First diving trip to Cozumel - a few questions

[riceowls]

Newby on the board, recently certified for AOW, dived in Playa del Carmen before and in cenotes but not in Cozumel. Flying in less than a month for 4-5 days of diving (yay!).
1. Staying in Grand Park Royal Cozumel - is there a decent in-house dive shop or should I look elsewhere. Will the hotel allow dock pick-up? I've been looking at Dive with Martin (as they provide gear and I don't have my own) and Robewrta's shack as they are nextdoor.
2. Want to get my first wet suitbefore going. I rarely get cold and dived in diveskin shirt in the Philippines. However, I am thinking of getting a 3mm shorty or full just in case. Will that be enough for Cozumel? What about cenote diving? One option I consider is getting NeoSport Waterman 3mm Jacket (or should I got for 5 or 7?) and later get the Waterman John for colder dives such as cenotes. I am in Houston and think that Cancun/Cozumel flights would be my most frequent diving flyghts.

3. How are visibility and conditions on morning vs afternoon dives? Most operators start early on the morning dives so I am considering taking afternoon dives on some days unless conditions deteriorate.

 

[robd]

New Newby on the board, recently certified for AOW, dived in Playa del Carmen before and in cenotes but not in Cozumel. Flying in less than a month for 4-5 days of diving (yay!).
1. I really like the guys here Scuba Diving Cozumel | Top Rated Cozumel Dive Shop - Tres Pelicanos I have dived with them for 6yrs now and the a great with newbie and experience. A lot of places do not do afternoons. They will if they have 2 confirmed people. Example of service is my mask strap broke 5mins into my second dive. I asked where to buy a new strap? The guys said we got one at the office! Great when I went to pay it was no charge. I said why they said it was used. In Feb I blew a regulator hose, was given a back up reg set for the rest of the day. Next day new hose on my reg set. Does not get any better.

2.3MM should be great

3. I do not really see a visibility difference. Sometimes maybe the sea is a little more but not a lot. I started doing a Morning one day and afternoon the next. It lets us relax some mornings and opens afternoon to explore the island

Hope this helps

 

[rick00001967]

you will enjoy the park royal
marine world is across the street. great shop to deal with. very convenient. decent shore diving right off their pier.
always heard good things about dive with martin. have friends who use roberta's every year and enjoy them.
i could be wrong but i believe marine world has the nicer bigger boats but some prefer the smaller faster boats.
i always recommend a full wet suit. 3mm would be pretty typical for warm water diving but many do not need a suit. i used to dive a full 1mm.
for cenotes you "MAY" need a 5mm. depends o your tolerance of the water temps which are usually around 70F. i find if i have a well fitted 3mm i can simply bring a cold water hood and i am fine. the dives would typically be 40 to 50 min.
yes many shops like to start very early to try to get the best spots first and before other groups stir things up.

 

[Vic K]

@riceowls congratulations on getting AOW certification. You will have a great time in Cozumel. I sincerely believe this(Cozumel) forum gets more hits/inputs then any other forum on this website. Plenty of more people will chime in to answer your queries. You should think about what you need from a dive op. Size of boat, group size to dive master ratio, Large tanks, valet service, surface interval on boat or not, snacks on boat? once you define these parameters, others will be able to direct you better. Like @robd my favorite is Tres Pelicanos for my needs. They will pick you up in front of your hotel for a short 4 minute ride to marina and drop you back off after diving. But there are plenty of great dive ops in Cozumel. I have not used Dive with Martin or Roberta's shack, but the name of Dive with Martin comes up quite often in top rated ops on this forum. If you do want to buy a wetsuit buy a full length as opposed to shorty as you will need it at other areas and you will utilize it more. Cozumel has great diving, visibility depends on certain factors but it is major upgrade over playa. I had dived playa/tulum few times before Cozumel, once I went to Cozumel I never dived playa again. Not sure if you are flying into Cozumel or Cancun. if you are flying into Cancun please search "Bag Drag" in this forum and you will find the whole route. I have done bag drag pre covid and it was fine. Have heard some not so great stories about packing boats during these times with no social distancing. Make your own choice but some members will definitely let you know why one is better than the other.
Again, if you just do little bit of data mining on this forum you will find answer to your dive shop question. Either ways have a great time, Cozumel is absolutely wonderful and I believe you will have a great time. If you have any specific questions please PM me and I will be happy to answer to best of my knowledge.

 

[DandyDon]

I am thinking of getting a 3mm shorty or full just in case.

Shorties are the favorite of shops as they are easier to fit to customers, but they don't protects legs & arms from abrasions & stings common to diving. I like long jumpsuits and have several: 1 mil, 3 mil, 5 mil, 7 mil, plus a 3 mil shorty I bought before I knew better but sometimes I wear over the 1 mil for extra warmth. I could have skipped the 5 mil; if the 3 mil is not enough, jump to the 7 mil.

