Cozumel hotels

[parrotheaddiver]

Thanks for the info. I can personally attest to the value of hydration!

Tim our poster child for hydration. Glad to see you back diving. Have fun in Coz

 

[Bison]

:confused2 Help!!! I need some guidance from the "experienced" I am planning my first trip to Coz, have contacted Christi so am all set there and have flights (might as well use up USirways mile before they disappear). So... I am now to a hotel. My wife does not dive so I need a place for both "needs". Looking at Intercontinental Presidente or Fiesta Americana. Are there large differences? Thanks!!!! :god:

We have just returned from Cozumel this past week. We stayed at the Hotel Cozumeleno resort, which is AI. The Resort was ok in my opinion but my wife didn't like it at all. Although they had a dive operator on site Scuba Du we still went with diving with Alision. The Cozumeleno over booked the resort and we arrived to find no room for us. They apologized and placed us in a villa until something opened for us. The Villa was clean and faced the water, but we had no lock box and the Hotel had no safe available at the main desk for our valuables. In addition, there was no phone in the villa or alarm clock. At the villa we had none of the AI benefits. Which we learned on our first trip is not really needed. The resort promised to send a bell boy the 1.5 miles in the morning to wake us up for our first day of diving, but that never happened. we awakened 15 minutes before our boat was scheduled to leave (sigh). My wife was to do her check out dives this day (sigh). At 9 am they finally sent a bell hop for our luggage, thinking we were not there, which we originally asked them not to do until we returned from our dives. Lucky we stayed and went with the bell boy since they almost sent our luggage to another room other than own in the resort by accident. Our first night in the resort we watched the dinner entertainment which turned out to be five guys trying to see who could outlast the others in drinking games. Wife was not happy with that since many children were exposed to the careless drinking. In addition, this resort is on the northern side of the island, which is a down side since your far away from the marinas. We rented a jeep for our stay but found we had more use from taxis to the marinas and avoiding the traffic at night during the Mardi Gras parade. The resort improved once we obtained a room, but we lost our first day of diving, the second day a norte blew in and we lost that too. (sigh). My wife is not happy with the lost day of diving and the fact we booked our trip over 8 months ago to only find that the reservation means nothing. Although the my wife was unhappy with the resort she did fall in love with Cozumel on our first trip and is considering the El Preisidente for our next trip. Hope this helps you on your trip and you have better luck with your resort. My friends tell me I will have a good marriage since my honeymoon was rocky...I hope its a good sign then!

 

[ggunn]

And there is one of the biggest cover ups in recreational diving. A small number means 30%+. Dehydration would definately be an issue, but a PFO is generally the first thing hyparbaric docs point to with these kinds of hits.

How does one get checked for PFO? Is it something that would show up in a stress test (I had one this morning)? Naturally, I would rather find out about it that way than by getting a DCS hit.

 

[WOODMAN]

The usual test for a PFO is a echocardiogram, or a cardiac echo as we usually call it. It is pretty painless, but does need the services of a cardiac lab. Your doctor should be able to set this up for you with no problem. We hadn't been paying a lot of attention to this, as most people can have them and never know about it or suffer any ill effects. It was mostly a problem for very weak heart cases, but now we have the diver issue. If you have the opportunity, it is a nice test to have done to rule out a potential nasty situation. And remember, age has nothing to do with this. Anyone can have a PFO.....
__________________
Woody

 

[ggunn]

The usual test for a PFO is a echocardiogram, or a cardiac echo as we usually call it. It is pretty painless, but does need the services of a cardiac lab. Your doctor should be able to set this up for you with no problem. We hadn't been paying a lot of attention to this, as most people can have them and never know about it or suffer any ill effects. It was mostly a problem for very weak heart cases, but now we have the diver issue. If you have the opportunity, it is a nice test to have done to rule out a potential nasty situation. And remember, age has nothing to do with this. Anyone can have a PFO.....
__________________
Woody

How much does such a test cost? I'm assuming insurance wouldn't cover it.

 

[RTodd]

How does one get checked for PFO? Is it something that would show up in a stress test (I had one this morning)? Naturally, I would rather find out about it that way than by getting a DCS hit.

It is not a stress test type test. I forget what it is called, but just about any doc can point you in the right direction. It is basically an ultra-sound of your heart. I believe there are two different versions of the external one. One is far more detailed and is what is needed for diving. (Sorry for the non-technical explanation.) They inject you with a saline solution of bubbles and watch to see if any pass through.

I have actually had it done by being intubated as well. This gives an even better picture to the cardiologists. But, it sucks. I wouldn't recommend anything that extreme. I was subjected to it because one of three cardiologists thought he could see maybe 4 bubbles in 100,000 but no actual opening and they wanted (in my opinion) to settle the bet.

 

[scububa]

<snip>I have actually had it done by being intubated as well. This gives an even better picture to the cardiologists. But, it sucks. I wouldn't recommend anything that extreme. I was subjected to it because one of three cardiologists thought he could see maybe 4 bubbles in 100,000 but no actual opening and they wanted (in my opinion) to settle the bet.

Who won the bet?

 

[RTodd]

Who won the bet?

No PFO. If someone wants to start another thread we can discuss these things more. It doesn't make sense in this one.

 

[jpomerantz]

We have just returned from Cozumel this past week. We stayed at the Hotel Cozumeleno resort, which is AI. The Resort was ok in my opinion but my wife didn't like it at all. Although they had a dive operator on site Scuba Du we still went with diving with Alision. The Cozumeleno over booked the resort and we arrived to find no room for us. They apologized and placed us in a villa until something opened for us. The Villa was clean and faced the water, but we had no lock box and the Hotel had no safe available at the main desk for our valuables. In addition, there was no phone in the villa or alarm clock. At the villa we had none of the AI benefits. Which we learned on our first trip is not really needed. The resort promised to send a bell boy the 1.5 miles in the morning to wake us up for our first day of diving, but that never happened. we awakened 15 minutes before our boat was scheduled to leave (sigh). My wife was to do her check out dives this day (sigh). At 9 am they finally sent a bell hop for our luggage, thinking we were not there, which we originally asked them not to do until we returned from our dives. Lucky we stayed and went with the bell boy since they almost sent our luggage to another room other than own in the resort by accident. Our first night in the resort we watched the dinner entertainment which turned out to be five guys trying to see who could outlast the others in drinking games. Wife was not happy with that since many children were exposed to the careless drinking. In addition, this resort is on the northern side of the island, which is a down side since your far away from the marinas. We rented a jeep for our stay but found we had more use from taxis to the marinas and avoiding the traffic at night during the Mardi Gras parade. The resort improved once we obtained a room, but we lost our first day of diving, the second day a norte blew in and we lost that too. (sigh). My wife is not happy with the lost day of diving and the fact we booked our trip over 8 months ago to only find that the reservation means nothing. Although the my wife was unhappy with the resort she did fall in love with Cozumel on our first trip and is considering the El Preisidente for our next trip. Hope this helps you on your trip and you have better luck with your resort. My friends tell me I will have a good marriage since my honeymoon was rocky...I hope its a good sign then!

WOW. Thanks. Looks like we will be at the Fiesta Americana. Good reports here.

Jay