You came to Cozumel with a specific mission in mind. Did you share with the dive op that mission?
Aldora Divers
- Thread starter Steelyeyes
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I think that was already covered in her extensive posts.
Brodydog
Contributor
Did you request a certain DM? That’s the way I read this. If so, that is probably why you got grouped with the group you were in.
Except that's not what anyone said.
Bookworm11
Contributor
I think of Aldora as small compared to Dressel. And it was mentioned in a different thread the advantage of going with smaller companies was being able to pick sites. Yes, I made a mistake and should have talked to Memo. But I didn't think they would keep adding beginners every day. The few couple of days there was a honeymoon couple that spoke Portugese, and the DM spoke it. I got that, and I understood that, and I didn't have a problem with that. Had I known my trip would end up the way it did, I wouldn't have gone at all. I don't think I'm totally at fault here. And yes, I did pick a particular DM. He started me diving, and I've been diving with me since. He knew I was coming, and we had discussed plans about what to do here when I dove, most all of which didn't happen. Maybe if I was a braver, more confident diver, I wouldn't feel so disappointed and ill prepared and worried. You guys seem to feel Aldora acted appropriately. I happen to disagree. If a dive shop posts that they sort by ability and gas, and guarantees 70 minute dives on their website, then they should be doing that in practice. They didnt. Obviously, there are times that can't be done. But that shouldn't happen 8 days out of 10.
Brodydog
Contributor
But again, you requested a particular DM. If your goal was to do more difficult dives then you should have asked Aldora to put with whatever group would be doing more challenging dives and not specified a DM.
But that's not what anyone said. First of all, we were talking about smaller boats, not smaller ops, and second, we meant that the divers aboard small boats can usually choose a site by consensus, not that a solo diver aboard can unilaterally direct the boat to go to a particular site or where there will be certain conditions, no matter what that diver thought was going to happen or why.
And not that it really has all that much to do with what went down, Aldora is not a small dive op. Sure, there are larger ops on Cozumel than Aldora, but most or all of them run larger boats. Of the many small boat dive ops on Cozumel, I'm pretty sure that Aldora is the largest by a significant margin.
If you want a certain specific dive, you can hire a private DM and hire an op to take you where you want to go; the time to deal with this is while you are there and before the boat goes out. If you just book a dive, like the rest of us you accept whatever the day will bring. Complaining about it after the fact is pointless, and we only have seen your POV. A rep from Aldora would probably describe what happened very differently.
DISCLAIMER: Although I have been diving Cozumel for 30 years I have never dived with Aldora and I do not presume to speak for them.
It sounds like Aldora was given conflicting directives - assign me to the DM who is handling inexperienced divers looking for easy dives but also assign me to the boat with experienced divers looking for challenging dives.
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