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Cozumel

Allegro Resort Cozumel

This is my first trip report on my first trip to Cozumel, so here goes.

First of all, THANKS to everyone on this board.  Your input and reports and comments REALLY helped.

Our trip :  Sat. Mar. 10-17 (though we didn't get back to Canada until the 18th) .  My husband, myself and two daughters (ages 13, 9).

FLIGHT :  We used Canada 3000 out of Toronto.  The trip down was uneventful (easy check-in, bags arrived quickly, etc.).  The trip home was the stuff that bad trip reports are made of.  Our plane got hit by a bird (or our plane hit a bird) about 5-10 minutes out of Cozumel and we ended up stranded at Cancun airport for 13 hours, without a Canada 3000 rep in site.  No way to reach one (all phone numbers didn't work or just rang and rang).  One poor airport rep (who didn't actually even work for Canada 3000) got to deal with about 175 VERY irate passengers for 13 hours by just telling us that the plane was getting repaired but he didn't know anything else.  Anyway we got to Toronto about 14-15 hours (and a day) later than we were supposed to.  Needless to say, I think Canada 3000 will be receiving some very unpleasant letters from most of us passengers in the next few days.   The actual flight crews were fine. It was just the total lack of ground representation that will cause me never to book Canada 3000 again.

ARRIVAL in COZUMEL :   Clearance through immigration was a bit slow.  This was mainly because the immigration officers were being very friendly and chatty with everyone as we went through.  Not  a problem - we were happy to be standing somewhere warm after leaving the snow and cold behind !

Got our baggage, pressed the magic button and got the green light to go ahead.  We had rented a car from Alamo downtown so needed to get there.  Based on lots of recommendations from this board, we walked the 75 yards out of the airport to the main road, got a taxi immediately and headed for Alamo (Note - taxis in Cozumel all seem to be very well maintained and in great condition compared to many other places that we've travelled).  $7 US for the trip to Alamo for 4 people and all our luggage  (exactly the rate mentioned on Laura's map).

CAR Rental : I booked the cheapest car I could find -  $124 US/wk at Alamo (internet rate) for a standard, non-air-conditioned economy car (chevette or similar).   When we got to Alamo, they didn't have any of these so we ended up with a GEO Tracker for the same rate for the week.  Staff at Alamo were very friendly and helpful.  No problems at all when we returned the car at the end of the week.  Note - $5/day insurance for liability was non-optional.  We have collision coverage ($13/day ?) on rentals through our Canadian automobile policy so we were able to decline this.  Only other cost was tax and gas that we used.
We really liked having the car as we were staying at the Allegro and it allowed us to come and go as we pleased.

HOTEL :  We stayed at the Allegro.  First time at an all-inclusive for us (and we've done lots of travelling). I'm not sure we'd stay at an AI again but if we did, we wouldn't hesistate to use Allegro.  The hotel itself was wonderful.  Fantastic grounds, superb staff, excellent beach, pools, etc.  We had asked for a room in the 4000 or 5000 block (based on recommendations from this board) with an ocean view and ended in in 4704 (ground floor).  It was one of the best rooms there, as far as location !   We were ocean-front (could sit on our balcony and look at the beach/ocean with nothing but the lovely lawn in between us and the beach !).   We didn't face the pool so it was very quiet.   In my opinion, only 4801 or 4802 had slightly better views.  We had really quiet neighbours all around and weren't on any main paths so there was no noise at night.

We had 2 big iguanas living in the rocks outside our balcony.  My daughters referred to them as Fred and Wilma.  We enjoyed seeing them sitting in the sun every day.  

The beach was huge and lovely.  We snorkelled off the beach.  Saw lots of fish.  No rocks.  All sand.  My husband and I walked down to the Iberostar one day.  The beach there looked like they had laid plastic on top of rocks and poured sand on top.  

Our room had 2 double (maybe queen ?) size beds and a television.  Not huge but fine for sleeping (which was all we did there).  Balcony with hammock got lots of use for reading.   We had no problems with water.  Shower was great.  Always good pressure.  Lots of hot (and cold) water..  Room had a safety deposit box  which we used for things like wallets.  

Water - hotel supplied bottled water every day (as much as we wanted).  We drank lots of ice drinks and didn't watch or worry about what we were eating /drinking except that we didn't use tap water (though a couple of times I think it did get used for teeth brushing).  None of us got sick nor did I hear of anyone at the hotel getting sick.

