Female first time travelling solo, first dive trip. I think Cozumel is the way to go?

[bhalah]

---------- Post added January 4th, 2016 at 04:33 PM ----------


---------- Post added January 4th, 2016 at 05:00 PM ----------

I am confused with the DAN insurance - after I get a membership, is it Dive Accident Insurance I want? or a different type of travel insurance?

Dan membership does not include diving accident insurance, which covers you for the cost of being treated in a decompression chamber based on policy limits specified by the plan purchased. Dan dive accident insurance is available in 3 levels, and it is not primary insurance coverage. Dan also offers travel insurance (non diving accident) coverage. Dan scuba equipment insurance is not available to Canadian residents.

You need to become a Dan ,ember before you can purchase dive accident or dive equipment / travel insurance.

 

[cicopo]

That sounds a bit confusing but what you do is Join DAN (buy a membership) & then select the insurance plan you feel fits your needs (dive insurance) & pay for both. After that you will get your membership card by mail & having recently renewed mine it took about 2 weeks from the time I renewed on line until my card arrived.
As for Tres Pelicanos vs DWM each offers a bit of a different experience. DWM uses larger boats (I don't remember seeing them using small boats but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention because they pick up at my hotel pier & may transfer some divers to different boats back at the International Pier) and you enter with a giant stride while TP uses small boats & you do a back roll to enter the water. TP will also (when possible) have 2 DM's on each dive & one tries very hard to keep one eye on rookies, DWM may or may not have an extra DM on board or they may have an instructor & students but they will likely do their dive separate from the dive group.

 

[deepsea21]

I've never been a member of DAN nor have I ever purchased DAN insurance. That being said, I also dive conservative profiles and don't push my dive computer anywhere near the limits of decompression diving. There's nothing deeper than 80' I care to see and since we enjoy UW photography we tend to stay shallower than most on ourt dives where the color hasn't been filtered out. Some won't dive without DAN insurance. I think it all depends on the type of diving you intend to do. You can stay shallow & safe or push it to the max and run yourself to the limit your dive computer "predicts" is still safe. DAN insurance is an individual choice. I am conservative so I don't feel the need to carry it.

 

[KathyV]

We are DAN members and we take the middle level of insurance. We didn't always buy insurance but we've consistently purchased it in recent years. Insurance is one of those annoying things that you resent paying for, hope that you will never need, but are glad that you have it if you do need it.

I am reminded of a thread here on SB from early in 2015. Gary McNabb owned a dive shop in Chattanooga for many years. He taught a lot of people to dive and escorted his customers on many dive vacation trips. When he was ready to retire he and his wife moved to Florida and the first dive trip they took to celebrate their retirement was to Ambergris Cay in Belize. He had subscribed to DAN insurance for many years but during the rush of retiring and moving he forgot to renew his policy and it lapsed. He was a very experienced diver but they were diving on a rough day and he came up too close to the boat and got hit in the head and was badly injured.

It cost his family a great deal of money to airlift him first to Belize City for care and then to Texas where he died in intensive care. Below is the donation link that friends set up to help the family with the costs. I didn't know Gary but a lot of people spoke warmly about him and his death was clearly a sad loss and a great sorrow and financial burden for his family.

Our DAN membership and insurance came due just before we headed out for a fall dive trip and I thought about not renewing it, then I remembered Gary McNabb and gladly paid the fees - but I was still glad that we didn't need to use the insurance!

As has been said, insurance is an individual choice but we feel better buying it.

https://www.gofundme.com/nezvuw

 

[ggunn]

I've never been a member of DAN nor have I ever purchased DAN insurance. That being said, I also dive conservative profiles and don't push my dive computer anywhere near the limits of decompression diving. There's nothing deeper than 80' I care to see and since we enjoy UW photography we tend to stay shallower than most on ourt dives where the color hasn't been filtered out. Some won't dive without DAN insurance. I think it all depends on the type of diving you intend to do. You can stay shallow & safe or push it to the max and run yourself to the limit your dive computer "predicts" is still safe. DAN insurance is an individual choice. I am conservative so I don't feel the need to carry it.

