FrenziedFerret
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My fiancee and I saw all the great posts about Aldora, and couldn't believe our eyes. After the experience we had with them last year, we felt it was our duty to share our experience with them. So for those of you who are looking to choose a dive operation in Cozumel, listen up. 
I'll cover some details so you'll get a better feel for things as we saw them.
We hadn't been to Cozumel before last year, and thought we'd try several different dive operations just for variety. We like to meet new people, and see how different boats operate. We chose Papa Hogs and Aldora.
Our first half of the trip was scheduled with Papa Hogs. So for the sake of comparison, I'll include some information about them. These guys were great! Very friendly, very casual. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to my equipment just getting off an airplane (who knows what those luggage handlers do to it?). So we asked if we could rent a tank to jump in the water to check out our gear before we go on a real dive trip the next day. They were happy to accommodate us. Their shop is right on the water (office across the street). It was actually a pretty decent little dive, and got to see a ton of fish, a variety of coral, and a couple sea snakes. This equipment check-out dive was better than some dives I've done off Hawaii! Very cool.
Papa Hogs' prices were good, they only took 6-7 people on the boat (I think they have 3 boats), and on one trip there was only 4 passengers. The dive masters were super cool! Very friendly, very knowledgeable, safety conscious, down to earth, and they were quite entertaining. We fully enjoyed our time with them, and were sad to say goodbye to them before switching to Aldora for the 2nd half of the trip.
So our next experience was with Aldora. We were pretty excited about it! But the first snag we ran into was before we even got to dive. I don't remember all the details, but there was some sort of problem finding them when they're in the office. (You see, they use high-pressure steel tanks with special DIN fittings. It requires people with "normal" setups to bring their gear to the office and have them convert it for you. This must be done at least a day ahead of time.) So we wasted a $15 taxi ride into town ($30 total), and had to lug our regulator/computer setups around while we checked out a few shops. We went by the office 2-3 times, but there were no hours posted on the door. Ok, no biggie, **** happens.
The next day we managed to catch them in the office. We had to sit around for 15-20 minutes before they helped us. The lady in the office was nice. I think her name is Michelle. The office was pristine. She gave us some forms to fill out, a quick briefing, told us how great their divemasters are, and we were all set. Sweet.
The boat that showed up the next morning was very nice! But the divemaster (Omar? curly hair, skinny guy) was not the warmest person we met there. I asked if we could have any input about which reef we dove. He basically said no, we're going to one the Aldora folks chose. It turned out to be the same darned spot we dove the day before! :-( On the 5 minute boat ride he sorta grilled us about our qualifications, and made my fiancee feel quite uncomfortable. I asked what was up with that, and he said he'd been diving with the rest of the group earlier in the week, but he didn't know us. Ok, whatever. I guess better to be safe.
At the dive site, he went over some special Aldora hand signals while the boat captain got us set up with our tanks and BCs. I happened to be the last one for him to get to. The divemaster asked if we're all ready, but the dude was still messing with my tank. I had no chance to check out my buddy's gear, let alone my own! The captain just finished when the divemaster again asked if we're ready. Again, I said no. He stressed the fact that we all need to enter the water together. (Yeah, no ****!) Begin... With... Review... And... "WAIT, hold it! My air is not turned on!"
So I've done about 50 dives under a variety of conditions. I'm no expert, but I'm no newbie either. And I just did 3 days of diving in this same area. At least give me a chance to make sure we're ready. They turned on my air, and we were off. I checked out my buddy on the way down. :-\
I managed to forget the special Aldora hand signals as soon as we hit bottom. Oh well. :-D The dive was pretty good when the divemaster wasn't adjusting somebody's BC, tweaking someone's gear setup, or checking everybody's air. Of course some bozo in the group ran out of air early, which caused us to wrap up our dive. The divemaster let the guy breathe off his tank while we did our TWO (!) safety stops. My computer said we were fine to ascend.
