Cozumel- All-inclusive, dive resort (or both), or hotel (with no meal plan)???

[texangal]

Phenomenal time to go. 'canes are usually earlier in the year in western Gulf/Carribean. It does/will rain though. Usually this is a 1 hour deluge. Streets flood, etc. Then the sun comes back out. The place will be dead in Oct. Cruise ship landings are at the all time low (no one vacations in October) and everyone else is getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We were there last October and had the dive boats and restaurants almost all to ourselves. Dives ranged from 4-6 divers plus DM on a boat that could have held 15. DM's are not rushed or stressed. Restaurants were glad to see us and treated us like family, because they had the time to do so. No one was behaving like an ugly American, because they were all being looked after.

Oh, the weather can still be a bit hot. Not stifling, but close, and we live in Houston. The water was 85, though.

Go for it!

 

[goofygirl]

Phenomenal time to go. 'canes are usually earlier in the year in western Gulf/Carribean. It does/will rain though. Usually this is a 1 hour deluge. Streets flood, etc. Then the sun comes back out. The place will be dead in Oct. Cruise ship landings are at the all time low (no one vacations in October) and everyone else is getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
...The water was 85, though.
Go for it!

Texangal- Thanks for your reassuring response! All the good things you listed above were precisely the reason we were considering Oct. in the first place!

ggunn- i think he meant me. ;o)

Crispos- yes one can pretty much get a last minute deal to anywhere from NY. The problem is 2fold. One-I'm a Registered Nurse. I have to request my vacation time for the entire year in January. For instance this year I know I have a week in April, July, and 2 weeks in October. (October is both our birthdays and our anniversary!) The second problem is- I'm not a spur of the moment kinda gal. I like to plan. I need to pack. AND living in a NYC apt., we need time to go get our scuba gear out of storage!

Mike- thanks a million!!!

 

[ScubaJohn71]

Just a quick question. Is there any All-inclusives in Cozumel that includes some scuba dives? Working on a dive vacation for May 2005.

Thanks,

ScubaJohn71

 

[lawofgravity]

Hi Goofygirl, we are staying at FA end of January. We went through the same questions you're going through, AI or nonAI. In the end we didn't have much of a choice as expedia had a great rate for airfare/hotel from Vancouver, but on the European plan (no meals). I guess there are advantages and disadvantages either way. I've never heard great things about the food at AI resorts, but obviously the conveniece factor is great. For our part, having to travel into town everyday to eat is a bit of a nuisance but the variety and quality of food you can get is far superior to anything you can get at a hotel.

I'm not sure if it's possible, but after a few of our dive days, we were planning to have our diveop drop us off at the diveshop downtown instead of our hotel, eat lunch, get some takeout for dinner and stock up at the grocery store for drinks and snacks before cabbing it back to the hotel. If you're on a budget, that might save you a few bucks. The other days, we planned to eat a light lunch at the hotel and have a big dinner downtown. Plan on being downtown Sunday nights for the fiesta.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Just a quick question. Is there any All-inclusives in Cozumel that includes some scuba dives? Working on a dive vacation for May 2005.

Thanks,

ScubaJohn71

This is an old thread you might want to start a new one and post your question.

Yes is the answer. some of the local hotels/resorts do have AI w/diving. I would be heistant to use some of the onsite ops when there are so many good ops in Coz to choose from.

I would think your priority should be what dive op do you want to use then where do you want to stay. Most ops will pick you up at any of the hotel/resort piers. Good luck and have fun.

 

[5615mike]

FA is a better bet than SC IMO. Much nicer place. I would not go AI as we love all the restaurants in Coz.

(Copying this from the Caribbean forum where I had misplaced it originally)
Even in our post-wedding budget mode we have decided that we are still taking a dive vacation!!! Based on all the great info on these boards we've decided on Coz as the best 'bang for our buck.' (Our first trip to Coz I might add!!!)

To further try to keep the budget under control we're considering if all-inclusive would be a better choice. All-inclusive is not something hubby and I would normally be into (we like to go out and explore topside just as much as bottom) but if it is more cost efficient we'll do it.

rofile: Is all-inclusive the way to go in Coz or are the restaurants resonable enough that a hotel with no meal plan would come out about the same?

rofile: If we're going to go all-inclusive should we go to a dive resort?

rofile: How is October for weather, diving, water temps, etc.? (I'm aware that it's the end of hurricaine season) Or shoud we consider another time of year?

Basically, right now we're considering The Fiesta Americana and Scuba Club Cozumel. Any other ideas? (You should know I'm on the picky side)

Any personal experience and specific recommendations are greatly appreciated!

PS- Aircondiitoning is a MUST

 

[AmyJ]

Goofy girl, as much as I love Cozumel, I wouldn't go there in October unless it was on a last minute basis after eyeballing the NOAA storm early warning reports. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

That's prime Hurricane season in the North Caribbean, which doesn't officially end until Nov 1. Alot of people just don't take it seriously, to their detriment. At the very least you might get a tropical storm which will cause wave action and spoil the diving.

If you think that is being paranoid, my sister was evacuated from Cancun into the jungle on her "romantic" trip there, several years ago. And I had a dive student insisted that I take her down to Cuba in late September of 2002 (because it was cheap then - go figure why. She went alone, and I saw a Hurricane hit while she was there. She never mentioned that trip. Better to find another month, or another island.

Weather is always a chance. We have been there a number of times at different times of the year. Twice in October, and that is my favorite time to go. We have never had any weather problems. It is not too hot, not too chilly (the wind in January can really get cold!). so... take all info with a grain of salt. None of us can predict the weather.

 

[goofygirl]

Wow! I haven't been here in a while and got an email notification that this thread was active again! Silly me, my fault, I should have come back and updated the thread after we went to Coz in APRIL!
I did to a trip report, it's posted somewhere around here.
Thanks for everyone's advice anyway!

Link to my trip report...