Plenty of people have been bent diving less than 80'. Being conservative is no guarantee of safety and the unexpected can strike no matter how safe you are trying to be. Suit yourself, but I am not diving without dive insurance.

 

[gopbroek]

I've never been a member of DAN nor have I ever purchased DAN insurance. That being said, I also dive conservative profiles and don't push my dive computer anywhere near the limits of decompression diving. There's nothing deeper than 80' I care to see and since we enjoy UW photography we tend to stay shallower than most on ourt dives where the color hasn't been filtered out. Some won't dive without DAN insurance. I think it all depends on the type of diving you intend to do. You can stay shallow & safe or push it to the max and run yourself to the limit your dive computer "predicts" is still safe. DAN insurance is an individual choice. I am conservative so I don't feel the need to carry it.

.
Deepsea21, I look at dive insurance as a necessary item and a value. One of the Canadian divers we were diving with last month got an undeserved hit at, I seem to recall, 72' about 4 years back. Computers' and tables for that matter are tools to keep the risk within a manageable level but their is still still some risk. Like buying a lottery ticket, somebody will eventually win the jackpot.
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Another thing to consider with 3P is the model of 'dive your tank' , if the OP has decent air consumption 70 minute dives are not unusual.
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Lastly I really enjoyed diving with Cat and yourself and hope to see you same time next December (5 more weeks and I should be down for Carnival)

 

[DandyDon]

In addition to always having DAN dive insurance, I take trip insurance for international trips in part because my medical coverage does not include out of country needs - and I don't think yours does either. I get my trip insurance at a different provider tho.

The medical evacuation is an important benefit, but that's not in the insurance package actually. It's a benefit of the DAN membership, and has to be arranged thru DAN's emergency desk.

As for the three levels of DAN dive insurance, that varies from state to state in the US. In ten states including mine, they still have the old $30 plan with few benefits, until they can get changes approved state by state - so I always took the top $75 Preferred plan. For our other forty states and for Ontario as well, they offer the new trio with the Preferred plan still being $75 USD, but now it's the middle plan. This causes some confusion in some discussions when some say to get the middle plan.

I've never been a member of DAN nor have I ever purchased DAN insurance. That being said, I also dive conservative profiles and don't push my dive computer anywhere near the limits of decompression diving. There's nothing deeper than 80' I care to see and since we enjoy UW photography we tend to stay shallower than most on ourt dives where the color hasn't been filtered out. Some won't dive without DAN insurance. I think it all depends on the type of diving you intend to do. You can stay shallow & safe or push it to the max and run yourself to the limit your dive computer "predicts" is still safe. DAN insurance is an individual choice. I am conservative so I don't feel the need to carry it.

You like betting against Murphy's Laws, huh? Accidents are rare but they happen, and being accidents - never are planned. I've seen 6 divers leave in ambulances over the years, 3 in one group trip - and none of those had been below 80 feet. Sorry, your false science fails. I hope you have superior medical insurance plus take trip insurance that includes medical evacuation. I have heard of groups with non-insured members injured, taking up collections to hire an air ambulance. :sad: I've also heard of people who couldn't get the money needed quickly to pay for injuries & evacuations. In time, they started taking donations to get the body back.

 

[cicopo]

Might see me then. I'll be down for Carnaval too & intend to get in a few days with Jorge, plus a few days with one or 2 other ops I rotate through to spend time with the many friends I've made in Coz.

 

[judydivescoz]

I can't imagine why anyone would not carry some kind of Dive insurance. It's a small price to pay for for a critical, unexpected injury. We live in New York where the Preferred Plan is the top plan and only costs $75.00 per year. In the 17 years we have been diving we have not had an accident knock on wood. We are not planning a dive accident but if it should happen we will be well covered by DAN and our medical insurance.

 

[ohsomeday]

I will buy DAN on top of trip insurance. My math, for DWM $285 for 4 days and 1 night dive =$400 CAD. I don't know if that includes tax, doesn't say on their website. Would also need to rent a wetsuit on top of that I think, plus cab fare. For 4 days diving with Tres Pelicanos $325 diving plus $200 rental is $525 USD or $730 Canadian. So about a $330 difference between the two! Would you say the convenience of location is worth that much?