arkstorm
Contributor
I just returned from another amazing Cozumel trip. This time we decided to try out the Fiesta Americana and Juan Leca's Dive House. If you don't wish to read the detailed review here are my quick impressions:
Fiesta Americana - Pros: Clean and Comfortable. Good (not great) food. Also, good (not great) service. Cons: Food got a little boring after 6 days. Staff courteous but do not seem particularly eager to help. Seemed understaffed at times. Overall: Very adequate and a great value.
Dive House - Pros: Convenient on-site location. Boat crew assembles your gear. Divemasters do not micromanage the dives in terms of depth and duration. Divemasters happily accept input with regards to dive sites. Cons: Large, slow boats with 11-12 divers per group. Seemed like every tank valve had a leaky o-ring. All but one boat had inadequate camera rinse tank for a DSLR camera rig. Also, the rinse tank on the dock was way too small to handle all the traffic it saw. Overall: Fine operation for most divers but if you dive with camera equipment or want to dive with a smaller more experienced group you may want to consider other options.
Detailed review:
We departed Newark on a Continental flight to Houston and then continued to Cozumel. The Continental check-in staff and plane crew were friendly and both flights were on time. If you're wondering why I would point out that an airline staff is friendly, or even courteous, than you have obviously never flown with U.S. Air, but I digress.
Our luggage arrived safe and sound and we passed Mexican immigration and customs in under 20 minutes including a bag search.
We checked in at the Fiesta Americana at 3 p.m. We were informed that our room was ready and the bellman met us there with our baggage.
The room was very clean and reasonably spacious with a decent sized t.v. that played mostly Spanish speaking stations and a very nice sized balcony overlooking the water. The two twin beds were comfortable and the a.c. worked well. We quickly settled in and made our way to the dive shop.
The Fiesta Americana property is divided into a main part with a lobby bar, a coffee / snack bar, multi-tiered pool with swim-up bar, buffet restaurant and main restaurant, activities such as ping pong and billiards and plenty of comfortable seating both indoors and pool-side.
The second half of the property is the beach side with another pool, bar, lunch buffet restaurant, nice sand beach with chairs, beds and hammocks, and the dive shop.
The two sides of the property are divided by a two-lane road that sees very little traffic most of the day.
We arrived at the dive shop to check in. The dive shop consisted of a counter near the dock, a small shop area, a gear room and a locker room. We brought our own locks and were told to use any lockers we wanted to -- they were not assigned. The gear lockers were convenient and I was glad not to have to carry dive gear back and forth from the room.
The next morning, after a delicious buffet breakfast consisting of huevos rancheros, fruit, morning meat and all the trimmings, we arrived at the dive shop for the 8:00 a.m. check-in and were given our boat assignment.
Our boat was the "Dive House III". We loaded our gear on-board and shoved off with a group of 11 divers of varying experience and skill levels, two divemasters, a boatman and the captain. The boat crew had assembled everybody's gear and shortly after leaving the dock the divemaster asked us where we wanted to go. After a short conversation it was decided that we would head to Palancar Caves.
Although the boat was large, the rinse tank for the camera gear was a little on the small side. And by the time we got to the first dive site most of the water had splashed out. My housing was barely half submerged.
The diving was great and we returned after a shallow second dive. While on our way back the boat crew had broken down our gear and packed it back in our mesh bags.
(Sidebar: If you are of the opinion that the boat crew assembling and disassembling gear is a nice touch, like all other things, you have to be careful what you wish for. The gear was never assembled to my liking. But it was easy enough to adjust and I appreciated the effort. What was annoying is that on several occasions fully assembled rigs came crashing off the bench. Among those was my brother's rig. The boatman who assembled it didn't place it properly in the holder. It came crashing down and snapped off the LP inflator hose right at the first stage. I cannibalized an inflator hose from one of their rental regs and they were even good enough not to charge me for it.)
Upon returning to the Fiesta Americana it was a mad dash off the boat and we soon learned why.
