Hotel Cozumel vs. Villa Blanca vs. ?

[backprop]

I have the same thing going for a December trip! (Although it's a chart that I'm doing by hand instead of a spreadsheet.) I've done this so many times, I don't know why I don't just save the notes from each previous year. Where are you finding their 40% promotion?

Going through the booking process. There is a "best rate", then a 40% off city view and a 20% off ocean view. It might only show up for certain dates.

 

[DandyDon]

I guess I've been looking at the dive+room packages at each thinking they'd be better value. I'll check into booking separate.

There are a number of reasons why booking a dive & room package together is not a great idea. What if you have to miss some dives?

Otherwise, this has turned into a wider discussion - and you already have received good advice, so I'll wish you luck and unsubscribe.

 

[backprop]

There are a number of reasons why booking a dive & room package together is not a great idea. What if you have to miss some dives? Otherwise, this has turned into a wider discussion - and you already have received good advice, so I'll wish you luck and unsubscribe.

OK. Thanks. Yes I have. Scubaboard advice posts always give a lot of different angles to think about.

On the other hand, I'm also looking at a 3 day package from the dive op (instead of by the tank or dive), separately from the hotel. The same could be said for that - what if I have to miss some dives? For 3 days, it's not that huge of a risk, and I guess I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.

 

[cvchief]

A comment on "Wifi" is that at present internet service in general mostly sucks in that part of town. Our house is a few blocks behind Hotel Cozumel and all the neighbors complain about their service. It's quite possible that the hotels have their own connectivity, but speeds are limited by the bottleneck of the underwater cables from the mainland through which nearly everything is connected. The population has significantly outgrown capacity - everyone has a smartphone. Speeds are fine for social media, casual videoconferencing, and the like but streaming a movie can be painfully frustrating. That's if you're connected by ethernet! At my house a friend had difficulty working on online coursework and that was with my paying for 20 Mbps service, bringing my own routers from the US and configuring them properly, and calling out the tech and yelling at them on-site every couple of days. I would not predicate keeping a job on being able to connect at good speed from Cozumel right now.

It seems it is particularly bad with the cable internet who have apparently WAY oversold their capacity. Our DSL has been more steady. We don't have high tier, but it seems as good as ever. I was chatting with someone looking for a rental and thought he HAD to have Cablemas. I tried to tell him to get a DSL place if he wanted to work from here, which is the opposite of what one would expect.

 

[jbjclj]

Another vote for Casa Mexicana. Walk to most of the great restaurants, wonderful breakfast, lovely rooms. We walk around the corner to Tres Pelicanos who drives us to and from the Caleta.

 

[ggunn]

I've also stayed at Casa Mexicana, and I really like it, with the exception of the Kiddy Pool. I won't stay there in the summer - May through September - because when it is hot and humid out, I really need a full sized swimming pool. But for an October to March trip, Casa Mexicana works great.

Where do you stay when you go in April?

 

[dmoore19]

I have stayed at Hotel Cozumel and gone out with Dive Paradise a few times. I have also rented a condo at ElCantil and used Blue XT Sea. Of course I enjoyed the El Cantil and Blue XT Sea combination the most. However, if given a chance to go I wouldn't turn down either choice depending on how much I wanted to spend and if my wife was going on the trip or not. Nothing against Dive Paradise but if I was going down with the guys I would choose Hotel Cozumel and Blue XT Sea, I think Christie will pick up at Hotel Cozumel. My wife doesn't dive and is a Foodie.

 

[mstevens]

It seems it is particularly bad with the cable internet who have apparently WAY oversold their capacity. Our DSL has been more steady. We don't have high tier, but it seems as good as ever. I was chatting with someone looking for a rental and thought he HAD to have Cablemas. I tried to tell him to get a DSL place if he wanted to work from here, which is the opposite of what one would expect.

Some say it's better up north overall even with cable. As you say, counterintuitively many DSL users seem to be getting better speeds than many cable users. I have seen some complaining about DSL, too, though.

 

[cicopo]

Although the original question wasn't asking about dive ops I use several to stay in touch with the friends I've made diving in Cozumel. Dive Paradise's big boats have shade but their small fast boats don't so if you don't want to bake during your SI & travel to / from the reefs you may want to consider that. Yes Blue XT Sea picks up to Hotel Coz & they are one of the ops I use. Aldora & Living Underwater also pick up there but I haven't dove with either. Dive with Martin picks up there & a bit early for some of us (7:30AM) and Tres Pelicanos transports you to / from the hotel to where the boat is parked. There are several other ops who pick up there but Oct is low season which may influence just who will that time of year.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I have a home near the Corpus Christi Church (behind Chedraui store) and my Cablemas Service (cable) sucks most of the time. i'll probably switch to DSL and pay whatever it costs for faster service…if I can.Dave DillehayAldora Divers