Eagle Ray Divers, Cozumel......Review

[oceanbound]

My one experience with Eagle Ray Divers was not as bad as your experience but not a totally positive one: Back in 2006 I booked a snorkel trip, for me and my sister in law, with Eagle Ray Divers after reading positive reviews. I had not become a certified diver at that time. I don't remember details of the booking but do know I was told how to get there. I believe everything was done by email. We arrived at the same marina you went to. When we arrived at the marina, by taxi, the driver asked the gate where Eagle Ray Divers was located. There appeared to be some confusion but finally the driver went around to the left side of the marina. This was probably about 8 or 9 in the morning. We were dropped off at an empty slip. No boat, no one to indicate Eagle Ray Divers. Next to the slip was a small building where there were about 3 men there. None of which appeared to be associated with Eagle Ray Divers. We had been there about 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do next; try to call for a taxi or wait. Not a pleasant feeling for two females, alone. anyway, after about 10 minutes, another taxi drove up and dropped off an American couple. They were as confused as us but by the time we all felt that maybe we had made a mistake their taxi had already left. Another 10 or 15 minutes go by and a guy came up on a bicycle. He explained that he would be our guide for the snorkeling trip. Another 5 or 10 minutes go by, I forget, but now feeling better as at least someone is there from Eagle Ray. The boat finally comes. Wish I could remember the captains name but anyway, off we go snorkeling. The guide's name was Said. Said gave us a briefing, told us all about Cozumel waters and it was very apparent he loved his job and loved Cozumel.

i will say now, 5 years later that even though the beginning of that snorkel trip was a bit out of my comfort zone, my SIL and i made three new friends that day who we all still keep in contact with. That snorkel trip was also what got me to go learn to dive at age of 43.

Now, I will say that when I did get certified, my first ocean water dive outside of my class was back in Cozumel. I did not choose Eagle Ray Divers. I was with my two sons, one of which was also a new diver, and the other was snorkeling. I chose not to go diving with them based on feeling that the op was not as organized as I would like for my comfort. it's business and who you want to do business with in the long run. Nothing personal and like I said above, the snorkel trip, after the boat did arrive, was great. Like many people who travel to Cozumel, once they find a dive op they like they stick with them. 6 years and about 8 trips later I'm still diving with the same DM that took me and my two sons out for my first salt water dive. oh, and we do leave out of Caleta marina still, and the guy at the gate of the marina doesn't always know where the boat is but I do and can tell the taxi driver exactly where to go.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience and hopefully you'll go back and try another dive op as there are so many to choose from and it's such a beautiful place.

 

[cuddlefish]

Sorry to hear you had such a frustrating experience. A few thoughts for you to consider...there are tons of dive operators that do not own an actual shop. This is not something to be surprised by or worried about. There are lots of kinds of dive boats including those that don't have platforms for a standard giant stride. You may be doing any number of entries as I'm sure you now know. I don't know what organization your instructor was with...but PADI allows a max of 4 divers in a group with an instructor who has discover scuba divers. So it seems your instructor was following accepted standards. You can pay more for a private guide, I'm sure. Sounds like you were late. Boats can't wait forever. HOWEVER, it was not professional for the dive shop employee (or owner...?) to not approach you dressed properly and introduce himself. He could have said, "Hi, I'm the owner of the dive shop. I have arranged a water taxi out to the dive boat. I'm terribly sorry, but they needed to leave on time so I have made these arrangements for you. I have the person you made your reservations with on the phone and she can confirm these arrangements". Seems like that would have made a world of difference.

 

[Mike]

Dude, I gotta tell you : it's MEXICO, you aren't in Kansas anymore.

You lost your paperwork, you got off your cruise ship with out a single clue where you were going, somebody helped you out, you found your way to the dive op destination late, a guy who was totally honest with you in every way, you treated him like he was a criminal. Your wife sucked water in her mouth and panicked, your buddy aborted the dive and you abandoned her without ever making contact with her to find out if she was okay, passed out, dead or who knows what.

Where exactly did anybody but yourself cause any of your problems?

Please, get your wife certified in the states or do it on a week long vacation, don't put her at risk anymore diving in the ocean, until she gets training and posseses the basic scuba skills she needs to be safe. Research your dive ops and don't choose based on low prices, choose based on reputation. Jumping off a cruise ship for a one day dive is pretty much a cluster f**k no matter where you go. It's certainly no place for a 'discovery' dive with your wife who isn't certified. Under water is under water. If she's so uncomfortable that a DM adjusting her gear caused her to emergency accend due to getting water in her mouth, you're lucky nothing worse happened to her. (does she even know how to make an emergency accent?)

You actually stumbled upon one of the top dive ops in Cozumel -- Aldora. Book a weeks vacation in cozumel, contact Aldora and set up a week of diving and get your wife certified and get some more dives under your belt too and put this behind you. I'm sorry, but to me you over-reacted to everything, you held everybody to a way higher standard then you did yourself. I'll say though when a Mexican wants to refund your money because he can't stand you, you have really accomplished something. You really need to Chill out.

Don't dive off a cruise ship unless

#1 everybody is dialed in on their dive skills (certification is a bare minimum)
#2 you are certain you're with a really good dive op
#3 lower your expectations and enjoy the ride. If you make it back without missing the boat you've had a good day.

If you can't do any of the above, book your dive through the cruise ship and enjoy a 25 minute dive.

And above all keep in mind one thing when you're in Mexico... you are in Mexico.

And really my friend, you freaked out about having to do a back roll off the side of a boat?

