Dive Review of Dive House/Sunscape Sabor in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Dive House/Sunscape Sabor: "Cozumel January 15-29, 2022", Jan, 2022, by Henry O Ziller, CO, US ( Top Contributor 38 reports with 20 Helpful votes). Report 11858 has 2 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Some deals are just too hard to pass up. Expedia offered an extremely reasonable deal ($759 USD/PP) for a 7 night stay at Sunscape Sabor an all-inclusive resort, including air fare. It was so good we took two weeks instead one. The direct flight from Denver is about 4 hours. There is a two-hour time change or same as eastern time zone. Cab fare to downtown was $15 USD. Airport was $17 USD. Arriving in Cozumel with three other planes made immigration and customs about an hour long wait. The van ride to Sunscape Sabor took about 25 minutes. The resort was located about 9.5 miles south of downtown. It has a nice long beach that runs south past sister resort Secrets. They are expanding the northern most section of the resort, which will double the size. Our first room was right next to all that noise. We asked for another room and received a much better one with a nice patio and lush garden. Our room had a king bed and it was comfortable. Night stands on each side of the bed had lamps, but should be brighter for reading in bed. The room is equipped with a dresser and a closet with enough hangers and has a safe. A mini-bar was stacked with soft drinks water and beer, and is all included. There is a coffee maker in the room but with a good americano available at 7 AM we only made coffee once. The rain head shower never ran low on hot water and although the toilet tank was leaking slowly, it was fixed the next day thanks to my wife’s insistence. Check was painless, but then you are turned over to the sales staff to try to convince you to become a member of the Secret Resorts (Think timeshares). They are located in several parts of the world. We rejected their offer. The resort has three restaurants (Marketplace Cafe, El Patio, and Sunnyside) and each had a theme night. In the two weeks we were there we didn’t get bored with the selections. Asian night and Mexican night were really good. The Marketplace Cafe was designated adult only, There was a coffee bar with a good americano, a snack bar by the pool opens mid-day, and one open from 11 pm until 7 am. The serving times differed and some were closed at times. The resort did not seem overly crowded. They offer several water sport activities such as paddle boards, kayaks, sail boats, snorkeling, and para-sailing. We did not partake in any of those even though most were free. They have a nice spa and my wife took full advantage of what they offered. We did two couple massages and it also included a hydro-thermo therapy session with each one. The resort has a large pool and many activities are available like water aerobics and water volleyball. Beach volleyball, yoga, and zoomba are also offered. There are lots of beach loungers and we were always able to find some open. This being still Covid time masks are required in all indoor areas and whenever you went to the buffet lines. All of the restaurants have outdoor seating and Marketplace Cafe and El Patio have indoor/outdoor seating. All staff members wore masks the entire time indoors or outdoors whether they were servers, front desk staff, maintenance, or entertainment directors. Dive boat crew members wore masks part of the time. None of the divers on the boats I was on wore masks at all, except me. The resort provides free Covid testing the day before you leave and they provide free quarantine lodging and meals for up to 14 days if you test positive. Dive-house is the onsite dive outfit. I did not ask about rental equipment or whether they offered any equipment for purchase. Since I had not been diving for all of the Covid era, I was required to take a refresher course. That required taking a quiz, demonstrate setting up equipment, and an actual dive where you did regulator recovery twice, flood and clear mask and mask removal and replacement. You also shared air with the instructor. Then you finish up by diving the rest of your tank. The cost was $95 USD. Pickup is at 8:30 (9:00 by time the boat arrived) and we were usually back by 1:00. The pier is located on Secrets Resort about 100 yards down the sidewalk from the dive shop at Sunscape. The two different boats I was on Dive-house I and Dive-house III were quite large powered by two inboard diesel engines. There were never more than 14 divers and it could have held 20 comfortably. Orientation was given every day as to where life jackets were, camera tub, water bottles, first aid equipment available, etc. Masks were no longer allowed to be placed in buckets, rather they provided a cup to get water from the bucket to rinse your mask. There is a below deck head. Towels were available at the resort for you to bring on the boat. Divers were asked where they wanted to dive or what kind of dive they wanted, wall, reef, sandy area, etc. We were limited on all dives to 80 feet although the dive-master on one dive went to 88 feet. Dive-masters paid fairly close attention and more than once brought back down divers that started up too fast or could not dump air from BC’s and ascended too high. The dive-master would send up a safety sausage when the first diver was down to 700 psi, but the group could stay down until you reached 700 psi or wanted to go up. Cozumel being all drift diving the boat followed our bubbles and was always there to pick us up when we surfaced. I think Dive-house is good outfit and I would dive with them again. The cost of a two-tank boat dive was $100 USD plus $10 USD (Cash only) for the marine fee. They offer morning or afternoon dives and with 4 people will offer night dives on specific days. The reef appeared to be in good condition on all dives. I did not see as many fish diving as I remember from previous visits, but we did see nurse sharks, eagle rays on more than one dive, lots of sting rays, turtles, schools of grunts and snappers, a few large groupers, eels, a couple that were free swimming, large puffers, typical other reef fish, and lobsters and crabs were plentiful. We saw several splendid toadfish with the help of the dive-master. Several dives farther south had some nice swim-thru and the walls had light current and that made the dive really nice. Water temperature was 79 to 80 degrees F. so a skin was all I needed. Entrance was by giant stride and if you needed assistance, they were very accommodating. Currents ranged from mild to moderate, but most days the surface was fairly calm. Only one day had some waves but they were not enough to make climbing back on the boat difficult. Most divers removed their BC’s and the first mate hauled it on board. Fins were removed and handed up as well. The ladder had round steps so climbing up with all your gear would have been a pain. The airport seemed very crowded when we were leaving and seating was hard to find, but since we were going to be sitting for four hours we preferred to stand. I would think an expansion might be necessary if it’s this busy during a pandemic. Gifts at the airport seemed reasonably priced compared to at the resort.
Websites	Dive House Sunscape Sabor
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Maldives, Tanzania/Zanzibar, Australia, and Fiji.
Closest Airport	Quintana Roo	Getting There	From Denver it is a 4 hour direct flight on United Airlines.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	79-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	50-70 Ft/ 15-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Time and depth. Come up for safety stop with 700 psi.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	A fairly large tub on the boat. Two really large cameras fit along with a couple go pros and point and shoot.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Garth Peterson in OH, US at Mar 09, 2023 20:00 EST

Dive House had decent rental equip. (includng scuba pro wrist nitrox computer). Thye had to change out the mouthpiece as it was too hard, but they amiabley replaced it next dive. They did however lose my safety sausage when breaking down my gear the last day, but reimbursed me for it. Mask defog was not immediately evident on the one boat so I borrowed some. JUST MAKE SURE THEY COMMUNICATE WHEN THE BOAT WILL BE COMING (and actually leaving) ON A GIVEN DAY as that was problematic for repeat day divers vs newbies just coming that day. Should have been just the opposite. Decent dive outfit. Secrets Aura next door was fabulous sister org.

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Dive Review of Dive House/Sunscape Sabor in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Dive House/Sunscape Sabor: "Cozumel January 15-29, 2022", Jan, 2022,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Dive House/Sunscape Sabor in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan