It seems that Aldora and Tres Pelicanos are two of the most often suggested dive ops in Cozumel and having dove both, Aldora last summer and 3 P's this past February, I thought I would compare/contrast my experience with each.
Aldora
A large dive op with multiple, fast boats with shade. Water provided and boat coats on board for the cooler dive season. Nitrox analyzer readily available most days. Pickup from town is at the pier at 7:30. The boat would then often head north to Aldora Village for divers then south to the dive sites picking up other divers along the way. This made the boat ride long for us since we were first on and last off. Tanks were steel 100's (mostly for females) and 120's for the guys. Weights were plentiful. We used nitrox for all dives with the standard Aldora 32 and 36 mix.
First dives were typically the deepest with shallower second dives but since both dives finish in the shallows the average depth was not significantly different at 47 feet and 45 feet respectively. My deepest dive was 112. Aldora will do dives around the southern tip and our second day of dives started at El Islote then Punta Sur but this was also a boat with lionfish hunters so not necessarily a typical dive profile for Aldora. Aldora will also arrange trips north for divers interested and with appropriate skill level. For the trip, dives averaged 80 minutes with longest at 92 (3 dives were 90 to 92) and shortest was 68 minutes. We decended and ascended as a group although I understand this can vary with the DM. On several occassions the DM did share air with a diver to extend dive time. They try to keep max 6 divers.
I saw a fairly wide variety in dive skill during my dives with Aldora from some of the best to definitely the worst diver I have seen. I understand that Aldora tries to group divers by skill and gas use but we had a mix on most of the days. The DM's were very skilled and also very attentive to the dives. All had eyes of a hawk and could find the smallest of critters. All were very professional.
Surface intervals are an hour usually spent at Palancar Beach although we did one SI aboard the boat and one or two at a remote beach site. The beach resort was very pleasant with plenty of umbrella covered tables. I usually got a Diet Coke and Eric and I would split guacamole or fish tacos. Both were very good. Memo stopped by our table during one of the stops to ask about our dives and if we had any concerns. I did have one personal isuue that he suggested a solution.I was very impressed with this extra attention.
At our request, Aldora also arranged a day of Cenote dives for us and had our gear at the ferry pier for us that morning.
Cost. With the cash pay discount plus nitrox, 2 tank dives averaged around 125 pp. We gave Aldora the expected total for our planned dives at check-in so I would not have to keep the cash with me. Aldora would refund any unused. Because we got back so late in the afternoon from our dives we did not do any afternoon, twilight or night dives with Aldora.
Gear. Aldora managed our BPWs, fins and reg sets and had them setup and ready on the boat each day. They do not deal with wetsuits. We elected to take the dive computers and lights with us each day. There were a few hiccups with gear but mostly things went smoothly.
Tres Pelicanos
Typical tanks are 80's but 100's are also an option.. Nitrox 32 and 36 are readily available in 80's but 100's less so. Jeanie at the office was doing her best to accommodate our request but when Steve learned about Eric's preference he actually bought several 100's dedicated to Nitrox since he had been getting more requests for them. When we arrived we learned that fills were an issue but they were able to have them ready for all but one of Eric's dives, even when we had 4 dive days and all were 100's. In hindsight our preference would still be nitrox but I think Eric would be fine with a mix of one Nitrox and one air tank each trip. Weights were plentiful. No boat coats.
Aldora has a large following but I think I saw more local, regular, and repeat divers over all with 3 P's and I think the average experience level was higher. Jorge and the Skinny Shark has quite the following. We dove off both boats and with 4 different guides but most often with Edgar on the Loan Shark. All the guides were great, even the two fill in guides when Edgar was off, but each with different styles. Jorge's style was very *relaxed* while Edgar was very attentive and eager to give a good dive experience. One day I asked for a sea horse and Edgar had one within 10 minutes of the first dive. So I asked for a whale shark the second dive but unfortunately he didn't come through for me. We teased him that he didn't have one in his pocket. One day 3 P's had a third boat hired for their divers, the Lion. This was the only day there was not an analyzer on board but we caught up with the other boat and they handed over an analyzer for us to use.
