Cozumel for a day

[ChrisM]

Tell the dive op (i'd choose Christi's opp, don't shoot yourself in the foot by going with someone less reputable), tell Pedro or Martin it's your only day diving and you want to see the best site you can, and they'll do that for you.

 

[ggunn]

Sorry I asked. fuggin forget it

No need to get your panties in a wad. It's a lot to expect to show up alone for a single dive to where folks are staying and diving every day and get a boatful of divers to go where you want to go. You can charter a boat and get it to take you where you want to go, or you can get on a boat and cast your vote. You can campaign, of course; maybe all the rest of the divers aboard want to see the same thing you do. But the only way to guarantee you go see your site of choice on a single dive is to charter a boat.

BTW, it's the same for the rest of us, even if we are there for a month.

 

[Coztick]

Won't the op's first dive be a check out on amore benign site?

 

[MMM]

Won't the op's first dive be a check out on amore benign site?

Pretty much. Especially for a new-ish diver. They won't do an advanced site or a deep dive or something in fast current. And the latter will vary from day to day.

 

[Coztick]

Agh, one of the benefits of diving with the same op year after year...
Hugs from the staff and pick up where I left off, doubles for the deeper dives if I prefer, solo on most dives...arg...6 more months...

 

[RayfromTX]

Often the wind or recent weather or the currents that day will determine which sites will be best. Certain conditions will create poorer than normal visibility at sites that on another day would be pristine. Good DMs and ops know how to read those conditions and make choices of which site and even where to start on a given site based on their experience. I have seen the guy I dive with call it exactly. I find my dives end up being great when I trust my particular DM. I suspect many on the island are similarly skilled. If you choose a good op and trust them to provide a good dive site and keep an open mind I suspect you will have a good time and may create a relationship for future diving on the island. I'm not sure choosing based on a promise made that they will take you to a great wall dive in your narrow time window would get you what you want.

 

[ChrisM]

BTW, to the OP, if your experience is like mine every time we go (always Blue XTSea), Pedro will ask "where you wanna go?" Someone usually chimes in "how about Columbia Deep?" And unless someone has been there twice already, everyone just shrugs and says "sounds cool." It's that kind of place IME

 

[boulderjohn]

BTW, to the OP, if your experience is like mine every time we go (always Blue XTSea), Pedro will ask "where you wanna go?" Someone usually chimes in "how about Columbia Deep?" And unless someone has been there twice already, everyone just shrugs and says "sounds cool." It's that kind of place IME

Although I haven't dived Cozumel in a while, I used to go there a lot. For several years I tried several operators trying to find one I liked. I learned to decide where I wanted to go ahead of time, and when the DM would ask the question, if I said my preferred site right away and then just sat back and let people talk, we usually ended up going to the one I had mentioned, probably because saying it first got it in everyone's mind. That does not work, however, with the more serious sites, and I realized that I had to go with a dive operator that would allow that to be selected the day before, and that will only happen if they know you and your ability.

 

[DjDiverDan]

Two key things that the OP should get out of this thread:

(1) When you are a diver coming off of a cruise ship, it is NOT that the Dive Op is treating you as a second-class citizen, but you ARE an unknown to that Op, and EVERY Dive Op on Cozumel that I know of is concerned for safety of their divers. There are several dive sites on Cozumel, like Punta Sur, Maracaibo, Santa Rosa Wall, Baracuda, that can be dangerous for an inexperienced or unskilled diver - no reputable Dive Op will take an unknown diver to any of those sites until the DMs have seen you and how you handled yourself on the easier sites. So a diver just doing one day of diving from a cruise ship is just not going to see those sites unless he charters his own boat and takes a private DM with him.

(2) The conditions at various sites on Cozumel can vary from day to day, or even during the day. Tormentos can be a calm easy drift dive one day, and a rip roaring bronco ride the next. Most Dive Ops won't plan which dive sites they are going to visit far in advance. The Captains and DMs, with long experience on the Island, will consider the conditions, the winds, the currents, and figure out which dive sites are best on a given day.

Let me add my own advice. Do NOT use the Dive Op that contracts with the Cruise ship operator. You will pay at least 40-50% more (the Cruise Line takes a big kickback for organizing the divers), and likely get a cattle boat scheduled dive. If your ship is coming in at the International Cruise Ship Pier (the one way south, down past La Cieba/El Cid), the Dive with Martin shop is right at the end of the Pier, and while Dive with Martin is a budget operator, among the lowest priced on Cozumel, it is a very good operation and will get you some good dives. It even offers free rental gear, if you haven't packed all your dive gear onto the cruise ship. I have dived several times with Dive with Martin, and it has a solid following here on SB. If you are coming in at the Punta Longosta Pier, at the south edge of downtown, there are several excellent downtown Dive Ops, and one ought to be able to make arrangements to take a diver off the cruise ship - try Aldora, Blue XTSea, Liquid Blue, Tres Pelicanos, Dive with Allison. Don't be surprised if some say no, because its boats are full or scheduled to leave before your cruise ship comes in; just keep trying. And if all else fails, go back to Dive with Martin, even if it means a couple of long taxi rides. STILL cheaper than the kickback the Cruise Ship is taking on its own charter Dive Op.

 

[nodakdive]

Wicked Weasel, as you've never been there before, it occurs to me that there might be a "lost in translation" issue with your question.

It's highly likely that you'll be going to exactly what you're after without needing to ask. Those first dives to 80-100 that Christi mentioned may not necessarily/technically be "wall dives", but they're close enough.

I like walls myself, and none of the likely first dives should disappoint you. One of the big draws to Cozumel, if not the biggest draw, is the coral structure. Mountains of coral at Palancar, Santa Rosa, Punta Sur, Colombia, etc. It is highly likely that you'll go to a Palancar site for your first dive, and that's exactly where you want to go if you've never been diving in Cozumel.

As mentioned, Palancar Gardens is an excellent first dive for a "new to the shop" diver, or even a first dive of a trip for someone that's been diving there for years. When they ask you and the other divers where you want to go (an extremely common dive shop practice), ask for a Palancar site (there are 4: Gardens, Horseshoe, Caves and Bricks). Any of those, or Santa Rosa, will do. The other "wall" dives are more advanced. (Punta Sur, Colombia, Barracuda, Maracaibo, etc.) You might be diving at 80 to 100 feet in mountains of coral, but you can see the drop off.

In my experience divers are pretty accommodating, especially to new divers, and if you say, "I've never been here before and I'd really like to see the huge coral structures.", you will, almost without a doubt, see exactly that wherever the group decides to go. You may be at the top of the wall and not diving along/down the side of it, but you won't be missing a thing.