Cozumel’s diving is so “rushed”
- Thread starter Dogbowl
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
I agree with ReefHound. By my definition, AKR feels “rushed” because my day is completely planned out for me. I get to rest exactly X amount of time between this and that dive or meal. It’s regimented. Granted, I feel just as rushed on a liveaboard, but the trade-offs are generally worth it to me. I do all the dives offered on a liveaboard or at a dive resort like AKR because the cost per dive is so easily calculated, and it’s a significant amount. In contrast, on Bonaire I can choose to do whatever kind of dive suits the way I feel at the moment. I paid for a week of unlimited diving, and while there is still a per-dive cost, it doesn’t seem so in-my-face that I feel compelled to do the absolute maximum. If I choose to be slow getting to a site, gearing up, etc., it’s perfectly fine. If I choose not to dive at all until late in the day, that’s fine, too.
AdivingBel
Diver
LOL...Is "rushed" the new SB buzzword? Do you really feel "rushed" at AKR or on a liveaboard or maybe just scheduled? I say this mostly in jest, but to me rushed and diving are a pretty negative combo. I certainly enjoy not having a schedule in Bonaire & Curacao, but it doesn't make me feel "rushed" at other locales. It's just different. If you're truly feeling rushed on your dive vacations, maybe a little bit of additional planning and pre-staging might help. There are always vacations with less scheduling and less diving. Don't rush...be happy. 
I’m a little different. I don’t feel rushed by the schedule of a liveaboard because no one is waiting for me to get ready and jump into the ocean. I can gear up and do that “on my own time” and usually am somewhere in the middle of the group (i. e. not the first or last). No one cares when you jump, as long as it’s within the “window”, so no rushed feeling.
For liveaboards that dive from a dinghy, my only experience was on a phinisi in Indo and those boats are SLOW. It kind of set the tempo for everything else. In my first couple of gearing ups, I geared up using my “Cozumel speed” and soon realized it wasn’t required. People just weren’t in a rush. I thereafter slowed down and quite enjoyed it.
I also don’t care how many dives I do on liveaboards, so I don’t have any pressure there. I paid an amount and that’s it. I don’t think about the cost per dive afterwards, although I’m fully aware that it’s not really “worth it” for me, I just simply don’t care about that too much. And other people don’t care if I dive or not and nobody is waiting on me.
While AKR and Coco View are “scheduled”, I think they might be more like a land-based liveaboard where the time between meals and dives are a little more. And there’s no travelling to the boat other than on your feet. I haven’t tried them yet so maybe I’m wrong.
Hubby keeps saying no to Bonaire. Cause he’ll be the one driving and lugging tanks LOL. Ok fine.
It costs almost as much to go to Roatan than Egypt or the Philippines. Dang!
I agree about the airfare. By the time you add bags, you might as well fly first class. If you fly first class to Roatan, you might as well go to the Red Sea or the Philippines.
Haha first world problems oh my!
My husband is the same way and most people are. I totally get it. You work hard for your money and want to get the most out of it.
But everyone has stresses in life and if you don’t want a nervous break down you gotta ask yourself which stresses are really worth stressing over? What happens if you DON’T do all the dives offered? Will anyone die? Will anyone be hurt? Will anyone get sick? Will catastrophe occur? No, not really, so that is not something I personally would stress about. And no, that wasn’t my brilliant brain that came up with that. I paid a lot of money to have someone tell me that LOL.
Steelyeyes
Contributor
My wife felt a bit rushed on a few boats whether they were in Cozumel, Florida, or Belize. Apparently lugging tanks and shore diving doesn't bother her since from her first dive on Bonaire she fell in love with the place. We do park the truck tailgate towards the water so the walk to the entry/exit is short but some sites like 1000 steps are just a hump no matter how you slice it. Maybe since we shore dive in Puget Sound in drysuits with steel tanks the warm water gear just doesn't seem so terrible. Mary does have some slight problem on entries and exits because her replaced knee changes how her leg works a bit. To deal with the overheating in the sun in the wetsuits we'll often put the suits on, walk down the the water and get in and flush some water inside the suit. Then we go back to the truck, gear up and go diving. We learned that one, minus the flushing water inside, when we were gearing up in 65 degree weather to dive in mid 40's water in the drysuits.
WetInPortland
Contributor
You're not giving any value to your time. From the east coast of the USA, I can leave in the morning and be diving the Prince Albert (Coco View) in the afternoon. You'd be hard pressed to do that going to Cozumel, unless you're staying at Scuba Club, or maybe Aldora's villas. Nice trick if you can do that going to the Red Sea or Philippines (the laws of time and physics are *so* inconvenient).
And consider how long you're staying versus flying when amortizing the cost of your airfare. Take those extra flying days and tack them on to a closer resort trip. I'm fine with flying coach to Roatan, although I do check the first class rates. If you do much flying at all, get the credit card for your most common airline, and you get one bag free for everyone on the same itinerary. At about $75/year versus $30/bag each way, it's not hard to justify. Finally, I'd insist on flying Business class to the Philippines, unless I was willing to spend at *least* 24 hours post-flight recovering (I'm not).
I've been to Coco View several times with a dive club from a city where I no longer live, and I will continue to plan around their trips because they are such wonderful people. But even beyond that, when I look at the cost of the resort (less than $2,000/week, all inclusive) I'm seriously considering just doing a couple trips a year to Coco View and calling it good. You could spend most of a lifetime just shore diving the walls there.
If you're concerned about being "rushed", Coco View is the polar opposite, in my opinion. That's one reason I'm thinking of making it my primary dive location, even though I'm currently living in Cozumel.
FOMO (Fear of missing out)
Generally on LoB (Our preferred way of diving), my wife and I only take 3 dives a day. You have to be pretty persuasive to get us in teh water for a 4th dive which is generally an evening/night dive. We're no fan of them, and is wastes good chilling time with beer and a book on a quiet boat.
Because we make 10 or so dives a month at home, we don't care about dive quantity - and because our preferred dives are those with current - 3 good workouts per day is enough.
However recently in Misool (shore based) FOMO took hold of me, and over 12 days I racked up 48 dives. I would go out with the Dive staff for a second afternoon dive trying to get more manta ID's Sometime it took a real effort to haul myself to the dive centre when my wife and friends wee relaxing with their books on loungers, and for sure there were some dives that I came back from that in hindsight were "a bit meh" Others though... Yeah baby!!!
Thankfully we had 2 days by a poolside on the way home for me to relax. Would I do it again? My brain says no - but ask me again when I'm there and it's a "no cost dive" and I'm bound to say yes (unless its a night dive)
Similar threads
