In my experience, Dive Palancar is professional & orderly with nice, well-equipped boats and a pleasant & well-trained staff. As the Occidental Grande/Allegro are situated well south & close to many of the best dives, rides are short & you usually return to shore for SI.
However, it is a high volume op & does serve a mixed crowd, including lots of newbies, and tightly scheduled, regimented, "lowest common denominator" diving indeed can & does occur on occasion.
Also, it is not quite accurate that they allow divers to select which site the boat will go to (i.e., no fixed schedule). Unless special arrangements are made in advance, they will not take you to the far northern (e.g., Barracuda, San Juan), far southern (e.g., Maracaibo Deep) or eastern (e.g., El Islote) sites. Even among the closer sites, they will not take you to places like Garganta del Diablo unless the divers on the boat clearly have the skills for it. Outside of this, yes, the group vote will give you access to the customary sites provided that site conditons & crew mood also are copacetic.
In short, I recommend Dive Palancar to the new to intermediate level diver or the a first timer to Coz, but not to the advanced diver seeking the island's most challenging sites and/or extreme diver freedom.
Have fun.
DocVikingo
