On Scuba Club Cozumel

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Hi Herman....from your neighbor in 43! I hope the remainder of your trip is good.
I also posted (I'm a newbie here) about the original post from my first hand experience with him.
Many bubbles to you!
 
:laughing: Hi Jillian - welcome to SB
 
:amazed:
Adam, I was there at the same time as you and my group even extended invites to you to join dinner, etc, since you were on the same flight as some of our arriving group. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I'm not trying to be mean, but rather realistic.

We were on the same Reef Star boat and dove the same dives with different dive masters. We had dives of over 100', 90' and 80' for the first four days of diving and beyond. The group you were assigned to dive with got very frustrated with you and your diving technique. The dive master even talked to you about your diving for which you asked to be assigned to another boat and that request was granted. Also, when you're with other underwater photographers you have to be polite and wait your turn, of which most of the time you did not. On the night dive you constantly bounced on top of me for which I was about ready to punt you for screwing with my buoyancy.

I can't speak to your room(s), but everyone in our group and the other groups we befriended were in great rooms, as were my rooms of past. The food was just fine, true maybe not the food of the past, but still very good. As well, you have the right to choose off the lunch menu if you didn't like the dinner menu. If you don't like the full food menu, you could have chosen a light plan which would have allowed you to go out and enjoy Cozumel flavor. I've been to SCC as a single without dive partners or travel partners and I certainly enjoyed Cozumel outside of SCC.

When, at dinner, you spoke about "have you ever wondered what it would be like to shoot a canon at a ship" (as we were at dinner looking out over the cruise ships and party boats that passed), we all felt very uncomfortable around you. The night dive just sealed the deal for two or three groups at the club.

If you choose not to come back to SCC, that is probably a good thing, but don't lambaste SCC because you didn't listen to the dive masters or because the other divers complained about you, and you didn't get your way. This is why you were likely placed on so many boats and didn't get your wish of diving past 100'.

SCC does everything possible to make divers experiences exactly what they hope for. Obviously yours was not ideal and that is a loss for you. Enjoy your trips elsewhere and I truly hope you find a location that serves your needs and desires.

:amazed:
 
Why the repost?

I DID ask the front desk for a refund when the port was closed and they would not. Perhaps if I were part of a larger group, they would have been accomodating.

I must say that the reason why people do not loke to post negative reviews is that invariably there are personal attacks. When a persons first day on the board is to attack a reviewer, it does make you wonder why the OP never took the time to visit here before.

Everyone on this board has had a first post once, but usually they do not take on a Personal nature.
 
Why the repost?

I DID ask the front desk for a refund when the port was closed and they would not. Perhaps if I were part of a larger group, they would have been accomodating.

I must say that the reason why people do not loke to post negative reviews is that invariably there are personal attacks. When a persons first day on the board is to attack a reviewer, it does make you wonder why the OP never took the time to visit here before.

Everyone on this board has had a first post once, but usually they do not take on a Personal nature.

Normally I would agree with you and tend to discount such post from first time posters HOWEVER, since this is first hand info and not second hand hearsay I tend to give it more credit. How do I know this is first hand info? I spent the last week at SCC- setting in my room at SSC now as a matter of fact, often diving with her group and our groups spent a lot of topside hours hanging out together. This is the same story I heard from several others in Jillians group. In any story there is always a he said and a she said, we are now hearing the other side of the story.
 
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Hehe, I've been blasted here before, politely and otherwise, deserving at times and not others. :dontknow:

It's good that we don't need a verdict here. Comparing opinions is interesting. :crafty:
 
As for the lion fish, there aren't as many as last year because the dive masters have been killing them and teaching the fish to eat them.

Unless you've witnessed something that everyone else all over the Caribbean hasn't yet, 'teaching' is still all wishfull thinking still.

It's pretty funny to watch the larger fish follow the dive masters an entire dive so they can get fed the lion fish.

Not really. If you dig a little deeper under the surface it's more tragic then funny. Changing fish behavior negatively like that is not beneficial, and their are reports all over this forum from divers asking questions such as "what's going on with the morays, I was diving in ___________ and this moray was way to inquisitive, or this moray was very aggressive, or this moray was following us...."

Fish feeding is frowned upon, divemasters trying to 'teach' fish to hunt lion fish hasn't seemed to yield anything yet other than begging and aggressive fish. I hope the expirement either yields some positive results here pretty quickly or DMs start realizing what they are doing is harmful and stop.
 
read my post at the rear of this string.....it will give you better information about him.....

As for the lion fish, there aren't as many as last year because the dive masters have been killing them and teaching the fish to eat them. So, they are being hunted as well. It's pretty funny to watch the larger fish follow the dive masters an entire dive so they can get fed the lion fish.
The association is with the DM (or whomever is feeding them) not the lionfish.
 
My review of Scuba Club was intended to be detached from the personal experiences so it may it useful for others who are looking go there solo or as a couple. I realize that groups have more control over the dive selection.

Jill was part of such a group and my connection with them was that I was on the same boat for the first three days, though I was assigned to a second group on the boat and following a different divemaster. On the second day I was following the dive guide and watched as he used a metal bar to impale lionfish and then proceeded to cut the fish's spines with heavy shears, some of these I could see were still alive when he did that. Now I don't dive with hunters and I did not come to Cozumel to watch someone cut up live animals under water, so on the third day I stayed away from him during the swim. That's when he yelled at me for swimming below him, and so the following day I asked to dive on another boat.

Each day two boats went out--the Reef Star above and another, so I used the other boat. The Reef Star had mostly Jill's group and the other boat was for others, so the rest of the stay I used the other boat. So my experience is based on three days of Reef Star, and the rest on their Dive Cat and the Observer. My assessment of each of the boats is in my opening post and is independent of the personal spat I had with the divemaster of the Reef Star.

Adam
 
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On the second day I was following the dive guide and watched as he used a metal bar to impale lionfish and then proceeded to cut the fish's spines with heavy shears, some of these I could see were still alive when he did that. Now I don't dive with hunters and I did not come to Cozumel to watch someone cut up live animals under water, so on the third day I stayed away from him during the swim.

Adam

As much as I don't like DM feeding the dead lionfish to other fish, killing everyone they find is the only thing keeping the diveable reefs and divesites as vibrant as they are with fish life. You're probably just unaware of the whole lion fish tragedy in the Caribbean and what every country there is in the middle of. If you're going to dive in Cozumel you're going to see DMs killing lion fish on your dives. You might not like it, but it sure beats how far we've come along, I can remember just a few years ago in Roatan they were still giving people corks on a string to mark where a lion fish was spotted so that the park authorities could come back and catch the fish. As we all know now that's like plugging a single hole in a sifter and watching the rest of the water drain out the other 1000 holes. Lionfish are decimating local fish populations, so unless all you want to dive and see is just lionfish, you'll have to learn what's going on and why, it's far better then the alternative.

I'd personally just like to see DM spear them and stick then in the heads with a knife and leave the dead bodies and move on without the ego/tourist show of feeding them to other fish on the reef.
 

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