lpokeefe
New
I'm a ScubaBoard lurker, and have used the trip reports extensively to research potential destinations and resorts/operators. Now it's time to pay back the community.
This report is derived from a report I made to Undercurrents.
Getting there:
Unfortunately, we got stuck in the ATC incident in Dallas on the way down. Apparently, fiber optic cables were cut, closing the airport for a good part of the day, and havoc ensued. We were flying American a day early to overnight in Dallas and avoid the very short layover on the Saturday morning flight. The flight was delayed, then cancelled, and we were booked back on that early Saturday morning flight that we were hoping to avoid. The morning flight was delayed, but fortunately, so was the connecting flight. And, miraculously, our bags made the flight. I've had terrible experiences flying AA through Dallas on two dive trips this year. On the way to Grand Cayman this summer, my bag was delayed by a day and my return flight from DFW to PDX was canceled. We wound up flying home from Cozumel on United via Houston, and it was a much better experience.
Resort:
We found the resort itself to be very nice; beautiful grounds, nice, well maintained room, good A/C, several restaurant choices, and for us, plenty of fine to good food options. Alcohol selection pretty good as well if you are into that. Uniformly excellent service from all staff that we encountered.
Diving:
Dressel ran 4 dives a day from the dock onsite. The shop was right at the base of the dock. Had big gear rinse tanks, separated for cameras/masks and other equipment. Had long milk crate style gear lockers with chains to go across the front if you bring a small lock (which we forgot), but it seemed pretty safe and secure. They also had plenty of ventilated hanging space for wetsuits, bcds, etc. A huge plus was that Nitrox was free if you were certified AND they had AL100 tanks at no extra charge for us air hogs. I tried the AL100s a couple of days in, and it was a game changer!
The shop was well organized. They had a board that showed the planned sites over the course of a week, so you could sign up for dives that went to sites you wanted to see. A whiteboard was set up morning and afternoon showing groups and DMs on each boat and which sites they would visit. Departure times were approximately 8:15, 10:30, 1:30 and 3:15.
They were running 3 boats, mostly with two groups (eight divers plus DM), and sometimes 3 groups per boat. It was really crowded when 3 groups were onboard. The captains and crews were uniformly excellent, as were the divemasters.
Nitrox was checked on board before depature by the DMs with each diver. Dive briefings were thorough and consistent. Upon reaching the site, a group would enter the water and the boat would move clear to another spot for subsequent groups. Dives were about 50 minutes. If low on air, the DM would deploy a DSMB and have the low on air buddies ascend to the safety stop and surface where the following boat would pick them up. At the end of the dive the group would do a safety stop and surface together.
It has been 30 years since I last dove at Cozumel. We dove some of the same sites, e.g. Santa Rosa Wall, various spots at Palancar, but honestly I can't remember well enough to compare to my last trip. The reefs seemed pretty healthy to me and there was a good variety of wildlife. It all seemed a bit healthier than recent trips to Grand Cayman. Currents varied from site to site and day to day. We certainly had some ripping currents on the Wall dives like Santa Rosa and Cedral, but went to several sites with moderate currents such as Jurrasic Park, La Francessa and Palancar Gardens.
My daughter has never done drift diving, so we opted to take a free drift dive course. Materials were supplied by SDI/TDI with online learning followed by in water training with a divemaster. We reviewed how to judge current direction and strength above and below the surface, how to hide from the current during the dive and how to deploy an SMB at the end of the dive. We found it useful, though the instructor was also the DM for all the other divers in the group. My previous experience has always been with a dedicated instructor, but I also paid for those courses.
Weather was hot (90s) and humid, with a day or two of rain. We had rain, thunder and lightning on one day, but the boats went out anyway. According to the DM, if the Port Captain doesn't close the harbor, they go out. We had a mix of sun and clouds for the remainder. Seas were calm.
Overall, we thought the operation was great, but had some quibbles...
- The boats returned to the dock after each dive, but the shop considered the "dives" to be two tank morning dives and two tank afternoon dives. At one point the shop said they would charge us a $10 fee for "splitting" (only doing one of) the afternoon dives. A quick communication to our travel agent resolved that issue, and we were not charged the split fee.
- As mentioned above dive courses were run by the same DMs that were also the guide for the 8 person groups. Thus, when we were doing our drift dive course, the DM was also monitoring 6 other divers. The downside to this was in cases where the students (or others) in a group had weight or equalization problems. The divemaster attended to them while the entire group flew along below, often missing the first part of the reef/wall. This happened to us on several dives.
- We wound up visiting several sites multiple times as a result of the fixed schedule and our choice to stick with our favorite DM. Dressel was good at accommodating requests, so you could choose variety of sites or desire not to be in groups over staying with the same DM. We were fine with the tradeoffs.
- We did wind up having a big bill at the end of the trip. Most was expected - marine park fees, hyperbaric chamber fees, rental costs, etc. We did have a disagreement on rental costs, as we were quoted a daily rate when we booked, and they charged a "per two tank dive" rate , which was a bit higher. That is currently under negotiation by our travel agent. Finally, they listed prices in USD, but charged my credit card in Pesos at a manually calculated, ridiculous exchange rate 6% above the actual current rate. I've taken this up with my credit card company and Dressel divers.
