What happened to Cozumel?

[StreetDoctor]

I am not doubting the OP's experience whatsoever and I am quite surprised to hear that this was Aldora. I have dozens of dives with them and nothing close to this has occurred. The closest we came to a similar experience was when we were staying at the Villa and the boat was late. We were told within 15 minutes or so of the scheduled departure time that the boat had mechanical issues. Aldora offered to take people downtown for a complimentary breakfast while we waited for the boat to be fixed. Some people took them up on the offer others did not.

Again, not doubting your experience, saying it is exaggerated, or your frustration misplaced. Additionally, if I had had the same experience as @BRT I am not sure I'd use them again either. To the OP, I know you spoke to the shop and got a refund. Did they offer any explanation or remedy other than refunding your booking for the next few days? Same question for BRT. I am interested in their response to you and not trying to deflect blame towards you for Aldora's failures. As I see it, a business' response to customer complaints says a lot about the business.

I promise there is no exaggeration on my part, even now a month later. If anything I undersold it. They acted like they were doing me a favor by not charging me a cancellation fee. There was no discount given.

 

[wateraddiction]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

 

[BRT]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

I suspect that StreetDoctor and I were both victims of the operators wanting to see how these new divers did before they took them someplace challenging.

 

[ggunn]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

I was surprised to hear this about Aldora as well; perhaps there is more to the story?

 

[AdivingBel]

I suspect that StreetDoctor and I were both victims of the operators wanting to see how these new divers did before they took them someplace challenging.

^^This^^ As well as protecting their experienced repeat customers. Honestly, I wouldn’t have considered anything that happened to him more than a minor inconvenience. I feel for him in that he got a bit of a perfect storm with it all happening at once, but none of it would have stopped me from diving that day, and I would have had it resolved by the next day.

I’m not sure how much diving he had planned for his trip, but I certainly wouldn’t have cancelled after two days over it. Also my first thought after two days of diving with a new to me dive op wouldn’t have been to come home and post “What happened to (insert destination here) ?” I probably would have thought “What could I have done differently so it doesn’t happen to me next dive trip?” That said, everyone has their own comfort level when diving. I’ve been dive traveling for a few decades so I try to stay positive and roll with it. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[brsnow]

^^This^^ As well as protecting their experienced repeat customers. Honestly, I wouldn’t have considered anything that happened to him more than a minor inconvenience. I feel for him in that he got a bit of a perfect storm with it all happening at once, but none of it would have stopped me from diving that day, and I would have had it resolved by the next day.

I’m not sure how much diving he had planned for his trip, but I certainly wouldn’t have cancelled after two days over it. Also my first thought after two days of diving with a new to me dive op wouldn’t have been to come home and post “What happened to (insert destination here) ?” I probably would have thought “What could I have done differently so it doesn’t happen to me next dive trip?” That said, everyone has their own comfort level when diving. I’ve been dive traveling for a few decades so I try to stay positive and roll with it. All IMHO, YMMV.

It is on the dive op. Each diver typically pays the same. If you have enough regulars and need to protect them don’t except other clients. I ran into this once even after having to provide background info of 100’s dives on Cozumel and will never be back to that op. Either provide a quality dive experience or don’t except the business.

 

[AdivingBel]

Either provide a quality dive experience or don’t except the business.

You’re right. Some dive ops do this better than others based on how they conduct their dives. It can be done in a way that provides assistance to newer divers without impacting the quality of the dive experience for more experienced divers. It’s why I prefer “dive your tank” ops. Others are more comfortable with more structure. DSFDF

Also a dive op doesn’t know you as a diver until they’ve seen you in the water regardless of your cert or what you claim just as you don’t know a dive op until you’ve spent a day on the water with them regardless of what their website claims. Sometimes it takes a day or two with a new to you op to get things sorted out. Doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun. All IMHO YMMV.

 

[ggunn]

You’re right. Some dive ops do this better than others based on how they conduct their dives. It can be done in a way that provides assistance to newer divers without impacting the quality of the dive experience for more experienced divers. It’s why I prefer “dive your tank” ops. Others are more comfortable with more structure. DSFDF

Also a dive op doesn’t know you as a diver until they’ve seen you in the water regardless of your cert or what you claim just as you don’t know a dive op until you’ve spent a day on the water with them regardless of what their website claims. Sometimes it takes a day or two with a new to you op to get things sorted out. Doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun. All IMHO YMMV.

Do you mean to tell me that sometimes divers will exaggerate their skills and experience???

No dive op wants a diver to be hurt or killed while in their care, or to be responsible for having to resolve a life threatening situation on the reef, and if that means that they will take divers on less challenging dives the first time they walk into their shop, irrespective of those divers' claims of vast experience and advanced skillsets or what it says in their logbooks or on their certification cards, then I completely understand and support it.

Over the years I have seen new divers on this forum stating that when they first get their OW cert that they will immediately proceed to obtain their AOW cert with little or no real world diving experience; such divers are in no sense "advanced" regardless of what is on their cert card. All of us who have many dives under their belt have been out with divers who by their claims should know what they are doing in the water but who obviously do not. Dive ops must not (or should not, anyway) take these divers into situations for which they are not prepared.

<end rant>

 

[Dan G]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

Aldora Divers is not run by a U.S. based owner. The Villa has U.S. ownership, but not the dive op.

I suspect that StreetDoctor and I were both victims of the operators wanting to see how these new divers did before they took them someplace challenging.

While possible, this means Aldors has changed it's approach. Several years ago I contacted Aldora about diving one of their trips to a northern site. I was told they do not take divers north who they have never seen dive. The remedy was that I had to book a regular trip first and the DM would sign off on me being permitted to join a trip north. I bring this up, because @BRT was on a northern trip IIRC and I am surprised to hear it was his first time with them. Obviously policies can change, I am misunderstanding the situation, or the policy is still in tact and this was a rare occurrence.

 

[ggunn]

Back when I was a new diver and the ink was still wet on my OW cert card, I was diving Cozumel with a very small but highly recommended dive op. The owner/DM asked me where I wanted to go one day, and I said, "How about Maracaibo?" not because I knew anything about the reef but because it was one I knew the name of. When he stopped laughing he just said, "No, señor, not yet."