Aldora apparently does all their surface intervals at a particular resort. Sort of an adult playground. It was a pretty fun place, but the other people on the boat said it gets old after a while. I was too paranoid to get some juice from the bar after the divemaster's intense lecture about them not letting you dive if they even suspect you've had alcohol during the surface interval. He repeated it several times, just to make sure we got the message. So I just sat in a hammock the whole time, and tried to
stay open minded. "That's just how they do things," I told myself. (sigh) I overheard a couple other people on the boat grumbling about something, and it turns out that they weren't all that happy with the experience, but they weren't sure how bad it
was because they didn't have anything else to compare it to.
The second dive started better than the first. I had air this time, and we got to check out our gear before entering the water. :-D It seemed that my fiancee, who was enjoying herself looking for creatures in holes and crevices, was always a little too deep or too shallow for the divemaster's liking. After more of his tweaking and fiddling with the air in my BC, and watching him do the same with the other divers, I finally got pissed. I made the decision right then and there to dump these perfectionist snobs and go back to Papa Hogs for the rest of the week. It also annoyed me that Aldora was more expensive. Neither of us enjoyed the rest of that dive, and couldn't wait to get out of there. "What? A nurse shark over there? Yeah, whatever. Let's just go." (grrrr)
We got our money back for the rest of the dives, had them take their damned fittings off our gear, and went back to Papa Hogs.
So would I recommend Aldora? Well, if you don't know any better, or don't have anything to compare it to, you'll probably be fine with it. They're definitely not a cattle boat, so that's good. If you want to be ultra-conservative (except when entering the water!), and if you like to stress about things, Aldora is the outfit to choose. If you're not one to joke around and have fun with the divemasters, go with Aldora. If you want to look cool getting to your dive site in a great boat, Aldora is for you. And if you like to brag about using steel tanks with special fittings (that won't get you much more bottom time due to the nature of their dive profile), and want to pay more, go with Aldora. But for everybody else, pick another group. You'll thank me for it later.
Of course this was only one trip with them, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Maybe they had a bad day. But then again, you can't blame all the problems we had with them on a bad day. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.
For those who are interested in a comparison between Aldora and Papa Hogs, one thing that stands out in my mind is the general look of things. Papa Hogs has a much more casual look about it. I might say run down, but it's really not that. But it's certainly not pristine. A few of the divemasters look a little scary. One, whose name escapes me at the moment, looks sort of like a Mexican Fabio, without the pretty-boy side to him. Another one, Gabriele, wears a do-rag (even during the dive!). But looks aside, they are very nice, and wonderful divemasters. Gabriele was our favorite! Ask for him if you dive with Papa Hogs. The boats are not super-cool, whiz-bang, state of the art crafts. One is named Brain Damage. :-D They are totally safe, and fast, but not as cool as the Aldora boats. Papa's varies their surface interval location, Aldora doesn't. There is a bar at Papa Hog's, and people seem to hang out there. Aldora is not the kind of place one could or would want to hang out.
So there you have it. Everybody else seems to think Aldora is the greatest dive operation on the planet, but I'm not afraid to completely disagree.
Thanks for listening!
FrenziedFerret
Oh, and I read some posts asking about the Iberostar hotel. Iberostar is AWESOME, and is the closest resort to the big reefs. You are the last stop on the way out (short boat ride), and the first ones dropped off. 10 minute boat ride, max! Iberostar's dive operation looks like a cattle boat. They must have crammed 25 people on the boat when we were watching them come in! I wouldn't recommend them.
The Iberostar was the 2nd most expensive hotel when we researched it, but worth every penny. The downside is that it's the hotel farthest from town. The taxi ride will cost you about $15. If you like high-rise hotels like you see in most cities, don't choose Iberostar. If you enjoy sort of blending in with the native trees and environment, Iberostar is the place to be. There are lots of native wildlife there (birds, lizards, toads, tree frogs, etc) cruising around, which is something I really enjoyed. They also had a bunch of tropical parrots, and a natural looking pond with real flamingos in it. Great place, great food, great value, wonderful environment, highly recommended.
