Trip Report Hotel Cozumel and Dive Paradise

[mchiapetto]

We stayed at Hotel Cozumel and dove with Dive Paradise from Jan 10-18, 2015. Here are some observations from our trip.

Hotel Cozumel
We decided to go for a room upgrade to a Junior Suite. The room was a nice size with plenty of space for two along with all our dive gear. The very large balcony is a nice place to hang things at the end of the day or end of the trip. In general though, we found that after allowing for an initial drip time, things dried better inside with the A/C.

We heard reports of the beds being hard so we brought a couple of air mattresses with us. But the mattress on the bed had a foam pad on it and while it was firm, it was not too hard for us (and we both like soft settings on our mattress at home).

Our room was on the street side on the first floor. It was nice to skip the stairs but it also meant the balcony was at ground level so I was a little paranoid about leaving stuff out on the balcony at night. We did have a view of the ocean if we stood all the way to the right and looked left.

The hotel does have Wifi but is agonizingly slow. I read and answered a few work emails and it would take 5-8 minutes to send a simple email. I suppose it was better than nothing but if you are going to advertise that you include Wifi then my opinion is it should be more functional. I don’t need to be able to stream a movie but I would like faster access to email and web sites.

We did the AI option for food. The food at the resort is plentiful and while it was mostly adequate, it was not what we would consider really great. We tended to try a small portion of whatever looked interesting at first and if the first bite did not suit our tastes we skipped the rest and moved on to something else. Every meal there would be one or more things we liked enough to go back for more. The breakfast omelettes (cooked fresh) are fantastic. One of our lunch favorites were the chicken, pork or beef fajitas they would grill fresh while you waited. For dinners, the pasta station (again cooked fresh while you wait) was great.

The pool was nice to look at but we never used it (we spent most of our time in the ocean). The hot tub was quite warm but not hot. We did spend a bit of time in the hot tub.

They put on a show every evening. We went a couple of times and enjoyed what we saw. It is not Broadway but the entertainers really put a lot of energy into making it a good experience.

Dive Paradise
Our main purpose for going was to dive. We had a package that included 5 days of 2-tank morning dives and 4 days of 1-tank afternoon dives (all on the “slow” boats). We stayed an extra day so we added on some dives to our package. Our last morning dive was on one of the “fast” boats.

We noticed there was a distinct pattern in how the diving worked. The official word is the boats leave at 8:30. We would get to the dock around 8:00 each morning. You check in and the counter and they tell you what boat you are on. We were with the same group of (unrelated) people each day. Various boats would come into the dock, pick up their group, and head out to dive.

The “slow” boats are definitely slow. As we headed out to the dive sites it felt like we were being passed by every other boat on the water (I am sure we weren’t but it seemed that way). The AM trip would start with a long ride to the south to various dive sites. Then during the surface interval the boat would move further to the north for the second dive. The afternoon dives were always in one of three areas close to the Dive Paradise dock.

The boats generally had 16 divers with two dive masters. They would spit us into two groups. Early on we noticed a family of five very experienced divers were requesting a specific dive master named Gollo (pronounce Goyo). We also put in a request for him and dove with him all week. He has been working for Dive Paradise for a long time and is an excellent DM.

The dives were all drift dives. Current speed varied each day and by location but there was always some amount of current. Sometimes the current flowed to the north and sometimes to the south (I am not sure what causes the change).

We were asked to notify the DM when we reached 800 PSI and start the ascent and safety stop when we reached 500 PSI. If someone got low, they went up with their buddy (the DM inflated a safety sausage and sent it to the surface to mark the spot where the divers were). If your air management was good, you could stay down longer. Our dives average 58 minutes long for the week. When you surface, the boat would come pick you up.

The afternoon dives seemed mostly about being as close to the dock as possible so they could be back and finished for the day sooner. All week long the afternoon dives were at Villa Blanca or Paradise Reef and once to Las Palmas.

The night dives were both at Paradise Reef and I think we could have done it hundreds of times and it would still be good. We saw everything out and hunting we hoped to see each time (squid, octopus, crabs, lobsters, sharp tail eels, green moray eels, spotted moray eels and more)!

