What happened to Cozumel?

[Nemrod]

We first dove Cozumel in 2008 and it was one of our first destination dive trips. I remember the reefs teeming with life. It was either that trip or a subsequent one that we found BlueXTsea and Pedro and looked forward to visiting them as frequently as we could. Fast forward to having kids and moving to a state that isn’t known for its diving and time got away from us. The majority of diving I’ve done in the last 10 years has been of the PSD variety with only two trips down here in the last 12 years with the next most recent being 5 years ago. We planned our current trip about 6 months ago with grandparents along for the ride as babysitters. hearing that Pedro retired we went looking for a new dive shop. I’m not here to badmouth them so they won’t be named but after reading great reviews both here and other places we went with someone that advertised small boats that had been in operation for a long time.

This was also our first time diving jacket BCD’s… in forever. We traded out the majority of our personal gear for a travel crib in order to keep the airlines happy with baggage weight. The first day of diving went fine enough- my BCD inflator was broken and the DM swapped me his setup. It was 2 sizes too big but not really a big deal. The bigger issue was the boat not having a gas analyzer. We were diving 32%. My wife’s computer failed on our second dive of the day and she requested a rental computer for the next day of diving. I might have higher standards than most but I don’t think it’s out of line. None of the other divers requested to check their tanks of course.

The boat was to pick us up at 7:40 and by 8am there was no boat and no text. I texted the dive shop and they said they would be there at 8:15. At 8:45 we left the pier and started to head back to our room to put our gear away. We were halfway across the beach when we saw our boat pulling up to the dock. We got on the boat in an attempt to salvage our morning. No analyzer, no dive computer. Thats a pretty big problem. Definitely not up to any GUE standards and the “expert halo” alarms were going off in my head.

The dive sites they chose were largely devoid of life other than seeing a dolphin (super cool!). We were on the boat with two other divers that turned out to be brand new. At one point I held a GUE tech 1 cert and have well over 500 dives. I try and maintain that same standard on all of my dives although diving with a long hose setup and a jacket BCD was pretty goofy.

We voiced our concern and cancelled the next day of diving. I was told they would not charge me for a late cancellation and then sent me 3 different invoices before seemingly getting it right.

Aside from the dive operation and dive sites being lackluster so was our resort. We stayed at Allegro- there were people having sex in the hot tub at 4pm and the food (other than the Asian) was terrible.

Someone please tell me Bonaire hasn’t suffered this same fate? That’s our plan next winter and it’ll have been 15 years since our last visit.

Also, I used to be a super active member here in the DIR forum but can’t remember my log-in. We’re hoping to get back into travel diving now that we no longer have the Great Lakes in our backyard so hopefully I will be sticking around and not just making this one post-and-ghost.

Above is the original post .

He did not like the rental dive equipment. (Bring your own gear like most everyone on this board does)

He did not like the lack of an O2 anyalzer. (Bring your own analyzer, most resorts get their nitrox from a central facility and many do not have the divers check it. The resorts, ex-Scuba Club, mixed their own Nitrox and they did have the divers check it)

He did not like rental computer or lack of. (Bring your own that suits your needs)

He did not like the boat being late. (That is Mexico and many such places, chill out, go with the flow, sometimes the harbor master will not let them out due to weather)

He did not like the resort. (Stay somewhere else)

He did not like being on a boat with super new divers. (Dive with a group of known divers or again, just go with the flow, the DMs do not generally make everyone surface together, not at Scuba Club not at Blue Angel)

The sites he visited were not to his liking or expectation. (There are a ton of dive sites in Cozumel, tell them where you want to go)

He is DIR with expectation of GUE standards. (LOL, they are not DIR, adjust or do not dive)


Cozumel is no different from many places in the Caribbean and probably most of the world. Things do not always go as planned, they may do things very differently. It is part of the adventure. Traveling with a group, often special pricing and inclusions can be arranged for the group.

IMO, the reefs in Bonaire and Caymans are worse off than Cozumel. The Keys worse yet.

 

[LI-er]

have an affinity to the island and who disagree with what some others may be saying about it. That does not mean that we are taking "serious offense";

Some members are responding as if Cozumel is their only child and is getting beat up in the locker room for his lunch money.

 

[LI-er]

Above is the original post .

He did not like the rental dive equipment. (Bring your own gear like most everyone on this board does)

The Op is in the wrong.. because after paying good money for rental gear it was found to be broken and ultimately replaced with a BCD that was 2 sizes too big??

