Need recommendations for our summer dive trip to Cozumel

[Ron Lee]

Two less makes for a much better in-water experience especially if you are doing swim throughs.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Swim throughs? Bah humbug. You never see anything in them.

 

[uncfnp]

Again, in all this I firmly believe that the practice of keeping small groups together is much safer in the long run and STILL providing long dive times to all is possible with our HP tanks and computer aided dive profiles.

Your boat. Your rules. But this is one of the reasons we were not repeat customers.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Your boat. Your rules. But this is one of the reasons we were not repeat customers.

You will be missed, good luck.

Dave

Swim throughs? Bah humbug. You never see anything in them.

Dear Ron,

I'd hate to embarrass you with the real story.

Dave

 

[Abby Diver]

Blue XT~Sea does

If my sons can't do the night dive per the dive master. Would it be to crazy to request a night dive solo? If I can't get my sons to dive with me? Maybe I can find someone to go with me. I love the lobster caves and octopuses inking on us

Dear Ron,

I'd hate to embarrass you with the real story.

Dave

Please do tell. It's frustrating for me to read between the lines. As if you dive operations don't have enough to deal with. I do not like diving with chicken divers who never have anything nice to say! bah humbug

You will be missed, good luck.

Dave

What's up with rules? Sorry to be a pest but I can only pray we get on a safe boat with an experienced dive master who lays out a perfect dive plan. Who is constantly observing all divers. Not just some arrogant DM. I have had my share of that crap. Feeling you have to tip the DM beforehand the dive to get any attention. I have horror stories but would never name names, They are no longer anyway. We want steel tanks and dive computers for everyone on our boat. I have some old ones but would like to rent some. Do you provide that service? Also if I book a night dive and no other divers will it be canceled. Keeping in mind I know that the costs for a solo diver has to break the bank..

Dear Ron,

I'd hate to embarrass you with the real story.

Dave

If divers want to post negative legitimate "opinions" so be it. But I believe in hearing the truth as sometimes there are three different versions. And the crybabies should speak up or shut up

And believe me, divers who frequent Coz on a regular basis remember it. Like selling cars. You don't sell a man one car, you sell him several cars over his lifetime. I own a business and do the same thing as you and Christi. Half of my business is repeat customers. I applaud all of you ops who understand that without repeat customers...your business will vanish.

That's such a positive approach. I applaud you..

The only bit I would quibble with. We dive with Scuba with Alison who has a bigger, fast boat, but never takes more than 8 divers.

Who is Allison? Does she have steel 120's. And night dives? Fast boats? What kind of motors do you have? Another dive horror was when we were way out in BVI WHEN THIER YAMAHA MOTOR TOOK A DIVE! And not with us. Finally another dive opp showed up and towed us in. After a hour of drifting scared half to death as my daughter was doing her first real dives..

Great maybe more shops will consider the poor divers who love night dives the best and miss out on their trip because the shop can't get a profitable load at the time. That is why we guaranty night dives twice a week, even if it just one diver that goes out. Yes, like you we may lose a little money now and then--but we have been doing that for 25 years.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

So if it's only me I can get a night dive? That's awesome..

 

[Trailboss123]

Who is Allison? Does she have steel 120's. And night dives? Fast boats? What kind of motors do you have? Another dive horror was when we were way out in BVI WHEN THIER YAMAHA MOTOR TOOK A DIVE! And not with us. Finally another dive opp showed up and towed us in. After a hour of drifting scared half to death as my daughter was doing her first real dives..

To my knowledge, the only dive operators on the island that provide Steel 100's and/or Steel 120's are Aldora, Living Underwater and Liquid Blue. Also, if I am not mistaken, Christi (Owner of Blue XT Sea) responded to you earlier stating that she would guarantee you a night dive regardless of number of divers and I know her to keep her word on that. Happy diving.
Home - Liquid Blue Divers
Home - Living Underwater
Blue XT~Sea Diving - Cozumel Scuba Diving - Blue Xt Sea Diving
ALDORA DIVERS

 

[lionfish-eater]

If divers want to post negative legitimate "opinions" so be it. But I believe in hearing the truth as sometimes there are three different versions. And the crybabies should speak up or shut up

It is a reference to an inside story about a dive they took together. Don't give them an opportunity to tell it again.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Maybe you have that wrong. We don't guaranty night dives on any night someone wants to go. I doubt if Christy and others could do the same. it is just Wednesday and Saturday nights , which ought to give every serious night diver a chance. Other nights we require 4 or more and usually that is not a problem if we know and ask others.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers.

