Scuba Club Cozumel
We typically try to go to dive resorts pretty far off the beaten path, but there is an associated cost. When I saw the $542 deal I jumped on it for a budget friendly getaway. The deal was for the month of Oct, and our trip extended pact 10/31, so we got charged full price for the second half of our trip. A short while after booking the sale was extended into Nov however we got no such refund/comp. Frustrating, but understandable, those were the terms of the sale.
Everything is reasonably well organized in terms of the hotel, nothing special here The rooms are typical Mexico, nothing luxurious but nothing you can complain about. Our room was against the road and the restaurant, which is very loud, I suggest pushing for a room closer to the water away from the kitchen.
The food was very good, we ate there every meal and had no complaints at all. The wait staff was generally friendly and eager to help. The management, however, was extremely rude. Despite staying there for 7 nights, the owner(?) or manager grilled me on my room number several times rather unpleasantly. They have a strict no outsiders policy. If you are not staying at the hotel, you do not eat there, even if you dove with them that morning. This, combined with a very poorly handled incident where another tourist who dove but did not stay at the hotel ate at the restaurant and got called out very publicly by the manager, got openly charged for things he didnt eat, then the manager demanded that another guest this guy didnt even know pay for his bill. This left a sour taste. This is where my 2 star for accommodations comes from, so I dont negatively review the food, which was very good.
The diving was great, warm water (skipped the wet suit on most dives), good visibility, surprisingly healthy coral despite the daily hoards diving and pretty lively fish live. I was surprised how healthy the reefs are given the 17+ weekly cruise ships and fleet of dive boats migrating every morning. This is not a place of solitude.
The dive center is a separate business who shares ground with the hotel. This is a no frills zero hand holding dive op. They run like a machine pushing out loads of divers on 5+ boats every morning. The boats are full, but not overly and dive guide to guest ratio never exceeded 1:7.
A few notes:
-bring a pad lock, they dont sell them and you need one for your locker, this wasnt drilled into me enough before we got there
-dont expect the dive master to get to know you and take you on the type of dive you'd like. They go where they've chosen for the day. We asked about wall diving a couple times and got ignored
-Nitrox is $10/tank. This is pretty steep as far as Im concerned so we skipped it. Dives were mostly shallow and had a hard limit of 60 min regardless of ability or air left
Overall:
diving was great, resort was ok, the staff generally were nice except the management. I felt we were being price gouged on an extra meal our departure day ($23/plate for lunch is absurd for what it was and no prices posted). The location is close to the airport but an hour from the dive sites, however the proximity to the road was bothersome.
I do not think we will be returning to Scuba Club due to my complaints listed. I wish we had taken a trip to the cenotes.
