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 Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Annie on 01/08/02

Just back from Costa Club - trip report

Costa Club Cozumel

Hello fellow travellers..
  Gosh..here I am, back already.  Of course, the week FLEW by, but what an awesome time.  First of all, thanks to everyone here who so patiently responded to my "stupid questions" as a first time visitor to Cozumel. You truly are kind.
  This was a trip with just me and my 16 year old daughter, (a start of many more, i hope!)  We were lucky enough that our charter flies direct from Minneapolis to Cozumel, so we were there in 3 1/2 hours.  We stayed at the Costa Club and did the All inclusive thing.  I think it's typically overpriced for all-inc...but we got such a "deal"..I purchased it anyway.  
 HOTEL notes:  The Costa Club has a GORGEOUS pool.  It's huge...and what I liked was the large seating area.  Plenty of shade from palm trees, huts or lots of open areas for us sunlovers too.  In my 20 years of travelling...this was the FIRST place i've gone to where we didn't have to do the pool-chair shuffle every morning where one gets up at 7 a.m. and "stakes out" their turf.  I loved that we had so much room and always a free chair.  I thought perhaps it was because the hotel wasn't full..but they claimed it was.  If in fact it was..you would have never known it..the pool area was never packed, nor was the beach area.  I'm not sure if it's because everyone is out diving or what??  Anyway...just lounging around the pool was a treat.  Their beach area is kinda small..but again...decent enough.  Nice landings and a ladder to get into the water though and great snorkeling right from shore.  For you divers...there always seemed to be boats coming and going from there, so I assume their reputation is decent or it wouldn't have been so busy.  Granted, all dive shops pick you up from wherever...but I did notice the onsite dive guy to be always taking someone out.
Our room was plenty spacious enough for 2 women...lol.  Plenty of hangers in the closet and a large dresser with 6 drawers for the "way too many" clothes we both brought. (and i was SO SURE I wasn't overpacking..ugh!)  2 double beds..and yes..both hard as a rock..but after all that fresh air..we both slept like babies. :)  We had a first floor room just steps from the lobby..so location-wise..we loved it.  Never too far from anything.  Very clean room...friendly housekeepers.  I tipped the housekeeper $3.00 the first day as we met in the doorway,and for the rest of the week..she was thorough, friendly and did a very good job.  Anyway...the hotel has 1 dining room with AWESOME breakfast buffet.  I'd have to say though..this was the best meal of the day though.  A lovely woman named Therasa greeted us with a smile every morning and was there to cook your made to order omelettes, eggs any way you wanted.  Along with that..there was a whole buffet of french toast, pancakes, waffles, fruit, cereal and juice..truly plenty for anyone's tastes.  Lunch is served poolside at their buffet restaurant from 12-4.  This was a very blah menu of rice and chicken OR rice and beef every darn day..lol.  Edible, but never tasty.  We found the evening meals to be about the same..they serve from 7 - 10:30, and it was a bit better..but not much.  Since we had the all-inc..we ate there, but I would have loved to try all the wonderful places downtown.  The beach has a bar/rest. that serves drinks and snacks from noon - 5.   That place had hamburgers and fries so my daughter liked that place best..i guess i'd have to agree.  I had an excellent chicken breast with fries...and they serve a very good grilled chicken salad also.  If you don't do the all-inc...their buffets are 15.00/each..and dinner was the same.maybe 20.00/each.  In my opinion..not worth it.  In hindsight...If I were to return...I wouldn't do the all-inc.  It was convenient to just have breakfast right at the hotel and not have to trek into town to find someplace...but I would have just paid the 10/each for the breakfast buffet and that certainly holds you over until dinnertime.  Otherwise, that huge grocery store is just a couple blocks up the street and one could go get some bakery goodies and fruit for breakfast, as I saw many did do that.  
 One thing about the hotel..they don't have refrigerators or CLOCKS...boy, was that clock thing annoying.  We never knew what time it was..lol.  Now i know for being on vacation, we shouldn't care..but when i woke up in the morning..i didn't know if it was 5 a.m. or 7..lol.  Just a slight annoyance...so if anyone cares..bring your own windup or small one.  The hotel front desk people were very nice..the guy at the travel desk was extremely kind.  We rented a VW convertible from National Car rental who is right in the hotel.  I paid 45.00 for 24 hours.  We thought this was a cheap enough way to see the island.  Everyone seems to want to rent a jeep...so those go quickly in the morning..we didn't care...we just jumped in and drove.  I have to add one kinda negative thing about the hotel.  Their wait service was awful..rather...there simply isn't any service.  I guess in the past, i've always been at places where they come around the beach or pool taking orders.  At CC, if you want a drink..you get up and go get it!  I went up, got my all-inc. margarita..but tipped him 5.00 hoping that would get me quick, return service.  Duh...only to realize...they don't have service to anyone! Wait..I did notice that if you were NOT all inc...you'd still have to get your own drink..but they'd say.."i'll bring it to you"..and only then I'd see a waiter walking around the pool to deliver, but again, never to go back to take addtional refills.  After we realized this is how they operate..it was fine..just kind of odd for us.  No big deal...but just don't expect to be waited on.  Even in the restuarants...I'd always tip ...hoping they'd be a bit more attentive..and they were to a point..but only where they recognized us daily with a greeting and would seat us..after that..we were on our own.  Numerous times, we'd be trying to flag down a waiter to ask for addt'l drinks or something else.  Like I say...not a big deal...just enough to rate "very poor" service in my book. :) Like i said earlier...if i'd return..i wouldn't do all-inc...there's truly WAY too many places to eat and simply not enough time. :)  I did know this going down there...but since we were 2 girls travelling alone..i wasn't sure how far we'd have to venture out to go eat.  Safety was NEVER a problem.  Truly such nice people down there.  We'd walk into town and never once felt unsafe.
