Afternoon and Night Dive Bookings

[Ironborn]

I am planning my first all-diving trip to Cozumel for the week of Memorial Day. My previous trips were roughly half-diving, half other things, so I usually did 2-tank trips in the mornings and then did other things in the afternoons and at night. Since the whole purpose of this trip is diving, and diving is the main attraction for me on Cozumel, I will definitely want to do a lot of afternoon and night dives - ideally every day, except the last afternoon/night. The night dives are of particular interest to me; I already did one for my AOWD certification and look forward to many more.

I understand that some operators may cancel afternoon dive trips if they do not have enough people to cover or justify the expense of going out, i.e. if they would lose money. This possibility may be a bit more of a risk for me because I will be traveling alone. I also understand - and please correct me if I am wrong - that there are also operators that will still honor your booking if they are short on divers, although some of them may require at least two divers on the reservation.

I have already been reading this sub-forum and noted the most popular dive operations for further research. I was wondering which dive operations might be the best fit for me, given the above concerns. In other words, which operations either: a) honor your booking in the event of a low turnout or; b) have a sufficiently high or reliable volume for afternoon dive trips that I should not have to worry about a cancellation?

Now, as for night dive trips: does the above apply for night bookings as well? If so, are there any particular operations that you would recommend as a good fit for me, given the above concerns?

I also understand that night dives may vary in frequency and regularity from one operation to another, e.g. some only do them rarely (if at all), or some only do them once or a few nights a week. Are there any operations that do night dives every night, or with enough frequency and regularity for my preferences?

 

[MMM]

I will stand to be corrected but don't know of any dive op here that does night dives every single night. Nor do most, if any, have a regular schedule for night dives come hell or high water.

It sounds like you want to do a lot of diving...are you nitrox certified? Because if not, I fear that you may run into problems given your aggressive dive plans. There are some shallow dives sites here (like where you would likely do night dives) but you will find that most 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) dives will be in the 40-50 foot range.

If you aren't nitrox certified and not planning to use enhanced air, you may wish to dial your dive plans back a bit. Another option would be to look at the steel tank ops that can give you longer dive times on individual dives.

Sorry, but I can't help on your question of whether any ops will take you out for afternoon dives if they don't have 2 (or more) divers. I personally have been on dives where there have been only one or two divers but it's because the other booked divers cancelled at the last minute (quite literally on the pier) and were likely charged for their empty spaces on the boat...not because the dive op knew weeks in advance that there would only be one or two divers actually on the boat that day.

 

[sinistar]

+1 to MMM's comments.

The past few years I have been diving with Dive Paradise. For many of the divers here, they would fall into the "Cattle Boat" category. Like any dive shop, after a while you become good friends and they look out for you and its hard to not go back. So I will give an example regarding their operation.

I usually sign up for diving the afternoon I arrive on the island. I buy a block of dives. When you buy a block of dives the afternoon dives are really, really cheap! Before I walk down I also look at Windguru carefully and then have them add to as many days as I think will be good wx days (especially important when I've went down in January / February). I also queue up a few of my afternoon dives - but not all of them.

For the morning you can take fasts boats or slow boats - you're choice. Their slow boats rarely go way down south and if they do go farther down south you might get back as late as 1pm. The afternoon dive always goes out at 3pm. I don't know if it has ever been jam packed full. During February & March I have never been canceled. On just one occasion there were two of us so they put us on a fast boat.

Now the good/bad part. Their afternoon dive is always very close to town and the boat ride is short. The dive sites can get old fast, etc. So that is why I don't book them everyday. When I was a new diver I would book them every day. Now I prefer two afternoon dives, take a day off, then do a couple more, etc. Now that I carry a camera, I really like those afternoon dives. Not many people, time to search, etc. Before the time change the afternoon dive ending around 4:30pm would get a bit dim underwater, now its still relatively bright.

Many years ago, we would book the 2-tank morning dives with bigger shops (due to big groups). And then we would find small shops to run up north for afternoon dives. Those were awesome but as I look back, not done very safely. I would want a shop now like Aldora for those dives.

Nitrox: Let's say you find your 2-tank morning fix and get in some longer bottom times. Some of that time will be deep (80'-100'). The second dive might be 60'-70'. With air, you'll be going into deco about 30 minutes into your second dive unless you've had a nice long surface interval or stay shallow. Now add in that afternoon dive. Thus its a shallow dive (for you the diver and for the Dive Masters who've been in the water all week).

That is why so many people like the shops that run the larger tanks and fast boats. They get down south fast before everyone else gets there. They get in a nice long (and deep) first dive. Some ops still pull on the beach for a nice long surface interval. Then do it again. They are back at a decent hour. However most of these divers then just relax the rest of the day knowing they got in over 2.5hrs of bottom time on two dives.

And don't overlook the occasional shore dive. Some days I will walk down to the Hotel Barracuda and dive that old collapsed pier in the afternoon instead of boat dive. The last two years now I have found a Seahorse

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I can answer several of your questions.

1. Aldora does a night dive on Wednesday and Saturday nights, guaranteed even if only one diver wants to go. Other nights we can usually set up night dives since we have 9 boats and lots of divers, but we do require 4 divers for other nights.

2. We can almost always provide afternoon dives but not too many divers want that much nitrogen. Given our HP 120 cf tanks the average diver gets more than 1 hour 10 minutes per tank, others much more dive time.

3. We guaranty that we will honor your booking, our reputation is based on that. We also have a policy to let our divers have one dive from a boat on day of arrival, again, even if it is only one diver. Only caveat is the weather and time of arrival.

Lots of other special policies and services are found on our web page.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS Diving with Aldora (no matter where you stay) allows you to use unlimited tanks for shore dives at our Villa Aldora. The tanks are tiny hp Steel 80s and entry and exit is very easy and the critters are plentiful, especially for a night dive.

 

[divingjd]

I've never heard of an op that has night dives every night. If you can get enough people, they will usually do it. My experience is that ops schedule night dives on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

As MMM suggested (I sure am agreeing with her a lot lately), it will be very difficult to get in four or five dives a day in Cozumel. I think I did five in a day once and was pushing the limits of my computer after dive two. It was not as much fun as I had hoped. With the depth and time on most dives, it is really hard to squeeze in more than three in a day. Diving with Aldora's big steel tanks, we get very long bottom times, so even if we only get in two or three dives a day, we get lots of time underwater. Nitrox definitely helps. You will definitely find that two dives a day is the norm in Cozumel and more than three is not common.

You may be able to get in more with some shallow shore dives. We do that at the Villa Aldora. I hear that there is good shore diving at Blue Angel and Scuba Club.

sinistar's post should also be helpful for you.

Sounds like you should consider nitrox, given your objectives. Aldora will give you a good chance (although not a guarantee) of getting in those extra dives and will get you more time under water on each dive you do. I am not familiar enough with the policies of other operators to make other recommendations.