Tucker_2004
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COZMEL TRIP REPORT
January 15th to 22nd 2005
Occidental Grand Cozumel
Dive OPS: Dive Palancar and Dive with Alsion
Travel Agency: Squba Holidays booked us on Air Canada Vacations
Flew from Montreal to Toronto and then it was direct from Toronto to Cozumel. We were upgraded to Business Class (probably because my wife is an elite member) so the travel was fine. My Brother booked the same trip with a different airline/charter company for $300.00 less per person than ours, but his trip started from Toronto and not Montreal. We paid just over $1800.00 once all taxes were added in per person and my brother got his trip for just over $1500.00 per person. My brother booked using www.selloffvacations.com and flew with skyservice. We arrived in Cozumel Saturday evening around 7:30pm. Air Canada only has one direct flight from Toronto a week and it arrives/picks up in Cozumel Saturday evenings. Air Canada Vacations had a shuttle waiting for us and we were off to the Grand Cozumel for check in. There was no sparkling wine upon our arrival (I guess they save that for the guests who arrive when its still light out
. We did not upgrade to the Royal Club and had no regrets. Check in was quick and easy for us. We wanted a King size bed on the second or third floor but it turns out that they only have kings on the ground. We wanted to stay away from the ground floor as we were told (on scubaboard) that the rooms tend to be very musty but we gave it a try for one night. The ground floor room they gave us was quite humid and had a wet towel smell, even with the air conditioning on. My brother, who also had a ground floor room, didnt have the same musty smell in his room so I guess some ground floor rooms are better than others. We ended up changing to a third floor room the next day and it was far better. We pushed the two double beds together to make one giant bed (I would do this before settling for a ground floor kingsize bed). The chamber maids ended up making the bed as though it was one giant bed so it worked out fine. We gave the maids a few bucks every day except for one day. It turns out that on the day we forgot to tip
they just happened to forget to give us fresh bottles of water in the mini fridge (funny how that works out). I was a little disappointed that you could only get bottles of water from your mini fridge and not from any of the resort bars. At the bar they will give you water in glasses or cups. We ended up taking more bottles of water from the chamber maids supply closets as needed (they have one closet on each floor). On the whole, the resort was great. The bathrooms, as expected, were vary spacious and had very large marble stand up showers which are perfect after a couple of hours below sea level. The food was awesome (for an all inclusive) and we never felt like going into town to eat anywhere else. We tried the three a la cart restaurants and they were all good. The Shrimp at the Mexican restaurant was great as was the soup starter. The Tuna steaks were awesome at the Mediterranean restaurant (stay away from the Scallops as they were very tough) and the tenderloin was great at the grill. The Breakfast buffet was always good but we did notice that things looked better when you got to breakfast early (just after 7am compared to the one day that we went around 9am). I have a hard time understanding how some people complain about the food at the Grand?? If something wasnt great you didnt have to eat it
THE DIVING
We came for the diving and things got off to a slow start as we arrived right when a norte was blowing hard. There were 3 of us diving and between us we pre-bought 5 dives each from the resort Dive op Dive Palancar. I managed to book Dive with Alison for only one day (next time I will do my homework earlier) but because of last minute cancellations we ended up diving with her for three days.
Sunday Jan 16th
Port closed to small boats. Managed to get out on a bigger Palancar boat but they were all about rushing us in the water. The Dive Masters did nothing to help us gear up and they didnt check any of our equipment. Definitely not the service I was expecting.
Dive #1 Punta Delila 45 minutes. Max depth 63 feet
All other dives were cancelled today.
Monday January 17th
Port closed to small boats. We were told by Dive Palancar that the earliest we could dive was 2pm and that we would have to walk down to the allegro resort to get on the boat there. They brought our gear over there and we got our two dives in. It was all rush rush with not much gear help once again.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall 31 minutes. Max depth 90 feet
Dive #2 Santa Rosa Shallows 44 Minutes. Max depth 52 Feet
Tuesday January 18th
The Norte finally shifted and the port opened up to all boats at around 10:30am.
Today was our last day diving with Dive Palancar. We had two great dives with DM Ismial. Our experience was much better today with DP than two days before. They set up all our gear and made sure everyone was ok before jumping in. They earned their tips for a change.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall :38 Minutes. Max depth 79 feet
Dive #2 no name reef (our DM Ismial claimed that the area we dove doesnt really have a name) :48 Minutes. Max depth 60 ft.
