Cozumel Advice for newbie

[NDH]

We were at SC in April and we did have friends that were able to go to Devils throat, but for us we still had our training wheels on. They will do your first dive in shallow water the first day to check out your skills. We really enjoyed the trip and they made sure to put us on dives that were for our skill level. By the way the staff is outstanding and the diving at night in front of the hotel was great with large grouper, octo, ell's.

 

[my911]

After an extensive research, we have elected to dive with Blue XT Sea (Christi). Her outfit seemed really knowledgeable, prompt with responses, and willing to answer my million questions. Further, we are going to stay at the Vista Del Mar. We can't wait, it about two weeks away. Thank you everyone, this has been a very pleasant experience!!

 

[HammerNoMore]

A small group of us are heading to Cozumel Mid September. We are all cold water divers (dry) and my wife and I have never dove in warm water. Would just a lycra skin suit be enough protection?

I've never been in September, but the temps are 80+ in October. My wife uses a 3 mil full down there. I use a 2/3 shorty. Everyone is different but I'd say a skin would be fine for 1 day of diving but would get cold for multi-day diving.

Oh, we booked at Scuba Club, anyone been there or know of it?

A lot of the locals here love the place so I wen't down on an LDS trip to Scuba Club. IMHO it's the worst place I've stayed on the island. I don't think the locals who love it have been anywhere else.

James

 

[donooo]

Nope, for most people a lycra would not be enought, In december it's 80-81 and you will see lots people in full 3m and a hood. But you might also see some guy in shorts and a t-shirt. You'll have a better time if you are warm. I don't know what the water temp is in September.

Did a lot of diving at Scuba Club last winter. Wouldn't stay there as I don't enjoy the AI experience. Wouldn't like the large boat deal either. Had a great time with a group of 8 on a smaller boat. Best time is January when they have some specials if you wanted to stay there.

adios

 

[JPG]

JMHO but it would be a "BIG" mistake to cancel the Palau trip if you haven't been there yet. I will have life long memories of that place. A visit to Yap when you're there should also be included. When I talk with other divers and we share where we've been I always see a little look of envy when I tell them I've been to Palau)

The planned trip right now is week on the Aggressor around Palau, then a week in Yap with a couple days in front of the trip to run around Palau. Why would I consider canceling this trip that is a dream of mine you might ask? The girlfriend mentioned in my original post doesn't like the idea of me taking this trip without her. I know that's shocking, but it's true none the less. I tried to get her to come along but, she dragged feet on it and now the trip is booked full.

What to do???????

 

[ggunn]

The planned trip right now is week on the Aggressor around Palau, then a week in Yap with a couple days in front of the trip to run around Palau. Why would I consider canceling this trip that is a dream of mine you might ask? The girlfriend mentioned in my original post doesn't like the idea of me taking this trip without her. I know that's shocking, but it's true none the less. I tried to get her to come along but, she dragged feet on it and now the trip is booked full.

What to do???????

Get a new girlfriend????? Sorry, too easy.... ;^)

 

[NevadaM]

It's been a few years since we've been there, and I hear it's a bit more commercialized now, but still a great place to dive. We started at the Casa del Mar resort up the road from town and ended up staying in a great little hotel right on the main drag, I think it's called the Del Mar Hotel. It's right around the corner from the post office and has rooms that look out at the water, small pool out back, very nice folks run it. If you want the big resort feel, then the large places are for you, if you want to be on your own and not have everything done for you, these smaller places are great. When we left the resort and were staying downtown we asked one of the dive masters at the resort what he recommended and he said hands down was a place called Cha Cha Cha Dive Shop. It's right across the street from the post office (behind what used to be the Crazy Snake, might still be), and run by a guy called Edmundo Torrez. He runs a small boat operation, up to six divers instead of the cattle boats like the big operations. Just ask him to show you "his babies" and he'll take you to some fun places. Get to know him a bit and he'll drag you out singing karroke (sp). Different strokes for different folks, but we had much more fun with the small operators and hotels than the large ones where you are just a number (or credit card number). You'll have fun for sure, maybe instead of renting a car which can be expensive, rent a couple of scooters, more fun and cheaper by far. Go around the island, stay out of the water on the other side though, and have some beer, chips n' quak at the places along the way. I'm envious, except we're headed back to Bonaire this December.

Nevada

 

[alcina]

The planned trip right now is week on the Aggressor around Palau, then a week in Yap with a couple days in front of the trip to run around Palau. Why would I consider canceling this trip that is a dream of mine you might ask? The girlfriend mentioned in my original post doesn't like the idea of me taking this trip without her. I know that's shocking, but it's true none the less. I tried to get her to come along but, she dragged feet on it and now the trip is booked full.

What to do???????

Say, honey, that's great...let's book for next year and it'll be perfect for us as I will do all the recon this trip. Why don't you book somewhere with your friends/family while I am gone?

She's gonna be miffed, but snooze and lose.

You might also want to contact the company and let them know...sometimes there is a last minute cancellation or they may actually have a space held back.

Good luck

 

[JenM]

A small group of us are heading to Cozumel Mid September. We are all cold water divers (dry) and my wife and I have never dove in warm water. Would just a lycra skin suit be enough protection?

Oh, we booked at Scuba Club, anyone been there or know of it?

Thanks,
DrDuktayp

Just got back from Scuba Club yesterday. This was our first time to Cozumel and we picked Scuba Club because we wanted unlimited, no hassles shore diving at a reasonable price (the Presidente was out of our budget and Caribe Blu was fully booked). Because we weren't in a group, we were on their smaller boats all week. The max. # of divers on our boat was 9. Boats are slow but comfortable with marine heads. We had 5 different divemasters during the week and none required the group to surface together, everyone was just asked to come up when they reached 700 psi. They definitely wanted us to come up when we reached 60 minutes regardless, though. They stuck to the most well known reefs although they asked every morning if we had any requests - since it was our first trip, the standard reefs were fine with us. We dove Punta Sur once, Columbia twice, Santa Rosa twice, Palancar once or twice and did our second dives on Tormentos, Las Palmas, and Yucab.

Scuba Club is definitely dive-centric. Everyone who stays there is a diver. There's nothing else to do there. Food ranged from decent to quite good. We probably won't stay there again because next time we want shorter boat rides so we'll either stay far south or go with an operator with fast boats, but I have no major complaints, and just a few minor quibbles. By the way, the shore diving has no coral, but there's lots of fish and creatures around and night diving is really fun - lots of octopii, occasional squid, rays, eels, little critters in the sand, etc.

 

[ggunn]

Scuba Club is definitely dive-centric. Everyone who stays there is a diver. There's nothing else to do there. Food ranged from decent to quite good. We probably won't stay there again because next time we want shorter boat rides so we'll either stay far south or go with an operator with fast boats,

FWIW, you can dive with another operator and still stay at SCC.