Any reviews on Dive Palancar (Occidental Grand) dive op?

[keithab]

I am staying at Occidental Grand so they are most convenient Dive Op for me. Anyone on the board had any experience with them?

 

[redacted]

They don't go very far from the resort and they severely limit bottom times - 35 minutes for deep dives and 40 or 45 for shallow dives. The OG is my favorite re4sort but I do my morning dives with one of the smaller fast boat op where most dive run 1 hour or more. I do take a 10 dive package from Dive Palancar which my wife and I use for a 6th day of diving and a few afternoon shallow dives. And we do our night dives with them. I do enjoy them and their dive guides and boat crews are good. If you are happy with shorter dives, they may be just what you are looking for.

 

[dougr52]

I have dove with Dive Palancar several times. most recetly Nov. 2011, while staying at the Sabor..
I will be diving with them again this Nov. from the Sabor..
cons, the boat does not leave the Sabor til 9 am. because they send it from the Occ. Grand which is their head quarters, i am a early morning guy..
pros. you don,t have to haul your equipment around, they take care of that & wash it good..last year the morning i was going home i went & picked up my equipment, all nice & dry, did not even have to wash it again when i got home !!

 

[smorneau]

I am staying at Occidental Grand so they are most convenient Dive Op for me. Anyone on the board had any experience with them?

I did a few night dives with them back in the spring. I did all my day dives with BlueXT. The people at Palancar were nice, but I am glad I did most of my diving with a small boat opperator (fast). Palancar is a cattle drive. I talked to some of the people diving with them and they were doing the same dives day after day, short bottom times and crowded boat. If you are looking for convenience BlueXT picked me up at the Occidental dock and Palancar rinsed, hung/dried and stored my gear between dives very nice (tipped them of course)!

 

[ozarkjim]

I have dove with DP for the last 12 years and have a trip planned in Dec when we will use them again. They have different options for different needs. They have a couple of 6 pack boats and you can hire a private dm if you don't want to do the group dives. If you have 6-8 people or more you can have a smaller boat all to yourselves or you can be on a bigger boat with another group. I have never seen more that 2 groups of 8 on any of the boats. They will always take a poll as to where the majority of divers want to go that dive. As far as not going far from the resort, Maricabo is about as far as I want to go anyway. You do have to get 6 divers together and plan ahead to go to Maricabo.
The dive times are limited, 35-45 min. for deep depending on the site and 45-60 for the shallow dive sites. Most of their DMs do 4 or 5 dives a day 5-6 days a week and they can't do extreme bottom times. After they know and trust you they will allow you a little more leeway with times and depths. It is not like some of the more famous SB operators but plenty good for me. I am old enough now that short boat rides, 2 morning dives and rum and coke on the beach in the afternoon is just what I am looking for.

 

[LoonDiver]

Ozarkjim's experience sounds like what I remember from 2 years ago when we stayed at Occidental Grand and dove with Dive Palancar shortly after we were OW certified. They do 1 tank dives on a set schedule -- 9:00, 10:30, 2:00 and 3:30. They come back to the dock after each dive for the surface interval and to pick up any divers scheduled for the next dive. The boat ride to the reef is very short - 5 - 10 minutes. The 9:00 and 2:00 dives are deeper (60 - 80 ft) and the others are shallower (45 - 60 ft). Since we were newly minted divers, we chose to go out only on the 10:30 and/or 3:30 dives. We hired a private DM for most of our dives and were very happy with Ismael as our private DM. They also have unlimited shore diving at Occidental Grand, which you could use for a test dive and weight check. But the shore diving area is very restricted (small) and VERY shallow -- like 7 - 10 ft. Nothing there but white sand, the dock and a couple of concrete blocks underwater. Still, there were fish, small rays and sea stars in that area.

 

[Mossman]

I am staying at Occidental Grand so they are most convenient Dive Op for me. Anyone on the board had any experience with them?

Just because Dive Palancar is on-site doesn't necessarily mean it's the most convenient. Plenty of dive ops can pick you up at the OG dock and will store your gear for you so you don't have to carry it back and forth from the Dive Palancar shop to the dock. Personally I prefer smaller boats and longer dives on bigger tanks.

 

[FuzzyNutz]

I'm pretty much repeating what has already been said. I recently stayed at the OG but dove with Aldora. I'd leave before the house op and return like 3-4 hours after the house came back, and I was the last to be picked up and first dropped off every day. Talking with other divers at the hotel, I sort of felt like I was bragging and rubbing it in when giving descriptions of my dives. They would have 40 min dives while I had 90+ on nearly every dive... and the only time I touched my gear was when I was in the water. The boat showed up with it all rinsed and assembled and ready to go! The captain even hung our wetsuits during the SI so they'd be nice and dry and easy to get into for the second dive. It's a little more pricey this way, but you get twice the amount of diving (which is the entire point in me being there)... so it's actually a better value, and you get ridiculously pampered!

