Aruba Diving and Dive Operators

[padi1029]

Hi, I will be going to Aruba next week, and in 10 years of cold water northeast US diving this will be only my second warm water diving oppotrunity...so I am interested in making the most of it.

I have read many different reivews on Dive Aruba, Pelican and Red Sail, all seem to have advantages and disadvantages depending upon with whom you speak. All seem to have similarly priced packages.

I am staying at Rennisance Aruba Marina Tower, so obviously Red Sail is the most convenient location and has the least time (if any) lost on travel to/from site. They also seem to have the most extensive schedule (as far as number of trips per day), and apparently offer shore diving directly from Rennisance Island. Both Pelican and Red Sail appear to offer a photography service where you can have your dive photographed (something I am interested in) and Red Sail offers camera rental.

Some of my concerns with Red Sail and Pelican are:

Cattle-cart diving and getting lost in the
crowd.....large boats, each trip filled to
capacity, up to 24 divers at one time, all going
to the same site.

Dives are hard to book on a last minute (less than
24 hours) basis due to the number of people
Red Sail and Pelican try to accommodate.

Some have said Red Sail has a more corporate
feel, not so much personal service and often
caters to the cruise ship crowd.

Dive limits are based on when first diver reached
NDL or runs out of air...all divers must surface
together...cutting some divers short on bottom
time

There is a push to get divers in the water quickly,
rush the dive and get everyone out of water as
soon as possible in order to make it back to
dock for next load of people.

ALL morning 2-tank dives are to the same
location ..."South Coast"...every day of the
week. So it would seem after you have done
one 2-tank AM dive, not much point in booking
another 2-tank AM dive. Are there different
sites within the "South Coast" site to dive on?

Pelican seems to be a bit away from my hotel
(the furthest of the 3 operators) so I am
concerend I will be spending a bit of time
traveling to and from their dock, in addition to
having an earlier pick-up time from my hotel.

Pelican has the second best schedule as far as
number of trips per day, but it is unclear if they
offere return transportation to my hotel after
the dive.

Pelican is the only one of the 3 operators that offers rental of a 3mm full wetsuit (not shorty) which I have been led to believe is better for abrasion/sting protection. Not sure how much thermal protection I will need since I am used to wearing drysuit with heavy undergarments. Is full 3mm wetsuit over-kill or not a bad idea? What is average bottom temp at deepest dive..say 100ft. I realize this is a loaded question, as each persons tolerance to cold and heat loss is different...I'm not looking to hold anyone to anything here, just a general idea of real water temps (not what the brochures say) and exposure/abrasion/sting protection needs

As for Dive aruba, it seems to be a much smaller operation then either Red Sail or Pelican...owned/operated by one man, Clive Paula. This would leave me to believe it is a more personal experience...however this may also mean Mr Paula must wear all hats and do everything on his own leading to an unintentional lack of service. The Location of his boat appears close to my hotel...supposedly only a 5-10 minute walk. Dives are limited to 7 divers including crew..which I assume is simply Clive. Unfortunately he does not offer photography services or camera rental, and his schedule is pretty limited as far as number of dives per day 1 am and 1 afternoon. The schedule does appear however to be the most diverse as far as dives sites visited.

SO after all that, I was hoping someone with Aruba diving experience might be able to shed some light on all this, confirm or dispute some of my concerns and assessments, and give me some insider insight on these operators and what I might expect from each. Any other helpful tips on Aruba would also be appreciated.

Thanks, I really appreciate your time, my email is:

padi1029@optonline.net

CK

 

[crpntr133]

I will keep my reply real short..Pelican or Dive Aruba. I used Pelican and have nothing but good to say about them. Their photgrapher is good. They do offer return transport. In fact they gave us a brief tour of the island and told us a few things that most tourists would know.

