arrived at casa del mar 8/8/05 for a week's holiday with my wife and son.
this resort exceeded all my exputations.
keep in mind the island was still cleaning up after emily.
the grounds were immaculate.
we stayed in a 2 story cabana which was perfect for us and our 17 yr old son.
the 2nd story was a living room with full kitchen, entertainment center, full bath and fully air conditioned with the couch folding out to a king size bed.
the first story was a master suite with all the trimmings including full bath, entertainment center, and desk area. both upstairs and downstairs had remote control air conditioning.
the ladies always tended to the room leaving creatures made out of towels--it was a lot of fun coming back every day to see what creature was on our bed and our son's bed.
we chose to go with the all inclusive plan which included all meals and all drinks.
the restaurant was open with a thatched roof.
the pool was located so one could swim up to the bar.
breakfast was buffet style with a lady who could fix custom omelets.
for lunch and dinner one could order from the menu or select from the occasional buffet. although the lunch and dinner menu (other than the buffet) are the same every day, we all found meals we enjoyed very much. my wife and son eat gluten free and had no problem eating there. some of the meals we loved were the grilled grouper, grilled combo (with shrimp, grouper, squid, and octopus), the various seafood cocktails, grilled chicken, and quesadillas (made with corn tortillas for my wife and son). the drinks including beer (dos equis and corona were my faves), pina coladas, and margaritas were consistently great (my wife loved being served pina coladas at the beach or the pool even if she did go for virgin ones in the morning--they call the virgin ones pinatas).
we quickly tried to learn everyone on staff's name and we were rewarded by everyone greeting us like we were family.
some of these fine people were alfredo, jose, manuel, ozzie, silvia and santiago. all gave us hugs when we left ... just warm, wonderful people. very efficient also ... for example, when we reported a light bulb out, they were there in 5 minutes to replace it ...
the resort had a hot tub and a bridge that would take you to the water, where there were hammocks and lounge chairs.
this area is where my wife would snorkel or lay out while my son and i dove.
we met christi of blue xtc the afternoon we arrived.
this lady knows her business and knows how to custom fit her guests with the perfect dive package.
she set us up with captain hector and dive master pedro onboard the shamu.
this vessel had a top cover, o2, juices, fruit, sandwiches, dry towels and plenty of tanks (either air or nitrox).
pedro would give a detailed briefing for every dive and then jump in first so he would see what we were to expect.
if the vis was poor or the current unpredictable he would take us to another site.
after every dive as you came up to the vessel, hector was there to help with the gear and change tanks.
they then would take us to a nice spot for our surface interval.
on the 2nd dive pedro would give a good dive briefing and then check the site.
some of the sites were:
palancar gardens
yucab reef
santa rosa wall
columbia reef
delilah reef
san fransico wall
palancar caves
las palmas
horseshoe reef
pedro pointed out many creatures which included: nurse sharks, spotted eagle ray, turtles, lobsters, sea horses, spotted drum, morey and spotted eels and splendid toad fish. once pedro had exlpained to my son how to spot splendid toad fish, my son pointed out 6 of them on the next dive, the san fransico wall dive--it was so cool!
while diving las palmas we all saw these 2 fish and asked pedro what they were.
back on the boat he kind of shrugged and said they were "fish", but the next day he brought his book and showed us we had seen 2 flying grenard fish.
the diving that week was perfect in that these two men worked as a team and no details were missed.
there were never more than 5 divers on the boat.
we were always the first boat to the sites.
we always dove as a group.
only one dive did we see a lot of other divers.
we also had the pleasure of diving with fellow sb members.
i could go on and on but most of y'all have been there and done that.
this was my 3rd trip to cozumel and we are already planning on going back.
thank you casa del mar
thank you christi and the staff of blue xtsea.
this resort exceeded all my exputations.
keep in mind the island was still cleaning up after emily.
the grounds were immaculate.
we stayed in a 2 story cabana which was perfect for us and our 17 yr old son.
the 2nd story was a living room with full kitchen, entertainment center, full bath and fully air conditioned with the couch folding out to a king size bed.
the first story was a master suite with all the trimmings including full bath, entertainment center, and desk area. both upstairs and downstairs had remote control air conditioning.
the ladies always tended to the room leaving creatures made out of towels--it was a lot of fun coming back every day to see what creature was on our bed and our son's bed.
we chose to go with the all inclusive plan which included all meals and all drinks.
the restaurant was open with a thatched roof.
the pool was located so one could swim up to the bar.
breakfast was buffet style with a lady who could fix custom omelets.
for lunch and dinner one could order from the menu or select from the occasional buffet. although the lunch and dinner menu (other than the buffet) are the same every day, we all found meals we enjoyed very much. my wife and son eat gluten free and had no problem eating there. some of the meals we loved were the grilled grouper, grilled combo (with shrimp, grouper, squid, and octopus), the various seafood cocktails, grilled chicken, and quesadillas (made with corn tortillas for my wife and son). the drinks including beer (dos equis and corona were my faves), pina coladas, and margaritas were consistently great (my wife loved being served pina coladas at the beach or the pool even if she did go for virgin ones in the morning--they call the virgin ones pinatas).
we quickly tried to learn everyone on staff's name and we were rewarded by everyone greeting us like we were family.
some of these fine people were alfredo, jose, manuel, ozzie, silvia and santiago. all gave us hugs when we left ... just warm, wonderful people. very efficient also ... for example, when we reported a light bulb out, they were there in 5 minutes to replace it ...
the resort had a hot tub and a bridge that would take you to the water, where there were hammocks and lounge chairs.
this area is where my wife would snorkel or lay out while my son and i dove.
we met christi of blue xtc the afternoon we arrived.
this lady knows her business and knows how to custom fit her guests with the perfect dive package.
she set us up with captain hector and dive master pedro onboard the shamu.
this vessel had a top cover, o2, juices, fruit, sandwiches, dry towels and plenty of tanks (either air or nitrox).
pedro would give a detailed briefing for every dive and then jump in first so he would see what we were to expect.
if the vis was poor or the current unpredictable he would take us to another site.
after every dive as you came up to the vessel, hector was there to help with the gear and change tanks.
they then would take us to a nice spot for our surface interval.
on the 2nd dive pedro would give a good dive briefing and then check the site.
some of the sites were:
palancar gardens
yucab reef
santa rosa wall
columbia reef
delilah reef
san fransico wall
palancar caves
las palmas
horseshoe reef
pedro pointed out many creatures which included: nurse sharks, spotted eagle ray, turtles, lobsters, sea horses, spotted drum, morey and spotted eels and splendid toad fish. once pedro had exlpained to my son how to spot splendid toad fish, my son pointed out 6 of them on the next dive, the san fransico wall dive--it was so cool!
while diving las palmas we all saw these 2 fish and asked pedro what they were.
back on the boat he kind of shrugged and said they were "fish", but the next day he brought his book and showed us we had seen 2 flying grenard fish.
the diving that week was perfect in that these two men worked as a team and no details were missed.
there were never more than 5 divers on the boat.
we were always the first boat to the sites.
we always dove as a group.
only one dive did we see a lot of other divers.
we also had the pleasure of diving with fellow sb members.
i could go on and on but most of y'all have been there and done that.
this was my 3rd trip to cozumel and we are already planning on going back.
thank you casa del mar
thank you christi and the staff of blue xtsea.