We loved the drift diving in Cozumel, did 17 dives in our week there and would be happy to go back to Iberostar/Dressel.
This report is derived from a report I made to Undercurrents.
Getting there:
Unfortunately, we got stuck in the ATC incident in Dallas on the way down. Apparently, fiber optic cables were cut, closing the airport for a good part of the day, and havoc ensued. We were flying American a day early to overnight in Dallas and avoid the very short layover on the Saturday morning flight. The flight was delayed, then cancelled, and we were booked back on that early Saturday morning flight that we were hoping to avoid. The morning flight was delayed, but fortunately, so was the connecting flight. And, miraculously, our bags made the flight. I've had terrible experiences flying AA through Dallas on two dive trips this year. On the way to Grand Cayman this summer, my bag was delayed by a day and my return flight from DFW to PDX was canceled. We wound up flying home from Cozumel on United via Houston, and it was a much better experience.
Resort:
We found the resort itself to be very nice; beautiful grounds, nice, well maintained room, good A/C, several restaurant choices, and for us, plenty of fine to good food options. Alcohol selection pretty good as well if you are into that. Uniformly excellent service from all staff that we encountered.
Diving:
Dressel ran 4 dives a day from the dock onsite. The shop was right at the base of the dock. Had big gear rinse tanks, separated for cameras/masks and other equipment. Had long milk crate style gear lockers with chains to go across the front if you bring a small lock (which we forgot), but it seemed pretty safe and secure. They also had plenty of ventilated hanging space for wetsuits, bcds, etc. A huge plus was that Nitrox was free if you were certified AND they had AL100 tanks at no extra charge for us air hogs. I tried the AL100s a couple of days in, and it was a game changer!
The shop was well organized. They had a board that showed the planned sites over the course of a week, so you could sign up for dives that went to sites you wanted to see. A whiteboard was set up morning and afternoon showing groups and DMs on each boat and which sites they would visit. Departure times were approximately 8:15, 10:30, 1:30 and 3:15.
They were running 3 boats, mostly with two groups (eight divers plus DM), and sometimes 3 groups per boat. It was really crowded when 3 groups were onboard. The captains and crews were uniformly excellent, as were the divemasters.
Nitrox was checked on board before depature by the DMs with each diver. Dive briefings were thorough and consistent. Upon reaching the site, a group would enter the water and the boat would move clear to another spot for subsequent groups. Dives were about 50 minutes. If low on air, the DM would deploy a DSMB and have the low on air buddies ascend to the safety stop and surface where the following boat would pick them up. At the end of the dive the group would do a safety stop and surface together.
It has been 30 years since I last dove at Cozumel. We dove some of the same sites, e.g. Santa Rosa Wall, various spots at Palancar, but honestly I can't remember well enough to compare to my last trip. The reefs seemed pretty healthy to me and there was a good variety of wildlife. It all seemed a bit healthier than recent trips to Grand Cayman. Currents varied from site to site and day to day. We certainly had some ripping currents on the Wall dives like Santa Rosa and Cedral, but went to several sites with moderate currents such as Jurrasic Park, La Francessa and Palancar Gardens.
My daughter has never done drift diving, so we opted to take a free drift dive course. Materials were supplied by SDI/TDI with online learning followed by in water training with a divemaster. We reviewed how to judge current direction and strength above and below the surface, how to hide from the current during the dive and how to deploy an SMB at the end of the dive. We found it useful, though the instructor was also the DM for all the other divers in the group. My previous experience has always been with a dedicated instructor, but I also paid for those courses.
Weather was hot (90s) and humid, with a day or two of rain. We had rain, thunder and lightning on one day, but the boats went out anyway. According to the DM, if the Port Captain doesn't close the harbor, they go out. We had a mix of sun and clouds for the remainder. Seas were calm.
Overall, we thought the operation was great, but had some quibbles...
- The boats returned to the dock after each dive, but the shop considered the "dives" to be two tank morning dives and two tank afternoon dives. At one point the shop said they would charge us a $10 fee for "splitting" (only doing one of) the afternoon dives. A quick communication to our travel agent resolved that issue, and we were not charged the split fee.
- As mentioned above dive courses were run by the same DMs that were also the guide for the 8 person groups. Thus, when we were doing our drift dive course, the DM was also monitoring 6 other divers. The downside to this was in cases where the students (or others) in a group had weight or equalization problems. The divemaster attended to them while the entire group flew along below, often missing the first part of the reef/wall. This happened to us on several dives.
- We wound up visiting several sites multiple times as a result of the fixed schedule and our choice to stick with our favorite DM. Dressel was good at accommodating requests, so you could choose variety of sites or desire not to be in groups over staying with the same DM. We were fine with the tradeoffs.
- We did wind up having a big bill at the end of the trip. Most was expected - marine park fees, hyperbaric chamber fees, rental costs, etc. We did have a disagreement on rental costs, as we were quoted a daily rate when we booked, and they charged a "per two tank dive" rate , which was a bit higher. That is currently under negotiation by our travel agent. Finally, they listed prices in USD, but charged my credit card in Pesos at a manually calculated, ridiculous exchange rate 6% above the actual current rate. I've taken this up with my credit card company and Dressel divers.
We loved the drift diving in Cozumel, did 17 dives in our week there and would be happy to go back to Iberostar/Dressel.