He did not like the lack of an O2 anyalzer. (Bring your own analyzer, most resorts get their nitrox from a central facility and many do not have the divers check it. The resorts, ex-Scuba Club, mixed their own Nitrox and they did have the divers check it)

Most recreational divers do not own their own analyzer, the sensor needs to be replaced on a regular basis and many or most recreational divers aren't reasonably expected to purchase one and incur ongoing sensor replacement costs. It's the duty of the dive operator who is supplying Nitrox to paying customers to provide a way to analyze it. You also make the bizarre, reckless and irresponsible statement that since most operators get their Nitrox from a central facility and many do not have divers check it than it doesn't need to be tested.

He did not like rental computer or lack of. (Bring your own that suits your needs)

His wife's computer unexpectedly stopped working after the second dive so they were forced to rent one. Somehow you missed it in your rush to be overly critical and judgmental of an undeserving target.

He did not like the boat being late. (That is Mexico and many such places, chill out, go with the flow, sometimes the harbor master will not let them out due to weather)

The boat was over an HOUR late. Mexicans apparently don't know how to text or don't give a crap about leaving their customers in the dark, so he finally called the shop and they gave him a time that was overly optimistic and wrong by about a half hour. You: "Mexicans get a pass on poor customer service because, hey that's Mexico". Me: "A customer has the right to be pissed at poor customer service, wherever it is, there's no excuse just because they live in a 3rd world country and can't keep to a schedule".

He did not like the resort. (Stay somewhere else)

After paying what is probably thousands of dollars for his room, he's just supposed to pack up and go somewhere else and pay again? What's wrong with you? Serious question.

He did not like being on a boat with super new divers. (Dive with a group of known divers or again, just go with the flow, the DMs do not generally make everyone surface together, not at Scuba Club not at Blue Angel)

He never said he didn't like being on a boat with new divers. Read much? As to the second part, you're just plain wrong. I once dived with Aldora "King of the long bottom times", paid good money for larger tanks and Nitrox for our group of 4. I recall it was over $500, on my dime. We were paired with a father and son, who were on air. We had to cut the dive short because of them, when I lingered at the bottom the DM got right in my face and gestured "UP!". I seriously thought about, and wish I did, flip him the bird and ignored him. Just because "DMs sometimes don't make everyone surface together" at two random dive ops you pulled out of your hat doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

The sites he visited were not to his liking or expectation. (There are a ton of dive sites in Cozumel, tell them where you want to go)

The dive sites in Cozumel have sharply deteriorated over the past 2 decades and are largely devoid of marine life. It doesn't MATTER that there are a ton of sites, they're all bad.

He is DIR with expectation of GUE standards. (LOL, they are not DIR, adjust or do not dive)

No, he's a diver who expects good service and an enjoyable dive for his hard earned cash. And what's so funny anyway?

IMO, the reefs in Bonaire and Caymans are worse off than Cozumel. The Keys worse yet.

Not that your opinion is worth much but the truth is they're ALL bad.

 

[scubadada]

Several members have posted the prices for two tank dives in Cozumel and comparator locations.

Today, I booked 3 two tank dives with 2 AL80 nitrox cylinders each for 3 different operators in Palm Beach Co, FL, one in Boynton Beach, one in Palm Beach, and one in Jupiter. The total prices ranged from $138-$167. Nitrox cylinder prices were $15-$18. I have been diving here since 2009 and prices have risen, just like they have in other locations. I generally also leave a $10/tank tip, sometimes more.

This kind of information makes for interesting comparisons. However, multi-trip discounts, diving included in all-inclusive packages, and other factors, can make direct comparisons more difficult. I would imagine that the cost of a 2 tank dive with nitrox also varies considerably among all the operators in Cozumel. The operator who I use currently charges about $165 including tax and marine park fee. It's worth it to me. I haven't been to Cozumel for a while, I will have to work on getting back again so that I can make my own judgement regarding the health of the reef and the sea life.

 

[lowwall]

I'm not a big drinker so I don't care about night life or party scenes. I don't want to constantly be on guard for crooked taxi ripoffs. I don't like the feeling that locals are always looking for an angle to shake you down. I don't like cruise ships. That's the kind if stuff I hear about Cozumel.

I just got back from 8 days in Coz. It was my fourth trip there. The first was in 2004 and the last was just before Covid.

Here's the general layout on Coz.

