JMPhillips3
Guest
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
Aruba Trip Report:
My wife and I got a time share exchange to Aruba from 10/26/07 through 11/2/07. We'd never been there, but had been to Bonaire. So, we knew what the climate was like.
And, we planned to do some diving while we were there. Did a little digging around on ScubaBoard and found that most suggested Dive Aruba (Clive). I contacted him, but he was to be on vacation the week we'd be there. There were a couple of other ops mentioned, but the only email response I got back in time was from Unique Sports.
I did contact JADS Aruba right before I left, but it turns out that JP there at the shop was sick so our last emails missed each other.
The trip:
We were flying on air miles, so we had a long flight day. DFW -> New Orleans -> Miami -> Aruba.
No flight delays and we got there with all of our luggage and dive gear (which is always good). Got out to catch a taxi and on the way to the hotel, the first thing we noticed was all of the American restaurants. Tony Roma's, Texas de Brazil, McDonald's, Wendy's, etc. That wasn't a good sign for us since we like the typical Caribbean Island feel (like you get in Bonaire or Dominica). But, be that as it may, we were on vacation and looking forward to the beaches and diving.
The beaches are really nice. We stayed at the Marriott Ocean Club on Palm Beach. The weather was getting churned up by Tropical Storm Noel even though it was a thousand miles away. As it turned out, we did a lot of beach time because of the seas. Even though the beaches were pretty busy and the music from the resorts was loud at times, we had a relaxing time.
There is a bus system that'll take you from the major hotels on Palm beach downtown for 2.50US round trip. That works out pretty well and saves cab fare.
Departure from Aruba was at 8:00am and we were told to be there 3 hours early. The AA counter opened at 5:00am. We got through there fast (we were number 2 in line). Then, it's on to Aruban immigration to "leave" the country. That counter didn't open until 6:00am. So we waited out in the humid mosquito infested air for 45 minutes.
Got through that easily. US customs has worked with the Aruban government to allow US citizens to clear customs and immigration while still on the island. But, they didn't open the doors until about 6:45am. At least we were inside away from the mosquitos!
Food:
Food is high here as would be expected for a very commercialized island and of course one that has to import everything.
We did go to the grocery store since we had a microwave and fridge to get some stuff for breakfast and lunches. The grocery store we used was called "Certified" and was kind of an Aruban Wal-Mart. They had everything you needed from clothes to bread at decent prices.
The food recommendations from folks that we talked to including an Aruban on the airplane were excellent. We ate dinner out every night since the hotel was pretty average food and EXTREMELY expensive.
We ate at Papiemento (great atmosphere, great service, great food), The Old Fisherman (great everything including the price; locals eat here), Driftwood (average everything, nothing to write home about).
Diving:
Now, on to the diving. Since the seas were up, long story short was that we didn't do much diving. And, the diving we did was low vis, currents and surge.
We were booked for the week with Unique Sports. I should've been wary of them when they kept bugging me for a credit card number from the first few conversations we had. They wouldn't take no for an answer, so I just ignored them and contacted them after we arrived. At which time, they wanted it again. But, they claimed they wouldn't charge us until we finished our dives that week. They didn't get that chance after the first day.
The seas were at least 5 feet and really choppy and windy. They should've cancelled the dives and DID NOT. I rarely get seasick, but it finally happened after the 2nd dive. My wife wasn't so lucky and was sick before the FIRST dive. She didn't do the 2nd dive.
The first dive was 2 planes. We jumped in, scurried to the first plane, then scurried to the 2nd plane and then were told to do our safety stop and surface. Dive time 30 MINUTES. I still had about 1400 lbs of air left. The DM would NOT let me stay and take photos just under the boat. I had had NO time to even fire more than about 2 shots the whole dive (the vis sucked; it was about 20 feet).
The 2nd dive was the same. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Got separated from the group, when my buddy and I stopped to look at a Goldentail Moray for about 20 seconds. They were gone! We continued in the direction we last saw the group for about 5 minutes, then I did a bob-n-check (we were already within 30 feet) and found the boat, took a heading and went that way. They picked us up shortly.
3 big problems that I have with this operator:
- First, they should've cancelled the dives, about half of the group got seasick and everyone was miserable. Why go out if you're going to be miserable.
- Second, they hurried the dives to a point where there WAS no point in diving.
- Third, and one of the biggest reasons that I cancelled with them, is that they had tanks in holders all along both sides of the boat. Not a single one was tied down. My wife told me that during the 2nd dive while she was on the boat, the captain had to grab tanks that were falling out of the holders onto the deck. On the way out, it looked like they were going to drop out at any minute.
