Recently back from Cozumel 'aka' the 'Hiroshima of the Caribbean' !

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Thanks for setting the record straight on Emerald Dolphin Divers being a good dive op. Sorry I said they were a crummy outfit, which impression I got from the original poster and some Coz residents saying they never heard of them. It's nice to hear they are sincere and are doing a good job.





Blue Moon:
O'Malley, thanks. I'm glad someone else spoke up on their behalf since they came across to us as very sincere and nice people. They are doing their best to recover from Wilma just like everyone else in Cozumel. When we dove with them in early February, they mentioned that they had only had 12 trips since Wilma... of course, we were on one of the first charters that started flying out of Dallas after Wilma and other divers had a difficult time getting there as well...
Yes I agree, Carlos is a great DM. Regarding getting passed up by the smaller boats, I'm sure you would have been passed up in calm sea conditions... However my reference was to a heavy El Norte sea condition... as the owner of an offshore style sport fish boat as well as a couple of smaller, faster boats, I can tell you first hand that the larger boat, similar to what Emerald Dolphin operates, can maintain cruise speed in heavier seas and still provide a comfortable ride for the passengers while the smaller boats have to slow way down otherwise the ride would be too uncomfortable for the passengers... Still safe, just a bit wetter and rougher... On the day that I was referring to, the people that we spoke to that were on the smaller boats did not have a pleasant ride back in as they were wet and cold for a long time....
Don't get me wrong, in Cozumel, 90 percent of the time I'd rather be on the smaller boat myself, however, there are times and circumstances that I mentioned in my post when the big boats are hard to beat.
While you certainly have a right to your feelings, I am not sure why you would be concerned about what occurred on a private charter.
 
Blue Moon:
Regarding Emerald Dolphin Dive Services, http://www.cozumel-diving.net/edds/ they may not have been the right choice for ScubaFanatic and Nurseshark but we had a good experience diving with them the week before ScubaFanatic was apparently in Cozumel.... Emerald Dolphin was highly recommended to us from a friend in Texas that has booked them on multiple occasions for private charters.

For our perspective, Emerald Dolphin provided a private charter experience on a large boat by Cozumel standards that offered us the privacy that we were seeking with amenities that included an enclosed head, dive platform that allowed giant stride entries, a safe crew, and had a DM that was very good with my newly certified girlfriend. It was fast for a big boat and certainly faster than any of the normally faster small six pack boats that we were able to fly past, high and dry, while the smaller boats were pounded by the heavy seas that El Norte spun up.

The owners, Tony & Suzanne Costillo are long time Cozumel veterans, with highly regarded dive industry qualifications: Tony was the GM at Del Mar Aquatics for 7 years and has 12,000 dives logged. Suzanne has 4,000 dives logged, see: http://www.cozumel-diving.net/edds/instrutr.htm

It is also impressive that Suzanne spends her non-diving time as a RN saving lives of deco victims on Cozumel... Might explain why they use the same 700 PSI accent rule with mandatory safety stops that most operators also encourage on the island…

Emerald Dolphin’s boat provided a comfortable platform for my girlfriend to gain confidence as a newly certified diver.

This is very good to hear. I'd hate to see a good Dive Op get slammed on misinformation. Emerald Dolphin sounds very competent and a plus to the dive industry.
 
pilot fish:
Thanks for setting the record straight on Emerald Dolphin Divers being a good dive op. Sorry I said they were a crummy outfit, which impression I got from the original poster and some Coz residents saying they never heard of them. It's nice to hear they are sincere and are doing a good job.

Which Coz resident said they had never heard of them? I can't find that anywhere. The reference I made was completely impartial only to demonstrate how easy some research would have been.

By the way, I also know Suzanne and Tony and they are great people. Suzanne was actually my nurse when I was bent in 2001. They do run a very conservative operation. As I said, not a bad thing at all, just not for everyone. No one dive shop is for everyone. A little research would have given him that information.
 
That's right Christi! It is unfortunate how one will judge a trip based on one bad experience. I always research before booking. If I go to Cozumel I will dive with you or Alison research and past experience would gaurantee me a good time..

I cannot understand why they kept diving with them if it was sooo bad? after the first dive I would have demanded to go back and went somewhere else. I will never let anyone ruin one of my vacations no matter what because I will take responsibility in making a bad situation into a positive one. Just sitting there whining about it is not productive. It must suck to be a vacationing victim.
 
SteveDiver:
I cannot understand why they kept diving with them if it was sooo bad? after the first dive I would have demanded to go back and went somewhere else.
It's rather simple, actually. Try to imagine a dive operator that chooses to take their charter to sub-par dive sites. Nobody does that... it reflects atrocious business sense.

Therefore, divers going to these sub-par dive sites must assume that these sites are pretty dang good. Certainly the charter operator's not going to say otherwise, are they?

The only way visiting divers would really know any better was if they browsed boards like these. Business websites and phone calls aren't dependable for accurate reporting of site quality.

I've done this sort of thing to diver groups myself, back when my local navigation skills sucked. I know several other instructors that have done the same on occasion. Generally however, the practice is uncommon.
 
Christi:
Which Coz resident said they had never heard of them? I can't find that anywhere. The reference I made was completely impartial only to demonstrate how easy some research would have been.

By the way, I also know Suzanne and Tony and they are great people. Suzanne was actually my nurse when I was bent in 2001. They do run a very conservative operation. As I said, not a bad thing at all, just not for everyone. No one dive shop is for everyone. A little research would have given him that information.

No, not you, Christi. Your analysis of other dive ops is always balanced. I just wanted to quickly correct any misinformation *I* had helped pass along.
 
Geez. As i think of the hours and hours and hours that people have spent reading and writing and blasting away on this thread, I think of a friend's response to receiving an email joke from me:

> What are you doing on a Saturday morning? You don't have anything better to
> do, than send goofy stuff to people like me? Wait a minute, do I have nothing
> better to do than receive them. Our lives are disgusting.
 
domino22:
I sent you 3 pm 's why no responce??????????????

well, actually this is the first time I've been on the computer in 2 or 3 days. that might be the reason.

now a responce: 1. I did not call you a toll, I only agreed with Gordon that the constant banter on whether Cozumel has been totally distoryed and not worth going to anymore is getting old and feeding the fire is simply a waste of time.
 
The original poster called it like he saw it and experienced it. So why go into calling him a troll and continued negatives towards him. If that is what he experienced than thats that.

I doubt any internet posts are going to influence anyones vacation decisions so a good majority of you can relax a little and quit with the boring pro-Cozumel campaign going on. Anyone can find good spots of a reef to take photos on and post them here. All politics...if you didnt have a love of Coz or a business interest then you wouldn't give a crap what was said about the island! period!!!
 
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