  We did go to Chankanaab Park on Sunday and had a wonderful day there.  We got there at 10 a.m..and there was just a handful of people there, so no problem finding a place to park our butts.  We brought our own snorkeling masks, but didn't want to fill up our suitcases with fins. I don't regret leaving them at home, as they were only 3.00 to rent for the day at the park.  Our hotel provided them free.  We saw a variety of fish, even a large barracuda scared the daylights outta us..but made for some quick back to shore kicking and splashing..lol.  We were in and out of the water all day, but later in the afternoon..i'd say 1:00ish..the snorkeling did get busy and a bit more cloudy right off the shore by the steps as there were lots of people going in and out by that time.  You can swim with the dolphins there which we didn't do..but what i liked, was that they have a dock all around the "pens"..and you can watch the whole show of the people that did spend the 120.00 to swim with them.  You simply stand directly overhead from the swimmers and can hear what the tour guide is instructing them to do and you do get right up front to watch and see those beautiful creatures.  Fun to watch..but one can't help but feel sorry for them being "penned up" but I won't even get started about that. :)   We skipped the sea lion show..but heard people say it was "good".  There are plenty of taxis that just park there waiting to bring people back to town..so we just grabbed one and headed back about 4 pm....truly a great day of snorkeling and just laying in the sun.  
  We rented the car right at our hotel and took off by 9:30 in the morning to head to the beautiful east side.  I hope anyone reading this remembers one thing...DO NOT GO TO COZUMEL WITHOUT SEEING THE EAST SIDE!  It's a beautiful scenic ride with GREAT places to stop along the way.  We stopped at every place from north to south.  Our favorite was Playa Bonita..ahh..now that a gorgeous beach place that is.  Lovely set up...lounge chairs, shade huts...GREAT food and COLD beers cheap!  The waiter there actually came over..introduced himself..and was excellent!  Very friendly..without being obnoxious...:)  After stopping and sunning a bit, and swimming..we heading south and stopped just along the roadside and beach walked along there.  Worked up a thirst, so had to head to Bob Marley's for a cold beer (soda for my daughter, of course) and a little siesta in their wonderful hammocks!   Ahh...life is so good from a hammock overlooking the ocean!
 Again...to really see Cozumel..one MUST get to the other side.  The west side is busy, busy, with taxi's running nonstop...so to go to the beach east side..was very relaxing and quiet!  Sure wish they'd build hotels on that side..they'd make a fortune, as I'd book over there in a minute.
 We went to town everynight.  It rained SO hard on Sunday...that the night was a total washout.  I was so disappointed, cuz I had looked foward to the "festivities on the square" that I had read about, we even had a bag of candy we brought with for the children. :(   So..we missed that..but still got to do a ton of people watching every other night after that.  It is fun to just head downtown and watch people.  I was amazed at how many people fill those streets and just how big and busy the City of San Miguel gets.  Personally, a bit too many people for me...but gave us something to do.  I get a little tired of the shopkeepers buggin' you to come inside their shop, but I do understand that's just Mexico, and we just "go with it"...but it's all part of the scene I guess.  More fun to WATCH others getting bugged, than to BE bugged.lol.  
 So people....all in all...a truly wonderful time.  The weather cooled off on us by the end of the week..and by Thursday..we were laying out by the pool in teh morning...but by noon the clouds rolled in and we had to use our beach towels as blankees..it was that cold!  Our particular week was cooler than normal i think.  When we first arrived..it was very hot and clear...but 3 days into our trip...it clouded up and the wind picked up.  It would be clear in the mornings..but cloud over by noon...still stayed very warm and muggy..but disappointing as we wanted to work on our tans..kinda hard to do without the sun though.   I kept telling my daughter....we have to look at the bright side..it's still warmer than Minnesota..we're wearing swimsuits..we're barefoot...and it's only 9:30 and we're sitting OUTSIDE...so after those attitude adjustments...having a few clouds didn't seem like the end of the world! :)
 Enough of my ramblings...thanks again to all you kind people.  I had so much info before we went down..I felt very prepared and aware.  It's a lovely island with friendly people.  I'm not gonna say i'd chase right back there, only cuz we don't ever return to the same place right away.  There's a great big world out there, and we're working on seeing as much of it as we can!  So we smile....respect the lovely natives wherever we go..and have always had great vacations.  Attitude and smiles...always work for us!  Thanks and happy travelling to you all.    Annie in Minnesota. :)

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