Anyone stay at Hotel Cozumel? OCC Grand? Coral Princess?

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bflying

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Messages
27
Reaction score
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Location
Colorado Springs, CO
# of dives
50 - 99
Planning a trip to cozumel with wife and kids (2 and 16) in October. Wife and I are divers. We were looking at Hotel Cozumel as an option. It seems to have mixed reviews on other sites. I need some inside insight please?

Also considering OCC Grand Ollegro as I get a phenominal discount there and Coral Princess as a third option? Any and all info is appreciated. Not looking for 5 star but a 3 star is about right!
 
Hotel Cozumel is a nice place, and you get to go under a cool tunnel when you go diving cause it's under the main road and the Hotel is on one side and the ocean on the other.

Dive Paradise is the onside Op and they do a great job with one small caveat:

Don't bring anything on the boat that would be damaged if the boat sinks.
 
hotel cozumel is nice for the money, it does not have a beach, & is a longer boat ride to the reefs..
i think the coral pr is farther north than hotel coz, that would make it a really long boat ride..
if there is not alot of price differance, go for the occ grand or occ allegro' they are sister resorts' dive op there is dive palancar, best i have ever been with!!! they are so close to the reefsb boat comes back to the dock during surface interval, so you can do either a 1 or 2 tank dive..
occ grand & occ allegro are much nicer than hotel coz!!! i can tell you your kids will like the occ grand or occ allegro much better..
i just came back from staying at the occ grand xcaret in playa del carmen, your kids would REALLY, REALLY like that resort, but diving does not compare to coz!!!
 
We just stayed at the Hotel Cozumel earlier this month. It wasn't a "bad" hotel, we stayed because it was on the cheap side and that's what you end up with. All of the hotel employees were nice and tried to please.

Like someone else said, they have a sand area to play in next to the ocean but you have to go down steps to get into the water. No actual "beach".

Are you planning to have your 16 year old watch the 2 year old while you dive or planning to hire a sitter? We did the sitter route (our kids are not toddlers). Neither sitter we used spoke much English, which some might find frustrating if they can't speak any Spanish.

The rooms were adequate, not extravagant but clean and had telephone, tv, and ac. The pool was big and there was always plenty of room for the kids to play. The shore snorkeling wasn't bad for being right at the shore, saw plenty of fish.

The food (if going all inclusive) wasn't bad, not a huge amount of selection but we were always able to find something decent. They put on a show every night, the kids enjoyed it but it was kind of like a high school production and in the week we were there there were a couple of repeats.

The location in town was kind of nice, we walked to the shopping and pier area a couple of different times. You are also close to the "Mega" store and they had about anything you needed and at reasonable prices.

The on site dive operator will let you do shore dives for like $6 or $7. Was a great opportunity to do a check out dive and get the cobwebs out before doing the boat dives. We did not use the on site operator and can't say anything about how well they did. Their boat groups looked large, and the fast boat we took always beat them back to the hotel by at least an hour (more time to enjoy while on vacation).

Anything specific you were looking for about them?
 
Thank you everyone for the responses! It is great to get other perspectives. The girl friend decided she didn't want to do Coz with the kids. So we are going to Grand Cayman Instead. I guess Coz will have to wait a little longer!!
 
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Planning a trip to cozumel with wife and kids (2 and 16) in October. Wife and I are divers. We were looking at Hotel Cozumel as an option. It seems to have mixed reviews on other sites. I need some inside insight please?

Thank you everyone for the responses! It is great to get other perspectives. The girl friend decided she didn't want to do Coz with the kids. So we are going to Grand Cayman Instead. I guess Coz will have to wait a little longer!!

I understand completely, my girl friend always screws things up when planning dive trips with the wife and kids.
 
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Planning a trip to cozumel with wife and kids (2 and 16) in October. Wife and I are divers. We were looking at Hotel Cozumel as an option. It seems to have mixed reviews on other sites. I need some inside insight please?

Thank you everyone for the responses! It is great to get other perspectives. The girl friend decided she didn't want to do Coz with the kids. So we are going to Grand Cayman Instead. I guess Coz will have to wait a little longer!!

I understand completely, my girl friend always screws things up when planning dive trips with the wife and kids.


:shocked2:
 
LOL! Thats funny!! I didn't even catch that. I guess we are so close to being married I sometimes call her my wife and sometimes my girlfriend. As long as I call her by her name I guess I am safe!
 
Okay on a serious note: We are staying at the Occiental Allegro next month and chose it due to price and loaction to the dive sites. We stayed and dove with Blue Angel last May due to not having any drift diving experience and wanted a highly recommended dive op. We are now more comfortable enough or know what to expect that we will try someone else. The SI for the southern Ops are done at the hotel beach. I can tell you the experience we have with a 2 year old in Mexico it went really well but we did not dive and if we did we would've taken turns and not dove together and that would mean hiring a private DM for my wife on her days to dive. We would never have the confidence to leave the 2 yr old with any of the resort child care, for a little while our 6 yr old had a blast with them and their activities but he's a people person. The beach at Allegro or anywhere along San Fransico beach are fantastic and any 16 yr old would love them. If the 16 yr old is a girl heaven help you, for now I just pretend mine will never grow up. Have fun in Cayman its pretty fantastic too.
 

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