Aruba Questions

[dmbfan225]

My wife and I are going to Aruba in July and planning on a few days of diving. We both are fairly new to diving and have a handful of dives under our belts. I have done some searching on the board to narrow down prospective dive operators, Native Divers, JADS and SEAruba Fly n Dive. Have a few questions about these any answers would be appreciated.

1) Are these operators suitable for our skill level? We are comfortable with our skills but still at that stage where we like having a dive master around.
2) How long does it take to get to the dive boats? We are staying the low rise area.
3) How long does it take to get to the operators preferred dive sites?
4) Is there shade on the boats?
5) And the final important question is do all these operators have heads on the boat or is just the big blue one over the side.

Any other suggestions/comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DarthSimon]

JADS was amazing last November.... They do boat dives but mostly shore dives were you walk right into the water.... I loved those.. Baby Beach was an amazing dive, as well as Sponge Reef....

Native Divers Boat was out of the water, and IMHO, would never use them again... I originally booked with them, and was turned away because their boat was down....


Jads all the way... They Chucha will pick you up every day.....

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I only use Native Divers when we go to Aruba. Romeo & Vanessa are great.
Vanessa's tent is set up on the beach in front of the Marriott Surf Club. The high rise and low rise area's are only a couple of minutes apart. Romeo is in the water with you and leads all the dives while Robbie stays on the boat. He comes and picks you up and drops you off at your resort. Romeo leaves from in front of the Marriott when he dives the north end and the dive sites are only a 5 or 10 minute ride. When he dives the south side, he leaves from the marina beside the airport to avoid the long boat ride from the north end. The south end dive sites are about 10 to 20 minutes out.
They have a head on the boat as well as a large area below to change. He always has a big cooler full of fruit, pop and fruit juice. He only takes 6 or 7 divers out on the boat. He is all business under the water but always keeps you laughing on the surface.
They don't use email very often so the best way to get hold of them is to call their cell phone.

If you have any other questions or if this is your first visit to the island just pm me. I have some web sites with alot of info about Aruba.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Native Divers Boat was out of the water, and IMHO, would never use them again... I originally booked with them, and was turned away because their boat was down.....

How was Romeo supposed to take you diving when his boat was out of the water being repaired?????? Not a good reason to tell someone not to use them. One of best dive operator on the island in my opinion.

 

[kvp]

My wife and I are going to Aruba in July and planning on a few days of diving. We both are fairly new to diving and have a handful of dives under our belts. I have done some searching on the board to narrow down prospective dive operators, Native Divers, JADS and SEAruba Fly n Dive. Have a few questions about these any answers would be appreciated.

1) Are these operators suitable for our skill level? We are comfortable with our skills but still at that stage where we like having a dive master around.
2) How long does it take to get to the dive boats? We are staying the low rise area.
3) How long does it take to get to the operators preferred dive sites?
4) Is there shade on the boats?
5) And the final important question is do all these operators have heads on the boat or is just the big blue one over the side.

Any other suggestions/comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

1) I have been diving with Fly 'N Dive a number of times. The people are great. They are very concious of your skill level and very patience. There will always be a divemaster or instructor in the water with you.
2) From the low rise hotels, it's very easy to get to Fly 'N Dive. They can pick you up in the morning so you don't even need to drive or rent a cab.
3) Most of the sites they go to are within a 10 - 15 minute boat ride. A few might be 30 - 45 minutes. Very short rides.
4) There is shade on their boats.
5) Yes they do have heads at least on their big boat. I'm not sure about the other one.

If you go with Fly 'N Dive tell everyone, especially Linda & Steve, that Ken said hello.

As you can tell, I like Fly 'N Dive, however you can't go wrong with any of your choices. Enjoy your trip. Let us know what decision you make and also let us know about your vacation and your diving when you get home.

Ken