Trip Report Cozumel Invasion

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FPDocMatt

Contributor
Messages
446
Reaction score
197
Location
Middletown, Maryland, USA
# of dives
25 - 49
This was my first Cozumel Invasion.

Hotel Cozumel is adequate though not luxurious in the least. The TV has HBO and Cinemax but no movies. The rooms are clean, and the maid service is excellent.

The pool is very attractive from a distance, but the water is not kept as clear as I like. I own a pool and I know you can get the water crystal clear if you just check the chemicals every day. It's a very large and opulent pool, just looking at it makes you feel like you're in paradise. I just wish the water were crystal clear, that would have made it a much more attractive pool for me personally.

The staff of the hotel were some of the nicest, most caring and solicitous people you could ever want taking care of you. In fact, the people both in the hotel and at the dive op were the best thing about this whole week.

Everybody speaks English, so if you don't speak Spanish it's not an issue at all. I got to practice my Spanish, though, which was really neat. It's not like France, where people just look down their noses at you if you try to speak French. Here they love it if you speak Spanish to them, and they answer in Spanish. It was a great opportunity to learn some more of the language.

This was an all-inclusive trip, so the food was buffet-style. I liked the food a lot, but I heard a lot of people complaining about it. So I guess if you're picky, then this might not be the place for you.

The dive op is across the street (or under the street, if you take the tunnel). It's really part of the resort, not separate, since the hotel's lunch restaurant is across the street next to the dive shop. There's a small dive shop attached, and lots of lockers by a walkway leading down to the dock. There are 2 sets of steps leading down to the water for shore dives. The water is 84 degrees.

Internet in the rooms was hit-or-miss. Right now I have a good connection, but about 70% of the time not so good. If you go to the lobby the connection is excellent.

The invasion itself was fabulous. Met lots of people, made new friends. I would say that everyone was friendly, but you talk to some people and get the feeling they'd rather be somewhere else, and other people are happy to meet you. Like anywhere I guess. Dennis (Cardzard) and his wife Roxanne were amazing. They are absolute experts at arranging and managing big events like this. I don't know what they do for a living, but they could just do this year-round and make a bundle it seems to me. It was also great to have Pete (NetDoc) and Elena here; they were very supportive and a great source of information and advice.

The dives were nothing short of mind-blowing. On some of them you go through long swim-throughs, thinking nothing could be better than this, only to emerge onto a wall with an infinite drop-off into oblivion, the most majestic experience of my life. Our DM (Martin) was fabulous, took responsibility for the welfare of the group at every moment, you always felt well taken care of. He handled the inevitable small crises underwater with great skill.

We were quite fortunate to be the only group with the same boat each day. So we got to know the boat crew well, and they us. It's very nice to have the crew call you by your first name from day one. And everyone here addresses you as Amigo.

There were 68 people in the Invasion. We were divided into groups of 8. There are 4 dive boats. Each boat had 2 groups. Usually we sat on opposite sites of the boat facing each other, one group on each side. Each day you were on a different boat, with a different group sitting opposite you. So you got to meet everybody. (As I said, the exception was our group (5), which stayed on the same boat the whole week.) The boat left the dock each morning around 8:30 for 2 dives, returned around 1:30 for lunch, then left again around 3:00 for a single dive in the afternoon. And there were night dives available most nights. Unlimited shore diving.

I walked into town a couple of times. It's only about 6 blocks from the hotel. There's a very nice Starbucks, a little slice of home. Amazingly, the tea tastes exactly the same as at any Starbucks in the U.S. And the internet there is fabulous, just like home.

In the town there were peddlers haranguing you (but in a polite way). They're only there for the cruise ships, that's their livelihood. But it was off-putting enough that I decided to just stay at Starbucks the second trip into town.

For some reason, there is no ATM in the hotel. So if you need cash you have to walk 5 blocks down to the grocery store and use their ATM. Best is to just bring enough cash for the entire trip with you--in small bills, to make tipping easier.

People talked about the mosquitos before the trip, and on the hotel's web site you see a picture of a room with a mosquito net, but they were not an issue for me at all. I never saw or heard a mosquito, and got no bites, despite walking everywhere in shorts. And the room has no mosquito net over the bed, so that must be an old picture.

For me, this trip made the difference between scuba being something I might want to continue to do, and scuba now being something I will most definitely continue to do. I came here with 22 dives under my belt, and now have 34. I am beginning to feel really comfortable diving now. It's a great feeling. Like, before, jumping into the water was kind of anxiety-provoking. Now it's like slipping into a warm bed. If that makes any sense.

I will definitely be signing up for next year's Cozumel Invasion. I'm thinking of forming a new group of serious, boring people. Anybody interested, let me know.
 
Despite being sick, I really had a wonderful week! Danny and the boys got in lots of good diving and, for the boys, lots of night time activities. Danny was very excited to win the photo contest and hopes to be the proud owner of a new camera next year with the $400 gift cert.....!
Special thanks to Dennis and Roxanne; they rock!
 
A few more things I'd like to mention since my OP:

The reason group 5 had the same boat the entire trip is that we were the relative newbies. Dennis wanted to minimize the number of variables for us, so we felt more comfortable. Much appreciated!

