Thanks for the report. My adult son and I dove Cozumel 2/26-3/3/2023 so overlapped with your trip. It was just the two of us and we were only there to dive. He and his wife had had a good experience with Dressel Divers and the Iberostar AI resort so we chose them for our trip actually booking everything through Dressel. Prior to this trip I had 11 dives after my OW certification for a total of 15 dives, all freshwater lakes, quarries, and rivers. I got my nitrox cert at home before the trip and did AOW with Dressel the first 2 days on this trip. We did 14 dives over 6 days of diving including 2 night dives and 2 cenote dives. Everything about our trip was excellent and I would repeat it in a heartbeat.
Dressel: I dove with 11 different dive guides. All were professional, attentive, gave good briefings and encouraged buddy checks. They were also very knowledgeable and were responsive to questions and would offer as much or as little help as I wanted. Even after the official AOW dives were completed they were willing to teach, if asked, and I learned a lot over the entire week. Early in the week with a new BC, focusing on not touching anything, and the excitement of great visibility on my first reef dives I had to add weight a couple of times. One of the guides later in the week worked with me to start reducing weight and by the last dive I had dropped 8 pounds and believe I could have dropped 2-4 pounds more. It made a big difference along with general acclimation and breathing practice. I also asked and was permitted to practice deploying my SMB at the end of a couple of dives rather than using the guides SMB. I would definitely dive with Dressel again.
Boats: The boats were large and typically had 8-20 people on board with 4-8 people per dive guide. The cylinders were already secured on the boat when we boarded and our guide directed us to where our tanks were so his group sat together on the boat. We could immediately start setting up our gear while at the pier and on the short trip out. They only helped if they saw a problem or were asked. I thought it was perfect. As each group was dropped off, we would walk to the back and step off. We were also allowed to backroll if we wanted as long as we asked first.
Iberostar: The resort was also excellent with friendly staff, good food and a safe/calm/peaceful atmosphere which is what we wanted. I had no desire to visit town on this trip as I am no fan of the tourist crowds and street hawkers. I may try it on another trip. Our last dive day was on the mainland at Chikin Ha Cenote and Dressel arranged everything, and our guide accompanied us all the way to and from. The harbor was closed on our way back so we had to spend the night on the mainland. Dressel/Iberostar booked us immediately into the Iberostar in Cancun and made our dinner reservations at one of the on-site theme restaurants. The service was excellent.
Conditions: Starting midweek the wind began picking up. Due to pure luck, we had dived the most southern sites the first couple of days when conditions were good and then just worked our way up the reef on subsequent days. Palancar gardens/caves was closed a day or two midweek but we had already dived there so we didn't miss anything. By Friday when conditions were really bad we had already planned to dive the cenote so again it worked out perfectly. We saw a lot of wildlife including shark, turtles - including one 4 footer that swam right up to me as I was videoing it, various rays, large acid green moray eels (6-7 feet) out actively hunting during the day - we were told it was unusual, endless fish - including a lot of barracuda including a large (migrating?) school one day, and octopus on both night dives.
Other site notes: We did not go as far north as other dive companies do. We stayed in the reserve. We found out later in the week that they will take a boat to requested sites, e.g. the wreck or some other northern sites, if there is a boat load who all want to go and are appropriately experienced. We didn't bother but on another trip I might start early in the week to organize something like that.
. That being said, I’d probably do it again but would just use the ADO bus to/from Playa del Carmen.
