This was our third trip to Cozumel Iberostar. The others were in 2004 and 2007. Everything on those previous trip report is still true.
Sun Wing, Iberostar Hotels, Dressel Divers.
The original plan was to go somewhere we hadn't been before. We looked at some places in the east end of Grand Cayman but no joy. Cayman Diving Lodge did not appear to be open because nobody answered the phone or returned my e-mail. The website for Compass Point led me to believe that there was no on-site restaurant, Morritt's is a time-share, and the Reef Resort was simply too expensive. Then we toyed around with the idea of going to St Kitts, but read some very bad travel reviews. Then we started looking at Cozumel. Air Canada no longer had direct flights on weekends, but Skyservice had Saturday flights. We found a decent package with them on the Red Tag Vacations site, but noticed that if we went with Sun Wing on a Sunday we would save about 500 bucks a person.
Then we had to choose a resort. Iberostar was neither the cheapest or the dearest. We contemplated going to either Hotel Cozumel or Wyndham to save even more money. After reading the worst Trip Advisor reviews for those two resorts, and Iberostar, we chose Iberostar.
We booked the hotel/flight package through the Sun Wing website. It was pretty straightforward. Dressel Divers offers a 15% discount if you pay in advance, but you have to do a bit of work. Their site has neither a price list nor an online reservation capability. We had an email exchange that resulted in them sending me a price list and me telling them what I wanted. I didn't want to send my credit card number by email, so I sent it by paper mail. Had it been a last minute thing, I would have phoned it in.
Sun Wing has early departures. Ours was at 0630. Cozumel was not on Daylight Savings Time so there was a two hour time difference instead of one, and we landed mid morning. Customs and Immigration could have been lightning fast, but the Skyservice flight we didn't take on Saturday had been delayed and landed 10 minute before us. Even so, Immigration was fast because they didn't scan passports. Customs was slow because they x-rayed every bag. We ended up at the resort at about 1030 hrs and, fortunately, there was a room ready for us. With this early arrival, we were able to dive that afternoon.
The resort was great, just like the last two times. The food was great, just like the last two times. It's hard to add anything more without being repetitive.
We got t-shirts and a fruit basket for being repeat guests. I was wondering what the point of a fruit basket at an all inclusive was, but I did eat some of the fruit.
On my last trip report said, "They were also generous on bottom time. The morning dives were 60 minutes and the afternoon were 50. They were not as generous on the air fills though. My fills were anywhere from 2600 to 3000 psi." This time the fills were 3000 to 3200 psi and the afternoon dives were longer than 50 minutes. The DM didn't specify a time but signalled us from in the water. My two afternoon dives were 57 and 58 minutes.
I learned on this trip that Dressel Divers does not charge extra for Nitrox. Not that I care, I dive air. Everything else I can say is a repeat of my last report. Dressel Divers runs a good dive op.
Vis was great, but the water was a bit cool - usually 78 F. Most of the divers, including me, got chilly. On the two cloudy days, all the divers were huddled at the front of the boat after the dive. It was the warmest place available.
The shallow reefs were in much better condition than last time. This was good to see. Once again, we saw at least one turtle a day. The fish life was its usual prolific self. Lots of filefish, angelfish, durgeons, triggerfish, and so on and so forth.
We hooked up with an interesting dive buddy for the week. The first thing we noticed was that he wore a pair of Sponge Bob Squarepants shorts over his wetsuit when he dove. The next thing was that he and his dive buddy were speaking French. Then, during the dive briefing, it came out that at least one of their pressure gauges was in bars. The next day, the same two guys buddied up. I figured it was two guys from France. The next day, he was sitting at the table next to us at breakfast. Turns out he lives in another Toronto suburb. The other guy was from Montreal and had was leaving that day. He ended up being our dive buddy for the rest of the week. At least 80% of the time, we were the only 3 divers who didn't run out of air before the time limit was up. That's probably why he wanted to dive with us.
There is a $2 per day park fee. This is not part of your dive package. Also not part of your dive package is a chamber fee. However, if you have DAN insurance, that fee is waived.
In the 2007 trip report, I suggested bringing an extension cord. I followed my advice and brought one, but it was not good enough. The hotel's clock radio had a plug with different sized prongs so it didn't fit into my extension cord. I just charged my two spare sets of batteries and then reset the alarm. Given how few pictures I took, I probably could have done the entire trip on one set anyhow.
| Trip Dates2009-03-08 to 2009-03-15 | Trip Report Index |