Tim Ingersoll
Contributor
Spent a week at the Marriott Stellaris Resort on Palm Beach. The resort itself is about what you would expect from a Mariott on a very touristy beach in Aruba. It was fairly crowded, fairly large and fairly adequate. The food prices were a shocker and I highly recommend hitting the grocery store approximately two miles away and making use of the grills between the Mariott Stellaris and the Mariott Surf Club to save on the food budget.
I did two 2-tank dive days with Red Sail Sports which has an on-site presence at the Mariott. My thirteen year old son also did a resort course while we were on the island and I did an afternoon dive with him.
I have used Red Sail before on other islands and find them to be convenient, competent and predictable. Bottom times were limited to the weakest diver in the group but once they determined who that was they tried to accommodate the rest of us with additional time while they took the air hogs back to the boat. The dive boats were big and roomy if a bit slow. The boat we were on was running on one engine and that made for some long rides. I didn't really mind but I could see that it bothered some of the other divers. Red Sail did a good job and the instructor with my son on the resort course (Steve) inspired confidence and worked very well with my son.
We dove the following sites:
Tire Reef
Harbor Reef
Renaissance Airplanes
Sponge Reef
Pedernalis
Maximum depth at any site was 100 feet. Water temperature was 80 degrees F. Air temperatire was a pleasant 80 to 90 degrees F. I truly enjoyed being warm on the topside event though it was windy. I wore 3MM farmer john with a 3MM shortie over it but I'm a wimp when it comes to cold.
Things of note: I liked the Renaissance Airplane site. Air Aruba donated a couple DC-8's to the local dive community and they make excellent swim-throughs.
The Pedernalis is a scattered WWII freighter sunk by the Germans after the Dutch surrendered and then further blown to bits after the war to remove the eyesore. Its a relatively shallow dive (25 ft.) where they take the resort course divers. I was surprised by what we saw in such a shallow exposed site (Scorpionfish, lobster and quite a few species of juvenile fish).
I was pleasantly surprised by the diverse things I saw on the dives in Aruba. I had never really considered Aruba as a dedicated dive destination but was impressed with the number of eels and turtles combined with lots of little stuff like arrow crabs, nudibranchs, coral shrimp and the like.
I was also extremely fortunate to see an octupus out and about during the day at Renaissance Airplanes dive site as well as a first ever seen by me school of squid at the end of that dive. I love being able to see something I have never seen before on a dive trip. It makes Aruba a true memory for me. I'll never forget laying in the sand next to the octopus, watching it cycle through five or six different sets of colors, and seeing it actually look back at me in a manner similiar a marine mammal such as a dolphin.
The only complaint I have about Aruba diving is that the visibility was not on par with some of the premier dive locations. If you are thinking of diving in Aruba I highly recommend it.
I did two 2-tank dive days with Red Sail Sports which has an on-site presence at the Mariott. My thirteen year old son also did a resort course while we were on the island and I did an afternoon dive with him.
I have used Red Sail before on other islands and find them to be convenient, competent and predictable. Bottom times were limited to the weakest diver in the group but once they determined who that was they tried to accommodate the rest of us with additional time while they took the air hogs back to the boat. The dive boats were big and roomy if a bit slow. The boat we were on was running on one engine and that made for some long rides. I didn't really mind but I could see that it bothered some of the other divers. Red Sail did a good job and the instructor with my son on the resort course (Steve) inspired confidence and worked very well with my son.
We dove the following sites:
Tire Reef
Harbor Reef
Renaissance Airplanes
Sponge Reef
Pedernalis
Maximum depth at any site was 100 feet. Water temperature was 80 degrees F. Air temperatire was a pleasant 80 to 90 degrees F. I truly enjoyed being warm on the topside event though it was windy. I wore 3MM farmer john with a 3MM shortie over it but I'm a wimp when it comes to cold.
Things of note: I liked the Renaissance Airplane site. Air Aruba donated a couple DC-8's to the local dive community and they make excellent swim-throughs.
The Pedernalis is a scattered WWII freighter sunk by the Germans after the Dutch surrendered and then further blown to bits after the war to remove the eyesore. Its a relatively shallow dive (25 ft.) where they take the resort course divers. I was surprised by what we saw in such a shallow exposed site (Scorpionfish, lobster and quite a few species of juvenile fish).
I was pleasantly surprised by the diverse things I saw on the dives in Aruba. I had never really considered Aruba as a dedicated dive destination but was impressed with the number of eels and turtles combined with lots of little stuff like arrow crabs, nudibranchs, coral shrimp and the like.
I was also extremely fortunate to see an octupus out and about during the day at Renaissance Airplanes dive site as well as a first ever seen by me school of squid at the end of that dive. I love being able to see something I have never seen before on a dive trip. It makes Aruba a true memory for me. I'll never forget laying in the sand next to the octopus, watching it cycle through five or six different sets of colors, and seeing it actually look back at me in a manner similiar a marine mammal such as a dolphin.
The only complaint I have about Aruba diving is that the visibility was not on par with some of the premier dive locations. If you are thinking of diving in Aruba I highly recommend it.
