Hey Folks,
Just finished my first trip to San Pedro during the same time span, March 29-April 5.
We stayed at The Palms and our friends were at the Sunbreeze. Our experience was very similiar since the weather was so extreme. It simply colored your impression of everything and limited your choice of activities.
No blow by blow account for me. Memory is good enough but my fingers wear out fast.
Overall impressions: We would go back! This was an island with faults but charm. Low level buildings and rustic streets made the town interesting to wander around. We had been warned the beach was nothing to be excited about, but since I don't get into lying around the sand, it was a great byway to stroll around. We never rented a golf cart as it was pricey and walking was fun.
I never put shoes on after the first couple days. We walked to town for drinks and meals and down to Riccos and El Divino for dinners on two nights.
My goal and my friends was the scuba diving. It was very interesting diving but does not compare in my mind to the wall diving of Cozumel. Given the wind and waves, I can diving on a couple of days to snorkle with the family.
My friends had a package deal with the Sunbreeze and its associated dive op. Given the reading out on the web, I would never have chosen it and my friends, the word on the web was right. But their dives were paid for so I booked with them.
Its a low cost op and it shows. The boats are old and in poor shape (one had its bottom fall out on a trip to Caye Caulker that week). The service was minimal. Gear setup was on your own. Water was bags in a cooler that no one pointed out. As a comparision, ops in Cozumel will have your gear rigged, pop & water & fresh fruit not only available but urged upon you.
Eveyday, I had to pay for my dives in advance as if I'd walk out on my tab. Even with leaving over $1000 worth of gear in thier shop. Some days I dove and some not - mostly weather related.
We booked a couple of day trips thru the Palms and they used a different operator for the trips. What a difference!! We had a great time with snorkleing Hol Chan & Shark Alley and did "the Manatee" trip. Actually, that one had one of the best meals of the vacation with the fresh fish cooked over a fire pit.
The area is great, the place we stayed was very nice, the people we talked with were nice, the shopkeepers didn't harranuge you, the ambiance was delightful, the weather too windy, and the sun tanning ladies at Ramons were so pretty.
We will go back to Belize and so would our friends who came down. We will also take care to book with the dive ops that gets good reviews as that really was the only negative.
Oh, we had a good time at Fidos for joke night despite the paucity of people. Our daughter got to learn a new command "Earmuffs!!" as the jokes got pretty blue.