Now the stats for our 3 P dives. Deepest dive was 98 feet. First dive average depth was 48 feet and second was 40 feet. Average dive time was 63 minutes and ranged from 54 shortest to 69 longest. Tres Pelicanos lets divers dive to their gas/ndl limit but does limit time to around 70 minutes to keep on schedule. Unlike Aldora, 3 Ps did not require divers to ascend as a group and once they knew us we were allowed a fairly high level of independence in our dives.
Cost. With the multidive plus cash discounts each 2 tank dive came out at roughly 90 dollars pp including nitrox. As with Aldora we gave 3 P's the cash on arrival with agreement to refund any unused. And like Aldora there wasn't any.
We had two gear issues while we were there. Eric's inflator hose developed a leak and the shop gave us a loaner for the duration. The second was missing gear one morning when we arrived at the marina. I had none on board and several others were missing part of their gear. Their gear was located, the divers had failed to put it in the provided gear bags, but still no gear for me. It was chaotic for a while and Steve finally had to drive back to the shop to look for it. Found it on a peg in the shop. Got underway late but had great dives. The break between our morning and afternoon dives was short but we made it and had two more great dives. Before we were back from the afternoon dives I had an email apology from Steve accepting all the blame and a compensation for the error. I found out later my name was confused with another similar name and that her gear was placed on the boat instead of mine. An easy mistake given the language differences. Like Aldora, Tres Pelicanos will provide a gear bag and manage the kit but they will also accept wetsuits.
I do want to add for anyone planning to dive Tres Pelicanos on morning and afternoon dives. Instead of riding all the way back to the marina and making do until the afternoon trip, 3 Ps drops you off at the Money Bar restaurant for a (usually) leisurely lunch while your gear is set up on the afternoon boat. Then you are picked up on their way to the afternoon dives. I really liked this feature and we took advantage of it for an unplanned 3 afternoon dive trips. Would have been a fourth if the boat wasn't full.
So all in all we had two great experiences diving with both ops but its Tres Pelicanos that will get our repeat business. More then the HP steels, I value the smaller, more personal feel and service of 3 P's, the greater number of dive experiences available with morning and afternoon dives (yes they were shorter but I found the quality better), and most especially the greater degree of independence we had with Tres Pelicanos. Thank you Steve, Jeanie, Pony, Edgar and Jorge.
Aldora
A large dive op with multiple, fast boats with shade. Water provided and boat coats on board for the cooler dive season. Nitrox analyzer readily available most days. Pickup from town is at the pier at 7:30. The boat would then often head north to Aldora Village for divers then south to the dive sites picking up other divers along the way. This made the boat ride long for us since we were first on and last off. Tanks were steel 100's (mostly for females) and 120's for the guys. Weights were plentiful. We used nitrox for all dives with the standard Aldora 32 and 36 mix.
First dives were typically the deepest with shallower second dives but since both dives finish in the shallows the average depth was not significantly different at 47 feet and 45 feet respectively. My deepest dive was 112. Aldora will do dives around the southern tip and our second day of dives started at El Islote then Punta Sur but this was also a boat with lionfish hunters so not necessarily a typical dive profile for Aldora. Aldora will also arrange trips north for divers interested and with appropriate skill level. For the trip, dives averaged 80 minutes with longest at 92 (3 dives were 90 to 92) and shortest was 68 minutes. We decended and ascended as a group although I understand this can vary with the DM. On several occassions the DM did share air with a diver to extend dive time. They try to keep max 6 divers.
I saw a fairly wide variety in dive skill during my dives with Aldora from some of the best to definitely the worst diver I have seen. I understand that Aldora tries to group divers by skill and gas use but we had a mix on most of the days. The DM's were very skilled and also very attentive to the dives. All had eyes of a hawk and could find the smallest of critters. All were very professional.
Surface intervals are an hour usually spent at Palancar Beach although we did one SI aboard the boat and one or two at a remote beach site. The beach resort was very pleasant with plenty of umbrella covered tables. I usually got a Diet Coke and Eric and I would split guacamole or fish tacos. Both were very good. Memo stopped by our table during one of the stops to ask about our dives and if we had any concerns. I did have one personal isuue that he suggested a solution.I was very impressed with this extra attention.
At our request, Aldora also arranged a day of Cenote dives for us and had our gear at the ferry pier for us that morning.
