We stayed at the El Cozumeleno from April 11th 2008 to April 19th 2008 and had a great time.

Airport: The Cozumel airport is great. It is easy to get through customs. The only problem is the time-share guys that hang out at the exit. We just ignored them and when outside and found our travel rep who showed us to the van that took us to the hotel.

Hotel: We thought the hotel was great. We stayed on the fourth floor of the North Tower. The room was huge. That was one of the main reasons we chose the El Cozumeleno was because we heard the rooms were large. It was a great room with a beautiful view of the ocean. We had heard the suggestion of bringing some twine and clothes pins and we made a clothes line on the balcony. It might have looked tacky, but it really helped dry our clothes. The little line provided in the shower wasn’t quite big enough. Another suggestion was to bring your money in $5’s and $1s. This was a great suggestion because as our dive master pointed out, the locals prefer American money, but if you have bigger bills they give you pesos for change. I’m sure the lady at the bank wondered what I was thinking when I got so many $5’s and $1’s but I’m really glad we did it. Our friends were even tripped up a bit with $20’s when making a small purchase.

Buffet: I thought the Buffet was ok. We never got sick. The buffet was about like eating at an all you can eat buffet here in the states. It’s not great it’s just ok. I don’t think most people go to an all you can eat buffet because it is a 5 star restaurant, you go to a buffet because you can eat what you want and as much as you want and that was what the buffet was like. There was always something good.

Restaurant: We ate three times at the restaurant and had a great meal each time. The air conditioner works well in the restaurant so bring a sweater especially if you’ve had a lot of sun.

Shade: There is not much shade at the beach. You have to get up early to save a Palapas. There is some shade over by the south pool but at about 10:00am they turn on the water fall and it is very noisy.

Snorkeling: The snorkeling right in front of the hotel was ok. If you walked south of the hotel past the Playa Azul hotel there was a beach club that had some pretty good snorkeling. There is a ladder going down into the water that makes getting in easy and then the current takes you north to a sandy beach were you can get out. We also did a lot of snorkeling just south of the dive shop and it was also pretty good.

On Friday we drove down to Playa Palancar and did a snorkeling trip with them. We went to Colombia Shallows and Palancar Gardens. Colombia Shallows was nice and we saw a lot of people scuba diving. Then all of a sudden a big snorkeling tour group came and dropped off about 50 snorkelers right where we were. After that it was not so much fun. Our tour guide did his best to keep us away from the other group but it seemed like they followed us everywhere we went. We finally got back in the boat and went somewhere else.

Diving: This was the main reason I went to Cozumel was for the diving. It was great. I dove with Ocean Tours the on site dive shop and had great time. My wife was just getting over a cold so she did not dive with me on Saturday. We were going to dive on Monday but the weather took a turn and the wind started to blow so we did not get a chance to dive Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday the weather was back to normal and we had a great day of diving. It was my wife’s first ocean dive and it was great. Shanon the photographer took a lot of photos and we ended up buying them. There is nothing like your first ocean dive. We also dove on Thursday and ended our diving with a wonderful night dive. We paid to dive for 4 days. I dove three days and my wife dove 2 days. The dive shop was very good about making sure we got a refund for the unused dives. We had some friends with us that were not divers. They did the resort course at the hotel and Veronica the dive master was great. She was very patient and we all did a shore dive at Villa Blanca Reef. I am pretty sure that my friends will now get certified. My sister had the suggestion of bringing hard candy for after you dive and while you have your surface time before your second dive. The dive crew really likes Werther’s originals.

Overall: Someone once said you get what you pay for. I think this sums up the hotel pretty nicely. It’s not a five star hotel and it does not cost as much as a five star hotel. It is not a two star hotel and is not as cheap as a two star hotel. It is a nice three to four star hotel and is priced accordingly. I would go back to this hotel and I would recommend this hotel to anyone else unless you are very picky and then do everyone a favor and spend the big bucks and go to one of the more expensive hotels.

Something died while we were staying at El Coz and made our room smell HORRIBLE!!!! We complained to move and they just sent someone up to "clean" our room. I explained to them that, that was not going to help in any way and that I wanted to move but was not helped at all.

On our final night there the smell was so bad that we had to sleep with a towel over our noses and all of our clothes stunk as well. We tried to get the manager to take a look and give us some sort of discount or apologize in some way and they said they would do nothing until the problem could be "looked into". To me that is a way of getting out of responsibility because they knew we were from the US and would be leaving that day from Mexico.

I told them that I didn't care exactly what the problem was, the room was uninhabitable and we deserved some sort of compensation. This all of course fell on deaf ears and managment did nothing to smooth any feathers, refund, or accept responsibility.

The other people there, wait staff and dive shop employees were wonderful. Too bad all of that went away when the smell took over and ruined our nights and left us more tired than when we went on vacation.

I will be compensated and think anyone that has had an experience like this should fight as well.

I must say that after a great experience last year, we had an even better time this year! The staff at the El Coz are the best! They go out of thier way to please and after this trip we feel we have friends in Cozumel. Philipe, Luis,Jorge, and the rest of the staff really want to make sure your stay is pleasant. My wife and I felt the food at the buffet was fine.. we never went hungry but will concede that a little more variety would help...dishes were clean and birds were entertaining.(I guess attitude helps while enjoying a vacation).We ate in the reservation only restaurant and had a wonderful meal...they introduced a new menu the night we left...something to look forward to on our next trip! We were fortunate enough to be there when a few T.A. posters came down and we can't say enough about what a great group of people they all are. Our hats are off to, Ocean freak,ckmcolorado,Morgy and the Mrs, and many more I can't remember. It also was a pleasure meeting Divadiver in town.
The El Coz fits our vacation style so well that we can't wait to schedule our next vacation here. We know there are other hotels on the island and some are real nice, but we have had such good experiences here we can't see going anywhere else.
We truely were lucky to have our friends from T.A. there also, since we had some problems and this group of wonderful people rallied to our aid and ensured that we had a great vacation!!
Mr.&Mrs. Wallyman :o}

PS. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

My family stayed at the el coz april 19-25.This resort excedded all our dreams. The staff went above and beyond to make our stay unforgetable.There was never a want for a drink or food.The buffet always had plenty of choices and the food was top quailty.Every meal always had an option for fresh made food,omlettes or fahitas.The snack bar was a nice treat that always seemed to be available.The speciality resturant was top notch and the service rivaled any 5 star restaurant.The food was excelent and as much as you wanted you only had to make a reservation in the morning.The activity staff always had plenty of activities to keep every one busy.The shows,three times per week were excelent and the movie nights were a nice change.We definetly plan to return next year.Thanks to all the staff at the el coz for making our vacation so special.