Problems with AquaWorld

[IchiroBoston]

wow, so much about Aquaworld. I just found out from a friend that has a time share in Cancun that his resort got rid of Aquaworld as their "on-site" guide. I guess they are going down-hill real quick.

I got quick replies from PADI from my e-mail to them, they said that they can't give out details about any actions that PADI took, but I feel better that at least they know about it.

 

[Captain CaveMan]

sorry you had a bad time with AquaWorld. We did to back in Jan. the boat and the employes were every nice but the amount of divers on the boat was a big problem. there was no room to move with out stepping on a nother person. ( I understand that at the time no other dive operation was up and running after the huricane, and all the divers had one choice and had to go with Aquaworld). But as far as the gear, I take all of my own gear but my wife, mother in law, dad rented from them and they had some nice bcd and sherwood regs. so I cant complain to much.

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

Well, as luck would have it, they don't always stick to the "no fly for 24 hour" rule and are more like "no fly for 12 hours", so we had to leave for the airport the next afternoon and barely had time to go pick up the video at the Aventura Palace. So we pay the $10 each way to go the 4 miles from the Copa to the Palace, get to the Aquaworld booth, and they are closed. My husband and I are PISSED!

Who doesn't stick to a 24 no fly rule? Isn't no fly usually a matter of personal responsibilty?

Did they tell you that they'd have the video available for you at a certain time and didn't meet that time, or did you show up expecting to have it ready?

Sorry - I'm just trying to understand what you're specifically complaining about.

Marc

 

[bennedc]

Who doesn't stick to a 24 no fly rule? Isn't no fly usually a matter of personal responsibilty?

Did they tell you that they'd have the video available for you at a certain time and didn't meet that time, or did you show up expecting to have it ready?

Sorry - I'm just trying to understand what you're specifically complaining about.

Marc

I guess it is up to the diver whether or not to wait 24 hours after flying, but we were running out of time to do the coz dive and it was more like 18 hours post-dive for us to fly home, but we took the risk and dove anyway. That was our choice. It was either take the opportunity and dive coz while we were there or stick to the rule and don't dive. This was just a detail that we were pushed for time. I have been places where they won't book you to dive in your last day... not the case with them.

That's not the complaint. The complaint is that the AquaWorld guy told us the video would be ready for us to pick up at the Aventura Palace the next morning at 10:00, I think it was. We told him we had a plane to catch and asked if he was CERTAIN that it would be ready. He said," Yes, absolutely." So we paid the taxi fare, got there with high hopes to get our video, got the run-around, and got no video. That trip cost us $20 and huge disappointment. I am still pissed. Their management at the location refused to help us. He said that it was just a misunderstanding, whatever, that the video was sent to Cancun but refused to mail it to the U.S. since we had a plane to catch, even if we bought the stupid thing. That is not how you treat your customers who have spent hundreds of dollars on your services. It is definately not how you get return customers.

 

[Christi]

Who doesn't stick to a 24 no fly rule? Isn't no fly usually a matter of personal responsibilty?

FYI...straight from DAN's website: http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=54

A: Revised Flying After Diving Guidelines for Recreational Diving - May 2002

The following guidelines are the consensus of attendees at the 2002 Flying After Diving Workshop. They apply to air dives followed by flights at cabin altitudes of 2,000 to 8,000 feet (610 to 2,438 meters) for divers who do not have symptoms of decompression sickness (DCS). The recommended preflight surface intervals do not guarantee avoidance of DCS. Longer surface intervals will reduce DCS risk further.

For a single no-decompression dive, a minimum preflight surface interval of 12 hours is suggested.
For multiple dives per day or multiple days of diving, a minimum preflight surface interval of 18 hours is suggested.
For dives requiring decompression stops, there is little evidence on which to base a recommendation and a preflight surface interval substantially longer than 18 hours appears prudent


Sounds to me like they did two easy dives...not multiple days of repetitive dives. It is actually common practice down here for people to dive the day before they fly. However, to qualify that statement, flights out of Cozumel depart no earlier than noon, so even a set of two-tank dives the morning before flying gives a 20 to 24 hour pre-flight interval. I have no idea what time the OP's flight departed Cancun. Still, if this was a concern for him, he shouldn't have been diving the day before his departure.

As to the rest of the OP's claims, all I have to say is take some personal responsibility. The fact remains that you ARE certified you are responsible for your own diving...period. For the OP to presume to know what the DM knew or didn't know about the certification levels, etc. is not fair. I can guarantee you that more communication goes on between operations and the crew than you think....whether you saw a list or not.

Cozumel operations and Cancun operations of AquaWorld are one in the same. I operate form the same pier in Cozumel they do, and their operations do seem organized from what I can see. I am not advocating or defending AquaWorld as I really don't know much about their operation other than the fact that they are a high volume, resort style operation. They are not nown for personalized attention.