We did not see many lion fish on our dives. Often the DM would take a spear and they did catch a few on several of the dives. Kudos to the dive masters at putting forth an effort curb the lion fish population in Cozumel.

When we got home and I reviewed the dive times in our computers, I noticed a very definite pattern. Following are the times we hit the water for each dive. The labels are for the two morning dives (AM1 AM2) and the afternoon dive (PM) along with the two days we did a night dive.
Day AM1 AM2 PM Night
1 9:51 11:41 3:11
2 9:52 11:52 3:34
3 9:39 11:38 3:37 6:07
4 9:48 11:46 3:35
5 9:42 10:53 3:53 6:03
6 9:12 11:21 3:41

You can see that on the last day, the fast boat got us into the water about 30 minutes sooner (even though we were one of the last groups picked up that morning), gave us a longer interval between dives and probably got us back for lunch about 30 minutes sooner. The bigger difference was there were only six in our group and the dives times were a little longer than when we were on the “slow” boat. Generally speaking, I don’t think the “fast” boats really gave us much advantage over the “slow” boats.

One difference we did not realize until it was time to pay at the end is the pricing difference between “fast” and “slow” boats. The published price for is only $4 different ($83 vs 79). But we found that the afternoon dive is only $17 more when you book the “slow” morning boat but $37 when you book the “fast” morning boat. So the cost of the “fast” boat was $24 more and got us back to lunch about 30 minutes earlier.

The crew on the boats were eager to “help” you with your gear (whether you like it or not). I like to set up my own gear so I can check everything out. And I prefer to move it to the new tank myself and disconnect at the end. I kept asking them to let me do it myself and finally gave up as it did not make a difference. They were determined to “help” me. Sometimes they were even turning off my air and disconnecting by regulator while I was still walking to my seat. The worst was when I once say a crew member blow out the dust cap and then start to blow air across the opening to my wife’s first stage. I stopped him that time but I worry about what happened the other times I might not have seen. Overall, I wish they would honor the customer wishes to help or not help.

For the week we had 21 dives (including one shore dive the first day to make sure everything was ready to go). We spent nearly 21 hours underwater. Everything else aside, that is enough for me to call it a good week. Drift diving is easy (until you want to stop to look at something). The reef still shows some effects from the hurricane a few years back but is really looking good. Our favorites things to see are turtles and eagle rays and we saw lots.

I hope this information is useful. If you are reading this and you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

 

[newgentry]

My daughter and I have been going to Coz for 11 years, a few years we've gone twice, so I think we're at 15+ trips now. We've stayed at Hotel Cozumel and dove with Dive Paradise each time, as a matter of fact I just confirmed our reservations yesterday for this year's trip, in March. Your description and report fits every experience we've ever had, pretty much to a T. We love Cozumel in general, and I don't think that you can get much better on an overall basis than Dive Paradise. The hotel isn't a 5 star, but it's clean, the food is generally pretty good, the staff is great, and you can't beat the location. That said, your point on the afternoon slow boat dives is an important one - if I have one gripe about Dive Paradise, it would be that - their options for afternoon dives are VERY limited and you will always wind up at one of those 3 reefs. I think one year we did 6 afternoon dives and 5 of them were at Paradise Reef. I like that reef, no question, but that was a little much, we were on a first name basis with a green moray eel after he'd seen us 4 afternoons in a row. The next year was when we started diving with Aldora in the afternoons. Aldora is a LOT more expensive than Dive Paradise but they'll pretty much take you wherever you want to go, especially if you do the twilight two-tanker. I noted with interest, though, that you dove Villa Blanca? The last couple years they wouldn't take us over there because they built that new dock for the ferry basically right on top of it. Glad to hear they've re-opened it or whatever they're doing, it'd be nice to hit that dive again.