I have digital pictures of stuff (Iberostar, Papa Hog's divemasters & boats, Aldora boats, etc) if anyone's interested
I'll cover some details so you'll get a better feel for things as we saw them.We hadn't been to Cozumel before last year, and thought we'd try several different dive operations just for variety. We like to meet new people, and see how different boats operate. We chose Papa Hogs and Aldora.
Our first half of the trip was scheduled with Papa Hogs. So for the sake of comparison, I'll include some information about them. These guys were great! Very friendly, very casual. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to my equipment just getting off an airplane (who knows what those luggage handlers do to it?). So we asked if we could rent a tank to jump in the water to check out our gear before we go on a real dive trip the next day. They were happy to accommodate us. Their shop is right on the water (office across the street). It was actually a pretty decent little dive, and got to see a ton of fish, a variety of coral, and a couple sea snakes. This equipment check-out dive was better than some dives I've done off Hawaii! Very cool.
Papa Hogs' prices were good, they only took 6-7 people on the boat (I think they have 3 boats), and on one trip there was only 4 passengers. The dive masters were super cool! Very friendly, very knowledgeable, safety conscious, down to earth, and they were quite entertaining. We fully enjoyed our time with them, and were sad to say goodbye to them before switching to Aldora for the 2nd half of the trip.
So our next experience was with Aldora. We were pretty excited about it! But the first snag we ran into was before we even got to dive. I don't remember all the details, but there was some sort of problem finding them when they're in the office. (You see, they use high-pressure steel tanks with special DIN fittings. It requires people with "normal" setups to bring their gear to the office and have them convert it for you. This must be done at least a day ahead of time.) So we wasted a $15 taxi ride into town ($30 total), and had to lug our regulator/computer setups around while we checked out a few shops. We went by the office 2-3 times, but there were no hours posted on the door. Ok, no biggie, **** happens.
The next day we managed to catch them in the office. We had to sit around for 15-20 minutes before they helped us. The lady in the office was nice. I think her name is Michelle. The office was pristine. She gave us some forms to fill out, a quick briefing, told us how great their divemasters are, and we were all set. Sweet.
The boat that showed up the next morning was very nice! But the divemaster (Omar? curly hair, skinny guy) was not the warmest person we met there. I asked if we could have any input about which reef we dove. He basically said no, we're going to one the Aldora folks chose. It turned out to be the same darned spot we dove the day before! :-( On the 5 minute boat ride he sorta grilled us about our qualifications, and made my fiancee feel quite uncomfortable. I asked what was up with that, and he said he'd been diving with the rest of the group earlier in the week, but he didn't know us. Ok, whatever. I guess better to be safe.
At the dive site, he went over some special Aldora hand signals while the boat captain got us set up with our tanks and BCs. I happened to be the last one for him to get to. The divemaster asked if we're all ready, but the dude was still messing with my tank. I had no chance to check out my buddy's gear, let alone my own! The captain just finished when the divemaster again asked if we're ready. Again, I said no. He stressed the fact that we all need to enter the water together. (Yeah, no ****!) Begin... With... Review... And... "WAIT, hold it! My air is not turned on!"
So I've done about 50 dives under a variety of conditions. I'm no expert, but I'm no newbie either. And I just did 3 days of diving in this same area. At least give me a chance to make sure we're ready. They turned on my air, and we were off. I checked out my buddy on the way down. :-\
I managed to forget the special Aldora hand signals as soon as we hit bottom. Oh well. :-D The dive was pretty good when the divemaster wasn't adjusting somebody's BC, tweaking someone's gear setup, or checking everybody's air. Of course some bozo in the group ran out of air early, which caused us to wrap up our dive. The divemaster let the guy breathe off his tank while we did our TWO (!) safety stops. My computer said we were fine to ascend.
