Carlos Diver
Contributor
Stayed at Dreams and dove with Living Underwater last week. Quick report.
Dreams
They took part of the old Sabor and refreshed it into a Dreams. I was happy with the update. The bathrooms are modern, the rooms comfortable and the swim ups are a nice touch. You can tell in some areas they hurried to finish but you need to be a tradesman, or really be looking, to notice.
In addition to the rooms and swim ups, they added on to the pool with a swim up bar and a couple shallow lounge areas. They also added wait staff to the pool area, that also waits on the swim up pools if you are inclined.
Staying at Dreams grants you full access to both Sabor and Secrets. I appreciated this because Dreams is family friendly while Secrets is adult only. It also gives you access to the rooftop bar on Secrets, Sky Bar, which is a great place to relax at sunset.
Food
This is the big thing. Having access to Secrets pays off in the food department. Oceania is now preferred only, and its lunches are pretty good. I also noticed the food at lunch and dinner to be a bit better in the Secrets buffet. While I did notice an improvement on the Dreams buffet, Secrets buffet is still better. Overall, the food is better all-around, but it’s still AI food and can be hit or miss.
Also included would be the liquor selection. The bars at Dreams are stocked with name brands, not well drinks. The beer is also Tecate, Tecate Light, Dos Esquies and Sol. They serve the beer in cans, not from a keg in a small cup, which is a nice touch. Secrets has always done this, but Sabor you only had draught beer as an option.
The wines are meh, but I’m a wine snob, so I’m not going to get the wines I like at an AI. At least they keep the bottles out of the sun unlike other places I have been. The house wine is the same at all three resorts.
Diving
The best part, the diving. I use Living Underwater and really like the service I get from them. It has changed a little, but I think that was more to me booking the day before I arrived. They still handle all your gear between dive days, and you simply show up and get on the boat. Big steel tanks and valet service. You dive your tank/computer, not the first to run out of air, which on several days would have been very disappointing. Average dive time of 78 minutes over 8 dives.
After the first day, they closed the south of the island to the boats, so we were limited in our selection. Even then, we had great visibility, moderate currents, and plenty of life. Turtles, nurse sharks and even two spotted eagles on separate days. I also noticed a lot more toadfish. Either I have gotten much better at spotting them, or they were out of the holes a little more. Same with the snowflake eels. I think it took me 20 dives on Cozumel before I finally found one. This trip, I think I saw one on almost every dive. Same with the Lobsters. It looked like a buffet on multiple sites.
Dive Sites included: Columbia, Cedral, San Francisco Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Dalilah (that’s just what he said, I’m going with it). La Francesa (the next day he said this one). I didn’t take very good notes, which I usually do, but that is what I got.
One of my favorites sites is Punta Sur, but sadly, with the south closure, no luck this trip.
Overall
Great trip overall. The diving was good, even with the limited and (for Cozumel) crowded sites. The update to Dreams is nice and the food was improved. The beach at Dreams/Sabor/Secrets (a main reason I go there so often) is still great and there was plenty of sun and almost no rain during the trip.
Pics are just a GoPro without a light source. I grab and go.
Dreams
They took part of the old Sabor and refreshed it into a Dreams. I was happy with the update. The bathrooms are modern, the rooms comfortable and the swim ups are a nice touch. You can tell in some areas they hurried to finish but you need to be a tradesman, or really be looking, to notice.
In addition to the rooms and swim ups, they added on to the pool with a swim up bar and a couple shallow lounge areas. They also added wait staff to the pool area, that also waits on the swim up pools if you are inclined.
Staying at Dreams grants you full access to both Sabor and Secrets. I appreciated this because Dreams is family friendly while Secrets is adult only. It also gives you access to the rooftop bar on Secrets, Sky Bar, which is a great place to relax at sunset.
Food
This is the big thing. Having access to Secrets pays off in the food department. Oceania is now preferred only, and its lunches are pretty good. I also noticed the food at lunch and dinner to be a bit better in the Secrets buffet. While I did notice an improvement on the Dreams buffet, Secrets buffet is still better. Overall, the food is better all-around, but it’s still AI food and can be hit or miss.
Also included would be the liquor selection. The bars at Dreams are stocked with name brands, not well drinks. The beer is also Tecate, Tecate Light, Dos Esquies and Sol. They serve the beer in cans, not from a keg in a small cup, which is a nice touch. Secrets has always done this, but Sabor you only had draught beer as an option.
The wines are meh, but I’m a wine snob, so I’m not going to get the wines I like at an AI. At least they keep the bottles out of the sun unlike other places I have been. The house wine is the same at all three resorts.
Diving
The best part, the diving. I use Living Underwater and really like the service I get from them. It has changed a little, but I think that was more to me booking the day before I arrived. They still handle all your gear between dive days, and you simply show up and get on the boat. Big steel tanks and valet service. You dive your tank/computer, not the first to run out of air, which on several days would have been very disappointing. Average dive time of 78 minutes over 8 dives.
After the first day, they closed the south of the island to the boats, so we were limited in our selection. Even then, we had great visibility, moderate currents, and plenty of life. Turtles, nurse sharks and even two spotted eagles on separate days. I also noticed a lot more toadfish. Either I have gotten much better at spotting them, or they were out of the holes a little more. Same with the snowflake eels. I think it took me 20 dives on Cozumel before I finally found one. This trip, I think I saw one on almost every dive. Same with the Lobsters. It looked like a buffet on multiple sites.
Dive Sites included: Columbia, Cedral, San Francisco Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Dalilah (that’s just what he said, I’m going with it). La Francesa (the next day he said this one). I didn’t take very good notes, which I usually do, but that is what I got.
One of my favorites sites is Punta Sur, but sadly, with the south closure, no luck this trip.
Overall
Great trip overall. The diving was good, even with the limited and (for Cozumel) crowded sites. The update to Dreams is nice and the food was improved. The beach at Dreams/Sabor/Secrets (a main reason I go there so often) is still great and there was plenty of sun and almost no rain during the trip.
Pics are just a GoPro without a light source. I grab and go.
