Aruba: Dive OPs who don't suck?

[steelwindmachine]

I'm going to Aruba in September. I've read up on nearly every dive operator that is publicly listed. Not a one seems to have a reassuring positive history.

Of the bunch that I found, it seemed that the least bad were Native Scuba and Dive Aruba. Native is slow or non-responsive to e-mails, and Clive at Dive Aruba apparently have a cap-size in the past with a fatality and also had another instance where he ran out of gas and had to have his crew wait for 2 hours in puke-making swells.

Most common complaints were pick-ups being late and dock departures being late.

So, is there any dive operator in that country who does stuff on time, is safety-minded and has good customer service?

If not, then I sense a business opportunity to open a new, customer-centric, on-time dive shop

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Aruba is a party time, and relax time. Do not go in your current state of mind. There Is no hurry in Aruba, However if you use Mermaid Divers, tito and his dm are great, carlos is owner. Tell carlos if Buro is going to be on there with his students or guiding, to keep his mouth shut, it is loud and so annoying. It got to where I hated this guy within one hour of meeting him.

I know Clive is just as good as tito, do not go under what you have read hear, every charter ran smooth on the water. You will always have a bad charter day when you go out everyday of the year.



Good luck, and give a report now that you have been warned that it is a place where the divers you are with on the boat, are the ones that make you late. getting up late not at pick up, there gear is junk and have to fix at shop, etc.

We would wait at boat with Tito and wait for others to show up. This is a good time to learn of history of aruba, and the diving.

 

[steelwindmachine]

What I read on numerous reports on Mermaid: Carlos arrives late, in one account, stopped for groceries with customers in his truck while on the way to a dive, poor customer service skills when there were issues...

I'm not asking for much. I don't want to have to wait nearly an hour to be picked up or depart the dock and I don't want to go grocery shopping with the shop owner.

They do this every day. I would think or hope that they have it down. Apparently not according to other divers' reports =\

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I have been to Aruba 5 times and always use Romeo at Native Divers. I have never had any issues with him. He has always picked me up at the hotel on time. The best way to get hold of him is to call his cell because he isn't very "computerized"

 

[Vinny B]

I would highly recommend Diveversity. They are a bunch of great guys and they keep to the schedule. You won't be dissapointed. I had a pretty demanding schedule last time I went down there and they did all they could to accomodate me. There was 2-3 dives where it was just me and the dive master. I have heard great things about Romeo and JADS. It depends on the type of diving you want to do and where you are staying. The guys at Diveversity are near the high rises and JADS is on the South. The south dive sites tend to be a bit more challenging and JADS does a bit of shore diving. Where Diveversity tends to stay up by the high rises (perdinallis and antilla). They (Diversity and JADS) make trips to the other ends as well. The guys at Diveversity have alway made me feel at home and I can't say enough good things about them. HTH

 

[Dive-aholic]

I just came back from a trip to Aruba. It wasn't a dive trip, but we did do a couple of days of diving while there. We went with Clive at Dive Aruba for several reasons. He runs a small operation which takes no more than 7 divers. He didn't limit our dive times. Every dive we did was an hour. We could have gone longer but we were being courteous to the other divers who were back on the boat before we were. Clive lets you dive to your own level once he's established that you're a good diver. I hadn't heard of the fatality or gas issue. I did hear about his boat capsizing and we even talked about it. The south side of the island can be pretty rough and his boat was pushed into shallow water and the bottom hit the reef. I know he's really cautious about that now. We were close to the area where this occurred and the boat was being pushed toward the reef at the end of a drift dive. We were the last ones to surface and Clive just had us go back under while he relocated his boat out about 50' farther from shore. Currents weren't so bad that it caused a problem for us. It was more the fault of the wind pushing the boat in. We just dropped down and swam over to his boat to get in a safer distance from shore. We had a great time and recommend Clive to anyone planning on diving in Aruba. His operation definitely beats out the cattle boats we saw at a couple of the sites there.

Here's a link to our dive report and some photos - Aruba Diving

 

[allistoy]

I have been diving with Clive for many years and he runs an excellent operation and as stated above he allows you to dive to your experience level and has never limited my bottom time like most operators do. As far as the fatality it was not his fault it was just bad luck for everyone involved that day and he did his best to assist the person who passed away. I have been on several boats that had mechcanical issues while out diving for a day Clive is not the first and won't be the last to have a boat failure.