texbob
Contributor
I am not sure what to write about more: the diving in Cozumel or our stay at Cozumel Palace. Both experiences were new to us so I might as well talk about both.
My wife and I originally started planning a trip to Cancun to celebrate our 20th anniversary. She was a non-diver, and my most recent dive was my open water certification dives 20 years ago (yeah, I got married and it took 20 years to dive again). Well, a few trips to the local dive shop, an intro to diving class (her) followed by class and pool work, and a refresher class (me), and our plans totally changed to include diving and a change in venue to Cozumel.
Cozumel Palace
All I can say is OMG. What a place .er .palace. The rooms were immaculate, the scenery from the balcony was tremendous, the food was great, and best of all, the hotel staff was highly friendly, personable, and helpful, and most of all, sincere. We have never experienced an all-inclusive hotel before, and it took a while to get used to offering no tips and asking for drinks and food whenever we desired. We read several reviews and were overwhelmed with the positive reviews. All I can say is I agree with all those 5 star reviews. The Cozumel Palace lived up to everything.
There is no beach. The pool deck is built over a rocky shoreline and access to the water is either by some stairs to either side or a ladder in the center. For divers like everyone here, I would say this is preferable to a beach because my non-diving time was spent snorkeling and exploring the rocks and fish all around the hotel. I dont think a sandy beach would have been as interesting. But if you want sand, the hotel put together small sandy, beach areas to the north and south of the pool but access to the water is still by stairs.
This hotel has totally changed our desire to go on another cruise. This has everything a cruise has except a casino (who cares), no cheesiness, ocean and diving whenever you want, much nicer staff, better food, included drinks, no stressful port of calls, and did I say fantastic diving?
Aqua Safari
My wife used Aqua Safari (on the grounds of the hotel) to complete her Open Water Certification. Since I had no recent experience in Open Water, I went along and pretended I was taking the Open Water part. Gabriel was our instructor and we did the 4 dives/2 days in front of the hotel. Gabriel was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and perfect for this task.
We then were ready for the Holy Grail: a reef drift dive. We boarded an Aqua Safari boat in front of the hotel with 4 others and went to Paradise Reef for a shallow water single tank afternoon dive. I have never experienced this before, and it was so surreal to be actually doing this. We saw 3 Morays, 2 toadfish, the biggest crab I have ever seen, typical reef fish, a large lobster, trunkfish, cowfish, small rays, flounder, and large gray angelfish.
Miguel pointing out a toadfish. I know, you can't see it here. My cheap underwater camera is worse than a cell phone camera. I will be spending more time on the underwater photography forum.
Miguel, our DM, was very patient with the relative noob-ness on board (we were not the only relatively new divers) and took the time to point out wildlife and signaled for good camera opportunities. After reading on this board about DMs and divers getting separated and other assorted issues, we experienced none of that. The group stayed together, and the dive was very relaxing.
Jose' the Moray
Unfortunately, we jumped in underneath a rain shower, and the light was flat. Although, as I learned later there is a lot of hurricane damage and sand coverage over large areas, it was an experience I have never seen before.
The best I could shoot with the gear I had.
I kept looking at my pressure gauge to will the needle to stay in one place but alas, it was time to surface. Even more unfortunate, the dive vacation was over. We flew out the next day highly regretting we didnt stay one more night to get another full day of diving. The one reef drive was almost a teaser of what is out there. Watching the boat load up the next morning with the same group we dove with the previous afternoon was quite painful.
Ouch, this hurts to watch
Well, this is even more difficult to see. At 3000 feet and headed north.
My wife and I originally started planning a trip to Cancun to celebrate our 20th anniversary. She was a non-diver, and my most recent dive was my open water certification dives 20 years ago (yeah, I got married and it took 20 years to dive again). Well, a few trips to the local dive shop, an intro to diving class (her) followed by class and pool work, and a refresher class (me), and our plans totally changed to include diving and a change in venue to Cozumel.
Cozumel Palace
All I can say is OMG. What a place .er .palace. The rooms were immaculate, the scenery from the balcony was tremendous, the food was great, and best of all, the hotel staff was highly friendly, personable, and helpful, and most of all, sincere. We have never experienced an all-inclusive hotel before, and it took a while to get used to offering no tips and asking for drinks and food whenever we desired. We read several reviews and were overwhelmed with the positive reviews. All I can say is I agree with all those 5 star reviews. The Cozumel Palace lived up to everything.
There is no beach. The pool deck is built over a rocky shoreline and access to the water is either by some stairs to either side or a ladder in the center. For divers like everyone here, I would say this is preferable to a beach because my non-diving time was spent snorkeling and exploring the rocks and fish all around the hotel. I dont think a sandy beach would have been as interesting. But if you want sand, the hotel put together small sandy, beach areas to the north and south of the pool but access to the water is still by stairs.
This hotel has totally changed our desire to go on another cruise. This has everything a cruise has except a casino (who cares), no cheesiness, ocean and diving whenever you want, much nicer staff, better food, included drinks, no stressful port of calls, and did I say fantastic diving?
Aqua Safari
My wife used Aqua Safari (on the grounds of the hotel) to complete her Open Water Certification. Since I had no recent experience in Open Water, I went along and pretended I was taking the Open Water part. Gabriel was our instructor and we did the 4 dives/2 days in front of the hotel. Gabriel was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and perfect for this task.
We then were ready for the Holy Grail: a reef drift dive. We boarded an Aqua Safari boat in front of the hotel with 4 others and went to Paradise Reef for a shallow water single tank afternoon dive. I have never experienced this before, and it was so surreal to be actually doing this. We saw 3 Morays, 2 toadfish, the biggest crab I have ever seen, typical reef fish, a large lobster, trunkfish, cowfish, small rays, flounder, and large gray angelfish.
Miguel pointing out a toadfish. I know, you can't see it here. My cheap underwater camera is worse than a cell phone camera. I will be spending more time on the underwater photography forum.
Miguel, our DM, was very patient with the relative noob-ness on board (we were not the only relatively new divers) and took the time to point out wildlife and signaled for good camera opportunities. After reading on this board about DMs and divers getting separated and other assorted issues, we experienced none of that. The group stayed together, and the dive was very relaxing.
Jose' the Moray
Unfortunately, we jumped in underneath a rain shower, and the light was flat. Although, as I learned later there is a lot of hurricane damage and sand coverage over large areas, it was an experience I have never seen before.
The best I could shoot with the gear I had.
I kept looking at my pressure gauge to will the needle to stay in one place but alas, it was time to surface. Even more unfortunate, the dive vacation was over. We flew out the next day highly regretting we didnt stay one more night to get another full day of diving. The one reef drive was almost a teaser of what is out there. Watching the boat load up the next morning with the same group we dove with the previous afternoon was quite painful.
Ouch, this hurts to watch
Well, this is even more difficult to see. At 3000 feet and headed north.
