Stay and Dive in Cozumel with a Baby

[adamsnothere]

My wife and I are hoping to come to Cozumel in late February with our daughter, who will be 3.5 months old at that point. While not a diving vacation per se, we'd love to stay somewhere where we could do an average of 1 dive each per day, with one of us going out at a time and the other staying behind and minding the baby.


We had been looking at the Ultimate Dive Experience (UDE) package at the Allegro, which attracted us for a few reasons:

• The UDE package offers 1 dive per day, at 4 different departure times from the on site shop, Pro Dive
• The resort is in the south, which I understand is closest to the dive sites, so trips will be short, helping with the baby trade off
• Meals are on site, we are not normally AI people, but with an infant, it's convenient to have meals more or less taken care of
• It is a resort with a nice beach and a kids pool, which gives us nice ways to lounge around with our daughter when we're not diving

We were willing to look past the lukewarm reviews of the place and the fact that the food is not supposed to be that great because of what appeared to be a very convenient diving set up, however after emailing back and forth with the staff there, I'm getting the sense it may not be as convenient as it first appears. The 1 dive per day are not cumulative or transferable and they don't actually offer single tank dives every day. They said they'd work to accommodate our needs, and based on the positive reviews of their dive operations I'm inclined to trust them, but am wondering if there is a better way of doing this. Was thinking it could make sense to stay at another resort in the south and then coordinate with an offsite dive operator for beach/pier pick up. So any recommendations from fellows divers?

 

[MMM]

There are some good dive sites in the south, so at a southern hotel, you would be close to those. But there are good dive sites all the way up the west side of the island, so hotel location isn't all that important. As I see it, the real limiting factor is going to be switching off between one another for child care. AFAIK, ProDive is the only op on the island that does the "single" tank dives; I think pretty much every other op does a minimum of a set of two tank dives. That means that you would need to find an op that will guarantee morning AND afternoon dives so that one of you goes out in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Perhaps another alternative would be to stay at a place that has decent shore diving nearby (Cozumel isn't renowned for shore diving, but there is some). Then you could work that into the mix along with some boat dives. Blue Angel would be a good option for that and down the road is Scuba Club. Both are more centrally located on the island making it a bit easier for you get into town to enjoy the sights there. Blue Angel isn't all inclusive but Scuba Club is, I believe.

 

[cicopo]

It's been years since my stays at the Iberostar but they may fit the bill IF you plan on morning dives. The boat pretty much always returned to the dock after the first dive & we had time for a second breakfast before it left for the second dive of the morning. Afternoon trips were 2 timed dives (roughly 30 minutes each) without a trip back to the resort in between. The dive op there is Dressel & they can be contacted on line for up to date info if that looks like an option.
FWIW my wife & I preferred the Iberostar over the Grand big time & the Allegro is rated a bit lower than the Grand & both are Occidental properties.

 

[Queen Triggerfish]

Tres Pelicanos (among others) often goes to Paradise Beach during the surface interval between the first and second dive. If you stayed near there, one of you could bring the baby to Paradise while the other is diving, and then swap spots during the surface interval if Tres Pelicanos could guarantee a stop at Paradise Beach.

Or Dive Paradise has afternoon 1-tank dives at 3:00. One of you could go out for 2 tanks in the morning, meet for lunch, and then the other could do the 1 tank in the afternoon. Because it's not until 3:00, you would definitely make it back in time versus some of the shops that have tighter turn-around times.

Option #3: You fly an awesome baby-loving Scubaboarder to Cozumel. She will watch your baby when you both go out for two tanks together in the morning, and then I do my own thing the rest of the day!

 

[mstevens]

This is going to be difficult. We had a 10-year SI until our kid was old enough to start diving with us.

As others have said, don't pick where you stay based on proximity to reefs. The ride from wherever you get on the boat to wherever you jump off it is not the longest part of the process. MMM's point about likely needing to plan on a morning 2-tank dive and an afternoon 2-tank dive is spot-on, as well.

Personally, we never left our 3.5 month-old with anyone unless that person had raised one of us or was the PICU director, but a babysitter might be another option.

Most here recommend thinking of your diving, your accommodations (and often your meals, but in your case I see your point) separately. There's no particular reason to stick with your resorts in-house operator, and you can get much more flexible and personalized service with one of the independent shops. If you went on a larger boat (where, for example, people would be less likely to tread upon or drop gear on your baby), you might all be able to go and swap off diving while one of you stayed on the gently-rocking boat with the sprout.

Honestly, though, I think this is going to be extremely difficult to manage and that your best bet would be to alternate days rather than dives. If nursing is involved, that could be potentially really challenging.

 

[Ron Lee]

Withe the UDE package, does each person get one dive a day? If so, can you choose which of the four departure times yo go?

If not, forget the package and buy dives ala carte. From their website, they state that a two dive per day option is sharable. See the 5x2 package

https://www.prodivemex.com/diving/

The alternating day diving (two per person) also sounds viable.

Don't take a baby on a dive boat.

 

[kmurray719]

Dressel Divers at the Iberostar (I think?) does 1 tank excursions. If you stay there you and your husband could each do 1 tank/day, and choose which time to do it. It's the only dive op here that I've ever heard of doing 1 tank trips other than night dives.

http://dresseldivers.com/dive/cozumel-scuba-diving#excursions

 

[adamsnothere]

Thanks all for the advice.

Ron - ProDive only offers the single tank dives for the 4 dives on Saturday and Sunday. During the week it single dives are only offered on the 2 Tuesday AM, 2 Thursday PM and 2 Friday AM dives. The 2 tank dives seems to last up to 4 hours which is probably stretching things for my wife in terms of keeping up the nursing schedule. Tried looking at the a la carte options but again just seems a bit limited when looking to do 1 tank dives.

Iberostar and Dressel looks like a great option, so thanks to Cicopo for suggesting and kmurray719 for seconding. I had looked at the Iberostar website before and the information on diving was so limited I just had written them off. Now looking at Dressel's site it appears that their set up and schedule with the single tank dives could work perfectly. I've emailed them to confirm pricing and logistics, but I am hopeful this set up will be just what we need. Thanks again to everyone.

 

[BRT]

This is easy! Dive with 3P. You can both dive and Steve is always happy to babysit.

 

[deepsea21]

This is easy! Dive with 3P. You can both dive and Steve is always happy to babysit.

Interesting you say that as on our Dec 2015 trip there was some chat that Steve was a Baby-sitter! Now it makes sense!