Aldora and 3 P's Reviews

[uncfnp]

We enjoyed this routine on our last trip. After two long dives, 3 pm felt like the right time for a lazy Mexican meal. We would make the afternoon meal our main meal, take a siesta, and then just have a few tacos in the evening to ward off late-night hunger.

Exactly. But for us it was late evening guacamole and or ice cream. And since at was summer diving with Aldora the afternoon included a good soak in the pool before the siesta.

 

[drrich2]

Perhaps if staying south with the last on first off advantage, mulitdays of multiple dives might be a more practical option.

Now this is a point worth expounding on. What locations might a prospective Aldora customer choose making over 2 dives/day practical? And would they have to be twilight/night dives?

A big issue for me in choosing dive destinations if I go solo is how many dives I can get per day. Unless it's a place like Jupiter or North Carolina, where sharks or other big stuff (e.g.: goliath grouper) in deep places (& with N.C. long off-shore site boat trips) make > 2 dives/day impractical for some, telling me I'm stuck with 2 dives/day requires a big counter argument as to why go there.

3/Day and we're talking. 4's The sweet spot. Hence I loved Bonaire and Key Largo, and live-aboards.

Always figured if I ever dedicated a week to Cozumel, I'd be a Hotel Cozumel or Casa Mexicana kinda guy.

I wonder how the 3P's compares on contingency planning? I ask because on this forum from other threads, I've somehow gotten the impression that whether Iron Man blah-blah-blah or bad weather closes the harbor, the number of boats on hand helps Aldora offer one of the best chances of getting you diving. Even if bad weather or a horde of jocks descend on Cozumel.

Richard.

P.S.: Out of 3 cruise stops in Cozumel, I got skunked due to weather on 2, did 2 dives on one with Living Underwater, and had a good time. My wife likes to cruise when it's still cold (swap a week of KY winter for Caribbean tropical fun), so we tended to cruise Jan./Feb. time frame.

 

[deepsea21]

HOLY COW! I was wondering if we'd ever have an independent and comprehensive review of 3P's and Aldora from a diver who enjoyed both during the same trip and here it is!

A very nice review with no preconceived favoritism. I think it's safe to say everyone is going to enjoy great experiences with 3P's or Aldora. Both the 3P's and Aldora families of divers wouldn't be crowing about their dive ops at every opportunity we get on here if we truly didn't think our dive op was the best.

Nice review.

 

[ReefHound]

Rich, you wont necessarily be doing more dives all things being equal. If you want to do 3-4 dives, either op will suffice.

What I thought he meant is that at $125/trip for Aldora and $90/trip for TP your weekly budget would get you 1.x number of trips with TP. I'm not doing the exact math because it's late and it depends on your total dives but you get the point.

 

[drrich2]

What I had in mind was, a solo diver, or a pair of dive buddies (e.g.: maybe husband and wife), do the typical 1 week dive trip, this time to Cozumel. Fly in Saturday, start diving Sunday daily till noon Friday (say, 2 tanks Friday morning), chill that afternoon, and fly out Saturday afternoon.

Putting aside differences in trip price for a moment, our potential customers are shelling out fixed costs for round trip airfare, lodging and food, and they want to know how much diving (in terms of # dives, total bottom time, # of different sites) will I get that week if I dive with Aldora vs. the 3P's.

Let's assume day trips and ignore night dives; I'm making that somewhat arbitrary distinction because a number of people aren't yet comfortable with open ocean night dives (or are tired at the end of the day), and in some places night dives aren't an every night thing (maybe 1 or 2 offered per week, if enough people are interested). Bottom Line: a night dive option is a nice bonus, but not what I'd use to assess overall value to the majority of divers. Your mileage may vary...

So with Aldora you get longer dive times (less hauling out, gearing out and back up, jumping back in), but with the 3P's you get more dives if I understand correctly?

From Aldora's website:

Daily trips and schedules
MORNING TWO-TANK DIVES
(avg 5 hr round trip) starts at7:30am

LATE DEPARTURE 2 TANK TRIPS
(average 5 hr round trip) tailor made for our CRUISE SHIP and MAINLAND DIVERS

TWILIGHT DIVE
(average 5 hr round trip) starts around 4 pm (depends on the time of year)
We take you on a regular dive and a night dive afterwards

AFTERNOON 1 TANK TRIP
(average 2.5 hrs round trip) starts around 2 pm

NIGHT DIVES
Departs at dusk

How practical is it for most Aldora 2-tank morning customers to make that afternoon 1-tank trip leaving at 2 p.m.? That'd be 3 long dives/day.

From Tres Pelicano's website I couldn't copy & paste the rates table content for some reason. It's not clear from their display that they offer 2 2-tank boat trips/day (not counting night/twilight). But uncfnp's 1st post indicated that catching both morning and afternoon trips was an option (was the afternoon trip 1-tank or 2?).

If 3P's offers 3 or 4 dives/day conveniently (excluding night/twilight), I wish their website made that plainer, because for some customers that's a serious advantage.

So, Tom and Dick go to Cozumel and dive 5 days 2-tank morning & afternoon (if available, and how many tank), and 1 2-tank morning (Friday). Tom dives with Aldora, Dick with 3P's. How many dives do Tom and Dick get?

Richard.

 

[ReefHound]

HOLY COW! I was wondering if we'd ever have an independent and comprehensive review of 3P's and Aldora from a diver who enjoyed both during the same trip and here it is!

Seriously? I know many "veterans" who have dived with many of the top ops and enjoy them all in different ways. I thought the OP's review was spot on and mirrored my own experiences. Both are excellent ops as are numerous others.

