Mimi Coz trip report

[pilot fish]

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

That must have been a real pain. I don't like to have to demand stuff I'm supposed to get since I paid for it. That is not fun. Since they are so big they tend to overlook some important details. Did you stay at the Hotel Cozumel?

By the way, those lockers by the dock do not belong to Dive Paradise, they belong to Hotel Cozumel. I saw them ask for $25 key deposit. huh?

 

[lawofgravity]

Thanks for the TR. I'm itching to go back and it's only been two weeks since I left! Just wondering why you chose a cattle boat op like Dive Paradise? It's a tragedy you didn't get to the southern sites. Santa Rosa and Columbia reef were truly impressive.

 

[pilot fish]

Thanks for the TR. I'm itching to go back and it's only been two weeks since I left! Just wondering why you chose a cattle boat op like Dive Paradise? It's a tragedy you didn't get to the southern sites. Santa Rosa and Columbia reef were truly impressive.

I dove with them because I was diving with a friend that was not that experienced and they had an operation at the hotel. I thought it would be easier. I thought if we went to better sites I would be responsible for my dive buddy but those sites were not made available to us. I did dive the Santa Rosa Wall, at least that's what they told us it was, but I didn't think it was as special as I heard it was - 84 ft 41 minutes. Is it possible they took us to a different site and told us it was Santa Rosa Wall?

I just looked at my log, we did Chankanab Pinnacles, which I thought was a good site. We actually saw one of those Tourist Submarines at 40 ft. Looked so strange. I swam up to the portholes and held up my slate with HELLO written on it.

 

[pilot fish]

Thanks for the TR. I'm itching to go back and it's only been two weeks since I left! Just wondering why you chose a cattle boat op like Dive Paradise? It's a tragedy you didn't get to the southern sites. Santa Rosa and Columbia reef were truly impressive.

Oh, did Columbia reef 3 years ago. That was awesome.

 

[Christi]

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.

Correction

I think you mean Paradise rather than Palancar Gardens. Palancar Gardens is all the way south again.

 

[pilot fish]

Correction

I think you mean Paradise rather than Palancar Gardens. Palancar Gardens is all the way south again.

oops :11: you are correct. Thanks for the heads up. I like to be accurate.

 

[jbd]

We actually saw one of those Tourist Submarines at 40 ft. Looked so strange. I swam up to the portholes and held up my slate with HELLO written on it.

:rofl: I like that!!

 

[pilot fish]

:rofl: I like that!!

I'll tell you, it looked and sounded so weird under water.

 

[RonFrank]

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.

Well, that is why the analyze always rule. But COZ seems to have the standard blends, 32/36. You said told, they were not marked???

Seems you got a 36% mix in the lot. That's actually not a bad thing for a second shallow dive...

Ron

 

[pilot fish]

Well, that is why the analyze always rule. But COZ seems to have the standard blends, 32/36. You said told, they were not marked???

Seems you got a 36% mix in the lot. That's actually not a bad thing for a second shallow dive...

Ron

Yes, they were marked correctly, but on both dives they did not have a sign sheet for each tank. That was not a problem since they marked my name on second tank after I analyzed it. As long as you check, which you are supposed to do, you'll be fine. NEVER TAKE ANYONE'S WORD FOR MIX