Caution about Cozumel

[ggunn]

What hotel do you use? Is it in town? bob

Caribe Blu. It's not in town per se; it's a little ways south in what you might call the "suburbs". A cab ride to el centro is about three bucks.

 

[ggunn]

What? You book hotel and flight way in advance then "scout out" dive ops once you're there? You might have a nice vacation sitting by the pool while all your friends are off diving. You travel from Canada to Mex without a firm dive reservation? All the good dive ops are booked so you'd better content yourself with some shore diving.

A lot depends on what time of year you go and how long you are staying. In the high season you'd better at least have some reservations and a deposit down with your op of choice, especially if it's a short trip and you want to dive every day. I go in the low season for a couple of weeks, and I just tell the op I'm diving with when I am going to be there. I set up the actual dive days when I get there; I don't dive every day, so I can be somewhat flexible.

 

[Mako Mark]

man, this is one of the weirdest threads I have ever read!!!!

RP Diver, dude, if you have over 25 years combined experience, how come you couldnt manage to pick one of the scores of dive shops on Coz that would meet your needs??

and why did you keep diving with them after the first day?

I dont get it??

Cozumel is still cool, the diving there is still fantastic, the town is becoming more cosmopolitan, the services are continiously improving. Its nearly as close to most north american cities as the keys with regards to travel time.

But each to his own I guess.

 

[pilot fish]

man, this is one of the weirdest threads I have ever read!!!!

RP Diver, dude, if you have over 25 years combined experience, how come you couldnt manage to pick one of the scores of dive shops on Coz that would meet your needs??

and why did you keep diving with them after the first day?

I dont get it??

Cozumel is still cool, the diving there is still fantastic, the town is becoming more cosmopolitan, the services are continiously improving. Its nearly as close to most north american cities as the keys with regards to travel time.

But each to his own I guess.

One might conclude that you'd be a bit biased, juding from your user name Could be that RP Diver thought, as I did, that they had impropved since his last visit. Some times we all overlook certain things. I think you guys are being a tad harsh on Rp Diver.

 

[Mako Mark]

One might conclude that you'd be a bit biased, juding from your user name Could be that RP Diver thought, as I did that they had impropved since his last visit. Some times we all overlook certian things. I think you guys are be a tad harsh on Rp Diver.

I would consider myself rather more "informed" than biased, and I know, (as a long term professional in the dive industry) that it is impossible to please everybody,

but I would have thought that RD Diver would have known that too. I wasnt trying to bash him, it was just an observation. I thought he was being a tad harsh.

 

[lawofgravity]

One might conclude that you'd be a bit biased, juding from your user name Could be that RP Diver thought, as I did, that they had impropved since his last visit. Some times we all overlook certain things. I think you guys are being a tad harsh on Rp Diver.

If a newbie diver did this maybe we are a being bit too harsh. But divers with combined 25 years experience should know better. We have plenty of LDS's around here that do yearly trips to Cozumel for an outrageous amount of money and no doubt using a cattle boat operation. They almost sucked me in when I got cert a couple of years ago, hell I didn't know any better. But with all the resources available, I can't understand why anyone wouldn't at least get several, informed opinion before setting their hard earned money down.

 

[pilot fish]

I would consider myself rather more "informed" than biased, and I know, (as a long term professional in the dive industry) that it is impossible to please everybody,

but I would have thought that RD Diver would have known that too. I wasnt trying to bash him, it was just an observation. I thought he was being a tad harsh.

Fair enough but we have all made mistakes in picking things, gear, dive sites, dive ops, dive destinations etc. I just don't like to see someone being picked at for something that anyone could do. Instead of looking at his long dive experience as something that should have prevented him form making a human mistake, I looked at his long dive experience and thought, this guy knows what he's talking about. Anyway, not something that needs to be batted back and forth.

I won't dive with them again for the very reason he won't, slow, crowded boats. They dn't even try to accommodate you.

