Trip Report My Cozumel Experience Nov. 27 -Dec. 11

[DandyDon]

18 pounds in a shorty?

It takes what it takes for some. My jumpsuit has no buoyancy, and I use 14#. I could probably dial back to 10-12, but I don't want to have to struggle to redescend if needed at the end of a dive with so many boats and tourists on jet skis around. Ha, on crowded pangas I let the boat DM attach my reg and load my weights then got a reminder last week to check his work closer after rolling in with none once. There is was doing my cork imitation and he's yelling at the skipper to pass him weights to insert in my BC.

I've never been to Asia, but I imagine that natives from there who visit the US are amazed at typical physiques in the US. We've had exchange students from Thailand and China as well as visits by some of their parents, but they were too polite to say anything.

How was the food on the Pirate Dinner Cruise? We've never done it and are considering it for our next trip. Thanks.

I tried to book that on a Thursday last week, but I was too late. It was full for Friday and Saturday, closed Sundays, I had other plans for Monday and Tuesday, returning Wednesday.

 

[drk5036]

It takes what it takes for some. My jumpsuit has no buoyancy, and I use 14#. I could probably dial back to 10-12, but I don't want to have to struggle to redescend if needed at the end of a dive with so many boats and tourists on jet skis around. Ha, on crowded pangas I let the boat DM attach my reg and load my weights then got a reminder last week to check his work closer after rolling in with none once. There is was doing my cork imitation and he's yelling at the skipper to pass him weights to insert in my BC.

I've never been to Asia, but I imagine that natives from there who visit the US are amazed at typical physiques in the US. We've had exchange students from Thailand and China as well as visits by some of their parents, but they were too polite to say anything.

I would love to actually research this more in depth someday. I just don’t understand how it can vary so much.

I just came back from a week of diving in Okinawa. I’m a fairly standard looking American guy, except I’m short, 5’7” 195 pounds. I dive with a small steel freedom plate and we use steel 10 liter asahi tanks here. I was diving in a seaskin neoprene drysuit …with 4 pounds.

I understand I’m an outlier on the bottom end, I just don’t understand why.

Anyway sorry OP for derailing. Glad you had a good trip!

 

[jonhall]

. If you wanted or needed to eat somewhere else, where there many options in easy walking distance? I ask since not everyone rents a car.

Any bars or local restaurants in the area outside of the hotel?

The Coral Princess is in a smaller cluster of hotels about 1 ½ - 2 miles south of the farthest hotels in the north zone. There are some resort restaurants and a beach bar that can be walked to farther north. In the CP area, there was only 1 other hotel restaurant easily walkable. Two good beach bar/restaurants - Hemingway's and La Monina - were more of a 20-25 minute walk or 3 minute taxi ride. Taxi rides into town from the CP were $5 for 4 of us and $5 back to CP. We paid for one-way and our friends paid for the other.

You mentioned you look forward to staying at Coral Princess Resort again; think that'll be your new 'go to' on Cozumel, or just one of them?

Because we generally travel by way of our timeshare, I would say CP will be one of our go to's. We're willing to try new places, but the CP is on the water, so that's a plus for us.

I imagine a concern of people considering the northern hotel zone is that boat rides to the marine park dive sites will be onerously long. Glad to hear that wasn't the case.

Knowing what I now know, if I stayed anywhere in the north hotel zone, I would get to CP and dive with Pepe Scuba. I never would have believed "fast" boats are that much faster than the other boat types until I experienced it. We got to sights as fast, if not faster, as I did when I dove with the 2 ops south of San Miguel.

I recommend eating at Buccano's. It is very high end for Cozumel and a bit pricey, but it is well worth it, IMO.

Had it in my sights, but was closed on the day we thought about going. A group of divers I went out with one day were all going there one evening and they talked highly of it.

How was the food on the Pirate Dinner Cruise?

Our 2nd time doing this. We had the surf & turf, lobster/steak. Lobster was very good and steak was okay. Typical party boat otherwise.