One of the 4 boats on the trip (Renegado) was not as good as the other boats. This was not the boat that we were supposed to get for the Invasion, but the one we were supposed to get had to go into the shop for maintenance. It's unfortunate that the Renegado was an inadequate boat, but there was nothing to be done about it.

There's been speculation that better boats were reserved for those with more influence. This is patently not the case. Those of us in group 5, for example, were mostly newbies, with no influence at all. And nobody was on Renegado more than 2 days.

I purchased the video of the trip by Paty. This is an amazingly well made and skillfully put together video. I highly recommend it. Paty is an artist, and does this for a living. She takes a lot of pride in her work. Her email is Paty.Diver@gmail.com. She was selling it for $40, but I paid her $60 because I thought she deserved more than $40.
 
<<She was selling it for $40, but I paid her $60>> one of the most shocking things I have ever heard about a dive trip. Kudos to you. I know how much time if takes to make these and how little people expect to pay for what can be one of the best souvenirs (you on the trip). That cost is just a tiny drip in the trip bucket.
 
We were on Renegado twice. While not as fast as some of the other boats, I am not sure that I would go so far as to call it inadequate. I am not sure what the problem you guys had with it was, but I have been on worse boats in rougher conditions.
 
I was on Renegado twice before the invasion started and found it fine compared to the 3 other boats I had the pleasure to be on.

They were all large, and slower than the dual 150hp speeders (a fair trade for space, comradery, a head, getting out of the water, etc.). One of which, Tango, my group (including FPDocMatt) was on daily, which leads to my question... if you weren't on the boat, how can you comment on it's speed/ adequacy?? Unless you are just repeating grumblings you heard from this diver or that on shore over cervasas... speculation as you called another bit above right?
 
I will definitely be signing up for next year's Cozumel Invasion. I'm thinking of forming a new group of serious, boring people. Anybody interested, let me know.

I came to this forum looking for trip reports from the recent Invasion and I'm surprised to only find yours.

I considered signing up this year, but my impression from last year was that this group tends to be pretty "lively". I'm more "serious and boring" and guessed that I wouldn't fit in well with this crowd. (I also considered SingleDivers.com but my impression was similar...they seem to be a younger, heavier-drinking crowd than I would fit in with.)

How would you characterize the mix of people on the trip? Next year would a quiet, non-drinker feel like an odd man out? (My wife dives, but not as often as I'd like to.)

Ron
 
I came to this forum looking for trip reports from the recent Invasion and I'm surprised to only find yours.

I considered signing up this year, but my impression from last year was that this group tends to be pretty "lively". I'm more "serious and boring" and guessed that I wouldn't fit in well with this crowd. (I also considered SingleDivers.com but my impression was similar...they seem to be a younger, heavier-drinking crowd than I would fit in with.)

How would you characterize the mix of people on the trip? Next year would a quiet, non-drinker feel like an odd man out? (My wife dives, but not as often as I'd like to.)

Ron

There were 68 participants this year. Whereas it's true that some people were wilder than others, there were so many different types of people that it's really impossible to categorize the participants. I met many (not several, but many) people who were staid and serious and non-drinking.

Scuba divers are an impressive lot. Most scuba divers are accomplished in their professional lives already. And to dive, you have to be self-reliant, intelligent, and mature. And that's pretty much what you get in a group like this.

Also, I think it would be a mistake to infer the Cozumel Invasion group from the people who post frequently here on SB. I did not find the people in Cozumel to be arrogant, self-important and insensitive at all. :wink:
 
I came to this forum looking for trip reports from the recent Invasion and I'm surprised to only find yours.

I considered signing up this year, but my impression from last year was that this group tends to be pretty "lively". I'm more "serious and boring" and guessed that I wouldn't fit in well with this crowd. (I also considered SingleDivers.com but my impression was similar...they seem to be a younger, heavier-drinking crowd than I would fit in with.)

How would you characterize the mix of people on the trip? Next year would a quiet, non-drinker feel like an odd man out? (My wife dives, but not as often as I'd like to.)

Ron

Hi Ron,

You can also read http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/invade-cozumel-2012/425275-moonies-live-invasion.html to see some of the happenings during the Invasion and after thoughts. Yes, some members are more lively than others, some are very quite, some drink, some don't, but most of the members have a great sense of humor and a love of diving.
 
I came to this forum looking for trip reports from the recent Invasion and I'm surprised to only find yours.

I considered signing up this year, but my impression from last year was that this group tends to be pretty "lively". I'm more "serious and boring" and guessed that I wouldn't fit in well with this crowd. (I also considered SingleDivers.com but my impression was similar...they seem to be a younger, heavier-drinking crowd than I would fit in with.)


How would you characterize the mix of people on the trip? Next year would a quiet, non-drinker feel like an odd man out? (My wife dives, but not as often as I'd like to.)

Ron

Matt, Great Report!!!


Ron G. I am not sure why you have the impression you have. I have been both SCUBABoard Invasions and SingleDivers.com Trips. All have had a mix of people, and mostly ranginging in age of 30's to 50's. While some of the people might have a few beers or cocktails, not everyone does, nor would anyone care if you chose not to. Both groups are made up of divers ranging in experience, skill levels and walks of life that all came together to dive. Keith
 
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