How'd I do price/hotel/dive op wise on this Cozumel trip?

[divematt]

We're going on a 9 day 8 night trip to Cozumel, from Saturday May1 to Sunday May 9. We're flying from Charlotte, NC to Cozumel direct in a couple of hours non-stop. We're staying at El Cid La Ceiba hotel, and diving with Del Mar Aquatics. They're located right there at El Cid La Ceiba. We're traveling with a Dive shop owner who has been to Cozumel 41 times and knows his way around the island to the best dive sites, best restaurants, and best optional excursions. We have our own boat or boats and he's laying out a great itinerary for us to follow, or we can do our own thing if we choose. We can eat at the places he chooses or go our own way if we'd like. We've got 6 days of 2 tank dives and unlimited shore and night diving as La Ceiba has great shore diving. We're paying $1399.00 for the 8 night trip from Sat. to Sun., or $1299.00 if we choose the 7 night Sun. to Sun trip. I don't think we did that bad did we? Doc, I'd like to hear a response from you if you read this. I know you have your favorites for dive op.'s and hotels, and if I was setting this up myself, I might have made other choices, but are these prices fair for what we're getting and where we're staying, and who we're diving with? Air right now is $600.00 anwway!

Thanks in advance for everybody's response.

 

[ggunn]

Add an hour to your "couple of hours" flight time; you're flying into the next time zone. It's about two hours air time from Houston, which is, of course, a bit closer.

But you did fine.

 

[hisinco]

I went last year using an Apple Vacations package. The charter an whole plane for the flights, so the roundtrip airfare when I went was only $100. Plus, they make deals with area hotels, so it was only around $500 double occupancy for the hotel room for a week. The total came to a little over $700 for 2 roundtrip tickets and a week in the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Americana on the south end, a nice hotel on the beach with a pool, dive shop, and pier for dive operators to pick you up. Because of the way the book flights, Apple does have restrictions on what day you leave. The flights when I went left and returned on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, so you could book 3 day, 5 day, and 7 day trips depending on which day you choose to leave and return. Worth looking into. I don't like diving with crowds, so I arranged my own local operator and it worked out great. It was just me and the dive guide the whole time and the price was reasonable.

By the way, I'm interested in doing a similar trip again some time between October and Christmas this year, and would like to hear from any experienced diver male diver that would like to share the double occupancy room. Not into a lot of partying or nightlife while there, just diving and sightseeing. No novice divers please. (see my profile to see if we'd be a good buddy team)