 

[smokey braden]

padi1029,
last april i stayed in the same hotel you mentioned.
i dove with clive.
clive keeps his boat at the marina where you are staying.
it took me less than 5 min. to walk from my room to his boat.
if you decide to dive with the house op, you'd have to catch a shuttle boat and go to their shop over on the island that belongs to the resort.
this would take you about 20 min.

ive never dove with pelican so i cannot comment on them.

my son took a resort class with the house op.
i cannot say anything good about them so i will not comment.

the dive experience my son and i had with clive was wonderful and would recommend his op to anyone.

upon your safe return please drop us a trip report and share with us your diving experience.

regards,

 

[ppo2_diver]

I was in Aruba last Feb and dove with Red Sail. I didn't have a good experience with them. You can do a search for my trip report I posted here. There are many "South Coast" dives sites. I enjoyed them. However, if you get sea sick easily, you might want to reconsider. The water was a little rough. On rule of Red Sail's I didn't like was that you had to be on the boat no later than 45 minutes after you splash in. I was forced to get back on the boat with over 1000 psi left in my tank on a couple of dives. Plus when I made the reservations, they promised me Nitrox. Of course when I got there they didn't have it ready. Not that it mattered with the 45 minute rule. Would have been a waste of extra money.

But overall, I really loved Aruba and would go back in a heartbeat. Just will dive with someone else. Clive has been getting a lot of good reviews lately.

 

[Damselfish]

As far as wetsuits, it's hard to say what will be comfortable for someone else. In my experience people who live in warm areas will want a thicker suit than someone from up North such as yourself. Many people dive in shortys but I agree that a full suit is a much better idea. I only use a lycra or 1mm when diving down there as I want the coverage but don't need or want the thickness and extra weight. YMMV.

If you can do it before you go you might consider buying a skin of some sort, they can be fairly inexpensive. You might find it is enough, but if you feel you need more warmth you could rent a shorty to wear over it. You will be covered and it will still be your own suit next to your skin which is nice - you know what they say. It's possible another op would rent you a suit even if you're not diving with them, not sure. I definitely would not pick your dive op based on what kind of suits they rent.

Honestly, I wouldn't pick your op on whether they photograph dives either. Better to have memories of a good dive experience than pictures of a bad one. (And I suspect it's pretty rare that people look at these much once they get home, maybe once then they get buried with everything else - sounds like a good poll actually.) Check but I'm sure you can rent a camera from Red Sail no matter who you are diving with. It's pretty common for only one or 2 dive ops on a island to rent cameras because there's only so much demand, and I've never seen one that didn't rent to everyone. With credit card, of course.

 

[padi1029]

Thanks for all the feedback...keep the info coming.

 

[ckofabq]

Thanks for all the feedback...keep the info coming.

Pelican just happened to be right next to where we were staying, at Playa Linda. Among the things I liked most was that they didn't feel like a "cattle boat." They had enough DMs to make small groups, and most days the boat wasn't jammed. If you're going this time of year, you probably won't run into huge loads of people, but there's really no "low season" in Aruba, now is there?
Another big bonus (for me) with Pelican, was their "unlimited" package. Dive to your heart's content- for one price.
Sounds like you can't go wrong- you're getting wet and blowing bubbles, right?
Enjoy!

 

[michaelp68]

I dove with Clive of Dive Aruba. My father-in-law dove with him on 2 separate trips.

All experiences with him were great. His service is first-rate and extremely professional.

Michael

 

[gstroupe]

I went to Aruba 3 times in the past 9 months lucky me! I dove with Red Sail first then Pelican the last 2 times. In my opinion I prefered Pelican. Here's some feedback

Pelican let me store my gear in thier shop on the dock the whole week as I was doing the unlimitied package ($300). Red Sail provided a locker but my fins barely fit in it.

The boats are generally full but not so much that you will not enjoy the dives.

I dove a shory most of the time but if you will be doing 3-4 dives per day you may want to go with the full 3 mil. Despite the water temp being around 80 I got a little chilly after 3 dives and I normally dive wet in Rhode Island.

Both provide ground transportation free of charge so no worries there.

The 45 min rule is rather annoying but almost all operators follow it because they have multiple trips per day...if you are on all of them, no worries :14:

Make sure you do a night dive...very cool, last one I did we saw a nurse shark!

Most important...remember, it's vacation so go down there to have fun...Red Sail, Pelican, Mermaid, etc will all treat you well.

 

[mike_s]

I'll echo the 2nd post. Pelican or Dive Aruba.

But since you're staying at the Renassance, go with Dive Aruba. He's right at
the hotel marina.

Your other choice is RedSail, which operates I think out of the Renassance.
I'd avoid them. They have a bad cattle boat operation reputation.