COZUMEL 2019 TRIP REPORT You won't believe this.

[ReadyDiverOne]

I can't imagine anybody would charge your $25 USD from marina to town. Most likely, $9-12, but the drivers can make up whatever exchange rate they like. My usual plan is to take the shuttle to my hotel as soon as I arrive (hopefully paid with pesos leftover from last time I was there), get checked in, then immediately head for an ATM to get cash for the week, followed by a trip to a groceria or Mega to get water, snacks, and fruit (I can't get enough mexican bananas) to keep in the hotel room. Then pay everything in cash all week and make sure that I have exact change for the taxi rides to and from FONATUR.

You have to be careful about using your credit card on the island, not just because of it getting compromised, but because some restaurants will use it as a way to rip you off. Most restaurants post an exchange rate that is much more favorable to them, like 17:1 when the real rate is 19.5:1, which is fair considering that USD is not their currency and it's a bit of an inconvenience to them. But they will then apply that exchange rate before running your card in USD instead of pesos, so instead of paying 210 pesos for your lunch, or about $10.75, you end up paying $12.35. It's rare and you can usually avoid it by telling them to run the card in pesos ("Cobrala en pesos, por favor."), but it's better to just avoid both potential problems and pay cash.

Thanks, great info! Totally true re the credit cards (and now some places (like Grand Cayman) refuse to take your card and run it in local currency, instead using an artificially high exchange rate in dollars).

Also, actually, the 25 was from the El Pres into town. That still wrong? And btw where are you staying??

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

Sorry to hear what should have easily been a wonderful trip turning out to be such a bad experience! Worse than the wasted money (imo) is the *wasted*time*! Especially on a trip that was intentionally planned to mark something special like your 200th dive with your wife... No comps either? Wow, shame on them for sure.

For what it's worth, the way we personally travel Q.R. is like this: For COZ diving we skip the A.I.'s altogether (and the cenotes) and dive with and stay at the Aldora villas. In our experience, the "room-to-dock-to site-to-dock-to-room" speed/efficiency is hard to beat. On top of getting alot of our "day" back after a morning 2-tank, we've also been able to dive on several days when others did not only because we were either on the water first (before say 8-8:30 am) when bad weather was just rolling in/harbor had not shut down yet or because we were able to go back out later in the afternoon after the harbor was re-opened back up late (after say 4pm or so) and other shops had decided to call it a day. That also helps with the "congestion" factor imo as well - I remember one time in particular on our way back up from a morning dive at Maricaibo we counted over 50 boats near the C-53 area... Yikes.

For our only (but "will definitely book again whenever we return") Q.R. A.I. we stayed in/near PDC at the Iberostar "Maya" (NOT "Del Mar" or "Beach" etc) and booked (in advance) a reputable off-site dive op for several days of cenote diving and PDC reef diving. We loved how it all went. Mixing PDC and COZ may work for some but not for us; the ferry time/etc is a deal breaker for us. We did decide to use the on-site shop once for a "sneak in an extra night dive thinking "they can't be *that* bad and it was a complete disaster as well as a cattle boat... Lesson learned, never again.

The other way we have done things in Q.R. is doing a "mixed-trip" so to speak. Fly into CAN, rent a car for say 8 days, drive down to Mahahual where we stay for about 3 days at the Hotel National (Evan is a great host/owner) and dive with Gypsea divers there. Us + the owner is usually our everyday M.O., small and personal the way we prefer. Then on day 4 we load up EARLY and drive north and dive 2 cenote sites with Protec in Tulum(?) then finish our drive to PDC, drop off the rental car, take the ferry over to COZ and basically pass out and sleep for the night ha! We stay and dive 3-4 more days with Aldora and once all is finished we take the ferry back over to PDC and "bag drag" up to CAN (only because of COZ flight prices). The middle day is hectic but definitely worth it to us.

Apologies for the lengthy post but wanted to express that for us, we've decided to either do COZ or do the A.I. but not both at the same time. Regardless there are no excuses for what your were provided on your trip and I hope your return visit goes much, MUCH better!

 

[Ghosty]

@Thook - Thanks so much for the thorough, detailed, and thoughtful reviews. I will avoid Allegro and ProDive for sure!

Sticking with Blue~XTSea and Tres Pelicanos. <3 Might try Aldora sometime though too.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

@readytodive: Did you see my earlier post re afternoon diving? Can you do that from Aldora??

 

[DFDubb]

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't we believe this (thread title)?

The piss poor AI's and their dive ops are well documented on this site as well as others.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

Who's not believing it??

 

[lionfish-eater]

Car rental is 8 to 12 dollars but you must take the insurance.
Credit card insurance only covers CDW
You need liability insurance also.
Check with the rental company for actual total price.

 

[ccannon707]

I'm seeing that one can rent a compact at CZM right now for literally 8-10 bucks a day, then you could drive down and back from the marina and save the expensive cab rides. Only question is, where to park in town?? .

It is foolish to report that price as it is most likely the rate before all the taxes AND INSURANCE are added in. $35+/- a day is more like it. Back and forth to the marina in a taxi is less than that. I would never rent a car in MX without insurance. Having a car can be fun though, for visiting the East (wild) side beaches, getting out of the tourist zone and seeing the island, visiting the north area: Playa Azul & Buccannos. Stopping at the Money Bar, Playa Palancar etc... in the south... + picking up groceries/beer, As far as parking, the lots in the downtown area are inexpensive, just make sure you know when they close. When I go with a pal we always rent from honest Margarita @ ISIS. If I go solo I walk, ride collectivos/buses and take taxis.

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

@readytodive: Did you see my earlier post re afternoon diving? Can you do that from Aldora??

Yes you can do afternoon dives when staying with Aldora (and then a little house reef dive when you return/before bed . I’m not 110% sure if you can do them if you are not staying at the Villas but you most likely can/I don’t see why not as long as you were at the dock on-time for departure. Maybe somebody else here could confirm that? To be 100% certain you should email Matt or Jorge there for confirmation (office@aldoravilla.com). I have only personally done the afternoon dives while staying at the villas myself but again I doubt there would be any issues as long as you were not late.

After the morning dives they will drop you off in town or back at the villas, always been my choice of which, and you can then call the shop throughout the day to see the status of the afternoon dives and what time they will be leaving out. The villa has a dry erase board in the center courtyard area listing the times and who all exactly is signed up to go on the afternoon trip. Very convenient for us and we ourselves always sign-up/do the afternoon dives, love them.

 

[BRT]

I know, right? Doesn't seem possible but that's what Orbitz shows for non-holiday weekend. We'll see (if I do it that is).

I would get on Isis's website for realistic numbers.