All the diving is on the west side of the island which faces Playa del Carmen on the mainland. There's a main town on the west side and roughly midway on the island north and south. The airport borders the north end of the main town. It's a 1.5 mile walk from the airport to the terminal for the ferries to Playa del Carmen which is at the heart of the town. The marina that most dive boats leave from is 3.5 miles south of town. Most of the resorts are south of the marina. They usually have a dock and pretty much all of the dive ops will pick you up at the resort docks. A couple of the resorts with an on-site dive op charge a fee for other dive ops to use their dock. Typically divers will either wade out to the boat or walk off the resort grounds to get picked up to avoid these fees.

The people complaining about taxis are mostly those staying at the southern resorts since they need taxis to get to anything.

As far as the cruzeiros. The cruise ship companies have built their own fake town and piers south of town so you'll never see those tourists. For the few that are now docked at the town pier, the passengers and the landsharks they bring are mostly concentrated on the waterfront and town square. They go back to their ships in the early afternoon so it's possible to avoid them entirely.

All the locals I've met were great. I do make it a point to never go to the restaurants and other businesses along the waterfront except for the big supermarket. It's like visiting National Parks in the US, get a few hundred feet from the parking lot and almost all of the annoying people are gone.

I think you would have liked my setup for this trip. I used Villa Aldora and dived with Aldora Divers. The Villa is about a mile north of the main town so it's quiet and all the rooms have a 5 gallon water dispenser and at least a fridge/microwave/coffeemaker/toaster while a few have full kitchens. I only used a taxi twice, first to get from the dive shop check-in to the Villa at the start of the trip and then from the Villa to the ferry at the end. I asked before I got in and it was 150 pesos ($7.50) for the first trip and 100 pesos for the second. I didn't need taxis because Aldora Divers picks you up at the Villa dock and the Villa provides bikes. The farthest I needed to go was the big supermarket "Mega" which is just two miles away straight down the main coastal road at the south end of the town center. I usually ate one meal a day at a restaurant or taco stand in town. Most of the restaurants mentioned on this forum are in the town center so it's all an easy bike ride. I stayed just south of the Villa my last time there and walked into town once a day. It was not a big deal.

Another option if you don't want to deal with taxis (or the kind of people who prefer to stay in resorts) is to stay in the town center or someplace close to town that has its own dock. You do need to arrange in advance with an op that will pick you up if you do this. Aldora has its own pier in the city center and I think a few other ops use it as well. Some of the ops that don't pick up in town will instead provide transportation from their shop in town to the marina.

A big advantage of Villa Aldora is they have tanks available for shore diving and there's life as soon as you drop in. I did three daylight dives and 2 night dives off the Villa and really enjoyed it. There's a lot of juvenile life along the mini-wall that forms the shoreline. I saw eels, lobsters and rays along with the usual fish. A juvenile puffer liked to swim along with me and I saw him on every dive. The real wall is only 75 yards away if you want to go exploring, but I was by myself and there's always a current running so I was content with my max 13' dives along the shoreline. Note that you do have to book with Aldora Divers to stay at the Villa, but that doesn't mean you have to dive with them every single day. I took a midweek day off and did a day and night shore dive instead.

IMO, prices are very reasonable. I had a large single room for $105 a night. There's no extra charge for tanks for shore diving. Diving with Aldora is $110 + the $12 daily marine park fee for a 2-tank dive. This includes cave filled HP100, HP117 or HP120 tanks. They do charge $11 per tank for nitrox. However, nitrox is free if you stay at Villa Aldora. They also offer off-season packages that include free nitrox. The length of dives depends somewhat on who you are diving with, but they try to get at least 70 minutes. They have multiple boats and try to get you on a boat with people of similar skill. My first two days were great because I got tacked onto a very experienced group of friends and all 4 dives were over 80 minutes and the divers were very good at communicating with each other and sharing what they saw. After they left, it was a little more variable, but only 1 dive was under 70 minutes.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I just got back from 8 days in Coz. It was my fourth trip there. The first was in 2004 and the last was just before Covid.

Here's the general layout on Coz.

All the diving is on the west side of the island which faces Playa del Carmen on the mainland. There's a main town on the west side and roughly midway on the island north and south. The airport borders the north end of the main town. It's a 1.5 mile walk from the airport to the terminal for the ferries to Playa del Carmen which is at the heart of the town. The marina that most dive boats leave from is 3.5 miles south of town. Most of the resorts are south of the marina. They usually have a dock and pretty much all of the dive ops will pick you up at the resort docks. A couple of the resorts with an on-site dive op charge a fee for other dive ops to use their dock. Typically divers will either wade out to the boat or walk off the resort grounds to get picked up to avoid these fees.

