munkispank
Contributor
I went to cozumel for the first time over thanksgiving.
Hotel:
stayed at the allegro resort in the south- OK resort, great for families. it was an all-inclusive- food was good - we are vegetarians and there was enough to eat, which is good for us. The two bookable resuarants were excellent. Drinks were good and plentiful.
I didn't fell very happy there overall though as there was not really any vibe- too many people who didn't want to talk.
Diving
First some background- we regularly dive the keys, and have been to cayman's, bonaire, hawaii, indonesia and tahiti to dive.
I really didn't rate cozumel as good as far as coral and marine life was concernced, for me personally I see more in the keys.
Safety:
we have been diving for 3 years and got advanced certified this year however, I am a safety consious cautious diver and as I had never done a drift dive, I wanted an operator who would be used to having novices onboard.
we chose dive palancar at the resort as the boat rides would be short, and they had reviews here suggesting they would be good for inexperienced divers.
The first dive was OK- nothing great, but good to get used to the drift dive procedures. The DM gave us a brief detail on what to do, but when we hit the water, he changed everything he had said on the boat. there was no briefing on what to expect underneath, or on what we would see.
The second day of diving we had extremely rough seas and most other boats could not go out as there was a small craft advisory. Their boats are big so we were OK.
The DM on this dive was apalling IMHO. He did no briefing on procedures, and wehen I tried to check with him whether he wanted us to descend together or singlely(someting which was never clear on any dive) he made jokes and told me to do whatever I wanted. As we prepared to go in, he said our profile was to be 35 mins at 80 ft and a 3 min safety stop to take it to 38 mins. I checked my tables and figured he would dive us a multi-level to adjust for timing. No.
Then he swam towards a gap/hole in the coral and dissapered- aparently we were doing palancar caverns swim throughs, though none of us knew this.
near to the end, everyones computers were going off and he just waved incomprehensible signals at us all. The surface interval was minimal, but luckily the second dive was at 25 ft, so it was ok.
I was very unhappy, but tipped the guy anyway as there were some seriously heavy handed hints on the boat.
Day 3 was even more laughable, we were taken to another swim through area- put in a group of 11 for the swim throughs-which was far too many, and told that the profile was to be 90 ft for 34 mins- I have no idea what tables this guy was using. The dive was terrible- several larger guys in the group couldn't fit through some as they were very tight- coral was being destoyed all around us, and the dive profile was a major sawtooth dive, but as we were not given any details of the underwater terrain, none of us could avoid it. I usually dive with a 65cft tank and always have air to spare even at depth and in currents, however with an 80cft tank, I ended my safety stop on 400 psi for the first time in my life.
waiting to be picked up by the boat, I was nearly hit my one small boat- this is with a huge red sausage and the DM's one nearby.
then our boat arrived and motioned for us to get on, without the line, and the props were still going- the guy is frantically waving for me to get on the boat and didn't understand why I wasn't moving- I had to poin to the prop to get it turned off.
I felt so bad about it that i would not go on any of the other booked dives- and lost all the money.
All in all, I felt this operator's safety was terrible and would not recommend them to anyone. their interest in the job was minimal and at least 75% of divers I talked to on the boat had bad dives for various reasons.
on a positive note- I tried the British sturgeron seasickness tablets and they were superb!!!
Hotel:
stayed at the allegro resort in the south- OK resort, great for families. it was an all-inclusive- food was good - we are vegetarians and there was enough to eat, which is good for us. The two bookable resuarants were excellent. Drinks were good and plentiful.
I didn't fell very happy there overall though as there was not really any vibe- too many people who didn't want to talk.
Diving
First some background- we regularly dive the keys, and have been to cayman's, bonaire, hawaii, indonesia and tahiti to dive.
I really didn't rate cozumel as good as far as coral and marine life was concernced, for me personally I see more in the keys.
Safety:
we have been diving for 3 years and got advanced certified this year however, I am a safety consious cautious diver and as I had never done a drift dive, I wanted an operator who would be used to having novices onboard.
we chose dive palancar at the resort as the boat rides would be short, and they had reviews here suggesting they would be good for inexperienced divers.
The first dive was OK- nothing great, but good to get used to the drift dive procedures. The DM gave us a brief detail on what to do, but when we hit the water, he changed everything he had said on the boat. there was no briefing on what to expect underneath, or on what we would see.
The second day of diving we had extremely rough seas and most other boats could not go out as there was a small craft advisory. Their boats are big so we were OK.
The DM on this dive was apalling IMHO. He did no briefing on procedures, and wehen I tried to check with him whether he wanted us to descend together or singlely(someting which was never clear on any dive) he made jokes and told me to do whatever I wanted. As we prepared to go in, he said our profile was to be 35 mins at 80 ft and a 3 min safety stop to take it to 38 mins. I checked my tables and figured he would dive us a multi-level to adjust for timing. No.
Then he swam towards a gap/hole in the coral and dissapered- aparently we were doing palancar caverns swim throughs, though none of us knew this.
near to the end, everyones computers were going off and he just waved incomprehensible signals at us all. The surface interval was minimal, but luckily the second dive was at 25 ft, so it was ok.
I was very unhappy, but tipped the guy anyway as there were some seriously heavy handed hints on the boat.
Day 3 was even more laughable, we were taken to another swim through area- put in a group of 11 for the swim throughs-which was far too many, and told that the profile was to be 90 ft for 34 mins- I have no idea what tables this guy was using. The dive was terrible- several larger guys in the group couldn't fit through some as they were very tight- coral was being destoyed all around us, and the dive profile was a major sawtooth dive, but as we were not given any details of the underwater terrain, none of us could avoid it. I usually dive with a 65cft tank and always have air to spare even at depth and in currents, however with an 80cft tank, I ended my safety stop on 400 psi for the first time in my life.
waiting to be picked up by the boat, I was nearly hit my one small boat- this is with a huge red sausage and the DM's one nearby.
then our boat arrived and motioned for us to get on, without the line, and the props were still going- the guy is frantically waving for me to get on the boat and didn't understand why I wasn't moving- I had to poin to the prop to get it turned off.
I felt so bad about it that i would not go on any of the other booked dives- and lost all the money.
All in all, I felt this operator's safety was terrible and would not recommend them to anyone. their interest in the job was minimal and at least 75% of divers I talked to on the boat had bad dives for various reasons.
on a positive note- I tried the British sturgeron seasickness tablets and they were superb!!!