There is a cement rinse tank outside the shop area which would be good for about 2-3 divers but was used by 20-30 divers at a time as they came charging off the boats. This was aggravating considering that divers were rinsing their masks in the same water as my camera (and for those of you who don't know, mask defog breaks down the o-ring lube on the camera housings and could cause the housing seals to fail.) So we waited for everyone to rinse their gear ahead of us, then drained and re-filled the tank and left our gear in there for a proper soak.
After putting our gear away we had lunch at the beach side buffet area. Lunch was fine with a nice selection of salads, fruit, burgers, as well as local specialties. There was always a fish dish available and it was always great. A waiter offered beverages and the service was friendly but scant.
After lunch we sunned by the pool, had some drinks from the bar and eventually made our way to the dinner buffet which offered a slightly different twist every evening.
The next 5 days were pretty much dive-rinse-repeat. Although one noteworthy matter was that on the second day we dove on the "Dive House I" which actually had a much larger rinse tank for the cameras, which I appreciated. Unfortunately that was the only day we were assigned to that boat but the camera rig was fine in the end, despite my pulsating nerves.
By the end of five days of diving we had seen each of Dive House's four boats. On the last day we were treated to a smaller boat, "Dive House IV", and a smaller group of divers and where shuttled out to Punta Sur to dive the Devil's Throat. There were five divers and one divemaster. It was a great way to end the trip.
Breakfast and dinner were always at the buffet on the lobby side of the resort. Breakfast included an omelet station where the chef also made excellent huevos rancheros. Dinner buffet also varied slightly from day to day with the highlight being fajita night.
Lunch was essentially the same everyday at the beach side buffet restaurant. Burgers, salads and fruit.
Deserts were also served buffet style and varied slightly from day to day.
We did eventually get a little bored with the food and went into town for dinner a couple of times.
Town is about a ten minute / $10 cab ride away. Taxis are always available, parked right outside the dive shop on the road separating the two sides of the resort.
The diving was fantastic as always and the weather was amazing. Overall, we had an excellent time.
While I can't honestly complain about the hotel or the dive operation, I can say that there is some room for improvement. Some things about the hotel that could have been better are that in various instances the hotel seemed understaffed. The coffee / snack bar which was supposed to be open all day was often left unattended. By the end of the week I came to realize that the girl that was supposed to be running that area was often commiserating with other staff members around the lobby.
While the swim-up bar was manned most of the time, the other two bars were intermittently left unattended. I found myself hopping behind the bar on several occasions and helping myself. While I did not mind guest bar-tending, I think this is an area that Fiesta Americana can improve upon.
Dive House left little to complain about. It would have been nicer to dive in smaller groups with more experienced divers, better camera facilities and a more generous gear rinse but that is nit picking because overall the service was fine and friendly. And I know that if I want a smaller boutique dive operation there are operators in Coz that cater to that.
This was my fifth visit to Cozumel and I can't wait to go back. The people are friendly and the diving is consistently great. Prices have gone up over the years and you're not going to find bargains in Cozumel like you once could but I felt that the value we received with Fiesta Americana and Dive House was outstanding.
On several occasions I've stayed at ritzier places on Coz and paid top dollar. In my estimation Fiesta Americana and Dive House earn a solid B+ for the kind of money you may expect to pay for a flea bag resort.
Diving and Weather:
May is a great time to dive Cozumel. We saw turtles on just about every dive as well as the normal assortment of reef fish, schools of horse eyed jacks, the occasional nurse shark and we even came across a black tip at Punta Sur. Lionfish were ever present -- their numbers don't seem to have changed much in the last six months despite more widespread eradication efforts, i.e., divemasters with Hawaiian slings.
Highlights were some very large groupers, as well as five octopus, a cuttle fish and a napping loggerhead turtle on a single night dive. One notable exception to the normal cadre of fish seen at Coz is that in five days of diving I saw only one moray eel. Seems like the morays were on hiatus.
Coral seemed like it was in pretty good shape with no obvious signs of large scale disease or bleaching.
As a pleasant bonus we had the best weather I've ever experienced in Cozumel. Hi temps were in the low 80's. Humidity was very low by tropical standards -- I washed some shirts in the sink and was able to get them completey dry by hanging them on the balcony overnight.