If a dive operator isn't safe, I will not dive with them.
As you might guess, we cancelled the rest of the week with them.
I in-turn called JADS Aruba (...:: JADS Beach Store Aruba ::...). I spoke with JP the owner and he said they could take care of us, but that we'd have to do shore diving and then only if it was safe. I immediately liked his method of operating. He thought things would calm down enough and they did.
The reason for the shore diving only with them was that since they had cancelled all of their dives since the prior Friday due to the weather, they wanted to take advantage of the time to have their boat out of the water for maintenance to prepare for the upcoming high season. Cancelling dives of course affects his bottom line, but he was more interested in providing a good experience for his customers. They were not able to finish their maintenace (also because of weather).
THAT'S the way to operate. They were upfront the whole time about the conditions, what they could and could not do for us. GREAT operator. I look for this young shop to grow by leaps and bounds.
JP even delivered my hat that I left at his shop free of charge before I left to come home. That's service!
Shore dives were certainly fine with us since we'd done it many times the prior year on Bonaire and were very comfortable with it.
JP made the 40 minute drive from his shop in Baby Beach (no charge I might add) and picked us up. He set us up with his DM's Jair, Jairo and Walter on both days.
Rocky Beach:
The entry to Rocky beach is pretty easy. You walk along the shore a short distance to a small dock that you wade out beside. The surface swim kind of sucks as it is a good way out to the reef. But the reef was very lush and in many ways like the sites in Bonaire. Long easy dive with air to spare. About 60+ minutes on this dive.
Baby Beach:
We dove behind the shop. The dive is fairly shallow, no more than about 50 feet most of the dive. The coral and reef life is in pretty good shape beyond 30', with lots of sandy areas to see other critters. There is a cross underwater placed there by students as a thank-you to the island during their stay with their parents who worked at the oil refinery.
Once again, long surface swims.
We did this dive twice.
Pet Semetary:
The entry here is slightly beyond Baby Beach and the beach here is a turtle nesting area and is barricaded off.
Long surface swim and the dive is very much like Baby Beach. The dive ends up back at Baby Beach in fact.
My cudos to the owner of JADS, JP, and his DM's Walter, Jairo and Jair for a great time diving.
My recommendation is to stay away from Unique Sports. If you've been diving with them, you may have had a different experience. This is mine.
Thanks,
James
My wife and I got a time share exchange to Aruba from 10/26/07 through 11/2/07. We'd never been there, but had been to Bonaire. So, we knew what the climate was like.
And, we planned to do some diving while we were there. Did a little digging around on ScubaBoard and found that most suggested Dive Aruba (Clive). I contacted him, but he was to be on vacation the week we'd be there. There were a couple of other ops mentioned, but the only email response I got back in time was from Unique Sports.
I did contact JADS Aruba right before I left, but it turns out that JP there at the shop was sick so our last emails missed each other.
The trip:
We were flying on air miles, so we had a long flight day. DFW -> New Orleans -> Miami -> Aruba.
No flight delays and we got there with all of our luggage and dive gear (which is always good). Got out to catch a taxi and on the way to the hotel, the first thing we noticed was all of the American restaurants. Tony Roma's, Texas de Brazil, McDonald's, Wendy's, etc. That wasn't a good sign for us since we like the typical Caribbean Island feel (like you get in Bonaire or Dominica). But, be that as it may, we were on vacation and looking forward to the beaches and diving.
The beaches are really nice. We stayed at the Marriott Ocean Club on Palm Beach. The weather was getting churned up by Tropical Storm Noel even though it was a thousand miles away. As it turned out, we did a lot of beach time because of the seas. Even though the beaches were pretty busy and the music from the resorts was loud at times, we had a relaxing time.
There is a bus system that'll take you from the major hotels on Palm beach downtown for 2.50US round trip. That works out pretty well and saves cab fare.
Departure from Aruba was at 8:00am and we were told to be there 3 hours early. The AA counter opened at 5:00am. We got through there fast (we were number 2 in line). Then, it's on to Aruban immigration to "leave" the country. That counter didn't open until 6:00am. So we waited out in the humid mosquito infested air for 45 minutes.
Got through that easily. US customs has worked with the Aruban government to allow US citizens to clear customs and immigration while still on the island. But, they didn't open the doors until about 6:45am. At least we were inside away from the mosquitos!
Food:
Food is high here as would be expected for a very commercialized island and of course one that has to import everything.
We did go to the grocery store since we had a microwave and fridge to get some stuff for breakfast and lunches. The grocery store we used was called "Certified" and was kind of an Aruban Wal-Mart. They had everything you needed from clothes to bread at decent prices.
