Help!! First time to Coz, only 3.5 dive-days!

[apadua]

Hi Guys,

I need your help. How many dives can I fit in 4.5 days?

the only thing I have so far is air - A buddy and I land in Cancun at 10:45AM Wednesday. I leave Cancun at 8PM Sunday.

This is what I'd like my schedule to look like:

Wed: 11AM - 2PM - Get to Cozumel.
2PM - Nighttime - Dive (at least 2/3 dives)
Thursday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Friday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Saturday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Sunday: Cenotes Snorkel or Chichen Itza, then Cancun for the 8:45 flight back to MEX.

These are my questions:

1. Is this too aggressive? Can this schedule be done?
2. Will the Dive-OPs commit to AM, PM, and night dives beforehand? They all say "inquire" on the websites and none of them post actual daily schedules.I'm going to start calling them soon anyways, but maybe you've done this before and have experience booking ahead.
3. Assuming they all commit, Blue XT Sea, Living-Underwater, or Aldora?
4. Pre-flight day - Cenotes or Chichen Itza? Or something else Unmissable (holbox whale shark snorkel?)
5. Any hotel recommendations thinking about my schedule (time to/from pier, commute to dive sites, etc).

Thanks so much!!!

Andre

 

[mississippidiver]

Most dive-ops on the island do the 2-tank dive in the morning and maybe a one-tank dive in the afternoon. I have found that the night dives happen if the dive-op has enough interested parties to justify his cost.

Since it is just you and one buddy you may be at the mercy of diving with another group whereby you have to dive on their schedule. I think that your desire to get in 5-6 dives a day probably won't happen, but 3 dives a day is more realistic and hopefully you can get in at least one or two night dives. I always contact a dive-op prior to arriving on the island so that I already know my dive schedule for the week ahead. That way I can plan my other activities around the dive schedule.

Also, when you get back on the mainland you may want to consider HiddenWorlds for come excellent cenote snorkeling/diving.

 

[georoc01]

Even on the most aggressive schedules, I have never averaged more than 4 dives a day. And that was with a chartered group that did two morning and then either two afternoon or 1 afternoon & 1 night dive every day.

Given the length of the boat rides, its a very agressive schedule.

 

[ggunn]

Hi Guys,

I need your help. How many dives can I fit in 4.5 days?

the only thing I have so far is air - A buddy and I land in Cancun at 10:45AM Wednesday. I leave Cancun at 8PM Sunday.

This is what I'd like my schedule to look like:

Wed: 11AM - 2PM - Get to Cozumel.
2PM - Nighttime - Dive (at least 2/3 dives)
Thursday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Friday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Saturday: 5-6 dives (2 Morning, 1 or 2 Afternoon, 2 Twilight/Night)
Sunday: Cenotes Snorkel or Chichen Itza, then Cancun for the 8:45 flight back to MEX.

These are my questions:

1. Is this too aggressive? Can this schedule be done?
2. Will the Dive-OPs commit to AM, PM, and night dives beforehand? They all say "inquire" on the websites and none of them post actual daily schedules.I'm going to start calling them soon anyways, but maybe you've done this before and have experience booking ahead.
3. Assuming they all commit, Blue XT Sea, Living-Underwater, or Aldora?
4. Pre-flight day - Cenotes or Chichen Itza? Or something else Unmissable (holbox whale shark snorkel?)
5. Any hotel recommendations thinking about my schedule (time to/from pier, commute to dive sites, etc).

Thanks so much!!!

Andre

The afternoon and evening dive schedules are usually an on-demand thing that is decided on the day in question, so you may encounter some difficulty in hard scheduling those ahead of time, That is indeed a very aggressive schedule as well; I would advise that you contact your prospective dive ops and ask them if they can/will accommodate you. Any op that will try to do it will probably tag team you with DM's, so you'll have to pay careful attention to your nitrogen loading. It's also possible that after a couple of days of that you won't be ready for deep dives in the morning, which will put you at odds with the op's other customers.

FWIW, when I go to Cozumel, I adopt a laid-back "island time" mentality rather than spending every waking moment in a breakneck rush to get on to the next event, and I think you'll find that to be the prevailing attitude. YMMV of course, but I wouldn't want a schedule like the one you are contemplating.