All in all we had an excellent trip. I wouldn't have drawn it up any better. I'm going back in December and would be more than pleased if that trip goes just as well.
Fiesta Americana - Pros: Clean and Comfortable. Good (not great) food. Also, good (not great) service. Cons: Food got a little boring after 6 days. Staff courteous but do not seem particularly eager to help. Seemed understaffed at times. Overall: Very adequate and a great value.
Dive House - Pros: Convenient on-site location. Boat crew assembles your gear. Divemasters do not micromanage the dives in terms of depth and duration. Divemasters happily accept input with regards to dive sites. Cons: Large, slow boats with 11-12 divers per group. Seemed like every tank valve had a leaky o-ring. All but one boat had inadequate camera rinse tank for a DSLR camera rig. Also, the rinse tank on the dock was way too small to handle all the traffic it saw. Overall: Fine operation for most divers but if you dive with camera equipment or want to dive with a smaller more experienced group you may want to consider other options.
Detailed review:
We departed Newark on a Continental flight to Houston and then continued to Cozumel. The Continental check-in staff and plane crew were friendly and both flights were on time. If you're wondering why I would point out that an airline staff is friendly, or even courteous, than you have obviously never flown with U.S. Air, but I digress.
Our luggage arrived safe and sound and we passed Mexican immigration and customs in under 20 minutes including a bag search.
We checked in at the Fiesta Americana at 3 p.m. We were informed that our room was ready and the bellman met us there with our baggage.
The room was very clean and reasonably spacious with a decent sized t.v. that played mostly Spanish speaking stations and a very nice sized balcony overlooking the water. The two twin beds were comfortable and the a.c. worked well. We quickly settled in and made our way to the dive shop.
The Fiesta Americana property is divided into a main part with a lobby bar, a coffee / snack bar, multi-tiered pool with swim-up bar, buffet restaurant and main restaurant, activities such as ping pong and billiards and plenty of comfortable seating both indoors and pool-side.
The second half of the property is the beach side with another pool, bar, lunch buffet restaurant, nice sand beach with chairs, beds and hammocks, and the dive shop.
The two sides of the property are divided by a two-lane road that sees very little traffic most of the day.
We arrived at the dive shop to check in. The dive shop consisted of a counter near the dock, a small shop area, a gear room and a locker room. We brought our own locks and were told to use any lockers we wanted to -- they were not assigned. The gear lockers were convenient and I was glad not to have to carry dive gear back and forth from the room.
The next morning, after a delicious buffet breakfast consisting of huevos rancheros, fruit, morning meat and all the trimmings, we arrived at the dive shop for the 8:00 a.m. check-in and were given our boat assignment.
Our boat was the "Dive House III". We loaded our gear on-board and shoved off with a group of 11 divers of varying experience and skill levels, two divemasters, a boatman and the captain. The boat crew had assembled everybody's gear and shortly after leaving the dock the divemaster asked us where we wanted to go. After a short conversation it was decided that we would head to Palancar Caves.
Although the boat was large, the rinse tank for the camera gear was a little on the small side. And by the time we got to the first dive site most of the water had splashed out. My housing was barely half submerged.
The diving was great and we returned after a shallow second dive. While on our way back the boat crew had broken down our gear and packed it back in our mesh bags.
(Sidebar: If you are of the opinion that the boat crew assembling and disassembling gear is a nice touch, like all other things, you have to be careful what you wish for. The gear was never assembled to my liking. But it was easy enough to adjust and I appreciated the effort. What was annoying is that on several occasions fully assembled rigs came crashing off the bench. Among those was my brother's rig. The boatman who assembled it didn't place it properly in the holder. It came crashing down and snapped off the LP inflator hose right at the first stage. I cannibalized an inflator hose from one of their rental regs and they were even good enough not to charge me for it.)
Upon returning to the Fiesta Americana it was a mad dash off the boat and we soon learned why.
There is a cement rinse tank outside the shop area which would be good for about 2-3 divers but was used by 20-30 divers at a time as they came charging off the boats. This was aggravating considering that divers were rinsing their masks in the same water as my camera (and for those of you who don't know, mask defog breaks down the o-ring lube on the camera housings and could cause the housing seals to fail.) So we waited for everyone to rinse their gear ahead of us, then drained and re-filled the tank and left our gear in there for a proper soak.
