Author Topic: Diving In Cozumel  (Read 1443 times)

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Offline Way-do

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Diving In Cozumel
« on: April 17, 2014, 01:29:45 pm »
Just spent an amazing week in Cozumel and can't say enough good things about the crew at Dressel Diving there.

We did a Discovery Dive with them which was the standard lesson in the pool, then a 40min, 40ft dive on a reef, followed by a second "free$" dive on a different reef.  We ended up trading in our pre-booked Snorkel day for another 2 dives.  Very professional, safety conscious staff, descent equipment and apparently the marine reserve reef park is second only to Australia. I got to lay down on the sand a meter away from a 7ft Nurse shark on my 3rd ever dive.

The trip was booked through Westjet Vacations. Stayed at the Iberostar Cozumel which is not a 5 star kinda place so if your partner is high maintenance, you may want to go to Playa Del Carmen or Cancun on the mainland.  It was however clean, descent food, and not a big ugly hotel.  All rooms are in 4-8 suite huts.  Friendly staff, plenty of booze and very few drunk college kids.  The Dressel dive centre is right on the beech and they run 4 full boats, 4 times a day. The beech is nothing amazing, the pool is a chlorinated pool surrounded by fat leathery old people, and the restaurants are screened/open air so you can watch the flamingos and peacocks while you have breakfast.

$3000 all in for 2 for 8  days, plus about $600 for 8 dives. Flights were YYC-YYZ-Coz but you can fly direct to Cancun and take the bus and ferry. Great value in my books and will certainly be going back to do our open water. 

I'm hooked on yet another very expensive hobby!

I'll put up some pictures once everything is downloaded.  I'll be spending a couple evenings in Lightroom.

Offline Asstuna

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Re: Diving In Cozumel
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2014, 01:39:40 pm »
Thanks for the review. Pricing seems fair

Offline Way-do

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Re: Diving In Cozumel
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2014, 02:47:59 pm »
We will likely be going for Bull Shark in December around Playa Del Carmen.

Offline ScoobieDoo

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Re: Diving In Cozumel
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2014, 03:51:41 pm »
$600 for 8 dives seems like a pretty good price for Mexico. I've been wanting to dive in Cozumel but haven't gotten there yet. How were the conditions? pretty good visibility?

Also, did you happen to see the price for the open water course? I paid about $450 to do it in Thailand and am just curious how things compare.

Offline Way-do

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Re: Diving In Cozumel
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2014, 06:09:13 pm »
$450 for Open water sounds about right.  I'll check with my buddy and see what he was paying per dive.  I can't find the quote from them but I'll post it if I find it.  I'll do everything in Calgary and just do the skills next time I'm south. As much as I wanted to do the course this trip, it would have been too much like work.

We were in the Disco Dive program for $190US each (less 20% off when booked ahead so $152) which gave us 2 dives each, then another 2 each was ~$250. Tipped our guide $20 a dive for the 4 of us, and the base manager around $50 for the week, and a bottle of rum.  We were VERY well looked after. Chris didn't use all his prebooked dives so they cut him vouchers good at any Dressel location for 5 years, plus a couple extras. Also, they have free Nitrox, if you happen to be a pretty big deal.

Booking online ahead of time gets you a 20% discount. You have to email for quotes, as head office is Spain and everything is in Euro.