 

[Fin59]

Fair enough but we have all made mistakes in picking things, gear, dive sites, dive ops, dive destinations etc. I just don't like to see someone being picked at for something that anyone could do. Instead of looking at his long dive experience as something that should have prevented him form making a human mistake, I looked at his long dive experience and thought, this guy knows what he's talking about. Anyway, not something that needs to be batted back and forth.

I won't dive with them again for the very reason he won't, slow, crowded boats. They dn't even try to accommodate you.

I think it was more of him picking on Dive Paradise than anyone picking on him and what really bugged me about this was the letter he wrote.
He was complaining about the slow boats in Cozumel. Well....HE booked on the slow boats. Dive Paradise' slow boats are known to be slow cattle boats. If he wanted the fast boats he should have set it up instead. You can't always change to them just because you want to after you get there. Yes, they put a single diver on them that week and not them and it could have been any of the reasons listed previously in this thread. Also, maybe it was not economical for Dive Paradise to run another small boat that week. Whatever the reason, he booked the trip and for someone with the 25 years of experience he claims they have, I would think he would have done more research. We used their slow boats a couple of times and even though we had a great time, we now use an op that has the small fast boats because that is what we want. People that like the slow boats, great..... go for it. I just feel he had no reason to write the letter to Dive Paradise complaining about something HE booked. They gave him what he booked/paid for. I mean, you go to a restaurant and order a hamburger, eat it, then complain because you could have had a steak? Well, you should have ordered the steak.
He said "When they ask for a c-card and one of us shows a Master Instructor card and the other shows a DM card, both with effective dates more than 10 years earlier, they ought to get a slight hint that we aren't’t new divers."
Dive ops have no way of knowing what kind of diver someone is without diving with them. Log books can be forged and C cards from back in the day? So what..... they have no way of knowing how many dives you have done since then or when your last dive was.
RP Diver said " I would imagine that we aren't’t the first to take an operator at face value and get the short end of the stick because of it…. Nor will we be the last." True....that's why you do the research before you book. We all work so we can go on these trips. Spend some time planning and researching them so you can have the best trip possible. If you go somewhere and aren't happy with the hotel, dive op, whatever, maybe try spending a day checking out other hotels or dive ops so if you do want to come back you will have a better time.
I do not care if this dude ever goes back to Cozumel. I will because I love it there. I hope he finds that perfect place where he will be happy diving. Thinking about going or planning a trip definitely makes it easier to get up and go to work each day.

 

[getwet2]

What? You book hotel and flight way in advance then "scout out" dive ops once you're there? You might have a nice vacation sitting by the pool while all your friends are off diving. You travel from Canada to Mex without a firm dive reservation? All the good dive ops are booked so you'd better content yourself with some shore diving.

Like I said, there's no shortage of dive op's on Cozumel and who's to say which one is bettter then the other except for the person who has personally tried them. I have always done it this way no matter where I go and have never had a problem finding a dive op. Booking travel at the last minute isn't a very hard thing to do as long as you are not set on one particular destination.

I gather from your information that you have been to Cozumel twice and both times you used Dive Paradise. You said you had a problem with them the first time so I have to wonder why you used them a second time? Like other people on this board, I don't dive every single day I'm on vacation so I can be flexible, I like to see some of the topside stuff as well.

Some people might think it's risky to do it this way but... what ever. Personally I think it's risky to book and pay for your hotel, flight and dive op in advance and then travel to a destination that lines in the hurricane belt, say ...Little Cayman, during hurricane season no less but hey, not everybody does things the same.

Safe diving!

 

[Damselfish]

I gather from your information that you have been to Cozumel twice and both times you used Dive Paradise. You said you had a problem with them the first time so I have to wonder why you used them a second time? Like other people on this board, I don't dive every sinlgle day I'm on vacation so I can be flexible, I like to see some of the topside stuff as well.

says in very first post, they got a free week from them...