ReadyTo Dive
Contributor
We have just returned from our 4th time diving with Aldora (and 1st time staying with Casa Mexicanas). Our thoughts and reasons why we personally dive solely with Aldora are:
Steel 120’s mean 0-2lb’s of weight needed for us (even in 3mm’s).
Tanks are always accurate (when we analyze Nitrox) and filled to the brim.
80 minute average dive times.
Fast and nice boats that almost always have us 1st on the water (especially when going south from the downtown pier). Comfortable safe clean and dependable.
We normally/I’d say 80%+ of the time get to dive the sites we want to dive and requested when we booked. Mairiciabo, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, various Palancar sites and Devils Throat are examples.
The service. Denise in the office is always on top of things/a real gem in our opinion as was Jorge. We trust DM’s like Mateo Miguel and Sharif not only to lead/brief dives but also to setup/breakdown our gear. Aldora is just about the only place we do this at, otherwise we setup/normally prefer “hands off”. When staying at the Villa Chris and Chris went above and beyond to get us anything we even remotely requested and on this last trip I wasn’t feeling well enough to do our final dive and Denise came and took us back to the shop no problem/no charge.
The “air hog air share” procedure that keeps the rest of us diving. We’ve only encountered this being needed 2x but it was very much appreciated when they did it. We have been cut short dives before because of 1 heavy user and were less than pleased to say the least - our vacation time is very limited and our underwater time even more so so for them to do this is a plus in our books.
The boat coats they provide are highly underrated imo. We chill pretty easily and LOVE them. People say you could easily bring one with you to Coz but A) they are huge in comparison to everything else we bring and B) you’d have to dry/clean them each day which honestly we just wouldn’t do. Honestly they are more important to us then they probably should be but being extra warm/cozy immediately after a dive is awesome especially as we get older.
Things I would change:
No snacks on the boat is almost strange imo. Even in faraway places like Dominica and Grenada there is almost always something provided at the SI. I personally eat no fruit whatsoever so I always bring power bars for myself on every trip but my wife and the others would surely appreciate some grapes or stale popcorn. There is now a small little beach setup we visited (owned by Aldora?) that had tacos and cookies for sale which we used/was more than happy with but if you were unaware of this beforehand you would’ve had to use “tip cash” to buy something with. The beach setup was lovely too - hammocks and tables and shade; not as nice as the beach restaurant we used to visit but still way more than adequate. While I’m thinking about it, on this last trip one diver had a medium+ size pans of brownies that she ate and shared with the crew but not with the other divers - boo on you lady lol! Always bring enough for the whole class lol.
Not taking my pissy wetsuit. I totally understand why and when staying at the Villa it doesn’t matter whatsoever since you ring and hang it basically at the dock but carrying them back to CA was not ideal. However this offset by the fact that we weren’t even charged for the 2 days we used/rented them so no complaints here.
Everyone has their favorites but Aldora is personally ours. I think it’s great that there are so many quality options- we’ve been to quite a few places where that wasn’t the case.
Steel 120’s mean 0-2lb’s of weight needed for us (even in 3mm’s).
Tanks are always accurate (when we analyze Nitrox) and filled to the brim.
80 minute average dive times.
Fast and nice boats that almost always have us 1st on the water (especially when going south from the downtown pier). Comfortable safe clean and dependable.
We normally/I’d say 80%+ of the time get to dive the sites we want to dive and requested when we booked. Mairiciabo, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, various Palancar sites and Devils Throat are examples.
The service. Denise in the office is always on top of things/a real gem in our opinion as was Jorge. We trust DM’s like Mateo Miguel and Sharif not only to lead/brief dives but also to setup/breakdown our gear. Aldora is just about the only place we do this at, otherwise we setup/normally prefer “hands off”. When staying at the Villa Chris and Chris went above and beyond to get us anything we even remotely requested and on this last trip I wasn’t feeling well enough to do our final dive and Denise came and took us back to the shop no problem/no charge.
The “air hog air share” procedure that keeps the rest of us diving. We’ve only encountered this being needed 2x but it was very much appreciated when they did it. We have been cut short dives before because of 1 heavy user and were less than pleased to say the least - our vacation time is very limited and our underwater time even more so so for them to do this is a plus in our books.
The boat coats they provide are highly underrated imo. We chill pretty easily and LOVE them. People say you could easily bring one with you to Coz but A) they are huge in comparison to everything else we bring and B) you’d have to dry/clean them each day which honestly we just wouldn’t do. Honestly they are more important to us then they probably should be but being extra warm/cozy immediately after a dive is awesome especially as we get older.
Things I would change:
No snacks on the boat is almost strange imo. Even in faraway places like Dominica and Grenada there is almost always something provided at the SI. I personally eat no fruit whatsoever so I always bring power bars for myself on every trip but my wife and the others would surely appreciate some grapes or stale popcorn. There is now a small little beach setup we visited (owned by Aldora?) that had tacos and cookies for sale which we used/was more than happy with but if you were unaware of this beforehand you would’ve had to use “tip cash” to buy something with. The beach setup was lovely too - hammocks and tables and shade; not as nice as the beach restaurant we used to visit but still way more than adequate. While I’m thinking about it, on this last trip one diver had a medium+ size pans of brownies that she ate and shared with the crew but not with the other divers - boo on you lady lol! Always bring enough for the whole class lol.
Not taking my pissy wetsuit. I totally understand why and when staying at the Villa it doesn’t matter whatsoever since you ring and hang it basically at the dock but carrying them back to CA was not ideal. However this offset by the fact that we weren’t even charged for the 2 days we used/rented them so no complaints here.
Everyone has their favorites but Aldora is personally ours. I think it’s great that there are so many quality options- we’ve been to quite a few places where that wasn’t the case.