Cozumel trip report and why i will ONLY dive with Aldora divers when i go back.

[jrwalsh20]

Nitrox 32 for every dive

 

[LoveOceanicGears]

We stayed at Cozumel Palace resort.

jrwalsh20:

Did you visited the dive locker room next to the boat dock while in Cozumel Palace? Two years ago when I was there, on site dive shop was in transition from Aqua Safari to Aqua World and the room was empty.

I am planning to go back on August and any information would be helpful.

Thank you.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Not just any steel 120's, but now the gas they contain has been checked for carbon monoxide also!

 

[Pelagicsal]

We went to Palancar Caves where the DM gave by far the most comprehensive pre-dive briefing i have ever heard. I had a picture in my head of what to expect from her brief and it was spot on. during the dive 1 of the newly certified divers ran through their tank kind of quickly so the DM handed them her 6 foot long hose so everyone else could extend thier bottom time. On the second dive of the day we did Santa Rosa Wall (one of my favorites in Coz), as we were approaching some of the swimthroughs she pointed them out for me to go through with my buddy and then took the other divers around the ones that were not suitable for new divers. I was very impressed with her for allowing this, she did not restrict our dive because of the newer divers.

Your DM HAD to be Liang... Diving with her is the stuff of dreams. She's just the ultimate Zen diver, don't you think?

 

[jrwalsh20]

Liang rocks no other way to say it and she is a New Yorker. I'm from NJ originally.

 

[billindenver]

Your DM HAD to be Liang... Diving with her is the stuff of dreams. She's just the ultimate Zen diver, don't you think?

Liang has taken the place of Sherief as my favorite Aldora DM. Sherief was amazing as well, but he has moved on to other pastures (anyone know where?). I also heard he had a motorcycle crash and broke both legs or something. Tried to find him on this last trip to no avail.

 

[Mossman]

Liang has taken the place of Sherief as my favorite Aldora DM. Sherief was amazing as well, but he has moved on to other pastures (anyone know where?). I also heard he had a motorcycle crash and broke both legs or something. Tried to find him on this last trip to no avail.

Did he happen to have been hit by a pastor driving a jeep?

 

[Pelagicsal]

I think it was actually a cop in his personal car...

 

[lionfish-eater]

Liang and Shariff are both very calm, patient and competant. Shariff certified my girlfriend, who needed his calm reassuring manner, and his Fabio like style. However, in my opinion,Edgar is Aldoras best. He is very dedicated and I believe he represents the image of a Cozumel Dive Professional. Some shops use transient DM's or hire people who are living the beach bum lifestyle. Not Aldora. I have been diving with Edgar for the last five years. My son has been diving with him since he was 12 and is considering a summer internship with Aldora either this summer or next. I have had only good experiences with the other Dm's as well Mateo, Raul and even a newly certified DM on a night dive. And even though both El Presidente and I have dove with Memo, I prefer Edgar. Sorry Memo.

Get out of the jar!

 

[scubacoz22]

jr, I agree with you we have been diving with Aldora for over 10 years now and would not dive with anyone else. We have had bad experiences with other dive ops and prefer to stick with Aldora.

Flew into Cancun and took Mayair over to Cozumel, this was the best decision we made. It was such a simple and easy way to get over there as opposed to flying direct or doing the bag drag. Mayair gets a +1 from me.

We stayed at Cozumel Palace resort. I have never had good experiences with all inclusives but we were going for a wedding that was being held there so that decision was made for us. I was very impressed with this resort. The food was fantastic and obviously plentiful being an all inclusive. The facilities as a whole were impeccable and it was a 10 minute walk to town. In addition to staying there when we checked in we were informed that we had 1500 resort credits, needless to say this made the non diving wife very happy as she spent a lot of time at the spa. Now on to the good stuff.

I had been to Cozumel twice prior to this but only via cruise ships, i had dove there before but no idea who it was with. I chose Aldora off of recommendations on this board but also because of their tanks. 120 steels are absolutely amazing, i think the least bottom time i had all week was 66 minutes and it was not because of me or deco it was because others had run low on air.
First day of diving, i was picked up promptly at 7:40 at the hotel dock, we were easily one of the first boats on the water and we were the first to the dive site. We had 6 total divers and 1 DM on board. out of the 6, 4 were a family with 2 brand new certified divers from utah (they were given a huge treat on their first ocean dives). We went to Palancar Caves where the DM gave by far the most comprehensive pre-dive briefing i have ever heard. I had a picture in my head of what to expect from her brief and it was spot on. during the dive 1 of the newly certified divers ran through their tank kind of quickly so the DM handed them her 6 foot long hose so everyone else could extend thier bottom time. On the second dive of the day we did Santa Rosa Wall (one of my favorites in Coz), as we were approaching some of the swimthroughs she pointed them out for me to go through with my buddy and then took the other divers around the ones that were not suitable for new divers. I was very impressed with her for allowing this, she did not restrict our dive because of the newer divers.

That was just 1 day of diving, i experienced more of the same on the other tow days with them, an absolute First Class dive operation that has my business for life. Some of the other advantages:

SI was held on a beach everyday
we went to Maracaibo - no one else was that far south
Always first boat on the dive site in the AM
Gear was always taken by the shop rinsed and dried and waiting on board the next morning strapped to my tank
120 steels
90 minutes of bottom time
120 steels (not sure if I mentioned that one yet)

I am sure that i am not saying something else that was amazing about their service but think everyone will get the idea about how impressed i was. I know that there are a lot of dive ops on the island and i am sure that some of them are just as good as Aldora but i just dont ever see myself wanting to try someone else after having such an excellent experience.