As for the equipment failure, the OP didn't really give any specifics. Based on experience, I imagine it could be something like the BCD was self-inflating (common when the o-rings go bad), simple...disconnect the hose and orally inflate...that's why you learn this skill in OW training. If it's not holding air, it's likely a problem with the seal or an o-ring...unless of course there is a hole in the bladder. This is a more serious problem that can't be fixed underwater. Sometimes equipment failure is due to poor maintenance...other times it literally just happens. Again, this is why we learn how to deal with different situations in OW training.

I'm sorry to sound so skeptical...but some things about the op's claims just don't add up here for me.

 

[Christi]

( I understand that at the time no other dive operation was up and running after the huricane, and all the divers had one choice and had to go with Aquaworld)

I don't know of ANY dive shops in the PDC, CUN, CZM area that were not back up and running in January.

 

[IchiroBoston]

Damit! I just wrote a reply but my browser crashed...

As for my BCD, the hose was not secured to the inflator so every time I tried to inflate it it would pop off, even if I tried to manually inflate it would pop off. I was able to hold it togehter with one hand while inflating with the other.

My friends (1st dive ever) BCD was actually broken, her quick release valve broke off so it just filled with water and never held air. I was not near her but our DM was able to get to her and swap BCD's

My other friend's air problem was even worse, It worked fine on the boat but after 15min in the water it just stopped working. Thankfully he is a very good diver / swimmer so he was able to get to my wife which was not that close by and grab her alternate octo.

As for checking our equipment...Everything was assembled by the crew. Since we were on a beginners (non-certified diver's) boat we were not allowed to really mess with our equipment. As you know since most of the divers were not certified, they were never taught how to manually inflate their BCD either.

I did have some question when I saw all of the equipment but since I only had 7 dives and such a good experience with AquaWorld the year before, I assumed they knew what they were doing. Especially since we were on a beginners boat. But I know now to trust my gut more. Things that bothered me at first, Everything was very worn down, like all the paint and logos on all of the gear.

Earlier that week we dove with a smaller company, Cyan-Ha Dive Center in Playa.
Their service was amazing, all of their equipment was very clean and looked very nice.
All of their crew was very helpful and was willing to really help us out.
AquaWorld's service was very impersonal and like traveling on a airliner (you paid us, so here you go and deal with it)

 

[deepwaterferret]

My very first dive was a resort dive with Aquaworld in Cancun. It gave me the scuba bug and now I am a divemaster with almost 200 dives. I had have no complaints.

I accompanied some family members a few years ago when they did their first resort dive with Aquaworld at Cancun. I felt it was a huge cattle call, but it was without mishap. I would not recommend it, though. I recommended it to my my family members only because each family member was accompanied and buddied up with another family member who was a certified diver.

Probably the majority of people who go on the Aquaworld Cancun resort dive do so without incident and get a nice taste of scuba. I guess I just have a problem with the concept of cattle call resort diving. For those who need extra handholding, or in the case of an emergency, it just leaves too much to chance.

You get what you pay for, I guess. You want individual attention, sign up for private lessons. Because I am not an instructor yet, I can't conduct a resort dive for family members by myself. But I sure can go along with them. Aquasports was more than happy to take my money to dive with my newbie family members.

 

[eclipse785]

My buddy and I got certified through AquaWorld in Cancun three years ago and have had consistently good service through them. We even made a second trip down there two years ago and dove exclusivly with AW. With that said, there is no question that the operators down there are laid back,.. but that can be attributed to 'island mentality' than specifically AquaWorld. I'm not discounting your experience, but I would agree with the other posters on here that once you are certified, you are responsible for checking your equipment. And if equipment fails mid-dive AFTER you checked it initially, the dive operator can not be expected to be held liable.

To be honest, I took a Dive trip in Puerto Rico (Rincon) with my wife which was just doing a resort dive and I was astonished to see how "laid back" they were. This operation makes AquaWorld look fantastic. The only "training" my wife received was a flip chart book that she read on the boat - on the way to the dive site. No pool experience, no vebal instruction, just "read the flip-chart", stick this reg in your mouth, and "let's go".

 

[deepwaterferret]

I thought Aquaworld did a good job for me. They gave me enough instruction to handle the resort dive I would be doing and I had a blast....

But for the more timid, I don't think the resort program gives enough confidence before you hit the water. That is not so much a critque of Aquaworld as it is a critque of the whole resort dive concept.

When I accompanied my relative on their resort dive a few years later, coming back as a dive master, I was less impressed. There were more people on the boat, and less individual attention to the divers.

When I did my resort dive, they had about one dive master for every two divers, and there were only about six students on the boat. When we came back, it seemed like it was one dive master per dozen divers and they had about 30 divers in the water. Maybe this is an exaggeration, but it just seemed like a fleet of uncertified divers down there with not many instructors.