Food was OK.  Breakfast was great - lots of fresh fruit, waffles, etc. to choose from.  For lunch we usually ate at the pool snack bar - wide variety of grill type things (hamburgers, quesadillas, etc).  There was also a fruit bar with fantastic freshly made fruit drinks.    The worst thing about dinner was deciding to eat in one of the two restaurants (not the buffet) where you had to make reservations.  The reservation process was AWFUL.  They started taking reservations at noon.  People would start arriving around 11 am.  The hotel didn't start handing out reservation numbers until about 11:45.  At this time, there was usually a mad scramble to descend upon the person with numbers, caused by 7 or 8 latecomers who felt that they could ignore all the people who had been waiting for 30-45 minutes.   It was not a nice scene.  

Dinner at the buffet was OK. Lots of choice but nothing special.  We enjoyed the Italian restaurant a bit more than the Mexican restaurant because there was a bit more choice.  But both were nice and the service was great.

We had brought insect repellant with us and did find that we needed it on our legs at night (when eating at the open air restaurants).  The mosquitoes weren't really that bad (but then we live in Canada where big mosquitoes are a way of life for a few months each year).  We each ended up with a few bites.  

DIVING : My 13 year old daughter and I had done all our classroom and pool dives here in Ottawa.  We made arrangements with Margaret at PAPA HOGs to do our referral course (4 open water dives) starting on the day after we arrived.  My husband is already a diver.

We met Margaret at Papa Hogs on Sunday and proceeded to do our first two open water dives from the shore there.  They went great !   There is a small reef just offshore so we were able to see lots and lots of  fish in between getting our required skills done.  We did all of our required skills except safety stops in these first two dives (20 ft for 50 min. and 20 ft for 40 min) with Margaret.  We were the only two students with Margaret, who was very patient and a great instructor.  

The next day we did our 2 boat dives with Gabriel.  Four of us went out on the boat but Gabriel just dove with my daughter and I.  The other two divers had their own dive master.   Again, dives went great.  We dove at Tormentos and Paradise.    When we got back to Papa Hogs, we did all our certification paperwork and Margaret presented us with our Papa Hogs stickers to be worn on our foreheads until 11 pm !

For the rest of the week, we dove with Papa Hogs in various combinations (as one of us stayed at the Allegro with my younger daughter).  All the dives were terrific - fast boats (which picked up and dropped off at Allegro), never more than 6 divers on the boat (only 4 of us on one day),   very safety conscious, ice cold water between dives and just generally a great experience.  Divemasters were great at pointing out things under water (especially small things that we otherwise wouldn't have seen - a seahorse, coral full of baby seahorses, toadfish in holes, etc. etc.).    The day my husband and daughter went to Palancar, they had a 4 ft turtle swimming beside them, a huge barracuda peering at them from a few feet away in some coral, and ended up on the boat with 3 dolphins swimming nearby.   We would definitely dive with Papa Hogs again and would highly recommend them.

TOURING :  We drove into San Miguel on Sunday night. No problem parking on a side street. First thing my daughters wanted to do was to get their hair braided.   They both have thick just-below-shoulder length hair.  We ended up getting it done at the hairdresser just down the alley from Fat Tuesday's, on the second floor, next to the internet café.  Cost $25.00 each and  they did a terrific job, with all the little bead flowers at the front part included  in the price.  We walked around the square but ended up leaving before things got really going as we were all pretty tired from our first full day in the sun (and it had taken about 90 minutes to get the hair done !)
     We went to Chankanaab twice.  Once would actually have been fine but we got a phone call from my daughter's friend asking if we would meet them there the day after we had already been.  They were coming over from Playa del Carmen.  So, we paid our $10/person entrance fee again.   The snorkelling was good (but it was also pretty good at the Allegro where we were staying).  We had no trouble getting a palapa on either day and there were lots of people there.  We saw lots of iguanas, lots of fish in the lagoon, and enjoyed the walk through the Maya ruins (don't miss this if you do go).  We skipped the dolphins and the sealion show.  We didn't get to Dzul Ha but were sorry we didn't.  
     We toured the east side one day in our tracker.   Definitely worth the trip !  Fantastic scenery - huge waves, deserted beaches, nice places to stop for a drink.  We had started at the south end so we ended up in town and went to play mini-golf.  Met Sally and Scott and Sunshine.  My family has played mini-golf all over the world (not kidding !) and this course rated high with us.  It was lovely and relaxing and lots of fun.  
     We went back to San Miguel on Friday to do our shopping.  Shopping is not a favorite pasttime for any of us so we only shopped long enough to pick up T-shirts, some kid souvenirs and kahlua ($18/2 bottles at Viva Mexico. Better price than duty free).  
     We had ordered Laura's map before we went - it was fantastic for getting around and telling us about everything.   Highly recommend it.

I can't think of anything else to write about except to say THANKS again for all the information that I got from this board before going.  It made a HUGE difference.   Feel free to email me if you have any questions on anything we did.