Mimi Coz trip report

[pilot fish]

Went down to Coz last Saturday for 5 nights, 3 days of diving. I flew US Air into Charlotte and then direct into Coz. No problems with connections, everything was on time. I stayed at Hotel Cozumel and dove with Dive Paradise. I did a total of 10 dives. While there I completed my nitrox cert.

Airlines: There was no problems at all with US Air. I realize now that travel mid week to mid week is so much easier. If I can, I will schedule flights mid week. Less congested and smoother.

Hotel Cozumel: It's ok. The food is fair and rooms are comfortable and clean. Balconey to dry your gear. Nice, big pool, although I never swam in it this time around. Hot tub, which I wanted to use, was luke warm to cool. The price of hotel is reasonable with the all inclusive. It's located a mile from town.

Dive Op - Dive Paradise. They are a good dive op if you are a beginner or don't have a lot of dive experience. They have an operation at the hotel. Boats are slow and crowded. I was disappointed at the dive sites they took us to. They didn't go far enough south to access better sites. Out of the 10 dives, one site was outstanding, Palancar Horsehoe. We saw a 7 ft eagle ray that was majestic. Great reef formation and great swim thrus at the Horshoe. DM's were attentive to new divers but would not let us more experienced divers dive our profiles and they limited our BT. I would not dive with them again. Their fleet of boats are old and slow. The water temp was a consistent 78*You would be advised to wear a 3 mil - men, ladies - 5 mil, and head convering. Vis was 80 ft to 100 ft but most times near 80 ft.

On my off day I went to Playa Del Carmen by ferry, after speaking to Christi while I was there. Her advice was invaluable.

All in all I had a good time, got to dive, did my nitrox cert but was not pleased with the sites Dive Paradise took us too.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Thanks for the report. You are gonna love nitrox.

 

[pilot fish]

Thanks for the report. You are gonna love nitrox.

Thanks. I only did 4 nitrox dives in coz so did not see any difference in the way I felt at the end of the day. I think that was because I did mostly air dives and was not allowed to dive my own profile . I was coming up with 1100 and 1300 psi on some dives.

 

[Christi]

On my off day I went to Playa Del Carmen by ferry, after speaking to Christi while I was there. Her advice was invaluable

So glad to hear you enjoyed your day in Playa. Did you find the lunch spot I told you about?

 

[pilot fish]

So glad to hear you enjoyed your day in Playa. Did you find the lunch spot I told you about?

Hi Christi. Yes, I found it but it did not take credit cards so I ate someplace else, Naturale, which is right down the block from Midi Luna. How are you feeling? I came home with a cold and stuffy sinuses. bummer.

It was great talking to you.

 

[murphdivers286]

Great report. I will have to stay away form Dive Paradise.

 

[RonFrank]

Potentially based on the customer, and initial request made, and amount paid.

Here is an interesting thread.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t59460-.html

Went down to Coz last Saturday for 5 nights, 3 days of diving. I flew US Air into Charlotte and then direct into Coz. No problems with connections, everything was on time. I stayed at Hotel Cozumel and dove with Dive Paradise. I did a total of 10 dives. While there I completed my nitrox cert.

Airlines: There was no problems at all with US Air. I realize now that travel mid week to mid week is so much easier. If I can, I will schedule flights mid week. Less congested and smoother.

Hotel Cozumel: It's ok. The food is fair and rooms are comfortable and clean. Balconey to dry your gear. Nice, big pool, although I never swam in it this time around. Hot tub, which I wanted to use, was luke warm to cool. The price of hotel is reasonable with the all inclusive. It's located a mile from town.

Dive Op - Dive Paradise. They are a good dive op if you are a beginner or don't have a lot of dive experience. They have an operation at the hotel. Boats are slow and crowded. I was disappointed at the dive sites they took us to. They didn't go far enough south to access better sites. Out of the 10 dives, one site was outstanding, Palancar Horsehoe. We saw a 7 ft eagle ray that was majestic. Great reef formation and great swim thrus at the Horshoe. DM's were attentive to new divers but would not let us more experienced divers dive our profiles and they limited our BT. I would not dive with them again. Their fleet of boats are old and slow. The water temp was a consistent 78*You would be advised to wear a 3 mil - men, ladies - 5 mil, and head convering. Vis was 80 ft to 100 ft but most times near 80 ft.

On my off day I went to Playa Del Carmen by ferry, after speaking to Christi while I was there. Her advice was invaluable.

All in all I had a good time, got to dive, did my nitrox cert but was not pleased with the sites Dive Paradise took us too.

 

[pilot fish]

Potentially based on the customer, and initial request made, and amount paid.

Here is an interesting thread.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t59460-.html

Read the link, Thanks. Yes, I would imagine that with anything, opinions vary. If you are going with a large group I think you will be ok since you will all be of one mind and they will cater to your group. But if you are a lone diver, or diver and buddy, you will take what you get. The boats are slow - SLOW. Everything is passing you by to the better dive sites. They are even late picking you up. Each day they were late and everyone else was picked up but us, on Dive Paradise.

If you don't get away much, don't have too much dive experience, Dive Paradise will be ok, but if you are looking for something else, a bit better than ho hum diving, then Dive with Blue XT, Eldora or some other good dive operation that has good, fast boats.

Also, I was told my two nitorx tanks had 32% but when I asksd to analyze them, [ they had to get an analyzer from a different Dive Paradise boat ], one was 31.5% - OK, and one was 35.7%, not ok. My nitrox instructor, Alonzo, was very good, it was not his fault, and he knew what he was doing but the equipment did not inspire me with confidence.

 

[howard4113]

I've dove with Dive Paradise on two trips. The first trip was several years ago - first real OW experience. They did great. We had a great DM early in the trip and requested him from then on.

Our last trip (this last xmas) started badly. The first day, the DM made us surface as a group @ about 35 mins - I had over 1700 lbs left! Second dive was marginally better. When we got back, I made it clear that I'd not dive with them again if that happened again. The next day, the wind was blowing and they cancelled diving for the day. They would not rent tanks either for shore diving! We went downtown and I noticed that Aqua Safari was diving! The third day it was blowing again -- and again they tried to cancel. Next door at Scuba Club, they loaded the boats and headed out. Seeing that, I told the DP folks that I'd either dive with them today - or Scuba Club for the rest of the trip. DP arranged to have us leave from the port. Our primary boat would not start so we finally got onto another boat and got to dive. The divemaster for this dive was Nemo. He was excellent. So we continued to dive with DP for the rest of our stay. I got in lots of dives up to max BT for my computer - usually about an hour. Only bad thing was that another boat died would not start after picking up divers from the Fiesta Americana dock. We had to swap boats again.

I'm going back to Coz in March and I'm going to try Aqua Safari. They are a bit cheaper and have a $9 afternoon dive special.

Mark

 

[pilot fish]

A side note. You can forget going anyplace good for your 3rd dive. 3rd dive is either Palancar Gardens or Villa Blanca zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. They are usually late picking you up for 2 o'clock dive, [would get there at 2:30 ] and then will not waste gas taking you anyplace south. The boats are so slow they don't want their day to end late so you will not go far from Hotel Cozumel. Save yourself the time and money and don't do the 3rd dive, if you must use Dive Paradise.