Keep an eye on how the bottom time changes when we switch from Dive Palancar to Dive with Alison www.divewithalison.com
January 19th
Dove with Dive with Alison today. We were picked up on the pier at 8:30 as planned. Finally!!!! No more having to come up with 1200 psi left in the Al80. Alison would plan a dive so that we would finish in shallower water so we could maximize our bottom time. Even though we did have some air hogs with us, Alison just brought them up to safety stop depth and made sure they got on the boat safely before coming back down to join us. She always had snacks and drinks for the surface intervals.
Dive #1 Columbia Deep :58 Minutes. Max depth 89 feet
Dive #2 La Francesa (French Reef) 1:10 minutes. Max depth 63 feet
January 20th
Dive #1 Palancar Horseshoe/Palancar Gardens 1:09 Max depth 79ft
Dive #2 Paso del Cedral 1:16 Max depth 52
January 21th
Dive #1 Palancar Caves 1:02 Minutes. Max depth 71 feet
Dive #2 Punta Delila 1:07. Max depth 63 feet
GEAR / PICTURES
I dove most of the trip with a 3/2 full suit and found myself getting chilly by the end of the longer dives. I would often put on a neoprene cap in order to stay warm for the second dive. I tried my brothers 5/4 mil suit for one day of diving and it was perfect. If you get chilly easy I would say a 5/4 is the way to go when you have below 80 degree temps. The 5/4 also keeps you warmer when you get back on the boat for the SI. Water temp on most dives was 78 F. Thanks to the norte, water visibility was not at its best but it was still at least 50 to 75 feet. This was my first time trying out my new back inflated Zeagle Escape BC and it was great. I dont understand people who fear back inflation?
When I go back I will make sure to book with Dive with Alison well in advance of my trip. It was nice to have access to a larger boat with Dive Palancar when the port was closed to small boats, but I would take a smaller dive op on calm days any day.
I took lots of pictures and mini videos using a Canon Power Shot S410 with underwater housing. Im still pretty new to underwater photography but feel free to check out some of my pictures here See if you can find the picture with the two spotted drum fish. Tucker's Pictures The last 2 low quality pictures are of a giant Puffer Fish (I think??).
I hope to add my video to the website soon. Thanks to everyone on scubaboard who helped us plan out trip!
Tucker
January 15th to 22nd 2005
Occidental Grand Cozumel
Dive OPS: Dive Palancar and Dive with Alsion
Travel Agency: Squba Holidays booked us on Air Canada Vacations
Flew from Montreal to Toronto and then it was direct from Toronto to Cozumel. We were upgraded to Business Class (probably because my wife is an elite member) so the travel was fine. My Brother booked the same trip with a different airline/charter company for $300.00 less per person than ours, but his trip started from Toronto and not Montreal. We paid just over $1800.00 once all taxes were added in per person and my brother got his trip for just over $1500.00 per person. My brother booked using www.selloffvacations.com and flew with skyservice. We arrived in Cozumel Saturday evening around 7:30pm. Air Canada only has one direct flight from Toronto a week and it arrives/picks up in Cozumel Saturday evenings. Air Canada Vacations had a shuttle waiting for us and we were off to the Grand Cozumel for check in. There was no sparkling wine upon our arrival (I guess they save that for the guests who arrive when its still light out
. We did not upgrade to the Royal Club and had no regrets. Check in was quick and easy for us. We wanted a King size bed on the second or third floor but it turns out that they only have kings on the ground. We wanted to stay away from the ground floor as we were told (on scubaboard) that the rooms tend to be very musty but we gave it a try for one night. The ground floor room they gave us was quite humid and had a wet towel smell, even with the air conditioning on. My brother, who also had a ground floor room, didnt have the same musty smell in his room so I guess some ground floor rooms are better than others. We ended up changing to a third floor room the next day and it was far better. We pushed the two double beds together to make one giant bed (I would do this before settling for a ground floor kingsize bed). The chamber maids ended up making the bed as though it was one giant bed so it worked out fine. We gave the maids a few bucks every day except for one day. It turns out that on the day we forgot to tip
they just happened to forget to give us fresh bottles of water in the mini fridge (funny how that works out). I was a little disappointed that you could only get bottles of water from your mini fridge and not from any of the resort bars. At the bar they will give you water in glasses or cups. We ended up taking more bottles of water from the chamber maids supply closets as needed (they have one closet on each floor). On the whole, the resort was great. The bathrooms, as expected, were vary spacious and had very large marble stand up showers which are perfect after a couple of hours below sea level. The food was awesome (for an all inclusive) and we never felt like going into town to eat anywhere else. We tried the three a la cart restaurants and they were all good. The Shrimp at the Mexican restaurant was great as was the soup starter. The Tuna steaks were awesome at the Mediterranean restaurant (stay away from the Scallops as they were very tough) and the tenderloin was great at the grill. The Breakfast buffet was always good but we did notice that things looked better when you got to breakfast early (just after 7am compared to the one day that we went around 9am). I have a hard time understanding how some people complain about the food at the Grand?? If something wasnt great you didnt have to eat it
THE DIVING
We came for the diving and things got off to a slow start as we arrived right when a norte was blowing hard. There were 3 of us diving and between us we pre-bought 5 dives each from the resort Dive op Dive Palancar. I managed to book Dive with Alison for only one day (next time I will do my homework earlier) but because of last minute cancellations we ended up diving with her for three days.
