Iberostar vrs. Occidental Grand

[Dhboner]

Hi guys!

I am planning a trip to Cozumel next year with my family (3 divers and 2 non-divers). We definitely want to stay at the south end at an all-inclusive. We've narrowed it down to the Iberostar or the Occidental Grand. I'm leaning towards the Grand since the Iberostar policy of charging a dock fee is ridiculous, but my family's vacation enjoyment trumps my conscience!

So I would love to get some candid opinions on the pros/cons of these two resorts.

Thanks very much!

Bob (Toronto)

 

[cvchief]

We stayed awhile back at both the Iberostar and the Occidental Grand Cozumel. Like both of them and they are REALLY close to the dive sites. This was a little thing I wrote up when someone asked:

My take on Ibero is:
Pros:
Cute rooms in smaller concrete buildings. You get a little porch outside your door.
Nice central pool with swim up bar.
Terrific beach with a beach bar, chairs and palm trees larger than grand (See cons on beach too)
Food was better than Grand, generally. It was still AI food and nothing like some choices in town, but good. Ibero had a fajita bar running fresh fajitas.
Nice star friends staff. They don't bug you but they do some cute stuff.

Cons:
Furthest south of town.
Water access from beach sucks. Rocky iron shore. No one walks into water. You have to walk out the dock and enter via a sort of stair ladder thing.
Cell service on Sprint at least was poor. I used the BB to get my email.
At the time, Wifi sucked out near the pool and beach. I think they had an equipment issues, but you had to go to the lobby. It also was pay wifi.
Personal peeve: they charge other dive ops to pick up there a monthly fee regardless of number of divers.
The layout of these little quad rooms is confusing as heck. Coming back from eating it is WAY easy to get lost wandering around on these pretty curvy paths.


That being said, my wife I think liked the grand more.

The grand has a little longer walk to the beach/breakfast area from the rooms. (Longer if you leave your computer in your room and your op says we will wait while you run to the room....)
The grand has timeshare people. They were nice really. We did the thing first time and got booze and shirts. Next stay they didn't even hit us up for it.
The grand seems a little more sedate. Now we are divers, so we turned in early. However, we could hear the party at Allegro across the jungle.
Grounds at the grand are very nice.
The beach at the grand is more a narrow strip between the wall of the pool and the water. It was fine though and the shore was not rocky so you could walking in and out which was nice.
Friends we had with us parked on the beach backed up again the back of the pool wall by the bar and the Santos handed down drinks all day. They were happy as can be. They could also watch us coming in on the boat from the lunch area.


That's my take.

 

[CT Sean]

We stayed awhile back at both the Iberostar and the Occidental Grand Cozumel.

If you don't mind me asking, did you stay on the first or second floor, were the bathrooms "open air" or sealed windows (stayed in Curacao over the summer and the bathrooms were just screened with wood shutters - did NOT keep out ants) and were there any bugs in the rooms (like, say, ants)?

Much appreciate it. We just opted AGAINST a family vacation in Cozumel but plan to go in the future and Iberostar is high on the list of options.

 

[Jax]

Personally, I like the Allegro over the Grand because of that long run to the beach. I just got back from there, and the DivePro Cozumel folks are wonderful. We leave our stuff there, it's locked in the back, and takes us two minutes to walk from breakfast to dive shop. About the same amount of time from dock to dive site, too.

 

[cvchief]

If you don't mind me asking, did you stay on the first or second floor, were the bathrooms "open air" or sealed windows (stayed in Curacao over the summer and the bathrooms were just screened with wood shutters - did NOT keep out ants) and were there any bugs in the rooms (like, say, ants)?

Much appreciate it. We just opted AGAINST a family vacation in Cozumel but plan to go in the future and Iberostar is high on the list of options.

Hmm.. now you are testing me. We were on the 2nd floor in Ibero and top floor (3rd?) at Grand. Def were not open. They were either sealed or not there at all... The lil deck at the Ibero is kinda cool.

 

[DeerCreekers]

Have stayed at the Grand 3 or 4 times, and going back in April. Dive op at the Alegro picks you up (no dock charge). Nitrox is free. Can I say that again...nitrox is free. Food is AI but good (roof top pizza bar is my teens favorite). Work out room is small but has what you need. Rooms are colorfully tiled and good AC. Don't ever remember a bug problem. The walk across a bridge to the beach (0ver protected marsh) is long but telling my kids "I thought I just saw an alligator" just never gets old.
Great "dive" hotel.
Stayed at the Alegro a couple times too. Love that place too, although older.

 

[Dhboner]

Thanks everyone!

 

[cicopo]

I've stayed at both but there was a few years between the stays but I prefer the Iberostar. Food is more to what I expected being that both are on the Island of Cozumel & not in the US. Iberostar had far more sea food based stuff especially at lunch. Rooms are much nicer at the Grand. Service at the Iberostar was way better than at the Grand. All of that said I always recommend that people pick the CHEAPER of the 2 unless they really want something only 1 has (like the swim up bar etc). There just isn't anything special about the 2 of them that justifies paying much more so until you've tried one pick the cheaper. There's more for kids or teens to do at the Iberostar & Allegro than at the Grand. Photo tours of both are in my album set here

Picasa Web Albums - Larry

And in all of my stays on the island most are in winter months so we've never had a bug problem with the exception being the sand fleas along the beach just before dusk.

 

[cvchief]

I would have to agree with Cicopo, that nails it.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Both were decent. But in the Occidental Grand, you are second class citizen because the timeshare people have more perks than you.

I remember Dive Palancar was one of those first person out of air, the whole group goes up type of dive shop (both in Allegro and Occidenal). Dressel diver in Iberostar gives you a 60min bottom time and the DM will let you linger up to 60min before they tell you its time to go up and do your safety stop. I remember a group of divers that requested to have their own DM were always doing 70min dives. Plus Dressel give you nitrox too (never remember Dive Palancar at Allegro or Occidental doing that).

Also, sandfleas, killers. I was doing night shots on the beach and they were eating me alive.