Dive Review of Sand Dollar/Aura Cozumel Resort - Wyndham Grand in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Sand Dollar/Aura Cozumel Resort - Wyndham Grand, Jul, 2009, by Pete and Kathy Mykytyn, IL, USA ( Reviewer 5 reports). Report 4918.
No photos available at this time
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	This was our 2nd visit to Cozumel in two years. We had booked the Wyndham Cozumel Resort and Spa, specifically the adults-only Sabor section, but we were upgraded to the Aura at no additional charge. The Aura was wonderful, with an extraordinarily personable staff that took all of our interests into consideration. In fact, the staff was probably the best we have worked with in several different resorts. Our room opened up to a veranda which led directly into one of the pools, so that was extremely nice and easy. The two restaurants at the Aura were also excellent with varying dinner menus at one of them. The main restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner with accommodations both inside and outside. The other restaurant is more of a grill but with a very extensive menu. It is open for lunch and dinner. We were also able to eat at two other restaurants, one within the main Wyndham resort (Roberto’s is Italian and quite good) and the Mosaique which is located in the adults-only Sabor section and which is more oriental in nature. The food at Mosaique is very good, but to the best of our knowledge, it is not air conditioned. The one dinner we had there was quite uncomfortable due to this. Our accommodations at Aura included room service as well. The food was very good and more than plentiful. As the Aura is all-inclusive, all food, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages were included, and there are several bars/lounges throughout Aura. We chose Sand Dollar because the dive center is located at Wyndham, and we wanted the convenience of leaving our gear with the dive center for them to store overnight and have it ready for us in the morning. Matias is the person at Sand Dollar I communicated with by email to arrange everything, and everything occurred as requested. At the conclusion of each dive, my wife and I left our gear at the end of the pier after debarking from the boat, and Angel, one of the Sand Dollar employees, took care of getting it to the dive shop located within Aura, storing it, and having it ready for us the next day. The boat we used each day is the Sand Dollar Express which can accommodate at least 20 divers. Most days, the number of divers was between 12-17 or so. However, the number of divers in each group never exceeded 8; most of the time the number was less than that, and each group was headed by a dive master. The dive masters (Julio and Genera come to mind) were conscientious, gave detailed briefings, and were friendly and helpful. They were quick to point out interesting marine life, including Nurse sharks, a couple of rays (although I don't know which breed), 2 Moray eels, several turtles, a couple of barracudas, and other marine life too numerous to mention. The corals too were beautiful. We went to different sites for each dive. Surface intervals were spent either at the main Sand Dollar dive shop, on the boat, or at a beach area that caters to many dive operations. Generally, there was at least 45-60 minutes between the two dives. Cold water was provided on the boat to all who requested it, but there was no fruit. Safety stops of 3 minutes were emphasized and followed. All divers began with about 3000 psi, and low on air occurred at either 700 or 800 psi. Sand Dollar also caters to divers associated with cruise ships docking at Cozumel city, but no cruise divers were part of any of our 8 dives.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	26-50 dives
Where else diving	Acapulco, Jamaica, Key Largo
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	83-87°F / 28-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Generally, the 1st dive was restricted to about 80' and the 2nd dive to about 60'.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Sand Dollar/Aura Cozumel Resort - Wyndham Grand in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Sand Dollar/Aura Cozumel Resort - Wyndham Grand, Jul, 2009,

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 Sand Dollar/Aura Cozumel Resort - Wyndham Grand in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan