Hi All,
My wife and I have just returned from our first (sort of) trip to Cozumel. I say sort of because we did stop there during a cruise we took in March. While on the Grand Princess in March we were supposed to stop in Grand Cayman and Cozumel to do our required checkout dives. I can't think of two better places to do them considering we were in the middle of a cold Canadian winter when we did our class work and pool dives. Unfortunately the weather had different ideas and didn't allow the ship to land in Grand Cayman! We ended up doing O/W 1 & 2 in Cozumel, leaving us with only half a certification! So we decided a long weekend back in Cozumel was the ticket to finish our checkout dives and get started!
We flew Continental from Toronto through Houston to Cozumel. It was a good flight, not too long and the connections matched up well. After hearing some of the stories on the dive boats about 12 flights, redeye flights and long connections, I'm glad we paid the little bit extra!
Arrival at Fiesta Americana was very smooth. After filling in the required information we were taken via Golf Cart to our room. We opted for one of the King Casitas rooms behind the hotel. While this was a bit of a walk everyday to the pier and the resturants, it really wasn't a big deal. We found our room to be quite spacious with lots of room to dry gear.
Seeing as our arrival was late in the day, no diving. We went and checked out the resturants, bars and pools and stopped by Dive House to chat with them and find out what time to be there in the morning. The staff at Dive House were seemed very nice. After a quick bite, we had an early night and hit the hay. That night we had quite the thunder and rain storm and had a bit of minor flooding in our room. No big deal, nothing but the floor got wet, but that was the start of a rainy week.
The next morning we were up early for breakfast and to do our checkout dives. Breakfast was your average buffet style affair and I avoided the greasy stuff all week. My wife had an omlette every morning, but I decided to stick with the fruits and pastrys which were excellent.
Around 9:30am, after all the boats had departed we checked in with Dive House. This is where we ran into our only real issue. We had booked in advance to do our checkout dives and were told it was $90 each and we had to have a Referral form. No problem, the instructor on the Princess ship had given us a photocopy of the form, same as he had received from our shop after Class/Confined. At this point they insisted that they would have to charge us $125 each because we didn't have the Blue PADI envelope with us! We argued and pulled out the printout that clearly stated the requirements. After quite a bit of back and forth, the manager came over and said to charge us $90 only. We were ready to walk and start calling other shops, he came just in time because my wife was pissed. LESSON LEARNED: ALWAYS print out the reservation emails! Without that we would have been sunk.
Our instructor was excellent, he was funny and took his time with us no rush even though it was Father's Day and he wanted to get home to his son. He took the time to make sure that we did each skill correctly and pointed our area to improve our technique. We finished our dives and paperwork around 12:30pm and had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out on our first boat dive.
We found out later that the hotel will give you a box lunch to take out if you don't have time to eat.
For our first dive, we elected to do just a one tank dive. We sat out the first dive of the afternoon which was probably a good idea since the current along the shore while doing our checkout dives was quite strong. This allowed us time to re-hydrate ourselves and relax a bit.
When the time finally came we dove Ycab Reef (I think that's what it's called, correct me if I'm wrong). At 52' it was the deepest we've been but a great way to start. The current wasn't too strong and the vis was great. On our first dive we saw a sea turtle and a 6' nurse shark! It was quite the welcome! Unfortunately I guess we were a little excited and burned through our air quickly. The dive master set the dive for 45 minutes or 700 PSI. I reached 700 by about 34 minutes and my wife and I assended to our safety stop. Being first back on the boat sucked, but it was a great dive.
Afterwards I talked at length with our divemaster about gas management. She gave me some tips to try out the next day which really helped. Being an instructor, she helped us quite a bit with techniques and tips throughout the next couple days.
The only thing with Dive House that I didn't like were that the boats were quite large and slow. They were comfortable though.
The next day we planned a 2 tank in the morning and a night dive. Our first dive of the day was Santa Rosa Wall. An excellent dive with tons of swimthroughs and life. It was very surreal to look into the blue depths and not be able to see the bottom! This time I managed to finish the dive with 750PSI in my tank over a 30 minute dive. Max depth was 80'. I felt more comfortable with manageing my breathing with the tips our divemaster had given me.
Dive two of the day was at Paradise Reef. The current was quite mild which made this the most relaxing dive of the trip. We slowly floated along concentrating on breathing technique and observing the sealife. On this dive we saw several eels, flounder, rays, lobster and Drum. This time we finished with the group with lots of gas in the tank still! Max depth here was 40' and we were down 45 minutes. Finished with 1250PSI.