After putting our gear away we had lunch at the beach side buffet area. Lunch was fine with a nice selection of salads, fruit, burgers, as well as local specialties. There was always a fish dish available and it was always great. A waiter offered beverages and the service was friendly but scant.
After lunch we sunned by the pool, had some drinks from the bar and eventually made our way to the dinner buffet which offered a slightly different twist every evening.
The next 5 days were pretty much dive-rinse-repeat. Although one noteworthy matter was that on the second day we dove on the "Dive House I" which actually had a much larger rinse tank for the cameras, which I appreciated. Unfortunately that was the only day we were assigned to that boat but the camera rig was fine in the end, despite my pulsating nerves.
By the end of five days of diving we had seen each of Dive House's four boats. On the last day we were treated to a smaller boat, "Dive House IV", and a smaller group of divers and where shuttled out to Punta Sur to dive the Devil's Throat. There were five divers and one divemaster. It was a great way to end the trip.
Breakfast and dinner were always at the buffet on the lobby side of the resort. Breakfast included an omelet station where the chef also made excellent huevos rancheros. Dinner buffet also varied slightly from day to day with the highlight being fajita night.
Lunch was essentially the same everyday at the beach side buffet restaurant. Burgers, salads and fruit.
Deserts were also served buffet style and varied slightly from day to day.
We did eventually get a little bored with the food and went into town for dinner a couple of times.
Town is about a ten minute / $10 cab ride away. Taxis are always available, parked right outside the dive shop on the road separating the two sides of the resort.
The diving was fantastic as always and the weather was amazing. Overall, we had an excellent time.
While I can't honestly complain about the hotel or the dive operation, I can say that there is some room for improvement. Some things about the hotel that could have been better are that in various instances the hotel seemed understaffed. The coffee / snack bar which was supposed to be open all day was often left unattended. By the end of the week I came to realize that the girl that was supposed to be running that area was often commiserating with other staff members around the lobby.
While the swim-up bar was manned most of the time, the other two bars were intermittently left unattended. I found myself hopping behind the bar on several occasions and helping myself. While I did not mind guest bar-tending, I think this is an area that Fiesta Americana can improve upon.
Dive House left little to complain about. It would have been nicer to dive in smaller groups with more experienced divers, better camera facilities and a more generous gear rinse but that is nit picking because overall the service was fine and friendly. And I know that if I want a smaller boutique dive operation there are operators in Coz that cater to that.
This was my fifth visit to Cozumel and I can't wait to go back. The people are friendly and the diving is consistently great. Prices have gone up over the years and you're not going to find bargains in Cozumel like you once could but I felt that the value we received with Fiesta Americana and Dive House was outstanding.
On several occasions I've stayed at ritzier places on Coz and paid top dollar. In my estimation Fiesta Americana and Dive House earn a solid B+ for the kind of money you may expect to pay for a flea bag resort.
Diving and Weather:
May is a great time to dive Cozumel. We saw turtles on just about every dive as well as the normal assortment of reef fish, schools of horse eyed jacks, the occasional nurse shark and we even came across a black tip at Punta Sur. Lionfish were ever present -- their numbers don't seem to have changed much in the last six months despite more widespread eradication efforts, i.e., divemasters with Hawaiian slings.
Highlights were some very large groupers, as well as five octopus, a cuttle fish and a napping loggerhead turtle on a single night dive. One notable exception to the normal cadre of fish seen at Coz is that in five days of diving I saw only one moray eel. Seems like the morays were on hiatus.
Coral seemed like it was in pretty good shape with no obvious signs of large scale disease or bleaching.
As a pleasant bonus we had the best weather I've ever experienced in Cozumel. Hi temps were in the low 80's. Humidity was very low by tropical standards -- I washed some shirts in the sink and was able to get them completey dry by hanging them on the balcony overnight.
All in all we had an excellent trip. I wouldn't have drawn it up any better. I'm going back in December and would be more than pleased if that trip goes just as well.
