Dive Review of Dive Palancar/Allegro Cozumel in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel southern reefs

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Dive Palancar/Allegro Cozumel: "14-day stay marred by 5 days of port closure and vicious current", Dec, 2018, by Shawn McDermott, FL, US ( Contributor 16 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 10800.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was my third trip to Cozumel in 2018, just a little late to make it into the newest Chapbook. I arrived on Dec. 2, with airfare 1/3 of what Delta wanted the day before. I arrived and to my dismay found that a large group had booked Dive Palancar's "Oystier" boat for a week for the 0830 dives, and my only option was to either switch operators or do the 1330 afternoon dives. I am NOT an afternoon diver, I prefer to get the diving done before noon and chill out for the rest of the day, but I did dive on two days in the afternoon. Day one had rough currents and poor vis, on day 2 the first dive was moderately ok to 80ft in chilly murky water, then dive 2 was through 50ft of grey green water until we suddenly found ourselves at 80ft (!). In the extremely low vis we had lost all orientation and the currents had pushed us way too deep for this old salt. We had to fight that current to make our way slowly up to shallower depth. I'm glad I dive Nitrox 32--no ill effects, thankyouverymuch. Then I found out I could dive Saturday morning, so took two days off, one of which the port closed. Cedral Wall was ok, two turtles and a couple of huge nurse sharks swimming in tandem maybe 20' away. Also plenty splendid toadfish, Alberto is the toadfish king, he pointed out 7 or 8, along with a tiny spotted drum (or was it a jack knife?) and a small seahorse. Not many striped grunts or porkfish. Second dive was Passeo de Cedral--this has been disappointing on my previous two trips and hasn't changed much--not many fish or lobsters. And I've said it before, but here goes again--the swim-throughs are killing the coral! Any place there is a swim-through, exhaled gas bubbles up through the coral canopy--divers in Cozumel see this at Caves, Columbia Deep, Gardens, La Fransesa, the list goes on...Coral in no way shape or form is designed to be in contact with gas--this practice of leading divers through these swim-throughs is KILLING the coral. Just my two pesos' worth. I only ended up doing 10 dives this trip, then again the port was closed the last three days I was there. I did not put a camera in the water one single time--bad vis, cloudy skies, and really not much to shoot, although there were two spotted eagle rays, one way out of camera range and a smaller one at just our depth but in less than desirable visibility. I'm thinking June is a good time to dive Cozumel? Or maybe July? For those staying at either the Allegro or the Occidental (formerly the Grand) be advised their on-site dive operator, ProDive, in an attempt to force guests to use their lame services, is now charging a $5 per day per person "pier fee". Maybe their cattle boat style is wearing thin, and they're doing the best they can to recoup the outrageous concession fees they're being charged by Barcelo? I wish everyone Happy Holidays and Happy Diving!
Websites	Dive Palancar Allegro Cozumel
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Jamaica 300+, San Salvador, Grand Bahama, Abaco, 2000+ South Florida, Florida Keys, Florida Gulfside, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos (Provo), St. Vincent, Belize, Cayman, Dominican Republic, Bonaire, Curacao, 800+ in Cozumel
Closest Airport	CZM	Getting There	MLB-ATL-CZM or MIA-CZM with a 6 hour RT drive MLB-MIA-MLB (UGH!!!)
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	2-40 Ft/ 1-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	depth,time
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Dive Palancar/Allegro Cozumel in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel southern reefs

Dive Palancar/Allegro Cozumel: "14-day stay marred by 5 days of port closure and vicious current", Dec, 2018,

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):

Dive Review of Dive Palancar/Allegro Cozumel in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel southern reefs