One piece of advice for you at the OG though... the late night pizza from the main buffet room (after dinner hours) may be your best friend for food. I was disgusted with every meal I had there (and trust me, I'm no foodie and am VERY easy to please)... even the lamb and steak dishes at the Royal Club were gross. Soup was often good, but that's about it. As the week went on, I found myself flat out skipping dinner and just having cocktails until they started making pizzas.

 

[Pelagicsal]

John, I may have to share your post with Marcelo and Dario. They'll appreciate the props, for sure. Was out yesterday with Dario on Lino's boat (I don't think you had him but same dry suits).
We were a late departure, 9ish, and did 95 on Palancar Horseshoe. Young eagle ray hanging around early on, beautiful black grouper with a squadron of smallish bar jacks, slow enough current to share some small stuff, big lobster slowly climbing on of the pinnacles, lots of different hamlets hanging out.

Second dive was Francesa. We cut this one to a little over 60 so we could meet the 3:00 afternoon express to San Juan.

San Juan was stellar, as usual. On Gaspar's boat diving with Edgar and Steve. Founf a very nice rod and reel that Steve "fished" with for the rest of the dive. Just enough current to move us along and to play in by swooping into dips to slow and behind things for shelter. Actually took 3 lionfish on the same spear without unloading. I kept laughing over imagining the lionfish looking up and asking, "Larry, why're you swimming so funny?" Then WHAM! (yes I am aware of my twisted sense of humor)

I don't remember how long it was, but since it was San Juan with a mixed group, I'd think between 60 and 70 min. Too lazy to get up and check computer.

Anyways, sorry for the hijack, but once I started replying to John....
Plus one for Aldora, obviously!

***********

As for the Occidental, John seemed very happy coming out every day, and I have not heard any complaints about it as we have picked people up from there over the years...

 

[Mossman]

I'm pretty much repeating what has already been said. I recently stayed at the OG but dove with Aldora. I'd leave before the house op and return like 3-4 hours after the house came back, and I was the last to be picked up and first dropped off every day. Talking with other divers at the hotel, I sort of felt like I was bragging and rubbing it in when giving descriptions of my dives. They would have 40 min dives while I had 90+ on nearly every dive... and the only time I touched my gear was when I was in the water. The boat showed up with it all rinsed and assembled and ready to go! The captain even hung our wetsuits during the SI so they'd be nice and dry and easy to get into for the second dive. It's a little more pricey this way, but you get twice the amount of diving (which is the entire point in me being there)... so it's actually a better value, and you get ridiculously pampered!

One piece of advice for you at the OG though... the late night pizza from the main buffet room (after dinner hours) may be your best friend for food. I was disgusted with every meal I had there (and trust me, I'm no foodie and am VERY easy to please)... even the lamb and steak dishes at the Royal Club were gross. Soup was often good, but that's about it. As the week went on, I found myself flat out skipping dinner and just having cocktails until they started making pizzas.

Of course there are other dive ops, besides Aldora, that offer the same sort of service and dives. The point is, it can be as convenient or even more to dive with an outside dive op, and the on-site dive op may require sacrificing bottom time versus outside dive ops who allow (and provide tanks for) longer dives.

My experience regarding the OG's food varies a bit from PansSiren's. I do consider myself somewhat of a foodie. I agree that the Royal Club's rib-eye was all fat and gristle, I honestly could only find an edible bite or two of meat. The filet was edible, however, and they have chicken and fish on the menu too. The shrimp noodle appetizer was very good, and all the soups I tried were excellent, but the tuna tartare was a scary brown color (hopefully just benignly oxidized - I ended up eating it anyway and didn't get sick, but certainly wouldn't order it again). Lunches at the RC were boring, but they do make a very good chicken caesar, and while the burger was a bit off from what I'm used to at home, the fries were perfectly cooked and would have pleased a Belgian. (Don't order the beef tips at lunch, they seemed to be leftover inedible rib-eye chopped up into inedible pieces.)

The pizza was excellent the one night I tried it, but I was pretty smashed so almost anything might have tasted that good at nearly 1 a.m. Never made it to the buffet. RC breakfast was boring and unyielding (i.e. I tried getting tortillas instead of tortilla chips with my huevos a la mexicana but they couldn't do it ?!?). The italian restaurant was underwhelming. However, I did enjoy the steakhouse so much that I ate there twice and will make sure to book there multiple times on my next visit. I had the filete arriero, ordering it with guac and tortillas the second time (it normally comes with potato and peppers), both times perfectly cooked medium rare, perfectly tender, not a spot of gristle or fat. RC also provides a excellent discount on wines off the list if you don't want to drink the house plonk (which actually wasn't too bad).

No, it's not a foodie's paradise, but I found that the majority of meals were OK, a few disappointments, and some true excellence. Hit or miss to be sure, but at least it wasn't all miss.

(BTW, for those who might use this to rail against AIs on Cozumel, my dining experience at the OG actually mirrored my experience dining a la carte on previous non-AI stays, i.e. hit or miss, the only difference being that it was cheaper at the AI)