18 pounds in a shorty?

It depends on the body in that shorty.

It takes what it takes for some

In the past, 14# in a shorty has been normal for me and 14-18# in a 3mm full. I think my new computer was too buoyant!! Ha ha. I knew after a few dives I could drop weight but was okay putting a couple of puffs of air in my BC after I went down. With all of my weight at the waist (integrated pockets) I never felt out of balance, too heavy/too light, or that I couldn't stay horizontal or control my depth going through swim throughs or on safety stops. Didn't want to experiment with weight since I was seeing new divers on the boat most days.

 

[morecowbells]

Thanks for posting your trip report! My hubby and I are supposed to visit Curacao in mid Feb. The latest Covid restrictions and rigorous testing requirements are making us look into Cozumel instead. Unfortunately, our favorite place to stay, Residencias Reef is booked solid. Obviously, this late in the season =slim pickings. I have stayed at The Coral Princess before and enjoyed it, however, their one bedroom suites are booked up. Not to sound like a total diva, but I am not keen on staying in a single hotel room. My husband gets up much earlier than myself, and if his snoring gets bad at night, my mind wonders to some very dark places I noticed some good deals at El Cid. Their one bedroom units are all garden view. Do you know what these units are like? Are the rooms quiet at night? Thanks in advance for any sharing of experiences.

 

[morecowbells]

Delete. Got posted twice.

 

[DandyDon]

My hubby and I are supposed to visit Curacao in mid Feb. The latest Covid restrictions and rigorous testing requirements are making us look into Cozumel instead. Unfortunately, our favorite place to stay, Residencias Reef is booked solid.

Carnival dates are February 23 thru March 2 so that will stress the booking market for a couple of weeks before and after. It may become take-what-you-can-get this close to travel dates. I can't offer suggestions as I am a cheap hotel camper. Hotels.com does show several hotels in the $200/night & up range open February 10 thru 22.

 

[jonhall]

I noticed some good deals at El Cid. Their one bedroom units are all garden view. Do you know what these units are like? Are the rooms quiet at night?

I've stayed there twice and I don't have a good answer about the garden view. There are 2 different buildings - a 3 floor unit (which is where I've stayed); you enter these rooms from street side - a garden(ish) area that surrounds a tennis court. There are no window views to the street side (unless you count a small bathroom window.) The other side of the rooms all have an ocean view. The tower has one side where all rooms face the ocean. What I don't know (shows how much I paid attention - only passed directly in front of it about 12 times!) is if there are rooms on the street side of the tower - I'm guessing there are. If those rooms are considered garden view, the actual view is unlike the picture below - there are now shops and the Royal Village Shopping Center - none of which were very busy. I've not personally seen what the rooms in the tower look like - only pictures.

Really not too noisy at night. I could hear air tanks clanging as they were wheeled in or wheeled out in the mornings, sometimes in the evening. A few evenings we could hear music which actually was coming from the Grand Park Royal which is across the street from the 3 floor unit - it's just to the left of the tower unit, which I believe is part of the Park Royal, in the upper left side of picture below. The cruise ship pier would be just out of view to the lower right of the picture - no noise, except the toot of the horns in the evening.

The area of the picture where I put all of the labels is a nice area to snorkel and people do shore/night dive. A couple of minutes walk to the left puts you by several of the more popular dive ops.

 

[BRT]

I would love to actually research this more in depth someday. I just don’t understand how it can vary so much.

I just came back from a week of diving in Okinawa. I’m a fairly standard looking American guy, except I’m short, 5’7” 195 pounds. I dive with a small steel freedom plate and we use steel 10 liter asahi tanks here. I was diving in a seaskin neoprene drysuit …with 4 pounds.

I understand I’m an outlier on the bottom end, I just don’t understand why.

Anyway sorry OP for derailing. Glad you had a good trip!

Steel plate, heavy tank.