 

[apadua]

Thanks for the tips.

Since I'm tagging this onto a business trip, i was adopting the "this isn't vacation, it's just a long weekend" mentality. Thanks for calling it out - it'll probably make the week more enjoyable too.

I usually don't want the schedule i'm proposing either; in a week in curacao, with shore-diving, i averaged 3 dives/day. But this time i only have 3 days, the wife isn't there to complain about the excessive diving , and i've got plenty of new camera gear to test out .

I'll book whatever they allow me to book in advance, and if i can squeeze a few in while i'm there, great. If not, well, i'll just chill, photoshop the AM pictures, and call the wife and tell her how it sucks out there.


Cheers!

 

[deborahdelamar]

Agree with the other posters. One thing not mentioned is that Cozumel, unlike Curacao and Bonaire, has few, nice, boat-dive sites above 50'. Greatest life is between 40' & 70'. Most "2nd tank" sites top at 50-65'. There is a handful of others that are or may be dived shallower but most ops don't visit those often, especially on the first trip of the day. (One glaring exception is Colombia Shallows, which is SOP for most ops after a deep site like Punta Sur or a long visit to neighboring Colombia or Palancar.)

As stated, you'll need to pay attention to your computer or tables as it's very easy to overdo it. You can always return to Isla for a longer stay!

 

[mstevens]

Can it be done? Probably.

Should it be done? Probably not.

I'll echo others' sentiments here. We go to Cozumel primarily to dive. We love the diving there and start planning our next trip in the airport on the way home. However, there's no point wearing yourself ragged trying to spend as many hours as possible per day under water. An average of 2.4 dives per day has us pretty worn out by the end of the trip.

Cozumel diving tends to be fairly deep and nitrox is only easily available in very limited mixes that may not be appropriate for all dives.

My recommendation is to enjoy the heck out of 2-3 dives per day and spend the rest of the time on the beach or in the restaurants (or napping!).

Between cenote snorkeling and Chichen Itza, I'd head for Chichen Itza since I'd vastly rather dive the cenotes instead of paddling around at the surface. If the whale sharks are in the area, you have the time to get to Holbox, and you haven't snorkeled with whale sharks before, I'd say that would be a truly "unmissable" activity. I've always thought of July to August as being whale shark season, but I'm no expert.

Just about any hotel on the island works well for diving.

Everyone has their favorite dive ops and great reasons for their preferences. I'm afraid you'll have to do a bit of reading (including between the lines) here to get a feel for what op you may want to use. Different ops tend to cater to different preferences such as price, concierge services, etc. There's little point in paying to have your gear rinsed and stored if you aren't going to let anyone else touch it, for example. Our favorite op (Blue Magic) knows our preferences. We just let them know when we're going to show up and can confidently count on them to show us some great diving. You may or may not find the right fit for you on one trip, but if you go with one of the 5 or so commonly-mentioned companies here you probably won't go wrong.

 

[Butch Fries]

I agree that it's too aggressive, but if you stay at El Cid La Ceiba or Casa del Mar it's possible to augment your schedule with some shore diving. Deepest will be about 35 feet and there is the wreck (and it's really a wreck now) of an old airplane off El Cid but it's diving (actually fairly interesting at night) and I often use it as a "warmup" after a few months without diving; the other advantage is that both hotels are nice (clean and comfortable) and close to the reefs, without an impossibly expensive cab ride into town. There is also shore diving at Chankanaab but the deepest is about 20 feet and there ain't much to see.
The smaller companies, such as Chucho Divers, may be more willing to accommodate the kind of schedule you're proposing.

 

[MMM]

Agree with Butch Fries. Only way you will come close to your desired number of dives will be to do shore diving. Blue Angel is closer to town than the two hotels he references though.

 

[apadua]

Thanks for all the tips. I have Nitrox cert and would take advantage of that in order to improve my bottom time. I'll also look into shore diving as a complement.

Looks like it's more studying for me - and just watching the Holbox Whale Tour videos on Youtube makes me want to go . I'll update as i have more ideas/questions on my trip planning.

As always, you guys are awesome. Thanks again!