Reef Club - Pelagic Ventures Report

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MGW1979

Contributor
Messages
123
Reaction score
0
Location
Edmonton
# of dives
100 - 199
I just got back from a great week in Coz. I stayed all-inclusive at the Reef Club and Dove with Pelagic Ventures (Troy and Alex).

I'd read a lot of negative reports on trip-advisor etc. about the Reef Club and I'm happy to say they whoever wrote them either had a vastly different experience or has way different expectations.

The resort if rather small which I liked after being at some of the monster resorts on the mayan coast. You can walk anywhere in 3 minutes. The staff was friendly. The rooms were comfortable and very clean. The food at the restaurants ranged from average to excellent. The Mexican food was great, which I suspect had something to do with the number of actual Mexicans vacationing at the resort. Grilled meat and fish were also quite good. The snack bar had good snack food.

One thing that annoyed me was that you were given one bottle of water in your room at the start of the week and were expected to fill up the bottle at the restaurant. Not a huge deal but its a PITA when you are about to brush your teeth and go to bed but realize you have no water and have to treck back to the restaurant... I paid enough for the resort, stock some more water!!

Pelagic Ventures was great. They picked us up at the resort everyday at the time the majority of people on the boat agreed to (never more than 6 people). We dove where the divers wanted to dive (with recommendations from the DM). During the surface interval we either fished, snorkeled, or hung out on the beach, depending on what people wanted to do. Half the time it was just my girlfriend and I and a couple and their two kids on the boat. The kids were young and stayed on the boat while we dove, then snorled during the SI.

We did a night dive with just one other diver which was fantastic.

Troy(owner) and Alex were our DMs and we enjoyed our dives a lot. Troy got us a deal on a new wetsuit for my girlfriend and let me pay him with a interac email money transfer when I got home. Overall a great, accomadating operation. We'll definately dive with them again.

On a side note: I could not get over how many fat people there were at the resort. :shakehead I mean obese. These people would be getting two cheeseburgers and a plate of fries each at the snack bar around 3 as a snack.... the scary thing is that about half of them are divers! I hope for their sake they aren't pushing the NDLs....
 
Glad you liked the Reef Club. We've been going there for years and never have figured out what is so bad about it. Friendly, always can find something I like to eat, and very convenient for the kids.
 
Nice report. Interesting side note.... not sure we needed to know that. Hopefully no one here takes offense. It's good to hear something good about a place from fellow divers that seems to get beat to hell on tripadvisor. It's apparent that divers have more realistic expectations and are pretty laid back than some of the nits over on tripadvisor.
 
On a side note: I could not get over how many fat people there were at the resort. :shakehead I mean obese. These people would be getting two cheeseburgers and a plate of fries each at the snack bar around 3 as a snack.... the scary thing is that about half of them are divers! I hope for their sake they aren't pushing the NDLs....

Funny how a good post can turn ugly. :shakehead::no

Gaffer
 
On a side note: I could not get over how many fat people there were at the resort. :shakehead I mean obese. These people would be getting two cheeseburgers and a plate of fries each at the snack bar around 3 as a snack.... the scary thing is that about half of them are divers! I hope for their sake they aren't pushing the NDLs....

Why bother to post if you are going to follow it up with that? It doesn't lend much credibility to previous 3+ paragraphs. Nonetheless, fortunately (for you anyway) you kept your comments to yourself while at the resort rather than spouting off and having my rollergirl wife overhear (and smack) you.
 
One thing that annoyed me was that you were given one bottle of water in your room at the start of the week and were expected to fill up the bottle at the restaurant. Not a huge deal but its a PITA when you are about to brush your teeth and go to bed but realize you have no water and have to treck back to the restaurant... I paid enough for the resort, stock some more water!!

Pelagic Ventures was great. They picked us up at the resort everyday at the time the majority of people on the boat agreed to (never more than 6 people). We dove where the divers wanted to dive (with recommendations from the DM). During the surface interval we either fished, snorkeled, or hung out on the beach, depending on what people wanted to do. Half the time it was just my girlfriend and I and a couple and their two kids on the boat. The kids were young and stayed on the boat while we dove, then snorled during the SI.

So they'd leave the marine park boundaries to fish during the SI? I guess that'd be one way to not have to decide between diving and fishing on any given day.

I prefer when a hotel asks guests to refill their bottles. You're on an island with sensitive ecosystems... the landfills really don't need more plastics. There was a small dive "resort" I used to go to in the Caymans that gave guests a big plastic mug at check-in. You used it for water, soda, juice, etc for the duration of your stay. I would love to see more places do that. :)
 
Yup- I was thinking the same thing. On practically every deserted stretch of beach in the Caribbean there's an accumulation of discarded plastic bottles. They've all passed thru someone's hands before they ended up there. Since that realization, I've always packed my own refillable water bottle -- to use in the room and on the dive boat. It may not be much, but at least it's a small help ...and my kids are watching.
 
Yeah, I was pretty much interested in the report until the side note. What did that have to do with the resort and the DO?
 

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