Question Dilemma: Aldora or Tres Pelicanos

[Snrubnivek]

He offered you a taxi?

No, they said the boat will pick me up right on the Westin dock.

 

[Grateful head]

No, they said the boat will pick me up right on the Westin dock.

Yes, good deal.

 

[jonhall]

No, they said the boat will pick me up right on the Westin dock.

Just as a future reference for others:

I had forgotten about Salty Endeavors - good deal that they will pick up at the Westin pier. They also would have been a good taxi option (short ride) from the Westin as they meet at Puerto Abrigo (marina) which is just over a mile and a half away.

I also forgot that Pepe Scuba, being up north, also does pick ups. One would have to double check if the Westin is one they would pick up from.

There are also satellite dive ops at several hotels in the north, but one still needs a taxi ride to the pier the op leaves from. Pro Dive at the Melia, gave me taxi fare each day I dove, but it was a long taxi ride to their pier.

PLEASE verify when you get back that Salty Endeavors did pick you up at the Westin and I'll update my Cozumel dive op spreadsheet to indicate that. Their online info indicates that they only pick up south of the marina.

 

[Snrubnivek]

Just as a future reference for others:

I had forgotten about Salty Endeavors - good deal that they will pick up at the Westin pier. They also would have been a good taxi option (short ride) from the Westin as they meet at Puerto Abrigo (marina) which is just over a mile and a half away.

I also forgot that Pepe Scuba, being up north, also does pick ups. One would have to double check if the Westin is one they would pick up from.

There are also satellite dive ops at several hotels in the north, but one still needs a taxi ride to the pier the op leaves from. Pro Dive at the Melia, gave me taxi fare each day I dove, but it was a long taxi ride to their pier.

PLEASE verify when you get back that Salty Endeavors did pick you up at the Westin and I'll update my Cozumel dive op spreadsheet to indicate that. Their online info indicates that they only pick up south of the marina.

Sounds good. I'll make a note and post when I get back.

 

[Trailboss123]

Yikes

Used 3P's just a few weeks ago. Overall a great op with awesome people running it!

Some things worth mentioning:

• They pick up from downtown area (not sure about outside downtown) if you need a ride to the dock
• 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.
• Fast boats and lets the group decide the sites to dive each day by vote.
• Got back around 12:30-1:30pm every day after the morning 2 tank dive
• 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.

In reference to the last bullet point which I bolded and underlined above: Not true. You have a choice of 80cf aluminum or 100cf aluminum and air or 32% or 36% on any dive with 3P's.
Aldora offers 100cf Steel and 120cf steel with air, 32% or 36%.

There is an up-charge for a larger tank and nitrox with 3P's, which is pretty typical for most ops on the island, but their base price is low and with the additional cost for larger tank and nitrox, it still comes in about the same as the small handful of ops offering an all-inclusive price of larger tank and nitrox, thus the need to objectively compare and contrast options.

 

[fates13]

In reference to the last bullet point which I bolded and underlined above: Not true. You have a choice of 80cf aluminum or 100cf aluminum and air or 32% or 36% on any dive with 3P's.
Aldora offers 100cf Steel and 120cf steel with air, 32% or 36%.

There is an up-charge for a larger tank and nitrox with 3P's, which is pretty typical for most ops on the island, but their base price is low and with the additional cost for larger tank and nitrox, it still comes in about the same as the small handful of ops offering an all-inclusive price of larger tank and nitrox, thus the need to objectively compare and contrast options.

What I meant was that they don't tell you "we're doing Devil's Throat, a deep dive with possible deco so we're going to use larger tanks or you have the option to use larger tanks". Sure, you have the choice of requesting it beforehand if you know that's the dive you'll be doing and paying extra but it's not the shop that makes the suggestion.

Now it's a matter of debate whether a dive down to 125-130ft into a cave-like swim through with deco time is safe to do with an AL80 or not. When we did the dive, we didn't feel like we were necessarily being unsafe as we started ascending as soon as we went a couple minutes into deco and met our obligations with plenty of air. However, it was the first time ever in 150+ dives that we went into deco so it was a bit of an unnerving situation for us. Do I think that 3P's is necessarily doing something wrong by default diving AL80's on this type of dive? Not sure, I'm not experienced with this type of diving to say otherwise. I'm sure most other dive ops on the island are probably doing the same thing as when I looked through the spreadsheet, most shops upcharge for anything other than AL80's. They made sure we were all experienced with good buoyancy and air consumption beforehand and the DM did a great job leading us and checking to make sure we were okay. If it was my first time planning a deep dive into an overhead environment with some deco though I would feel much more comfortable with a shop that made the plan very clear and decided to take extra precautions such as putting everyone on larger tanks by default without an extra fee. Maybe you feel differently.

 

[jonhall]

If it was my first time planning a deep dive into an overhead environment with some deco though I would feel much more comfortable with a shop that made the plan very clear and decided to take extra precautions such as putting everyone on larger tanks by default without an extra fee.

So far in my experience (which is limited), when in Cozumel, and on a regular old day of boat diving, divers tend to either go where the dive op crew decides to take you for the day or where the divers on the boat suggest......as long as the conditions are okay. Doesn't really give one much time to plan!

Last November, we were about 100 yds from the dock when the DM said that was our first dive would be Cathedral (next to Devil's Throat.) It was my first time to dive the site - everyone was on 80cf steel air except one guy who always dove with nitrox. Pretty quick drop to 80' and then about 16 minutes at depth to about 105'. At the moment I looked at my computer showing 2 minutes NDL, the DM started to ascend. Overall, a nice 45 minute dive.

 

[Trailboss123]

What I meant was that they don't tell you "we're doing Devil's Throat, a deep dive with possible deco so we're going to use larger tanks or you have the option to use larger tanks". Sure, you have the choice of requesting it beforehand if you know that's the dive you'll be doing and paying extra but it's not the shop that makes the suggestion.

Now it's a matter of debate whether a dive down to 125-130ft into a cave-like swim through with deco time is safe to do with an AL80 or not. When we did the dive, we didn't feel like we were necessarily being unsafe as we started ascending as soon as we went a couple minutes into deco and met our obligations with plenty of air. However, it was the first time ever in 150+ dives that we went into deco so it was a bit of an unnerving situation for us. Do I think that 3P's is necessarily doing something wrong by default diving AL80's on this type of dive? Not sure, I'm not experienced with this type of diving to say otherwise. I'm sure most other dive ops on the island are probably doing the same thing as when I looked through the spreadsheet, most shops upcharge for anything other than AL80's. They made sure we were all experienced with good buoyancy and air consumption beforehand and the DM did a great job leading us and checking to make sure we were okay. If it was my first time planning a deep dive into an overhead environment with some deco though I would feel much more comfortable with a shop that made the plan very clear and decided to take extra precautions such as putting everyone on larger tanks by default without an extra fee. Maybe you feel differently.

Very understandable and well explained!