Aruba - beware of Pelican/Unique Sports of Aruba

[tridacna]

Whoops, my mistake it was Missdirected who made the reference to the wrong company...for that I am sorry.

Since we are "blabbermouthing" with my bad READING & COMPREHENSION....a lesson for you...I doubt you "dived" with anyone...."DOVE" or "HAVE BEEN DIVING" but not "DIVED":blinking:

Happy Diving!

Once again, our blabbermouth Aruba spokesperson gets it wrong.

All English dictionaries spell it "dived" or "dove". It's not that hard to check. I guess that we can add POOR SPELLING to BAD READING AND COMPREHENSION.

OK. Enough badmouthing. Happy diving to you too.

 

[sglake]

I have dived with Unique many many times and have never had a problem. I've even had them take my daughter and I out by ourselves when the had nothing else booked for the spots we wanted to go! We were always safe and never felt that all they were after was the money. Always remember though no matter who you dive with , what operation , or where you go YOU are responsible for your own safety and if YOU feel you aren't then you make your own choice whether to go or not.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Nothing has changed at Unique. I dove with them once about 3 or 4 years ago and never again. First off when I went into the shop to ask about going out on the morning dive, the guy behind the counter said the boat was full. I said fine and was leaving, when a manager or something came out and said that paying customers come first and that he couldn't go along to dive.
When I got to the boat, they had 24 divers piled on the boat with 2 DM's. It was a south coast drift dive and at the end of the dive there were people popping up all over the place.

aria

I recommend diving with Romeo at Native Divers. He is located on the beach in front of the Marriott Surf club. He only takes out a maximum of 7 divers. He is the only guy I dive with in Aruba now. His website is Native Divers Aruba PADI Open Water Diving certifications The best way to contact him is to phone him.

 

[Missdirected]

I recommend diving with Romeo at Native Divers. He is located on the beach in front of the Marriott Surf club. He only takes out a maximum of 7 divers. He is the only guy I dive with in Aruba now. His website is Native Divers Aruba PADI Open Water Diving certifications The best way to contact him is to phone him.

I loved Romeo! He was absolutely fabulous. I gather he and Clive are pretty much in the same league.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I think Romeo and Clive are the 2 best dive operators on Aruba for small group diving

 

[DarthSimon]

JADS is also amazing.... Just did 6 dives with them last week. First 4 were my checkout dives.. Personal service.... Great reefs....

 

[SkipperJohn]

I will add this... when I did my reservations with Pelican a couple years ago, I found them extremely slow to respond to any communication. And that was just reservations and requesting any information.

So I definately understand your issues with getting them to talk to you.

In my personal experience with USA, they only respond to e-mails when you are trying to make a booking. I dove with them several times and tried to correspond with them almost as much. Only my emails that start with: "I want to book a dive with you" gets answered.

FYI to all... the Aruba.com board is heavily moderated to make everything look nice and rosey for Aruba. it's their main tourism board and post that are negative there about anything are often deleted if someone complains.

Already done. See post number 6. They have apparently chosen not to respond here.

As a member of that board I see the "controls", but typically any substantiated posts and claims remain but debate is not encouraged.

I have dived with Unique many many times and have never had a problem. I've even had them take my daughter and I out by ourselves when the had nothing else booked for the spots we wanted to go! We were always safe and never felt that all they were after was the money. Always remember though no matter who you dive with , what operation , or where you go YOU are responsible for your own safety and if YOU feel you aren't then you make your own choice whether to go or not.

I did my OW cert with them last year. Based upon many recommendations by many people. I was very happy. I was also surprised on my trips we averaged 1 or 2 experienced diver(s), myself doing the OW cert and maybe 4 to 6 others who were doing that discover/vacation thing. 1 DM. I thought this was light.

...I recommend diving with Romeo at Native Divers. He is located on the beach in front of the Marriott Surf club. He only takes out a maximum of 7 divers. He is the only guy I dive with in Aruba now. His website is Native Divers Aruba PADI Open Water Diving certifications The best way to contact him is to phone him.

My dive club is looking at Aruba next year and looking to me for info as i have been going to this Island for 14 years. Alas, I know very very little about dive ops. Thanks for this, it seems to fit our bill & will go on the list.


Also, I dove Malmok 3 times, I do not recall there ever being a drift there. Was this because of the weather? Was this weather caused by a storm on a nearby island?

 

[JimmyC]

Wow, Dove with them early Sept 09 and the first drift dive had a tad of a snotty current. Never had a problem with chris, alex, ramil, emmit. All were pretty good. Just some words of wit...

You are in the islands and it's a little more relaxed, also the captain had 2 groups of divers to watch... s I like USA and they were a great outfit to dive with.

Also, your drift would have put you in at South America... oh well!

No matter where you go, take ALL safety gear with you, you are ultimately responsible for your own safety. "Plan your dive and dive your plan and if you fail to plan then plan to fail"

But damn..... the Antilla reminded me too much of NC wreck diving.. which I love!

keep diving!

 

[Colorado Fred]

We spend a couple of weeks a year on Aruba and I have done a lot of diving there. Pelican was bought by Unique three years ago which might explain a bad experience I had with them. But Unique seems to be OK. Unfortunately, the Unique shop is located on the west coast at Palm Beach. Sites here are the Antilla, a 1940 wreck rapidly falling apart, but reportedly the largest in the Caribbean; the Pedernales, ablown-apart wreck that was used for target practice; and a couple of sites of low, scattered heads.
Lately I have been diving with SEAruba which is located at the north end of the airport, and JADS, a new operation located opposite Baby Beach on the far south tip of the island. I use them because they are off the southeast coast near the best diving.
Aruba is a second tier dive site, not in a league with Coz, Caymans, Bonaire, Lucia, Dominica, or Roatan, but does have probably the most wreck dives. The best sites are Mikes and Fingers. And I like Harbor for it's coral formations something like St. Croix. Have only seen a couple of Reef and Nurse sharks, no pelagics.
If you need details, just ask.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Romeo docks at the marina south of the airport and dives the south end also. When he dives the north end he drives the boat up to the Marriott and has a dingy to take you out to the boat.