 

[gopbroek]

Typical water temps in mid April are 80 - 81F and mid May are 81 -82 F (at depth), since you have been in the Cenotes as a reference they are usually run about 75 F. Most folks find a 2/3MM or a 3MM full suit to be comfortable but it all depends on individual preference and cold tolerance. One thing to take into consideration is core temperature loss. Cozumel is for the most part relaxed drift diving which hopefully means minimal kicking and swimming and this often leads to 60+ minute dives 2 or 4 times a day. After three to four days of this type of diving your body loses core temperature and that tropical water is not quite as warm as you may have originally thought. The shop I dive with has primarily full suites and most DM's I know wear a full suit year round. There are exception like Larry from cunukastan who dives every day he his down in February in shorts only and maintains a smile when he is getting out of the water.
I have one of the NeoSport 3MM suits, its not real high quality neoprene and insulation wise its maybe a 2.5 but for the price, is not bad.

 

[DandyDon]

dived in Playa del Carmen before

It's the same channel so whatever you wore that should work in Cozumel. I'm an old coot who hates being cold more than being hot generally, so I wear my 1 mil jumpsuit in the summer in Coz, add the 3 mil shorty over it in the winter, but your tolerances may well be different. Living in Houston Texas, I doubt that you handle cold well, but who knows. I've know divers who wore shorts in the winter there and one who wore a dry suit.

 

[ColoDale]

My friends who just left Coz stayed at Park Royal and my dive op picked them up at the pier across the street. Any dive op could/should do the same - ask whomever it is. There are plenty of posts about dive ops, types of boats, services, etc in this forum - plenty of cheerleading. Dive Ops will want a minimum of divers to go out and there are less wanting to do afternoon dives.
I dive in a 3mm jacket and surf shorts but this last week there were few times when I was cold on the second dive. Some were in full wetsuits and caps. Depends on you. Most or all dive ops will have rental gear though items like wetsuits, masks, booties I would have already/bring for fit.
Morning and afternoon visibility is about the same. High sun will give you more light.

 

[deepsea21]

Go with a full 3MM suit if this is your first purchase and forget about that shorty/jacket. As was mentioned previously, the full suit isn't just for thermal insulation but to protect you from all the stuff that can scratch and sting. I would also buy your own mask, fins, booties and a tropic beanie if you don't yet have them. Everything else you can rent.

As you are staying at the Grand Park Royal I don't think Dive With Marin is the best fit as I believe their northernmost pick-up point is just south of the southern cruise pier Puerta Maya that is south of you. It isn't a long walk from where you are staying but they pick up VERY EARLY from that northern most point... Thinking like 7:00 AM or something since they come all the way up there from the marina and then head back south to pick up at the southern AI's docks.

As another recommended, I'd contact Tres Pelicanos that is my preferred dive op these days after diving the island for 20 years or something and is a truly boutique dive op. Very popular with other members here but, of course, everyone has their favorites for their own reasons which makes Coz great as there are many quality ops on the island. 3P's would pick you up on the street out front of your accommodations, transport you to the marina with other divers where the boats are and then back to your accommodations for free. Pick up would be around 7:45 AM there and you'd generally be back from AM dives around noon. I've never heard of Roberta's Scuba Shack and have never seen it mentioned on this forum so I'm not sure I'd want to go with that operation but maybe other's have heard of it and been diving with them.

Also, if you're only going to be visiting for 4-5 days, skip wasting a day to go back to dive the Cenotes on the mainland as you've been there and done that. I'd much rather spend that day diving 2 new sites on Coz as they are all so different.

 

[reddiver970]

Newby on the board, recently certified for AOW, dived in Playa del Carmen before and in cenotes but not in Cozumel. Flying in less than a month for 4-5 days of diving (yay!).
1. Staying in Grand Park Royal Cozumel - is there a decent in-house dive shop or should I look elsewhere. Will the hotel allow dock pick-up? I've been looking at Dive with Martin (as they provide gear and I don't have my own) and Robewrta's shack as they are nextdoor.
2. Want to get my first wet suitbefore going. I rarely get cold and dived in diveskin shirt in the Philippines. However, I am thinking of getting a 3mm shorty or full just in case. Will that be enough for Cozumel? What about cenote diving? One option I consider is getting NeoSport Waterman 3mm Jacket (or should I got for 5 or 7?) and later get the Waterman John for colder dives such as cenotes. I am in Houston and think that Cancun/Cozumel flights would be my most frequent diving flyghts.

3. How are visibility and conditions on morning vs afternoon dives? Most operators start early on the morning dives so I am considering taking afternoon dives on some days unless conditions deteriorate.