The food recommendations from folks that we talked to including an Aruban on the airplane were excellent. We ate dinner out every night since the hotel was pretty average food and EXTREMELY expensive.
We ate at Papiemento (great atmosphere, great service, great food), The Old Fisherman (great everything including the price; locals eat here), Driftwood (average everything, nothing to write home about).
Diving:
Now, on to the diving. Since the seas were up, long story short was that we didn't do much diving. And, the diving we did was low vis, currents and surge.
We were booked for the week with Unique Sports. I should've been wary of them when they kept bugging me for a credit card number from the first few conversations we had. They wouldn't take no for an answer, so I just ignored them and contacted them after we arrived. At which time, they wanted it again. But, they claimed they wouldn't charge us until we finished our dives that week. They didn't get that chance after the first day.
The seas were at least 5 feet and really choppy and windy. They should've cancelled the dives and DID NOT. I rarely get seasick, but it finally happened after the 2nd dive. My wife wasn't so lucky and was sick before the FIRST dive. She didn't do the 2nd dive.
The first dive was 2 planes. We jumped in, scurried to the first plane, then scurried to the 2nd plane and then were told to do our safety stop and surface. Dive time 30 MINUTES. I still had about 1400 lbs of air left. The DM would NOT let me stay and take photos just under the boat. I had had NO time to even fire more than about 2 shots the whole dive (the vis sucked; it was about 20 feet).
The 2nd dive was the same. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Got separated from the group, when my buddy and I stopped to look at a Goldentail Moray for about 20 seconds. They were gone! We continued in the direction we last saw the group for about 5 minutes, then I did a bob-n-check (we were already within 30 feet) and found the boat, took a heading and went that way. They picked us up shortly.
3 big problems that I have with this operator:
- First, they should've cancelled the dives, about half of the group got seasick and everyone was miserable. Why go out if you're going to be miserable.
- Second, they hurried the dives to a point where there WAS no point in diving.
- Third, and one of the biggest reasons that I cancelled with them, is that they had tanks in holders all along both sides of the boat. Not a single one was tied down. My wife told me that during the 2nd dive while she was on the boat, the captain had to grab tanks that were falling out of the holders onto the deck. On the way out, it looked like they were going to drop out at any minute.
If a dive operator isn't safe, I will not dive with them.
As you might guess, we cancelled the rest of the week with them.
I in-turn called JADS Aruba (...:: JADS Beach Store Aruba ::...). I spoke with JP the owner and he said they could take care of us, but that we'd have to do shore diving and then only if it was safe. I immediately liked his method of operating. He thought things would calm down enough and they did.
The reason for the shore diving only with them was that since they had cancelled all of their dives since the prior Friday due to the weather, they wanted to take advantage of the time to have their boat out of the water for maintenance to prepare for the upcoming high season. Cancelling dives of course affects his bottom line, but he was more interested in providing a good experience for his customers. They were not able to finish their maintenace (also because of weather).
THAT'S the way to operate. They were upfront the whole time about the conditions, what they could and could not do for us. GREAT operator. I look for this young shop to grow by leaps and bounds.
JP even delivered my hat that I left at his shop free of charge before I left to come home. That's service!
Shore dives were certainly fine with us since we'd done it many times the prior year on Bonaire and were very comfortable with it.
JP made the 40 minute drive from his shop in Baby Beach (no charge I might add) and picked us up. He set us up with his DM's Jair, Jairo and Walter on both days.
Rocky Beach:
The entry to Rocky beach is pretty easy. You walk along the shore a short distance to a small dock that you wade out beside. The surface swim kind of sucks as it is a good way out to the reef. But the reef was very lush and in many ways like the sites in Bonaire. Long easy dive with air to spare. About 60+ minutes on this dive.
Baby Beach:
We dove behind the shop. The dive is fairly shallow, no more than about 50 feet most of the dive. The coral and reef life is in pretty good shape beyond 30', with lots of sandy areas to see other critters. There is a cross underwater placed there by students as a thank-you to the island during their stay with their parents who worked at the oil refinery.
Once again, long surface swims.
We did this dive twice.
Pet Semetary:
The entry here is slightly beyond Baby Beach and the beach here is a turtle nesting area and is barricaded off.
Long surface swim and the dive is very much like Baby Beach. The dive ends up back at Baby Beach in fact.
My cudos to the owner of JADS, JP, and his DM's Walter, Jairo and Jair for a great time diving.
My recommendation is to stay away from Unique Sports. If you've been diving with them, you may have had a different experience. This is mine.
Thanks,
James
