Hubby and I were able to get in on the "Dave Deal" in October at Villa Aldora. We'd never stayed at the Villa and only dived a 2-tank trip once with Aldora on the east side (which was a wonderful experience!) a few years ago. Our trip was October 14-21 and was it ever fun!
We did the bag-drag and got to Coz around 6:30 PM. We dragged our bags to the Aldora shop in town and filled out all the paperwork. Chris (of Chris and Chris who are the managers at the Villas) picked us up at the shop and drove us to the Villa to dump our luggage off. He then took us to Mega to shop and gave us pesos to get back to the Villa. Great service! Both Chris (husband) and Chris (wife) were so accommodating during our stay. We had one issue with the air conditioner leaking water and one issue with the bottled water dispenser leaking, and Chris took care of the issues immediately. They are wonderful people!
Our room at the Villa was the Alexander Suite which faces the pool. It was a spacious room with a king size bed, good sized bathroom, full kitchen with normal sized appliances. It was nice to have a large refrigerator for groceries we bought at Mega. The room was very comfortable and quiet. The "dry" room was just steps away from our door so hanging wetsuits, boots, etc. up to dry was easy. However, because there were so many people that week, the "dry" room was pretty crowded and not much was getting dry. I mentioned it to Dave and he had a fan put into the room to get air movement going. It worked fine and things were dryer than before the fan was put in. Thanks Dave!
Diving with Aldora was exceptional. Although we aren't used to valet diving, it was nice to have our tanks/BCs set up and on the boat each day with our bag with fins, masks, etc. Not having to haul all that stuff to the room each day was great. We had terrific DMs....Sherief, Steve, and DM-in-training Virginia. The dive briefings were some of the best we've ever had. Very thorough and informative. We were on the boat with the same divers and DM almost everyday. Aldora makes sure to observe the divers skills so that they are put on boats with divers with like skills. It was a pleasure to dive with people who had basically the same experience and skill level. There were never more than six divers (plus the DM) on the boat. One of our favorite days was the 3-tank Aldora Adventure Dives that takes place north of the island where no other boats go. It was a fabulous day filled with lionfish hunting, homemade ceviche and guacamole, seeing unbelievable sea life, and diving pristine reefs. Wow, wow, wow!
After experiencing the professionalism, safety, experience, caring, fast boats, and unbelievably awesome dives, Aldora is going to become our go-to dive shop in Cozumel. Yes, they're more expensive. However, steel 120's for guys and steel 100's for gals lets you dive, dive, dive much longer than the aluminum 80's. Our average dive time for the week was about 84 minutes. We did a calculation of cost per minute of diving comparing Aldora and the dive shop we normally use. Because of the longer bottom times, Aldora ended up being close to 1/2 the cost (per minute of diving) of the dive shop that uses aluminum 80's. We have an average of 45 minutes of bottom time at that shop. Yes, coughing up the money to dive with Aldora is painful at first, but it's pure enjoyment to have long bottom times, uncrowded fast boats, and getting to dive with people who dive like you do.
A couple more things: Make sure you are nitrox certified so you can take advantage of those long dives. Also, you don't have to be staying at the Villa to dive with Aldora. They pick divers up at several places as they head south.
I'm giving Aldora an A+ and Dave a big THANK YOU for the October deal!
Happy Bubbles!
We did the bag-drag and got to Coz around 6:30 PM. We dragged our bags to the Aldora shop in town and filled out all the paperwork. Chris (of Chris and Chris who are the managers at the Villas) picked us up at the shop and drove us to the Villa to dump our luggage off. He then took us to Mega to shop and gave us pesos to get back to the Villa. Great service! Both Chris (husband) and Chris (wife) were so accommodating during our stay. We had one issue with the air conditioner leaking water and one issue with the bottled water dispenser leaking, and Chris took care of the issues immediately. They are wonderful people!
Our room at the Villa was the Alexander Suite which faces the pool. It was a spacious room with a king size bed, good sized bathroom, full kitchen with normal sized appliances. It was nice to have a large refrigerator for groceries we bought at Mega. The room was very comfortable and quiet. The "dry" room was just steps away from our door so hanging wetsuits, boots, etc. up to dry was easy. However, because there were so many people that week, the "dry" room was pretty crowded and not much was getting dry. I mentioned it to Dave and he had a fan put into the room to get air movement going. It worked fine and things were dryer than before the fan was put in. Thanks Dave!
Diving with Aldora was exceptional. Although we aren't used to valet diving, it was nice to have our tanks/BCs set up and on the boat each day with our bag with fins, masks, etc. Not having to haul all that stuff to the room each day was great. We had terrific DMs....Sherief, Steve, and DM-in-training Virginia. The dive briefings were some of the best we've ever had. Very thorough and informative. We were on the boat with the same divers and DM almost everyday. Aldora makes sure to observe the divers skills so that they are put on boats with divers with like skills. It was a pleasure to dive with people who had basically the same experience and skill level. There were never more than six divers (plus the DM) on the boat. One of our favorite days was the 3-tank Aldora Adventure Dives that takes place north of the island where no other boats go. It was a fabulous day filled with lionfish hunting, homemade ceviche and guacamole, seeing unbelievable sea life, and diving pristine reefs. Wow, wow, wow!
After experiencing the professionalism, safety, experience, caring, fast boats, and unbelievably awesome dives, Aldora is going to become our go-to dive shop in Cozumel. Yes, they're more expensive. However, steel 120's for guys and steel 100's for gals lets you dive, dive, dive much longer than the aluminum 80's. Our average dive time for the week was about 84 minutes. We did a calculation of cost per minute of diving comparing Aldora and the dive shop we normally use. Because of the longer bottom times, Aldora ended up being close to 1/2 the cost (per minute of diving) of the dive shop that uses aluminum 80's. We have an average of 45 minutes of bottom time at that shop. Yes, coughing up the money to dive with Aldora is painful at first, but it's pure enjoyment to have long bottom times, uncrowded fast boats, and getting to dive with people who dive like you do.
A couple more things: Make sure you are nitrox certified so you can take advantage of those long dives. Also, you don't have to be staying at the Villa to dive with Aldora. They pick divers up at several places as they head south.
I'm giving Aldora an A+ and Dave a big THANK YOU for the October deal!
Happy Bubbles!