The people complaining about taxis are mostly those staying at the southern resorts since they need taxis to get to anything.

As far as the cruzeiros. The cruise ship companies have built their own fake town and piers south of town so you'll never see those tourists. For the few that are now docked at the town pier, the passengers and the landsharks they bring are mostly concentrated on the waterfront and town square. They go back to their ships in the early afternoon so it's possible to avoid them entirely.

All the locals I've met were great. I do make it a point to never go to the restaurants and other businesses along the waterfront except for the big supermarket. It's like visiting National Parks in the US, get a few hundred feet from the parking lot and almost all of the annoying people are gone.

I think you would have liked my setup for this trip. I used Villa Aldora and dived with Aldora Divers. The Villa is about a mile north of the main town so it's quiet and all the rooms have a 5 gallon water dispenser and at least a fridge/microwave/coffeemaker/toaster while a few have full kitchens. I only used a taxi twice, first to get from the dive shop check-in to the Villa at the start of the trip and then from the Villa to the ferry at the end. I asked before I got in and it was 150 pesos ($7.50) for the first trip and 100 pesos for the second. I didn't need taxis because Aldora Divers picks you up at the Villa dock and the Villa provides bikes. The farthest I needed to go was the big supermarket "Mega" which is just two miles away straight down the main coastal road at the south end of the town center. I usually ate one meal a day at a restaurant or taco stand in town. Most of the restaurants mentioned on this forum are in the town center so it's all an easy bike ride. I stayed just south of the Villa my last time there and walked into town once a day. It was not a big deal.

Another option if you don't want to deal with taxis (or the kind of people who prefer to stay in resorts) is to stay in the town center or someplace close to town that has its own dock. You do need to arrange in advance with an op that will pick you up if you do this. Aldora has its own pier in the city center and I think a few other ops use it as well. Some of the ops that don't pick up in town will instead provide transportation from their shop in town to the marina.

A big advantage of Villa Aldora is they have tanks available for shore diving and there's life as soon as you drop in. I did three daylight dives and 2 night dives off the Villa and really enjoyed it. There's a lot of juvenile life along the mini-wall that forms the shoreline. I saw eels, lobsters and rays along with the usual fish. A juvenile puffer liked to swim along with me and I saw him on every dive. The real wall is only 75 yards away if you want to go exploring, but I was by myself and there's always a current running so I was content with my max 13' dives along the shoreline. Note that you do have to book with Aldora Divers to stay at the Villa, but that doesn't mean you have to dive with them every single day. I took a midweek day off and did a day and night shore dive instead.

IMO, prices are very reasonable. I had a large single room for $105 a night. There's no extra charge for tanks for shore diving. Diving with Aldora is $110 + the $12 daily marine park fee for a 2-tank dive. This includes cave filled HP100, HP117 or HP120 tanks. They do charge $11 per tank for nitrox. However, nitrox is free if you stay at Villa Aldora. They also offer off-season packages that include free nitrox. The length of dives depends somewhat on who you are diving with, but they try to get at least 70 minutes. They have multiple boats and try to get you on a boat with people of similar skill. My first two days were great because I got tacked onto a very experienced group of friends and all 4 dives were over 80 minutes and the divers were very good at communicating with each other and sharing what they saw. After they left, it was a little more variable, but only 1 dive was under 70 minutes.

This is a really great post, thank you!

 

[Zane]

Did I? I'm getting old I don't even remember thst.

Can you provide more details? Where exactly in Indonesia, which sites were he best, and which charter did you use?

*If you want to talk about Hawaii go start your own thread*

No I'm not a moderator just a member who was enjoying and appreciating the different opinions regarding Cozumel, who thinks it's rude and inconsiderate to hijack another member's thread just because you feel like talking about something else.

You are hilarious

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Some members are responding as if Cozumel is their only child and is getting beat up in the locker room for his lunch money.

It's like someone's talkin' trash about their mama!

 

[brsnow]

I enjoy Cozumel. I really like the locals. I have made friends and enjoyed the time with them. If you don’t want to be treated like a cruise passenger just hang out in the places they don’t go.

As far as the diving it really comes down to dive master. I have only had one bad experience, but others seem to love the place. Overall I have had some pretty amazing times both above and below the water.

I tend to enjoy most places I travel to, get out and explore, meet people, embrace the culture. Makes for great trips.