 

[Streydog]

Just wanted to share my experience with Aldora. My first dive with them was in October 2015, I had 30 dives under my belt at the time and I was a pretty bad diver, not good on air and now I realize my bouncy was pretty bad. My first dive with them I shared air with the dive master to extend the dive and the dive lasted 58 minutes. Since then I have 76 dives with them and have gotten better. I have always gone down there alone so I am sure it has not been easy getting me on boats with people of the same skill level. Recently most of the time I have been the least skilled diver on the boat, this has helped me improve. Sure there are times when the dive has been a little shorter than normal but without adding all my dive time up they appear to average over 75 minutes since I started diving nitrox. I have dove 5 night dives with them; 71-77-80-88-89 minutes in that order. The 71 minute dive was my first night dive.
They also take you to places many dive shops don't go to on a regular basis. I have dove Maracaibo 3 or 4 times and Punta Sur around 6 times. In March we went to Cantarell and spent 10 minutes just hanging out in one spot watching the eagle rays fly by. Last October one day our first dive of the morning was Punta Sur, we were asked where we wanted to do our second dive and someone suggested Barracuda. They said sure, we did our SI in town but ended up at San Juan due to weather.
Only have experience with 1 other dive op in Cozumel and I was very fresh at the time, I am sure there are several great ops on the island but I do not have a reason to find out.
Not the best quality video but this was at Punta Sur in January:

 

[Dan G]

If my sons can't do the night dive per the dive master. Would it be to crazy to request a night dive solo? If I can't get my sons to dive with me? Maybe I can find someone to go with me. I love the lobster caves and octopuses inking on us

In Cozumel there is always a DM in the water. If an op was willing to take you out solo, you'd have a buddy in the DM.

What's up with rules? Sorry to be a pest but I can only pray we get on a safe boat with an experienced dive master who lays out a perfect dive plan. Who is constantly observing all divers. Not just some arrogant DM. I have had my share of that crap. Feeling you have to tip the DM beforehand the dive to get any attention. I have horror stories but would never name names, They are no longer anyway. We want steel tanks and dive computers for everyone on our boat. I have some old ones but would like to rent some. Do you provide that service? Also if I book a night dive and no other divers will it be canceled. Keeping in mind I know that the costs for a solo diver has to break the bank.

It is not the best you can do that you "pray to get a safe boat with a experienced DM who lays out a perfect dive plan." This is where you do your research, contact ops who meet your minimum criteria of tanks and group size and exchange some emails. Diving in Coz is NOT Russian Roulette. The biggest concern I have when diving in Coz is not the op or DM, but other divers who are unsafe. I would ask why you need a DM who is constantly observing all divers? I am not even sure how that is possible (100% of the time to be watching 100% of the divers?)

Yes, DMs in Coz need to have the experience to select sites that will be appropriate for the group and the conditions of that day. They are also responsible for providing a good briefing that let's everyone know about what to expect regarding the that particular site and the dive plan. That being said, once you are in the water, you need to be responsible for your dive. If you need a DM to remind you to check your air or to keep track of your consumption on your behalf, that's a problem. If you need a DM to tell you when it is time to ascend, that is a problem, as well. You should have an SMB in case you get separated from the group. You need to know the name of your boat and captain. The Captains and DMs in Coz work really hard and the good ones have a lot of information, knowledge and have a good camaraderie between them.


Who is Allison? Does she have steel 120's. And night dives? Fast boats? What kind of motors do you have? Another dive horror was when we were way out in BVI WHEN THIER YAMAHA MOTOR TOOK A DIVE! And not with us. Finally another dive opp showed up and towed us in. After a hour of drifting scared half to death as my daughter was doing her first real dives..

In this day and age, virtually every dive op has a website with all of this info on it. Only a couple are regularly active on SB, Dave (Aldora) and Christie Blue XTC).

So if it's only me I can get a night dive? That's awesome...

Some ops guarantee a night dive on specific nights, but not any night you want it.

 

[Abby Diver]

To my knowledge, the only dive operators on the island that provide Steel 100's and/or Steel 120's are Aldora, Living Underwater and Liquid Blue. Also, if I am not mistaken, Christi (Owner of Blue XT Sea) responded to you earlier stating that she would guarantee you a night dive regardless of number of divers and I know her to keep her word on that. Happy diving.
Home - Liquid Blue Divers
Home - Living Underwater
Blue XT~Sea Diving - Cozumel Scuba Diving - Blue Xt Sea Diving
ALDORA DIVERS

Thanks so much! We have to postpone our trip. We're now looking at July as our son had to have knee surgery last week!