This was our 7th dive trip to Cozumel and 1st time at Iberostar. We really liked the dive operations by Dressel Divers. They were very organized and super chill. The location was nice too, as it's southern location made for very short boat rides. The resort itself is ok. It's not as posh as Secrets, but the room was adequate and comfortable and ours was just 100 feet from the dive shop. The food was excellent, even the buffets were good. Our only note is that they don't have non-alcoholic beer... a small note at that.
- Sean J.
Hotel
- Iberostar staff made check in quick. Took bags to room
- Grounds: Nice – flora, fauna, nice pool and beach. Wildlife around (flamingos, parrots, coati, wild pigs, raccoons). Pool crowded, lots of kids. Not a lot of chairs unless you went early. Beach nice.
- Rooms: Clean, good ac, hot water, mini bar and coffee. Downside a little small. Nice little covered patios with chairs and hammocks. Patios shaded so hard to get dive gear dry.
- Multiple restaurants and bars. 1 buffet, 3 more sit down. Something for all. Also, can walk next door to Alberto’s for music, drinks or dinner. Coffee was not good. 4 machines but 1 or 2 always out of service or ingredients.
- Cleaning: Most days room cleaned by time we returned from dive/lunch. A few times we had to call for room service.
- Check out easy, but multi step process. Could check out early, but had to get back in line in am to have them cut off bracelet and get voucher to give to bell man before you could leave.
- Safety: There is no AED at the property. A diver was resting at pool and a individual was having a heart attack. They asked at restaurant or bar if they had one and they didn’t. Also went to dive shop and they didn’t have an AED I’m a little surprised Iberostar didn’t have 1 AED on the property.
Dressel Divers:
- Pre-trip communication was very quick and helpful. They emailed us their form in advance.
- Orientation: They gave option of Sat or Sun. We chose Sat. Orientation was really poor. They didn’t review waivers or form then. Was a waste of time. If they don’t want to do on Saturday afternoon, tell people Sunday morning only.
- Forms: I emailed all in advance. They didn’t have them printed off. They didn’t tell to bring medical. True form unclear. They should have told us to fill out completely and print and bring. Thank goodness I had everyone Medicals. There form was not clear. If they told in advance we could have brought paper. Wanted to physically see cert and Nitrox cards. Sunday am it took 2 hours for them to complete the paperwork. Totally avoidable with better communication.
- Boat: We were told we would be on 2 boats. We were squeezed on 1 boat that had a max capacity of 29. With 23 divers and 3 dive guides and 2 boat crew it was full. Very crowded with little dry space. No boat orientation. Water, medical, o2, life preservers. Some was covered in first dive brief not all. No towels on boat.
- Dive guides: Excellent. Kind, helpful, patient, hard working, and safety conscious. We had 3 guides (they do a max of 8 guests per guide). The guides were helpful troubleshooting with divers needing help with weights and buoyancy. They were always first in and last out. Very respectful of marine life. On night dive gave special attention to divers that had not dived at night before. Boat captains seemed safe. Only 1 time when I was near boat did I see prop still moving. Tag line out and helper on deck was always right there.
- Operations: In morning when boats going out it was crowded. They had a few tables and shaded seating. Rinse and drying areas were limited. There was one small rinse tank for cameras and regs and 1 larger one for rest of gear. We were provided room upstairs just for our group that was locked after diving. It had hangers and baskets but little air flow. Water was always on the floor so things didn’t dry well. Last day we were told we could hang our stuff in room downstairs that had better airflow from the compressor. That helped. Need more rinse area and drying area.
- What we saw – Vis was good and good variety of marine life. Few nurse sharks, 1 eagle ray, toadfish. Good night dives with octopus. Reefs not in great shape. Very little hard coral and lots of algae.
- Check out after last day to pay marine park fees and extra dives easy.
Overall, good. Group was split on whether on if they like Iberostar better than Scuba Club. Hard core divers preferred Scuba club. Others like Iberostar.
- Janice