Our night dive was excellent! We went back to Paradise Reef and it was very interesting to do the same dive at a different time of day. It was completely different. Our divemaster for this trip took lots of time explaining the differences of night diving and going over signals. We felt totally comfortable with him. We entered the water at dusk so there was still enough light to see the bottom and each other which made things easier. Gradually as it became darker, we saw the hidden life of the reef. Huge Lobster, Octopus, a massive Green Moray eel that must have been over 8' in length and a hungry looking Barracuda in the distance. I found the current to be quite a bit stronger than earlier in the day. Not as relaxing as the other dive, but we had a great time. I would highly recommend that everyone try a night dive in Cozumel. I wouldn't do it everynight, but it was a great experience.
The following day was our last day. Again, we booked a 2 tank dive in the morning with our first dive being at Palancar Caves. This 80' wall dive was fantastic. The swimthroughs and life were amazing. We saw our first seahorse on this dive on the flats before you get to the wall. Very interesting animal. Again I felt my breathing technique was getting better because I finished with the group with over 900PSI in my tank. At this point I was getting the idea that you can control your position in the water with just breathing. Again the divemaster was excellent in giving little tips.
Our last boat dive was at Ycab reef again. A good dive, but sad because it was our last one. We did see a HUGE grouper that must have been over 400lbs and a few barracuda checking me out. One got a little too close for comfort but must have decided that I was more than a mouthfull.
When we got back we had a bit of lunch and went for a quick shore dive from the pier to take a few pictures with an underwater, disposable camera. The pictures didn't turn out, so I guess my next investment is camera gear! The current was quite strong along the shore so we called the dive after about 20 minutes.
That night we had dinner in the a la carte resturant that you get to go to once in your stay. The food was fantastic and the service was top notch. If I had known how good it was, I probably would have paid to dine there everynight! The buffet diners were average at best, but we always found things we enjoyed.
We left the next day in the afternoon. It was too short of a trip, only 3 days of diving. NOT ENOUGH! But it gives us a great excuse to go back. I would stay at the FA again, but probably try a different operator for a couple of days. It was very convinent to have DH right there though.
We met some great people on this trip from all over the USA. Too bad I suck with names so bad that I don't remember any of them!
All in all, an excellent trip and a great introduction to the sport. Thanks to everyone that made our trip memorable.
Andrew
My wife and I have just returned from our first (sort of) trip to Cozumel. I say sort of because we did stop there during a cruise we took in March. While on the Grand Princess in March we were supposed to stop in Grand Cayman and Cozumel to do our required checkout dives. I can't think of two better places to do them considering we were in the middle of a cold Canadian winter when we did our class work and pool dives. Unfortunately the weather had different ideas and didn't allow the ship to land in Grand Cayman! We ended up doing O/W 1 & 2 in Cozumel, leaving us with only half a certification! So we decided a long weekend back in Cozumel was the ticket to finish our checkout dives and get started!
We flew Continental from Toronto through Houston to Cozumel. It was a good flight, not too long and the connections matched up well. After hearing some of the stories on the dive boats about 12 flights, redeye flights and long connections, I'm glad we paid the little bit extra!
Arrival at Fiesta Americana was very smooth. After filling in the required information we were taken via Golf Cart to our room. We opted for one of the King Casitas rooms behind the hotel. While this was a bit of a walk everyday to the pier and the resturants, it really wasn't a big deal. We found our room to be quite spacious with lots of room to dry gear.
Seeing as our arrival was late in the day, no diving. We went and checked out the resturants, bars and pools and stopped by Dive House to chat with them and find out what time to be there in the morning. The staff at Dive House were seemed very nice. After a quick bite, we had an early night and hit the hay. That night we had quite the thunder and rain storm and had a bit of minor flooding in our room. No big deal, nothing but the floor got wet, but that was the start of a rainy week.
The next morning we were up early for breakfast and to do our checkout dives. Breakfast was your average buffet style affair and I avoided the greasy stuff all week. My wife had an omlette every morning, but I decided to stick with the fruits and pastrys which were excellent.
Around 9:30am, after all the boats had departed we checked in with Dive House. This is where we ran into our only real issue. We had booked in advance to do our checkout dives and were told it was $90 each and we had to have a Referral form. No problem, the instructor on the Princess ship had given us a photocopy of the form, same as he had received from our shop after Class/Confined. At this point they insisted that they would have to charge us $125 each because we didn't have the Blue PADI envelope with us! We argued and pulled out the printout that clearly stated the requirements. After quite a bit of back and forth, the manager came over and said to charge us $90 only. We were ready to walk and start calling other shops, he came just in time because my wife was pissed. LESSON LEARNED: ALWAYS print out the reservation emails! Without that we would have been sunk.
