I was in Aruba on a cruise stop and did a 2-tank morning dive with Aqua Windies.
TLDR: Was fine overall. Easy to get to from cruise port, staff was nice, wreck sites were so-so. Would probably use again if coming on a cruise ship and they're diving different sites.
GETTING THERE: Easy 10 minute taxi ride from cruise terminal ($15).
CHECK IN: Easy since I had completed everything online ahead of time and I wasn't renting any gear. Rental gear were Cressi BCDs, didn't see regs. Looked to be well maintained and I didn't see anyone have any problems with it. After check in we had a 10 min drive to the boat on the West side.
BOAT: Space for 12 divers plus crew. Partial shade. Has marine head but they said it wasn't working today. They didn't have any 1 lb weights, just 2-5 lbs. Separate mask and camera buckets; no fresh water hose.
SAFETY BRIEFING: Non-existent. Said boat had safety equipment up front but didn't specify if it included AED or O2.
PRE-DIVE BRIEFING: Very short, said to stay with group and signal if got to half tank or 500 psi. First dive site only had max depth of 27’so guide said no need to do safety stop and to just gradually ascend to line at end of dive. There were 10 divers total: 6 in my group plus a guide, and 4 others with a different guide.
DIVE 1: Pedernales wreck, max depth 27’. Small wreck which is basically just a debris field. Not much to see. Viz was 30-40’ which I was told was bad for Aruba since they just had a lot of rain.
SURFACE INTERVAL: Provided water, iced tea, bananas, and cookies.
DIVE 2: Antilla wreck, max depth 55’. At 400’, it's supposedly the third largest wreck in the Caribbean within recreational depth limits (per our guide). The ship is broken into at the midsection and we stayed on the forward section.
Their website lists on Wednesdays (when I dove) they do the Antilla and the Arashi Reef (which their emailtime mentioned as well). Not sure why we did the Pedernalis and not a reef but wished we hadn't.
After coming back to the shop, they offered to drive me to back to the cruise terminal, which I appreciated since it saved me a $15 taxi. I'm not sure if the shop has rinse buckets and a hose for divers since I didn't stay at the shop.
TLDR: Was fine overall. Easy to get to from cruise port, staff was nice, wreck sites were so-so. Would probably use again if coming on a cruise ship and they're diving different sites.
GETTING THERE: Easy 10 minute taxi ride from cruise terminal ($15).
CHECK IN: Easy since I had completed everything online ahead of time and I wasn't renting any gear. Rental gear were Cressi BCDs, didn't see regs. Looked to be well maintained and I didn't see anyone have any problems with it. After check in we had a 10 min drive to the boat on the West side.
BOAT: Space for 12 divers plus crew. Partial shade. Has marine head but they said it wasn't working today. They didn't have any 1 lb weights, just 2-5 lbs. Separate mask and camera buckets; no fresh water hose.
SAFETY BRIEFING: Non-existent. Said boat had safety equipment up front but didn't specify if it included AED or O2.
PRE-DIVE BRIEFING: Very short, said to stay with group and signal if got to half tank or 500 psi. First dive site only had max depth of 27’so guide said no need to do safety stop and to just gradually ascend to line at end of dive. There were 10 divers total: 6 in my group plus a guide, and 4 others with a different guide.
DIVE 1: Pedernales wreck, max depth 27’. Small wreck which is basically just a debris field. Not much to see. Viz was 30-40’ which I was told was bad for Aruba since they just had a lot of rain.
SURFACE INTERVAL: Provided water, iced tea, bananas, and cookies.
DIVE 2: Antilla wreck, max depth 55’. At 400’, it's supposedly the third largest wreck in the Caribbean within recreational depth limits (per our guide). The ship is broken into at the midsection and we stayed on the forward section.
Their website lists on Wednesdays (when I dove) they do the Antilla and the Arashi Reef (which their emailtime mentioned as well). Not sure why we did the Pedernalis and not a reef but wished we hadn't.
After coming back to the shop, they offered to drive me to back to the cruise terminal, which I appreciated since it saved me a $15 taxi. I'm not sure if the shop has rinse buckets and a hose for divers since I didn't stay at the shop.