 

[cicopo]

I'll be checking in at Hotel Coz tomorrow. I generally dive with a few different ops but have used DP too. It's going to be rather hard for any of the other slow boats to pass one of DP's slow boats. The thing I don't like about DP's fast boats is the lack of shade. As for the food we're fine with it relative to cost & usually get lunch cooked at the Snack Bar.

 

[Queen Triggerfish]

Loved your trip report! I like details.

I've done the Hotel Cozumel/Dive Paradise combo three times I think. I think it is a great option, especially when trying to maximize number of dives and not spend too much. I've never done the AI, but usually had lunch there between the morning dives and the afternoon dive by the pool. I agree about the speed of the boats, and recall that pricing issue with the afternoon dive based on which boat you were on in the morning. More options for afternoon dives would be nice, although at least an afternoon dive is even an option, unlike most operators.

I also love the size of the pool and that it's located within walking distance to town (although a longer walk than a lot of places!) When I stayed there we were given a locker by the dive shop. Did you have that also? I liked that option.

 

[Mossman]

My daughter and I have been going to Coz for 11 years, a few years we've gone twice, so I think we're at 15+ trips now. We've stayed at Hotel Cozumel and dove with Dive Paradise each time, as a matter of fact I just confirmed our reservations yesterday for this year's trip, in March. Your description and report fits every experience we've ever had, pretty much to a T. We love Cozumel in general, and I don't think that you can get much better on an overall basis than Dive Paradise.

If price is a major consideration in "overall basis", maybe. But there are other price-competitive shops that offer as much or more, not to mention plenty of shops that offer much more albeit at a higher price. You say you've tried Aldora for afternoon dives, but have you ever gone with other shops on morning dives for comparison's sake?

 

[newgentry]

If price is a major consideration in "overall basis", maybe. But there are other price-competitive shops that offer as much or more, not to mention plenty of shops that offer much more albeit at a higher price. You say you've tried Aldora for afternoon dives, but have you ever gone with other shops on morning dives for comparison's sake?

Your point is a fair one on the morning dives. We've gone with Allison a couple times (loved her, GREAT experience), but that's been about it. We always take the DP fast boats on the morning dives, and they'll take you pretty much anywhere. I like their Experienced Diver trips as well, that'll get you to Maracaibo, Devil's Throat, or Barracuda, I think you need 50 logged dives and a computer, something along those lines. If you have anyone else that you think we should try, by all means let me know!

 

[ggunn]

Your point is a fair one on the morning dives. We've gone with Allison a couple times (loved her, GREAT experience), but that's been about it. We always take the DP fast boats on the morning dives, and they'll take you pretty much anywhere. I like their Experienced Diver trips as well, that'll get you to Maracaibo, Devil's Throat, or Barracuda, I think you need 50 logged dives and a computer, something along those lines. If you have anyone else that you think we should try, by all means let me know!

There are a ton of dive ops on Cozumel and most if not all of them are very good at getting you onto the reef and picking you up after the dive. The rest depends on what is important to you and what it's worth to you. Some ops offer more of a valet type service, where they handle all your gear for you, take SI's at beach clubs, serve food on board the boats, use larger and/or steel tanks instead of Al80's, etc., and they charge more. If you don't care about that stuff and doing things on the cheap is important to you, there are "no frills" ops who might be a better choice for you. That's one of the great things about Cozumel; there's an op (or several of them) to fit just about everyone's preferences.

 

[Mossman]

Your point is a fair one on the morning dives. We've gone with Allison a couple times (loved her, GREAT experience), but that's been about it. We always take the DP fast boats on the morning dives, and they'll take you pretty much anywhere. I like their Experienced Diver trips as well, that'll get you to Maracaibo, Devil's Throat, or Barracuda, I think you need 50 logged dives and a computer, something along those lines. If you have anyone else that you think we should try, by all means let me know!

I prefer smaller ops where I can get to know the owner. Sure, it's nice to get to know the hired help, but befriending their boss sure can't hurt.

And as ggunn mentions, there are "boutique" dive ops that offer a few more frills for us folks that like to be pampered. After all, you're only underwater for half your dive day, the other half is spent traveling on the boat or on SI (hopefully on a beach).