Our instructor was excellent, he was funny and took his time with us no rush even though it was Father's Day and he wanted to get home to his son. He took the time to make sure that we did each skill correctly and pointed our area to improve our technique. We finished our dives and paperwork around 12:30pm and had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out on our first boat dive.
We found out later that the hotel will give you a box lunch to take out if you don't have time to eat.
For our first dive, we elected to do just a one tank dive. We sat out the first dive of the afternoon which was probably a good idea since the current along the shore while doing our checkout dives was quite strong. This allowed us time to re-hydrate ourselves and relax a bit.
When the time finally came we dove Ycab Reef (I think that's what it's called, correct me if I'm wrong). At 52' it was the deepest we've been but a great way to start. The current wasn't too strong and the vis was great. On our first dive we saw a sea turtle and a 6' nurse shark! It was quite the welcome! Unfortunately I guess we were a little excited and burned through our air quickly. The dive master set the dive for 45 minutes or 700 PSI. I reached 700 by about 34 minutes and my wife and I assended to our safety stop. Being first back on the boat sucked, but it was a great dive.
Afterwards I talked at length with our divemaster about gas management. She gave me some tips to try out the next day which really helped. Being an instructor, she helped us quite a bit with techniques and tips throughout the next couple days.
The only thing with Dive House that I didn't like were that the boats were quite large and slow. They were comfortable though.
The next day we planned a 2 tank in the morning and a night dive. Our first dive of the day was Santa Rosa Wall. An excellent dive with tons of swimthroughs and life. It was very surreal to look into the blue depths and not be able to see the bottom! This time I managed to finish the dive with 750PSI in my tank over a 30 minute dive. Max depth was 80'. I felt more comfortable with manageing my breathing with the tips our divemaster had given me.
Dive two of the day was at Paradise Reef. The current was quite mild which made this the most relaxing dive of the trip. We slowly floated along concentrating on breathing technique and observing the sealife. On this dive we saw several eels, flounder, rays, lobster and Drum. This time we finished with the group with lots of gas in the tank still! Max depth here was 40' and we were down 45 minutes. Finished with 1250PSI.
Our night dive was excellent! We went back to Paradise Reef and it was very interesting to do the same dive at a different time of day. It was completely different. Our divemaster for this trip took lots of time explaining the differences of night diving and going over signals. We felt totally comfortable with him. We entered the water at dusk so there was still enough light to see the bottom and each other which made things easier. Gradually as it became darker, we saw the hidden life of the reef. Huge Lobster, Octopus, a massive Green Moray eel that must have been over 8' in length and a hungry looking Barracuda in the distance. I found the current to be quite a bit stronger than earlier in the day. Not as relaxing as the other dive, but we had a great time. I would highly recommend that everyone try a night dive in Cozumel. I wouldn't do it everynight, but it was a great experience.
The following day was our last day. Again, we booked a 2 tank dive in the morning with our first dive being at Palancar Caves. This 80' wall dive was fantastic. The swimthroughs and life were amazing. We saw our first seahorse on this dive on the flats before you get to the wall. Very interesting animal. Again I felt my breathing technique was getting better because I finished with the group with over 900PSI in my tank. At this point I was getting the idea that you can control your position in the water with just breathing. Again the divemaster was excellent in giving little tips.
Our last boat dive was at Ycab reef again. A good dive, but sad because it was our last one. We did see a HUGE grouper that must have been over 400lbs and a few barracuda checking me out. One got a little too close for comfort but must have decided that I was more than a mouthfull.
When we got back we had a bit of lunch and went for a quick shore dive from the pier to take a few pictures with an underwater, disposable camera. The pictures didn't turn out, so I guess my next investment is camera gear! The current was quite strong along the shore so we called the dive after about 20 minutes.
That night we had dinner in the a la carte resturant that you get to go to once in your stay. The food was fantastic and the service was top notch. If I had known how good it was, I probably would have paid to dine there everynight! The buffet diners were average at best, but we always found things we enjoyed.
We left the next day in the afternoon. It was too short of a trip, only 3 days of diving. NOT ENOUGH! But it gives us a great excuse to go back. I would stay at the FA again, but probably try a different operator for a couple of days. It was very convinent to have DH right there though.
We met some great people on this trip from all over the USA. Too bad I suck with names so bad that I don't remember any of them!
All in all, an excellent trip and a great introduction to the sport. Thanks to everyone that made our trip memorable.
Andrew
Cant wait.
