Of the sites listed on the OE website, 5-6 are shore dives. Some I'm not familiar with since they seem to have their own names for several. They're:
Snake Bay
Directors Bay
Blue Bay Gardens (if this is actually Blue Bay wall)
Jan Thiel
Tugboat
My friends wife was a guide on Curacao. She told us Snake Bay was one of her favorites - always lots of fish. The shop at the Tugboat has closed but it's just off the beach left of what remains - near a couple large pilings. Mid-morning on a cruise ship day - the cruise excursion drops snorkelers on top of it. Best part of that dive is the wall deeper around the south point. And the pier if there's no ship tied up/working. The Tugboat is 15' deep so make it a safety stop.
Personally I feel the better diving is West. Due to where they stage their boats, OE has a slight eastern bias. We liked Porto Mari - good double reef, easy shore entry - it's also a locals beach with food etc. so a good family spot.
Varsenbaai nearby is another. Trunk Divers on-site, they've recently added a more upscale restaurant and lots to see on that dive. Head south and just about where you turn at 80' there's a large (50') Pontoon boat wreck used to move the cars for the Carpile site. In fact there's some cars just past it at 90'. We also found seahorses near the ball at 40' and turtles just offshore (6') along the beach. The operator said they're always there.
Farther west is Playa Lagun. Nice beach also. Onsite shop and food options. Turtles there too but farther out. Five mins. north is Playa Jeremi, there's no facilities there. The wall along the north side of the cove is called one of the best snorkels in the region by Frommers. You can't see the car esp. well from the beach and thieves know it. Nice dive there also. And farthest west is Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland in Westpunt. A week ago Lodge Kura Hulanda - the large resort - went bankrupt. So it's probably a lot quieter than it was now. Go West Diving is still open at All West Apts. Just about everybody that stays there dives. I think Playa Kalki is the best shore dive we did of 20+ all week. Arguably the best boat dive - Watamula is nearby. Go West does it weekly - schedule is on their website.
+1 for the DiveBus also. Suzy spent 20 mins. discussing sites/entries with us even after we figured out our schedules wouldn't mesh. Nice lady.
We had planned to dive the Mushroom Forest. But our boat operator talked us out of it. He said there's so much coral on coral that there's less fish since they're easier to pick off by predators, the mushroom corals aren't good hiding. He talked us into Lost Anchor instead to look for seahorses.
If by "animal encounter" you mean the Dolphin Dive - I did it. It's 45mins. on a shallow reef just off the breakwater at the main OE shop near the Seaquarium - where the dolphins live. The trainer releases the dolphins as you're swimming out to the site - 5mins. from the dock and they go off exploring for a few mins. Keep glancing up since I saw them go overhead twice while others were looking at the reef. In one area we found some big Pipefish also. I thought it worth the money.
A couple of other general things. Almost all the dive sites require some sort of drive in off the main road. Out west the roads could use a little work. So it takes longer to get to sites than it would seem on a map. Also there's a lack of street signs in many areas. Kids are mostly tri-lingual so ask for directions if you get lost. Or get a GPS.
Almost every dive site has an operator. Usually they've improved the facilities (lockers, dive dock, showers etc.) So you pay a small usage fee $4-5 (in guilders) to dive there. If you rent tanks on-site they include it. If you need tanks when driving around, Discover Dive in Lagun is a good mid-point location. There's also Relaxed Guided Dives - they rent and have a fill station just west of the Airport on the main road. From Sunscape to Westpunt on the more direct (north) road is about an hour drive. On south road along the coast it's more.
Last thing is Ocean Encounters has an enforced no solo diving policy. So does Go West. And although a flag is required, we never did. Many sites are listed here:
http://shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/index.htm
If there's kids in your group they might like the Ostrich Farm. Also the shopping district downtown is famous. The cruise port is just on the other side of the bay so it can be really congested when the ships are in.
Search this forum for other posts by me. This is not the first time I've written this much about Curacao.