Aldora apparently does all their surface intervals at a particular resort. Sort of an adult playground. It was a pretty fun place, but the other people on the boat said it gets old after a while. I was too paranoid to get some juice from the bar after the divemaster's intense lecture about them not letting you dive if they even suspect you've had alcohol during the surface interval. He repeated it several times, just to make sure we got the message. So I just sat in a hammock the whole time, and tried to
stay open minded. "That's just how they do things," I told myself. (sigh) I overheard a couple other people on the boat grumbling about something, and it turns out that they weren't all that happy with the experience, but they weren't sure how bad it
was because they didn't have anything else to compare it to.
The second dive started better than the first. I had air this time, and we got to check out our gear before entering the water. :-D It seemed that my fiancee, who was enjoying herself looking for creatures in holes and crevices, was always a little too deep or too shallow for the divemaster's liking. After more of his tweaking and fiddling with the air in my BC, and watching him do the same with the other divers, I finally got pissed. I made the decision right then and there to dump these perfectionist snobs and go back to Papa Hogs for the rest of the week. It also annoyed me that Aldora was more expensive. Neither of us enjoyed the rest of that dive, and couldn't wait to get out of there. "What? A nurse shark over there? Yeah, whatever. Let's just go." (grrrr)
We got our money back for the rest of the dives, had them take their damned fittings off our gear, and went back to Papa Hogs.
So would I recommend Aldora? Well, if you don't know any better, or don't have anything to compare it to, you'll probably be fine with it. They're definitely not a cattle boat, so that's good. If you want to be ultra-conservative (except when entering the water!), and if you like to stress about things, Aldora is the outfit to choose. If you're not one to joke around and have fun with the divemasters, go with Aldora. If you want to look cool getting to your dive site in a great boat, Aldora is for you. And if you like to brag about using steel tanks with special fittings (that won't get you much more bottom time due to the nature of their dive profile), and want to pay more, go with Aldora. But for everybody else, pick another group. You'll thank me for it later.
Of course this was only one trip with them, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Maybe they had a bad day. But then again, you can't blame all the problems we had with them on a bad day. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.
For those who are interested in a comparison between Aldora and Papa Hogs, one thing that stands out in my mind is the general look of things. Papa Hogs has a much more casual look about it. I might say run down, but it's really not that. But it's certainly not pristine. A few of the divemasters look a little scary. One, whose name escapes me at the moment, looks sort of like a Mexican Fabio, without the pretty-boy side to him. Another one, Gabriele, wears a do-rag (even during the dive!). But looks aside, they are very nice, and wonderful divemasters. Gabriele was our favorite! Ask for him if you dive with Papa Hogs. The boats are not super-cool, whiz-bang, state of the art crafts. One is named Brain Damage. :-D They are totally safe, and fast, but not as cool as the Aldora boats. Papa's varies their surface interval location, Aldora doesn't. There is a bar at Papa Hog's, and people seem to hang out there. Aldora is not the kind of place one could or would want to hang out.
So there you have it. Everybody else seems to think Aldora is the greatest dive operation on the planet, but I'm not afraid to completely disagree.
Thanks for listening!
FrenziedFerret
Oh, and I read some posts asking about the Iberostar hotel. Iberostar is AWESOME, and is the closest resort to the big reefs. You are the last stop on the way out (short boat ride), and the first ones dropped off. 10 minute boat ride, max! Iberostar's dive operation looks like a cattle boat. They must have crammed 25 people on the boat when we were watching them come in! I wouldn't recommend them.
The Iberostar was the 2nd most expensive hotel when we researched it, but worth every penny. The downside is that it's the hotel farthest from town. The taxi ride will cost you about $15. If you like high-rise hotels like you see in most cities, don't choose Iberostar. If you enjoy sort of blending in with the native trees and environment, Iberostar is the place to be. There are lots of native wildlife there (birds, lizards, toads, tree frogs, etc) cruising around, which is something I really enjoyed. They also had a bunch of tropical parrots, and a natural looking pond with real flamingos in it. Great place, great food, great value, wonderful environment, highly recommended.
I have digital pictures of stuff (Iberostar, Papa Hog's divemasters & boats, Aldora boats, etc) if anyone's interested