Sunday Jan 16th
Port closed to small boats. Managed to get out on a bigger Palancar boat but they were all about rushing us in the water. The Dive Masters did nothing to help us gear up and they didnt check any of our equipment. Definitely not the service I was expecting.
Dive #1 Punta Delila 45 minutes. Max depth 63 feet
All other dives were cancelled today.
Monday January 17th
Port closed to small boats. We were told by Dive Palancar that the earliest we could dive was 2pm and that we would have to walk down to the allegro resort to get on the boat there. They brought our gear over there and we got our two dives in. It was all rush rush with not much gear help once again.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall 31 minutes. Max depth 90 feet
Dive #2 Santa Rosa Shallows 44 Minutes. Max depth 52 Feet
Tuesday January 18th
The Norte finally shifted and the port opened up to all boats at around 10:30am.
Today was our last day diving with Dive Palancar. We had two great dives with DM Ismial. Our experience was much better today with DP than two days before. They set up all our gear and made sure everyone was ok before jumping in. They earned their tips for a change.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall :38 Minutes. Max depth 79 feet
Dive #2 no name reef (our DM Ismial claimed that the area we dove doesnt really have a name) :48 Minutes. Max depth 60 ft.
Keep an eye on how the bottom time changes when we switch from Dive Palancar to Dive with Alison www.divewithalison.com
January 19th
Dove with Dive with Alison today. We were picked up on the pier at 8:30 as planned. Finally!!!! No more having to come up with 1200 psi left in the Al80. Alison would plan a dive so that we would finish in shallower water so we could maximize our bottom time. Even though we did have some air hogs with us, Alison just brought them up to safety stop depth and made sure they got on the boat safely before coming back down to join us. She always had snacks and drinks for the surface intervals.
Dive #1 Columbia Deep :58 Minutes. Max depth 89 feet
Dive #2 La Francesa (French Reef) 1:10 minutes. Max depth 63 feet
January 20th
Dive #1 Palancar Horseshoe/Palancar Gardens 1:09 Max depth 79ft
Dive #2 Paso del Cedral 1:16 Max depth 52
January 21th
Dive #1 Palancar Caves 1:02 Minutes. Max depth 71 feet
Dive #2 Punta Delila 1:07. Max depth 63 feet
GEAR / PICTURES
I dove most of the trip with a 3/2 full suit and found myself getting chilly by the end of the longer dives. I would often put on a neoprene cap in order to stay warm for the second dive. I tried my brothers 5/4 mil suit for one day of diving and it was perfect. If you get chilly easy I would say a 5/4 is the way to go when you have below 80 degree temps. The 5/4 also keeps you warmer when you get back on the boat for the SI. Water temp on most dives was 78 F. Thanks to the norte, water visibility was not at its best but it was still at least 50 to 75 feet. This was my first time trying out my new back inflated Zeagle Escape BC and it was great. I dont understand people who fear back inflation?
When I go back I will make sure to book with Dive with Alison well in advance of my trip. It was nice to have access to a larger boat with Dive Palancar when the port was closed to small boats, but I would take a smaller dive op on calm days any day.
I took lots of pictures and mini videos using a Canon Power Shot S410 with underwater housing. Im still pretty new to underwater photography but feel free to check out some of my pictures here See if you can find the picture with the two spotted drum fish. Tucker's Pictures The last 2 low quality pictures are of a giant Puffer Fish (I think??).
I hope to add my video to the website soon. Thanks to everyone on scubaboard who helped us plan out trip!
Tucker
