000.00 less to make it bearable We were asked ONE TIME about a time share pitch and that was it. The property is incredible, the rooms are just the right amount of fanciness without seeming like you are in some city hotel, the pools are very nice and the beach was incredible. The buffet food was miles ahead of PR's reservation restaraunts and the service was as well. The lunch buffet was so relaxing...nothing like coming off the dive boat and enjoying a tasty lunch while being out in the open air enjoying the views of the ocean. Dive Palancar was a breath of fresh air with their much more modern fleet of boats and helpful divemasters that left us alone to dive our computers. Very short boat rides to the great sites made diving so easy and enjoyable. It reminded us of Anthony's Key in how they run it...set up like a true "dive resort". We ended up geting 5 days straight of outstanding diving with 2 really funny guys who were very, very experienced divers from Chicago that I buddied up with when my wife wasn't diving with me. Our trip was snatched from the jaws of despair and we ended up having a great time at the Grand!
Things we learned this trip...
1. Travelocity is next to useless once you give them your money. I continued trying to work with them on a solution once we arrived back home to no avail. A supervisor never got back to me and I had to dispute it with AMEX. Travelocity sucks big-time!
2. Park Royal is a complete rip-off considering the price in relation to other resorts.
3. If you really are looking for a true "getaway vacation" don't even bother staying anywhere close to or in town. Downtown basically exists just to rip off the cruisers and there is nothing to see or do worthwhile there. If your idea of fun is to be constantly hustled to buy fake cubans or overpriced, supposedly duty-free items you can get online much cheaper, then by all means head into or stay in town. The food wasn't that great either...I have had much better mexican food back home in Southern California. I was shocked at how crappy the in-town hotels looked compared to the pics on Travelocity. Any of the big name bars are also a rip-off...again they just exist to rip of the cruisers. Anyplace close to town and by the highway will have tons of noise, sirens, horns etc. I ended up getting pissed off after getting hassled so much and we left. Completely unimpressed and it is by no means "quaint".
4. If you stay down south the good dive spots are all a short ride away and you get to spend more time enjoying yourselves on the beach.
5. You must dive Devil's Throat...one of the best dives I have ever been on.
6. We lost track of the sharks, eagle rays, big morays, turtles and big lobsters...it was awesome!
7. There is a big difference in the quality of rooms between the Grand and the Allegro even though they are both owned by Occidental. We had some people that bumped over from the Allegro to the Grand and they said they were much happier with the rooms at the Grand.
8. If you are on a tight budget and just want to dive, be warned that the less expensive places are less expensive for a reason. Don't expect peace and quiet, nice views or even decent service and food. But you will enjoy the diving
9. I don't mind doing back rolls off of small crappy boats but for someone like my wife who is newer to the diving thing, Dive Palancar is the way to go for people like her. I also enjoy having room to move around and keeping my stuff dry so that is something to think about as well
I am not trying to offend anyone with my findings...just trying to give our view on how things went down for us. I wish we had really known about the huge difference between the "town and southern area" thing.
BTW, I have been diving since 1983 and became a PADI instructor in 1986 and spent 2 years teaching in the Middle East. I have been diving from South Africa to Hawaii and many places in between in all sorts of boats and conditions and have seen my fair share of dive ops. I am not a novice diver or traveller to say the least and definitely do not have to be pampered. I just gave up my instructor cert last year and my wife was my last student, certifiying her in '08. We can hardly be considered "travel snobs"...we just like to have some peace and quiet and have some fun without being bothered. We ARE NOT 5 star hotel types and are not too picky when it comes to food, just in case you are wondering if we are ovr picky types
I know this is kind of a long post but I hope it helps some people out when they plan a trip to Coz If you have any questions please feel free to ask.