Cost. With the cash pay discount plus nitrox, 2 tank dives averaged around 125 pp. We gave Aldora the expected total for our planned dives at check-in so I would not have to keep the cash with me. Aldora would refund any unused. Because we got back so late in the afternoon from our dives we did not do any afternoon, twilight or night dives with Aldora.
Gear. Aldora managed our BPWs, fins and reg sets and had them setup and ready on the boat each day. They do not deal with wetsuits. We elected to take the dive computers and lights with us each day. There were a few hiccups with gear but mostly things went smoothly.
Tres Pelicanos
Typical tanks are 80's but 100's are also an option.. Nitrox 32 and 36 are readily available in 80's but 100's less so. Jeanie at the office was doing her best to accommodate our request but when Steve learned about Eric's preference he actually bought several 100's dedicated to Nitrox since he had been getting more requests for them. When we arrived we learned that fills were an issue but they were able to have them ready for all but one of Eric's dives, even when we had 4 dive days and all were 100's. In hindsight our preference would still be nitrox but I think Eric would be fine with a mix of one Nitrox and one air tank each trip. Weights were plentiful. No boat coats.
Aldora has a large following but I think I saw more local, regular, and repeat divers over all with 3 P's and I think the average experience level was higher. Jorge and the Skinny Shark has quite the following. We dove off both boats and with 4 different guides but most often with Edgar on the Loan Shark. All the guides were great, even the two fill in guides when Edgar was off, but each with different styles. Jorge's style was very *relaxed* while Edgar was very attentive and eager to give a good dive experience. One day I asked for a sea horse and Edgar had one within 10 minutes of the first dive. So I asked for a whale shark the second dive but unfortunately he didn't come through for me. We teased him that he didn't have one in his pocket. One day 3 P's had a third boat hired for their divers, the Lion. This was the only day there was not an analyzer on board but we caught up with the other boat and they handed over an analyzer for us to use.
Now the stats for our 3 P dives. Deepest dive was 98 feet. First dive average depth was 48 feet and second was 40 feet. Average dive time was 63 minutes and ranged from 54 shortest to 69 longest. Tres Pelicanos lets divers dive to their gas/ndl limit but does limit time to around 70 minutes to keep on schedule. Unlike Aldora, 3 Ps did not require divers to ascend as a group and once they knew us we were allowed a fairly high level of independence in our dives.
Cost. With the multidive plus cash discounts each 2 tank dive came out at roughly 90 dollars pp including nitrox. As with Aldora we gave 3 P's the cash on arrival with agreement to refund any unused. And like Aldora there wasn't any.
We had two gear issues while we were there. Eric's inflator hose developed a leak and the shop gave us a loaner for the duration. The second was missing gear one morning when we arrived at the marina. I had none on board and several others were missing part of their gear. Their gear was located, the divers had failed to put it in the provided gear bags, but still no gear for me. It was chaotic for a while and Steve finally had to drive back to the shop to look for it. Found it on a peg in the shop. Got underway late but had great dives. The break between our morning and afternoon dives was short but we made it and had two more great dives. Before we were back from the afternoon dives I had an email apology from Steve accepting all the blame and a compensation for the error. I found out later my name was confused with another similar name and that her gear was placed on the boat instead of mine. An easy mistake given the language differences. Like Aldora, Tres Pelicanos will provide a gear bag and manage the kit but they will also accept wetsuits.
I do want to add for anyone planning to dive Tres Pelicanos on morning and afternoon dives. Instead of riding all the way back to the marina and making do until the afternoon trip, 3 Ps drops you off at the Money Bar restaurant for a (usually) leisurely lunch while your gear is set up on the afternoon boat. Then you are picked up on their way to the afternoon dives. I really liked this feature and we took advantage of it for an unplanned 3 afternoon dive trips. Would have been a fourth if the boat wasn't full.
So all in all we had two great experiences diving with both ops but its Tres Pelicanos that will get our repeat business. More then the HP steels, I value the smaller, more personal feel and service of 3 P's, the greater number of dive experiences available with morning and afternoon dives (yes they were shorter but I found the quality better), and most especially the greater degree of independence we had with Tres Pelicanos. Thank you Steve, Jeanie, Pony, Edgar and Jorge.
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