Snorkeling at Paradise Beach Cozumel- Post Wilma...

Dear Cruisers-

We are visiting Cozumel next week, and were planning on snorkeling at
the Chakanabb state park (sp?). We understand that it is now closed for
repair, and are planning on visiting Paradise Beach. Has anyone seen it
post-Wilma? is it OK? is the snorkeling there decent?

Thanks,

al bandy
drbandy@

In article <Cqmvf.521$5g1.253@fe02.lga>, Dr. Al Bandy
<drbandy@LifetimeEyecare.com> wrote:

> We are visiting Cozumel next week, and were planning on snorkeling at
> the Chakanabb state park (sp?). We understand that it is now closed for
> repair, and are planning on visiting Paradise Beach. Has anyone seen it
> post-Wilma? is it OK? is the snorkeling there decent?

I was at Paradise Beach post Wilma, a few weeks ago. Had a very good
time there. It is not a place for snorkeling though. If you want to
snorkel I suggest one of the excursions to the deep reefs like
Palanacar from a boat. Most reports indicate that the shallow reefs on
Cozumel were heavily damaged.

--
Charles

"Charles" <fort@his.com.remove.invalid> wrote in message
news:060120060534081044%fort@his.com.remove.invali d...
> In article <Cqmvf.521$5g1.253@fe02.lga>, Dr. Al Bandy
> <drbandy@LifetimeEyecare.com> wrote:
>
>> We are visiting Cozumel next week, and were planning on snorkeling at
>> the Chakanabb state park (sp?). We understand that it is now closed for
>> repair, and are planning on visiting Paradise Beach. Has anyone seen it
>> post-Wilma? is it OK? is the snorkeling there decent?
>
> I was at Paradise Beach post Wilma, a few weeks ago. Had a very good
> time there. It is not a place for snorkeling though. If you want to
> snorkel I suggest one of the excursions to the deep reefs like
> Palanacar from a boat. Most reports indicate that the shallow reefs on
> Cozumel were heavily damaged.
>
> --
> Charles

Was in Cozumel last Friday (12/30) and was very disappointed at the
snorkeling near the beaches. We were off the
Carnival Conquest on a catamaran snorkel & beach excursion.

I can't speak for Chankanaab as didn't talk to anyone who snorkelled
elsewhere on Cozumel. Any snorkeling close in
to the beaches within sight of where the ships anchor though will probably
probably disappoint.

We were told on board prior to booking this excursion that snorkeling was ok
in Cozumel despite Wilma. Being a Spanish
speaker, I asked our catamaran boat captain about current conditions and he
said it's nothing like before Wilma, at least
close in to the beaches.

In hindsight, we should have snorkelled in Jamaica or Grand Cayman, and done
anything but that in Cozumel. I'm planning
to do a more extensive review of our Conquest cruise within the next few
days.

Hope this helps - Drew

>In hindsight... where would you have snorkeled in Jamaica?

Hi Tom,

Happy New Year!

We were on the Norwegian Dawn for a Christmas/New Year's voyage just
one week ago (December 22, 2005 to January 2, 2006). We found a
snorkeling site in Jamaica--quite by accident, but a snorkeling site
all the same--and a very good one at that! It was a bit of a comedy
of errors, but we did recommend to NCL that they investigate this
possibility for their Dive In program. Here's what happened:

When we booked all of our shore excursions for this cruise (on line
about 2 months before the trip) there was, as usual, no snorkeling
option for our stop in Ocho Rios. Since we did not want to join my
Aunt for a trip to Noel Coward's house (although she said this was a
wonderful excursion), and were unwilling to hike around Dunn River
Falls again, we decided to select the Shaw Park Beach Break as our
trip for this port. We took our snorkeling gear with us-- just out of
habit.. The Shaw Park Hotel Resort is rather old, but clean and there
is a good staff of folks running the show who are more than willing to
help with any arrangements for using their facilities--massage, hair
braiding, souvenirs, etc... We put a toe into the water and found it
to be positively freezing! There is a small inlet on this beach
where the run-off from the mountains enters the ocean. So, we donned
our wet suits (jealously watched by the rest of our excursion
companions from the ship) and decided to give some snorkeling a try.
There is a row of rocks off the beach--quite far out--but we thought
we'd try anyway. A very nice man named Gregory (NOT part of the
hotel/resort staff) came up to us and told us not to bother--"no good
snorkeling at this beach here mon"--but that he could arrange with his
friends for a boat to take us to a snorkeling spot that was not far
away for a price. We only had $40 with us, and he wanted $50, but he
lowered to price once we showed him our wallet. Then came the great
decision--was this just a rip off? were they going to abandon us out
there? were we about to be kidnapped? It took us about 5 minutes to
make up our minds, but we decided to give it a go.

The "boat" appeared about 10 minutes later--little more than a dug out
with an engine at the back! I was terrified about getting back into
it once we had been swimming, and the man in the boat just grinned and
showed me a rope!! HA HA! We hopped into the boat and off we went!
The site is about 1 mile off the Shaw Park Resort (a 10 minute or so
boat ride) to the East of the hotel, and about 400 yards off shore.
The water out there was comfortably warm (we would not have needed our
wet suits but had them on anyway) and the area was fabulous! There
was a reef area about 10 to 20 feet deep with lots of fish and a
shipwreck!! This was our fist opportunity to use our new digital
underwater camera and we had a blast! Got some great shots too! We
swam for about 40 minutes. Getting back into the dug out was a
nightmare as I predicted (we had a bad experience with this and a
Boston Whaler in Bermuda--so I knew it was going to be tricky). I
tied the rope around myself and kicked with my fins like mad while the
man in the boat pulled--no luck! Derek tried too with the same
procedure--no luck! FORTUNATELY a dive boat from another resort hotel
had come along and was only about 50 yards from us. We swam over to
it and they kindly let us use their ladder to climb aboard their boat,
and then we stepped into the dug-out from their boat! It was so
funny! But, thank goodness they were there! The folks on the dive
boat were just learning how to do scuba, so they thought it was funny
that they got to rescue some snorkelers!

We paid the boat man (not Gregory--who had dissappeared at this point
anyway) and he smiled and shook our hands--never got his name. I wish
we had had some more money to tip them! The folks from the Shaw Park
Resort asked us how much we paid and were happy to find that we had
not been ripped off--they charge $45 for an hour's snorkeling trip out
to the same site, which they were not running that day since it was
Christmas. Our comrades from the ship were just glad to see us come
back in one piece! The Shaw Park Hotel folks took pity on us and gave
us a free drink of Cranberry Juice and a small bottle of local rum
fire-water, which I have kept as a wonderful reminder of a very odd
trip!

Call us fool hardly--but it was worth it!

Cheers,

PegNDerek