Question Dilemma: Aldora or Tres Pelicanos

[jonhall]

Getting back at the dock a little earlier may buy me some more goodwill with my wife to dive another day. She likes to sleep in but I I'd rather not get back to the hotel much past noon.

I would not have responded if not for this part of what you wrote. This is not to try to sway you from the ops you chose but to give you another option.

You are staying far to the north on the island. As mentioned, diving with Aldora and 3P requires a taxi ride to town or beyond (Marina Fonatur), so tack on at least another $20+ and 30-50 minutes (depending on the op) for transportation alone. Although there are a ton of great dive ops in Cozumel, the north side of the island doesn't house too many.

About 1 ½ miles south of your hotel is the Coral Princess Golf & Dive Resort - it really is neither, but there is an onsite dive op, Pepe Scuba. It will only be a few minute taxi ride and no more than $5 (surely you can get the driver below that) one way. They have fast boats and can get you to the dive sites in the south faster than boats closer to the sites (wouldn't have believed it had I not been in one) - they dive the same sites as the other ops. Except for the deeper dives, of course, dives for me lasted between 65-75 minutes on steel 80's. They are a solid op with a strong following. Don't think any op will get you back to your hotel as soon as you'd like, but with Pepe, you're likely to be back at your hotel by 1-1:15. If by chance they dove any sites to the north, you would be back to your hotel much sooner. As I generally have to stay where my timeshare takes me, I pretty much decided that if I ever stay on the north side of the island, Pepe Scuba makes the most sense when taking everything else into consideration.

Pepe Scuba

www.pepescuba.com

Whatever you do, have a great anniversary trip!

 

[Rob9876]

Used 3P's just a few weeks ago

• They say 70 minutes or 700psi dives on their website but we were told 60 minutes or 700psi on most of the dives we did. Maybe it's outdated info on their site but it's a loss of 10 minutes of dive time if you're looking for max dive times. 60 minutes was about our 700psi limit with their AL80's most dives anyways so it didn't really affect us. I think 66 minutes was the max dive time we got with them during the whole trip, with most dives averaging about 60 min.

Different people can have different experiences, but I've dove with Tres Pelicanos on six different trips over the last few years (latest was last month), and I've never had them limit a dive to a certain time -- it's always dive your computer. They do want you to begin to ascend at 700psi, but they're not a nanny dive op -- so they are not checking SPGs or computers. We try to follow the 700, but have sometimes stayed under past that when an eagle ray, turtle, etc. appeared at the end of the dives.

• They use AL80's on regular air even on deep dives like Devil's Throat. This means most of us went into deco by a couple minutes by the time we started ascending after checking out the main swim through and a couple other swim throughs. We had plenty of air left but depending on your risk tolerance, this might not be comfortable for some. Aldora uses Steel 100/120's for their dives so you might feel much more safe with the extra air during these types of deep dives.

While AL80s are the default with Tres Pelicanos, you can get 100cf tanks on request no problem (I used to get them when I was a newer diver). And you can get 32 or 36 nitrox in either size. YMMV, but I've never had a DM there lead us into a deco situation. And as mentioned they are not a nanny op so they are fine if you decide to forego a swim through or deeper section -- you can separate from the group and dive your own dive as long as you have a DSMB, and the boat will almost magically track you down (usually before you are done with your safety stop).

 

[fates13]

Different people can have different experiences, but I've dove with Tres Pelicanos on six different trips over the last few years (latest was last month), and I've never had them limit a dive to a certain time -- it's always dive your computer. They do want you to begin to ascend at 700psi, but they're not a nanny dive op -- so they are not checking SPGs or computers. We try to follow the 700, but have sometimes stayed under past that when an eagle ray, turtle, etc. appeared at the end of the dives.

While AL80s are the default with Tres Pelicanos, you can get 100cf tanks on request no problem (I used to get them when I was a newer diver). And you can get 32 or 36 nitrox in either size. YMMV, but I've never had a DM there lead us into a deco situation. And as mentioned they are not a nanny op so they are fine if you decide to forego a swim through or deeper section -- you can separate from the group and dive your own dive as long as you have a DSMB, and the boat will almost magically track you down (usually before you are done with your safety stop).

We were there just a few weeks ago and we were specifically told 60 minutes or 700psi by the DM's every day. It didn't seem like they were nannying the time limit though. When we did Devil's Throat no one mentioned that we had the option of diving nitrox or larger tanks, at least not without an additional fee for the tanks. All 5 of us on the boat went into deco by a couple minutes. We knew it was going to be a deep dive and we didn't feel unsafe as we all started ascending and meeting deco obligations with around 1800-2000psi left in our tanks. It's almost impossible not to go into deco when doing this dive on regular air unless you do just the main swim through then come right back up. However, I'm just mentioning our experience so others can make their own decisions. Like I said, we did like 3P overall as a dive op.

 

[Snrubnivek]

Thanks everyone for all of the info, I really appreciate it. I'm looking forward to the trip. It was on Cozumel that I decided to get scuba certified. Was on a snorkel tour 12 years ago with my wife and friends. We saw saw a bunch of divers 60'+ under us on one of the reefs. I thought to myself, "what the heck am I doing up here"!

 

[Grateful head]

Salty Endeavors is on the north end. We dove with 3P”s once, last four times we dove with Salty. You will be back to the north Marina around 1:00 pm give or take.

 

[Snrubnivek]

Salty Endeavors is on the north end. We dove with 3P”s once, last four times we dove with Salty. You will be back to the north Marina around 1:00 pm give or take.

Thanks for the Salty Endeavor rec. Talked to them today and they'll actually pickup at the Westin dock.

 

[Grateful head]

That’s awesome… I think Henry’s (owner) claim to fame is that he genuinely never says no to a realistic request. He and staff will try to accommodate most everything.

 

[Snrubnivek]

That’s awesome… I think Henry’s (owner) claim to fame is that he genuinely never says no to a realistic request. He and staff will try to accommodate most everything.

That's good to know. I was perfectly happy to take a taxi but they offered it right off the bat. Which I thought was great.

 

[M-diver]

We were there just a few weeks ago and we were specifically told 60 minutes or 700psi by the DM's every day. It didn't seem like they were nannying the time limit though. When we did Devil's Throat no one mentioned that we had the option of diving nitrox or larger tanks, at least not without an additional fee for the tanks. All 5 of us on the boat went into deco by a couple minutes. We knew it was going to be a deep dive and we didn't feel unsafe as we all started ascending and meeting deco obligations with around 1800-2000psi left in our tanks. It's almost impossible not to go into deco when doing this dive on regular air unless you do just the main swim through then come right back up. However, I'm just mentioning our experience so others can make their own decisions. Like I said, we did like 3P overall as a dive op.

I did Devils Throat once, checked my log and it was 128 ft max depth. Given Coz fill station doesn't do custom mixes and the best you can go for this dive as nitrox gas is EAN32, it is getting too close to OxTox safety limit in my opinion. The variation in mixes and the fact that people don't carry O2 analyzers (I do BTW hence seen the variation), diving air on this dive is safer even if you get a few deco minutes. As you said, you had plenty of gas to bail another diver with 1800+ psi left at the bottom exit.

 

[Grateful head]

That's good to know. I was perfectly happy to take a taxi but they offered it right off the bat. Which I thought was great.

He offered you a taxi?