My recent fave has been TP because they offer a lower price AND "boutique" service. I think you see more locals and experienced divers with them because of the price. Maybe like me, as I really just want a boat taxi to the site, all the "service" is nice but not necessary and not worth an extra $35/day (for me). I'll load and set up my own gear. I'll find my own critters. Knock another $25 off and I'll even spray down the boat after the trip. lol

I really enjoyed my dives with Aldora and another poster touched on it but their dive services go especially well with their lodging, giving you a turnkey solution. Staying in their villas was so convenient with a nice "house" shore dive and front door pickup and free bikes. I wish my budget didn't make it such a hard decision but I know I'll stay and dive with them again.

I'm also due to revisit my favorite dive shop owner and friend Christi and her Blue XT Sea. My experiences with them have been phenomenal and I don't know if it's just their premium level of service or our personal connections but several times they have gone the "extra mile" for me. Soon.

 

[ReefHound]

Putting aside differences in trip price for a moment, our potential customers are shelling out fixed costs for round trip airfare, lodging and food, and they want to know how much diving (in terms of # dives, total bottom time, # of different sites) will I get that week if I dive with Aldora vs. the 3P's.

Customers? If you're looking at this as a trip leader for a substantial group (i.e. 8-12) forget the posted website numbers. It comes down to what you can negotiate as a group rate/deal. Most ops will give trip leader comped spots and group discounts depending on size of group and number of days. This info is often not posted on the website.

 

[drrich2]

Customers? If you're looking at this as a trip leader for a substantial group (i.e. 8-12) forget the posted website numbers.

My perspective is the individual booking his/her own trip. No experience with group negotiations.

Richard.

 

[uncfnp]

What I had in mind was, a solo diver, or a pair of dive buddies (e.g.: maybe husband and wife), do the typical 1 week dive trip, this time to Cozumel. Fly in Saturday, start diving Sunday daily till noon Friday (say, 2 tanks Friday morning), chill that afternoon, and fly out Saturday afternoon.

Putting aside differences in trip price for a moment, our potential customers are shelling out fixed costs for round trip airfare, lodging and food, and they want to know how much diving (in terms of # dives, total bottom time, # of different sites) will I get that week if I dive with Aldora vs. the 3P's.

Let's assume day trips and ignore night dives; I'm making that somewhat arbitrary distinction because a number of people aren't yet comfortable with open ocean night dives (or are tired at the end of the day), and in some places night dives aren't an every night thing (maybe 1 or 2 offered per week, if enough people are interested). Bottom Line: a night dive option is a nice bonus, but not what I'd use to assess overall value to the majority of divers. Your mileage may vary...

So with Aldora you get longer dive times (less hauling out, gearing out and back up, jumping back in), but with the 3P's you get more dives if I understand correctly?

From Aldora's website:

Daily trips and schedules
MORNING TWO-TANK DIVES
(avg 5 hr round trip) starts at7:30am

LATE DEPARTURE 2 TANK TRIPS
(average 5 hr round trip) tailor made for our CRUISE SHIP and MAINLAND DIVERS

TWILIGHT DIVE
(average 5 hr round trip) starts around 4 pm (depends on the time of year)
We take you on a regular dive and a night dive afterwards

AFTERNOON 1 TANK TRIP
(average 2.5 hrs round trip) starts around 2 pm

NIGHT DIVES
Departs at dusk

How practical is it for most Aldora 2-tank morning customers to make that afternoon 1-tank trip leaving at 2 p.m.? That'd be 3 long dives/day.

From Tres Pelicano's website I couldn't copy & paste the rates table content for some reason. It's not clear from their display that they offer 2 2-tank boat trips/day (not counting night/twilight). But uncfnp's 1st post indicated that catching both morning and afternoon trips was an option (was the afternoon trip 1-tank or 2?).

If 3P's offers 3 or 4 dives/day conveniently (excluding night/twilight), I wish their website made that plainer, because for some customers that's a serious advantage.

So, Tom and Dick go to Cozumel and dive 5 days 2-tank morning & afternoon (if available, and how many tank), and 1 2-tank morning (Friday). Tom dives with Aldora, Dick with 3P's. How many dives do Tom and Dick get?

Richard.

Hey Richard. Prehaps I can better answer your question. During my 2 trips, I did exactly 7 days diving with both ops. I could only reasonably do 2 dives a day with Aldora for the reasons already given. We got back too late to do the one tank afternoon dive and the other option as you have seen is the 2 tank twilight or 1 tank night but both then gives you a long late day especially with another planned am dive. And those dives, especially night dives are not always available. It could be done but it would be tough doing repeatedly. So for those 7 days we did 14 dives with 18.5 hours bottom time.

For the seven days with Pelicanos we did 20 dives and total bottom time was 21 hours. The drop off at the restaurant close to the dive sites made this very easy for us. Would have done more if the boat had not been full. And we could have pushed the dives to the max time more often, I usually surfaced with around 900 psi and only a few times did Eric run close to 500 on his 100's (he dives 120's at home) but we honestly were very satisfied with the times and didn't feel a need to keep the boat waiting.

Richard. If you are traveling single consider a B&B like Villa Escondida. Economical, convenient to dive ops and food and no need to rent a car. If with your family go condo. If able, fly in on a Friday and out Saturday or better yet Sunday, more days diving and for us better fares. Again if traveling single I think you would have no problem diving 7x4 with 3 P's but I recommend taking a few afternoons off and enjoy the island, especially if it is a first time visit.

And as for port closures with Nortes, that was a concern for us as well but we discovered this is more a seasonal issue so plan your trip for off season if this is a big concern for you, room rates are cheaper then as well.

 

[Gdog]

What I thought he meant is that at $125/trip for Aldora and $90/trip for TP your weekly budget would get you 1.x number of trips with TP. I'm not doing the exact math because it's late and it depends on your total dives but you get the point.

Good point RH.