What happened to Cozumel?

[StreetDoctor]

Aldora is who the dive op was. No sense in hiding it.

 

[ggunn]

Aldora is who the dive op was. No sense in hiding it.

If you do not quote what you are replying to we have no way of knowing what you are talking about.

 

[BRT]

Aldora is who the dive op was. No sense in hiding it.

I know that Aldora is a good operation, but we dove with them only one time. The trip was to be a lionfish hunt to the north. Instead they took us to some non-descript site to the south, no hunting, and after a small, poor reef they ran us over the sand. Not much fun and we are unlikely to go back. If that dive day was my main impression of Cozumel I wouldn't be very enthused either.

 

[StreetDoctor]

If you do not quote what you are replying to we have no way of knowing what you are talking about.

Uhhh…. I am the OP.

 

[ggunn]

Uhhh…. I am the OP.

After 187 entries to this thread you expect us to remember what you said in post #1? ;^)

 

[Dan G]

I am not doubting the OP's experience whatsoever and I am quite surprised to hear that this was Aldora. I have dozens of dives with them and nothing close to this has occurred. The closest we came to a similar experience was when we were staying at the Villa and the boat was late. We were told within 15 minutes or so of the scheduled departure time that the boat had mechanical issues. Aldora offered to take people downtown for a complimentary breakfast while we waited for the boat to be fixed. Some people took them up on the offer others did not.

Again, not doubting your experience, saying it is exaggerated, or your frustration misplaced. Additionally, if I had had the same experience as @BRT I am not sure I'd use them again either. To the OP, I know you spoke to the shop and got a refund. Did they offer any explanation or remedy other than refunding your booking for the next few days? Same question for BRT. I am interested in their response to you and not trying to deflect blame towards you for Aldora's failures. As I see it, a business' response to customer complaints says a lot about the business.

 

[BRT]

I am not doubting the OP's experience whatsoever and I am quite surprised to hear that this was Aldora. I have dozens of dives with them and nothing close to this has occurred. The closest we came to a similar experience was when we were staying at the Villa and the boat was late. We were told within 15 minutes or so of the scheduled departure time that the boat had mechanical issues. Aldora offered to take people downtown for a complimentary breakfast while we waited for the boat to be fixed. Some people took them up on the offer others did not.

Again, not doubting your experience, saying it is exaggerated, or your frustration misplaced. Additionally, if I had had the same experience as @BRT I am not sure I'd use them again either. To the OP, I know you spoke to the shop and got a refund. Did they offer any explanation or remedy other than refunding your booking for the next few days? Same question for BRT. I am interested in their response to you and not trying to deflect blame towards you for Aldora's failures. As I see it, a business' response to customer complaints says a lot about the business.

I didn't complain. Just paid the bill, which was quite a bit more than who we normally dive with. I'm not upset with Aldora. But if our only Cozumel dives were those dives I would believe that Cozumel diving was kind of dead. I know this is not true.

 

[StreetDoctor]

I am not doubting the OP's experience whatsoever and I am quite surprised to hear that this was Aldora. I have dozens of dives with them and nothing close to this has occurred. The closest we came to a similar experience was when we were staying at the Villa and the boat was late. We were told within 15 minutes or so of the scheduled departure time that the boat had mechanical issues. Aldora offered to take people downtown for a complimentary breakfast while we waited for the boat to be fixed. Some people took them up on the offer others did not.

Again, not doubting your experience, saying it is exaggerated, or your frustration misplaced. Additionally, if I had had the same experience as @BRT I am not sure I'd use them again either. To the OP, I know you spoke to the shop and got a refund. Did they offer any explanation or remedy other than refunding your booking for the next few days? Same question for BRT. I am interested in their response to you and not trying to deflect blame towards you for Aldora's failures. As I see it, a business' response to customer complaints says a lot about the business.

I promise there is no exaggeration on my part, even now a month later. If anything I undersold it. They acted like they were doing me a favor by not charging me a cancellation fee. There was no discount given.

 

[wateraddiction]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

 

[BRT]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

I suspect that StreetDoctor and I were both victims of the operators wanting to see how these new divers did before they took them someplace challenging.