Cozumel trip report

Flew out of LAX on Continental on December 9, made it as far as
Houston where we met up with Grumman for some Tex-Mex, then spent the
night at the airport Sheraton. Caught the flight to the island the
next morning, pushed the button for the red/green customs light
(green!), made a bee line for the taxi ticket window, and we were in a
cab and heading toward the waterfront.

This trip we decided to stay at the Cozumel Palace, the site of the
former Plaza Las Glorias. The location is perfect: just far enough
south of town to avoid the noise and congestion, yet close enough to
walk and across the street from the Chedraui and the new Mega stores.
It's all-inclusive, something we don't usually do for fear of eating
bad food, but we were very satisfied with the arrangement.

All the rooms at Cozumel Palace, or at least almost all of them, are
"junior suites" which means a king-sized bed, a large sitting area
with couch, two chairs, and a table, and a large two-person jacuzzi
tub in the center of the room. A large balcony overlooks the
Caribbean and comes with a couple more chairs and a hammock.

Perhaps the best feature of the room is the "liquor dispenser" - four
full upside down bottles (Bacardi Silver, Cuervo Gold, Absolut, and
some kind of whisky that didn't interest me enough to read the label)
with shot dispensers so you can easily pour yourself a drink anytime
you want. There's also a fridge that they restock daily with sodas,
beer, bottled water, and juices. All the booze, including the liquor
dispenser, fridge contents, and hotel bars, is included in the room
rate.

The food turned out to be surprisingly good. Most often you hear
advice against all-inclusives on Cozumel on the basis that the local
restaurants turn out great food. My past experiences, however,
haven't always reflected that advice as I've had plenty of not-so-
great meals eating out on the island, so I wasn't worried about
missing anything. The Cozumel Palace restaurants included italian,
"oriental", fine-dining Mexican, and an outdoor grill. The italian
was very good, with an excellent lasagne bolognese and beef carpaccio,
though the tuna carpaccio we tried tasted a bit off. The oriental
served a mix of Japanese, Thai, and Chinese dishes. We tried a few
sushi rolls, Chinese ribs, and beef teppanyaki - everything was
delicious. They even had cold (or hot) sake to drink, included in the
room rate like everything else. The Mexican restaurant was also
delicious. Janna had the chicken with green mole twice, I had grouper
once and an excellent skirt steak another night. Finally, the outside
grill offered a salad bar, appetizers, and your choice of chicken
breasts, pork loin, tuna steaks and other fish fillets, and several
cuts of beef. I had a huge porterhouse our first night there,
marinated and cooked rare, easily the equal if not better than Outback-
like chain steakhouses in the U.S.

Finally, they had shows or other entertainment every night and those
weren't half bad either, though all the free booze likely contributed
to the audience appreciation level. The Mexican night had a special
Mexican buffet replacing the usual grill, and had a large ensemble of
mariachis, marimba players, and dancers. Latin American night
featured a great band playing songs from all over Central and South
America. Another night was interactive: a dance contest (we took
second place) and some reverse-gender karaoke. For the latter, I was
made to sing "Like a Virgin" and did it so convincingly that I tied
for first-place. Unfortunately I lost the runoff song, a duet of
Macho Man.

The weather, typical for Cozumel in the winter months, blew hard for
the first couple of days and the ports were closed. Instead of five
days of diving, I only got in three, or 6 dives total.

I dove with Blue XT Sea, a six-pack "white glove" operation that
picked me up from the hotel dock and stored all my gear except for
wetsuit, boots, and camera. The hotel has an Aqua Safari shop onsite
that I didn't want to use for fear of getting stuck on a cattle boat.
The dives were: (1) Santa Rosa, Paradise; (2) Palancar Gardens,
Tormentos; (3) Columbia, Delila. Columbia was easily my favorite of
the six. I brought my camera along for the first two dive days,
shooting macro on the first, and wide-angle on the second. The third
day I dove camera free and had a better time.

Pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Mossman.Photos/Cozumel#

Greg Mossman wrote:
> Flew out of LAX on Continental on December 9, made it as far as
> Houston where we met up with Grumman for some Tex-Mex, then spent the
> night at the airport Sheraton. Caught the flight to the island the
> next morning, pushed the button for the red/green customs light
> (green!), made a bee line for the taxi ticket window, and we were in a
> cab and heading toward the waterfront.
>
> This trip we decided to stay at the Cozumel Palace, the site of the
> former Plaza Las Glorias. The location is perfect: just far enough
> south of town to avoid the noise and congestion, yet close enough to
> walk and across the street from the Chedraui and the new Mega stores.
> It's all-inclusive, something we don't usually do for fear of eating
> bad food, but we were very satisfied with the arrangement.
>
> All the rooms at Cozumel Palace, or at least almost all of them, are
> "junior suites" which means a king-sized bed, a large sitting area
> with couch, two chairs, and a table, and a large two-person jacuzzi
> tub in the center of the room. A large balcony overlooks the
> Caribbean and comes with a couple more chairs and a hammock.
>
> Perhaps the best feature of the room is the "liquor dispenser" - four
> full upside down bottles (Bacardi Silver, Cuervo Gold, Absolut, and
> some kind of whisky that didn't interest me enough to read the label)
> with shot dispensers so you can easily pour yourself a drink anytime
> you want. There's also a fridge that they restock daily with sodas,
> beer, bottled water, and juices. All the booze, including the liquor
> dispenser, fridge contents, and hotel bars, is included in the room
> rate.
>
> The food turned out to be surprisingly good. Most often you hear
> advice against all-inclusives on Cozumel on the basis that the local
> restaurants turn out great food. My past experiences, however,
> haven't always reflected that advice as I've had plenty of not-so-
> great meals eating out on the island, so I wasn't worried about
> missing anything. The Cozumel Palace restaurants included italian,
> "oriental", fine-dining Mexican, and an outdoor grill. The italian
> was very good, with an excellent lasagne bolognese and beef carpaccio,
> though the tuna carpaccio we tried tasted a bit off. The oriental
> served a mix of Japanese, Thai, and Chinese dishes. We tried a few
> sushi rolls, Chinese ribs, and beef teppanyaki - everything was
> delicious. They even had cold (or hot) sake to drink, included in the
> room rate like everything else. The Mexican restaurant was also
> delicious. Janna had the chicken with green mole twice, I had grouper
> once and an excellent skirt steak another night. Finally, the outside
> grill offered a salad bar, appetizers, and your choice of chicken
> breasts, pork loin, tuna steaks and other fish fillets, and several
> cuts of beef. I had a huge porterhouse our first night there,
> marinated and cooked rare, easily the equal if not better than Outback-
> like chain steakhouses in the U.S.
>
> Finally, they had shows or other entertainment every night and those
> weren't half bad either, though all the free booze likely contributed
> to the audience appreciation level. The Mexican night had a special
> Mexican buffet replacing the usual grill, and had a large ensemble of
> mariachis, marimba players, and dancers. Latin American night
> featured a great band playing songs from all over Central and South
> America. Another night was interactive: a dance contest (we took
> second place) and some reverse-gender karaoke. For the latter, I was
> made to sing "Like a Virgin" and did it so convincingly that I tied
> for first-place. Unfortunately I lost the runoff song, a duet of
> Macho Man.
>
> The weather, typical for Cozumel in the winter months, blew hard for
> the first couple of days and the ports were closed. Instead of five
> days of diving, I only got in three, or 6 dives total.
>
> I dove with Blue XT Sea, a six-pack "white glove" operation that
> picked me up from the hotel dock and stored all my gear except for
> wetsuit, boots, and camera. The hotel has an Aqua Safari shop onsite
> that I didn't want to use for fear of getting stuck on a cattle boat.
> The dives were: (1) Santa Rosa, Paradise; (2) Palancar Gardens,
> Tormentos; (3) Columbia, Delila. Columbia was easily my favorite of
> the six. I brought my camera along for the first two dive days,
> shooting macro on the first, and wide-angle on the second. The third
> day I dove camera free and had a better time.
>
> Pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Mossman.Photos/Cozumel#
>


My last four or five visits we have styed at Plaza Las Glorias. I am a
little reluctant to stay at an all-inclusive because I like to eat at
places in town - your report and enjoyment may have changed my mind!

> Greg Mossman wrote:
>> Another night was interactive: a dance contest (we took
>> second place) and some reverse-gender karaoke. For the latter, I was
>> made to sing "Like a Virgin" and did it so convincingly that I tied
>> for first-place. Unfortunately I lost the runoff song, a duet of
>> Macho Man.

Sorry Greg, but with a setup like this, I could not resist.

One of the better trip reports I've seen.

> My last four or five visits we have styed at Plaza Las Glorias. I am a
> little reluctant to stay at an all-inclusive because I like to eat at
> places in town - your report and enjoyment may have changed my mind!

I wish I could remember the name of the place we liked best. It's just off
the square and serves a spinach topped flank steak that is to die for.

Lee

Greg Mossman <mossman@qnet.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:
:It's all-inclusive, something we don't usually do for fear of eating
:bad food, but we were very satisfied with the arrangement.

I've been to 3 different all inclusives in Cozumel and have never had
bad food. On what, pray tell, is this irrational fear based?

In any event, it sounds like you had a good time. Too bad you got
weathered out of a couple of diving days. Hopefully you were able to
keep yourself amused those days.