 

[Craig66]

Whilst there were certainly issues with the dive I do echo the previous posters that in general a glitzy dive shop with new equipment to purchase is not the common situation in Cozumel and is in no way a reflection on the quality of the op. In fact sometimes it can be diametrically opposite because a small proud excellent dive operator with out funds for a single office never mind glitzy store might also be the one that gives you the best service possible in an effort to grow their business. The dive ops I have used have ranged from a store to a small single office 4 streets back in town to an almost basement front store below a restaurant (funnest basement on the island LOL) and yet in every way the have all surpassed any experience I have ever had state side.

Also whilst I understand that it is pleasant to hear an accent that you recognize on the other side of the phone again some of the best dive ops out there are run by local business people or people from other lands and you should not limit yourself based on an accent alone. Believe me I know - I have on

 

[MMM]

I hate to say this, but I think the OP's inexperience is speaking here. More experience diving (for him and his wife) would likely result in a different report. FWIW, I think I've seen a small office for Eagle Ray Divers in the caleta next to Living Underwater. It's just a niggling memory so I may be mistaken.

 

[rivers]

Having read your post twice, I am going to make a few comments. The first issue was that you lost your reservation paperwork. If you had it, you probably would have known to meet the dive op at Caleta. For many ops, this is standard practice. I worked on a cruise ship for 3 years, and I have met countless dive boats (including for my AOW) at the marina over the year+ I was diving off of of ships.
Even though you may have your AOW cert, you are not an advanced diver with less than 24 dives. It shows in your review. Like others have pointed out, the back roll off of a boat is common. Small 6-8 pack boats in Cozumel are the most common dive boat. There are other ops that use the big cattle boats with a dive platform for a giant stride entry, but most of the smaller ops have the small boats. You also should have gone over the back roll entry procedure in your initial OW class. Even if you didn't practice it, it at least should have been mentioned in your OW manual. If you go back to Coz, and want a boat you can giant stride off of, look into ops like Dive Paradise or Sand Dollar (I'm sure there are others).
My advice to you is to keep diving. Find what you like in an op. Research the op and the types of boats they use. Call and ask questions about their boats, their company.

 

[ggunn]

Eagle Ray Divers is well known on Cozumel. You say that the person at Aldora told you they had never heard of them; it seems to me that someone is/was not being completely honest.

A plan which needs everything to go right to succeed is not a good plan, IMO. I understand your frustration, but there were far too many unknown variables in your plan for it to have much of a chance to end well. You would have been much better off booking a dive through the cruise line. It would have been more expensive, but the details would have been taken care of without depending on you to make it happen. You don't know the island, the dive op (an op is not a shop), or any of the people involved, and you lost the only documentation of what you were supposed to do and where you were supposed to go. You only had a few hours to make it all come together, and you were improvising in an atmosphere of ignorance. I'm a little surprised that you got to dive at all.

In all fairness, I have no direct experience with Eagle Ray Divers, so I cannot speak to their treatment of you, but I will say that they were dependent on you to know what you were supposed to do to connect with them, and it appears to me that you dropped the ball.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Gordon,

We have ongoing DM training programs and interns (mostly US citizens) who learn the dive business, and some of that is in the front office. The fact that this person's first contact after walking into our office did not know of Eagle Ray divers WAS NOT dishonest. Indeed, Eagle Ray Divers may be well known to a regular Cozumeleno like you, but not nearly as widely known as you suggest.

The other fact, that our staff went through the effort to find a number for them and make a call should quash such a insinuation on your part.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Lsufootballfan]

First of all let me clarify a few things in my post. It was totally my fault that the paperwork was lost. In no way do I blame this mishap on Eagle Ray. The only reason that this was mentioned in the post was to be able to compliment Aldora on the professional and courteous treatment that we received from them. By posting the information about the lost paperwork, it explained how we ended up in their shop........... I understand the boat can not wait on one customer when other customers are waiting. The problem that I do have is that I was told on the telephone that the boat was there and would be there when we arrived. When we arrive 10 minutes later, we are told that the boat left 45 minutes ago. This put the boat leaving at 8:00am, the same time that we deported the cruise ship. If this was a problem for the dive op then I should have been told this prior to making reservations. At the very least I should have been told this when I spoke with Chellie on the phone when I called her from Aldora.........This was my first time diving in Mexico and I admit that I am not accustom to the type of boats most commonly used there or the 6 foot high piers that they dock from. If you disregard those complaints then there are still issues that are inexcusable. I expect, whether it be in Mexico or any other country, the dive operation that I have paid to take me diving to be organized, knowledgeable, PROFESSIONAL and most of all, safe. None of these expectations were met by Eagle Ray Divers. I am quite sure that there are many dive operations in Mexico that could easily meet my expectations...... Further more, my lack of a substantial number of dives does not make me ignorant to what should be expected from a dive operations standard of service. I don’t care if I have 1 dive or 10,000 dives; I expect to get what I pay for. If the dive op that I hire cannot meet these expectations then I will hire one that will.

 

[Lsufootballfan]

Dear Gordon,

We have ongoing DM training programs and interns (mostly US citizens) who learn the dive business, and some of that is in the front office. The fact that this person's first contact after walking into our office did not know of Eagle Ray divers WAS NOT dishonest. Indeed, Eagle Ray Divers may be well known to a regular Cozumeleno like you, but not nearly as widely known as you suggest.

The other fact, that our staff went through the effort to find a number for them and make a call should quash such a insinuation on your part.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Dave, the professionalism that we received at your shop is what I and everyone should expect from any dive operation. Because of the professionalism and courtesy demonstrated by your shop, you have earned my business the next time we are in Cozumel. The employees of your shop definitely went above and beyond good customer service. Thank you for the pleasant experience.