Nice pictures too. I've never been able to get close enough to a
sharp nosed puffer to take a photo of one. Were you able to simply
stay in position because the little woman wasn't moving you along?

Dan Bracuk
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

On Jan 6, 7:25*pm, Dan Bracuk <bra...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> Greg Mossman <moss...@qnet.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
> in:
> :It's all-inclusive, something we don't usually do for fear of eating
> :bad food, but we were very satisfied with the arrangement.
>
> I've been to 3 different all inclusives in Cozumel and have never had
> bad food. *On what, pray tell, is this irrational fear based?

The Fiesta Inn (now the Cozumel Inn?) had some pretty bad food for
dinner, though breakfasts and lunches were fine. Otherwise, I'm
basing my fear on posts on Scubaboard and Trip Advisor. According to
those sites, while the other all-inclusives range from bad to mediocre
and sometimes good, only the Cozumel Palace received rave reviews. I
live in a major restaurant city and consider myself to be a good chef
as well as a gourmand, at least when my wallet and waistline can
afford it. I especially like to eat well on vacation, when I'm not as
careful about watching my wallet and waistline. Having had perfectly
terrible meals in popular Cozumel restaurants, I was very leery about
trying another all-inclusive there but the rave reviews on Trip
Advisor/Scubaboard and the perfect location swayed me. I'm glad I was
swayed.

> In any event, it sounds like you had a good time. *Too bad you got
> weathered out of a couple of diving days. *Hopefully you were able to
> keep yourself amused those days.

With all-inclusive "adult" beverages it's very easy to keep oneself
amused. Plus they had all sorts of activities during the day, pool
games, bartending lessons, and the like. Sleeping in was nice too.
The problem with attending the shows and drinking and socializing
until late at night (or early in the a.m.) is that it's very difficult
to be on the dock, camera ready, at the requested time of 8:10 a.m.
The inclusive room service was nice, though. I'd order two breakfasts
worth of energy to be delivered at 6:30 along with a big pot of
coffee, then Janna would order more room service when she finally woke
up after I was long gone.

> Nice pictures too. *I've never been able to get close enough to a
> sharp nosed puffer to take a photo of one. * Were you able to simply
> stay in position because the little woman wasn't moving you along?

Thanks. I've never managed to get a decent closeup of one in the easy
conditions of Bonaire where they're rather abundant. Maybe the
Cozumel currents helped me with the element of surprise.

"Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote in message
news:44ebef4d-81d8-479e-b747-f4ae6007d6a7@l33g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
>snipped 'cos everyone's already read it>
> Pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Mossman.Photos/Cozumel#
>



Nice photos. One day I'll learn to do the Picasa web thing too.

Glad you had a good trip!
hoges in WA

"Hoges in WA" <tzhoganzz2@bigpond.net.au> wrote in news:LTZ8l.8682$cu.7598
@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

> Nice photos. One day I'll learn to do the Picasa web thing too.

Hell, if you can setup a news reader on your local PC, you can "do the
Picasa web thing"... It's provided by Google... How hard can it be?

--
See NNTP header field "X-Real-Email-Address" to reply by email.

Dan Bracuk wrote

> I've been to 3 different all inclusives in Cozumel and have never had
> bad food. On what, pray tell, is this irrational fear based?

I don't think the resistance to all inclusives is so much a fear of bad
food. Rather I think it's a fear of missing out on some very good dining
opportunities and/or a strong resistance to paying for a good meal at an
outside restaurant when a perfectly good prepaid one is waiting for you at
your hotel.

When we traveld to dive, something we haven't done for a while, Jayna and I
tended to eat at the facility most of the time, but never let the fact that
we had paid for an all inclusive stop us from dining someplace that
interested us.

I strongly recommend the liquor feature of all inclusives. Only once did I
make the mistake of "saving money" by paying by the drink. It's safe, very
safe, to say that I didn't save.

Lee

Greg Mossman wrote:
> America. Another night was interactive: a dance contest (we took
> second place) and some reverse-gender karaoke. For the latter, I was
> made to sing "Like a Virgin" and did it so convincingly that I tied
> for first-place. Unfortunately I lost the runoff song, a duet of
> Macho Man.

Now Greg shall be remembered
For the musical talent he rendered
On the notes by and by
Sang falsetto high
Cozumel, Karaoke, transgendered

On Jan 6, 8:07*pm, Greg Mossman <moss...@qnet.com> wrote:
>
> Pics at: *http://picasaweb.google.com/Mossman.Photos/Cozumel#

Nice shots, Greg, and a good trip report. I'm headed to Coz next
month, and I hope we get better weather. Carnival starts while we're
there, so we have a lot to look forward to.

gc