I will give you my take based on my experiences.
~ I have been to Curacao but did not stay at the Marriott, I did go check it out though. It was downtown in Willamstad, a nice place. This trip was just the wife and I and I would say it was 50% relaxing vacation and 50% dive oriented, it was the first getaway for just the 2 of us in a long time. Many Dutch are there for diving and general holiday, Americans are there for diving. There is not much on Curacao besides diving and an oil refinery. There some shopping but I don't travel for shopping. Divers outnumbered non divers, as far as people we ran into.
~ I have stayed at the Renaissance by Marriott in Aruba(and did some diving on Aruba), your points will work there. This was a family oriented trip for the most part and I also did some diving while there. Nobody goes to Aruba strictly for the diving, The Dutch do not go there in the numbers that they go to Curacao and Bonaire. Aruba visitors from my experience and mostly North Eastern Americans and they are not there to dive explicitly. Non divers heavily outnumber divers. Strange...As a southern guy I have never been in the presence of so many people having fun and so many people complaining at the same time. Don't take that as a a negative, just my observation
~ Diving: Curacao Diving is way better than Aruba Diving, IMHO, but both are better than most places in CONUS. Dive operators are good there as that is a primary business for them. We used Ocean encounters and would recommend them as a dive op. Curacao Padi Scuba Diving - Ocean Encounters Curacao
~ The Renaissance Aruba: is a good place to stay in that it is close to everything downtown, lots of restuarants and casinos/shopping if that is what you want. It is a nice property, has several pools and good food and the bars are fun. Lots of families at the hotel. But, it is also right next to the Cruise ship dock which is why everything is right there. Interesting note regarding the Renaissance is that although it is on the water and has a lagoon(which you won't swim in) there isn't really a beach to hang out on right there. However, they do also own a private island just a short boat ride away and they constantly ferry people back and forth. It's not as much of a hassle as you might think, it's actually pretty neat. We had my nine year old with us and she very much enjoyed it. The private island has 2 beaches, one ..um.. family beach, and one clothing optional beach. There is a restaurant and bar on the island and a nice swimming lagoon. The island is directly under the airport approach pattern and you will have airplanes flying directly overhead and low. But I we did not find it was a bother in any way as they aren't too often. The proximity to the airport was noticed but it did not detract from our time there at all. The Onsite dive operation is on the private island. It is very small, they don't have a shop per se, but they can rent gear to you and a divemaster can guide a dive for you. You dive by entering the lagoon(totally calm and flat) and exit a passageway(not an overhead) through the jetty. It's a strange way to go but adventurous and interesting. I also saw people diving by entering the water outside of the jetty on the clothing optional beach, but we did not dive there. There is a reef outside of the jetty once you get into about 20 feet of water, there is an airplane(DC-10?) sitting upright in about 80 feet of water that you can do as a shore dive. We also did a Catamaran snorkeling excursion with the on site operator which we liked a lot. One of the sites we went to was the wreck of the Atilla. Neat site as it is the largest wreck in the Caribbean, sits in about 80 feet of water and comes just about to the surface, sometimes even breaks the surface. If you want to do boat dives and/or snorkeling excursions through the onsite operator at the hotel they will pick up and take you to the boats on the other end of the island where they have other facilities. The onsite renaissance facility is a sattelite facility.
~ There is also another dive operator about a 5 minute walk from the hotel if you want to do boat dives. You can see it from the docks.
~ I had no issues with the onsite dive operator, which is RedSail sports.Aruba Red Sail Sports for Scuba Diving - Sailing - Watersports Vacation I did only shore dives and snorkeling with them but I spoke to others who did some boat dives with them and there is one thing I have issue with. Red Sail, like a lot of operators in the Keys and Caribbean have a time limit on your dive that is driven by turnaround time not your profile or plans. I think it is 45 minutes, but I may be wrong. There are smaller ops in Aruba without this restriction if you want to do some boat diving. I just don't like the idea of packaging up up my gear flying to another country paying for a hotel and boat charters only to be told then that I have to be back on the boat in 45 minutes regardless of my NDL or gas supply.
of course all of this is my 2PSI
~Chris
~ I have been to Curacao but did not stay at the Marriott, I did go check it out though. It was downtown in Willamstad, a nice place. This trip was just the wife and I and I would say it was 50% relaxing vacation and 50% dive oriented, it was the first getaway for just the 2 of us in a long time. Many Dutch are there for diving and general holiday, Americans are there for diving. There is not much on Curacao besides diving and an oil refinery. There some shopping but I don't travel for shopping. Divers outnumbered non divers, as far as people we ran into.
~ I have stayed at the Renaissance by Marriott in Aruba(and did some diving on Aruba), your points will work there. This was a family oriented trip for the most part and I also did some diving while there. Nobody goes to Aruba strictly for the diving, The Dutch do not go there in the numbers that they go to Curacao and Bonaire. Aruba visitors from my experience and mostly North Eastern Americans and they are not there to dive explicitly. Non divers heavily outnumber divers. Strange...As a southern guy I have never been in the presence of so many people having fun and so many people complaining at the same time. Don't take that as a a negative, just my observation
~ Diving: Curacao Diving is way better than Aruba Diving, IMHO, but both are better than most places in CONUS. Dive operators are good there as that is a primary business for them. We used Ocean encounters and would recommend them as a dive op. Curacao Padi Scuba Diving - Ocean Encounters Curacao
~ The Renaissance Aruba: is a good place to stay in that it is close to everything downtown, lots of restuarants and casinos/shopping if that is what you want. It is a nice property, has several pools and good food and the bars are fun. Lots of families at the hotel. But, it is also right next to the Cruise ship dock which is why everything is right there. Interesting note regarding the Renaissance is that although it is on the water and has a lagoon(which you won't swim in) there isn't really a beach to hang out on right there. However, they do also own a private island just a short boat ride away and they constantly ferry people back and forth. It's not as much of a hassle as you might think, it's actually pretty neat. We had my nine year old with us and she very much enjoyed it. The private island has 2 beaches, one ..um.. family beach, and one clothing optional beach. There is a restaurant and bar on the island and a nice swimming lagoon. The island is directly under the airport approach pattern and you will have airplanes flying directly overhead and low. But I we did not find it was a bother in any way as they aren't too often. The proximity to the airport was noticed but it did not detract from our time there at all. The Onsite dive operation is on the private island. It is very small, they don't have a shop per se, but they can rent gear to you and a divemaster can guide a dive for you. You dive by entering the lagoon(totally calm and flat) and exit a passageway(not an overhead) through the jetty. It's a strange way to go but adventurous and interesting. I also saw people diving by entering the water outside of the jetty on the clothing optional beach, but we did not dive there. There is a reef outside of the jetty once you get into about 20 feet of water, there is an airplane(DC-10?) sitting upright in about 80 feet of water that you can do as a shore dive. We also did a Catamaran snorkeling excursion with the on site operator which we liked a lot. One of the sites we went to was the wreck of the Atilla. Neat site as it is the largest wreck in the Caribbean, sits in about 80 feet of water and comes just about to the surface, sometimes even breaks the surface. If you want to do boat dives and/or snorkeling excursions through the onsite operator at the hotel they will pick up and take you to the boats on the other end of the island where they have other facilities. The onsite renaissance facility is a sattelite facility.
~ There is also another dive operator about a 5 minute walk from the hotel if you want to do boat dives. You can see it from the docks.
~ I had no issues with the onsite dive operator, which is RedSail sports.Aruba Red Sail Sports for Scuba Diving - Sailing - Watersports Vacation I did only shore dives and snorkeling with them but I spoke to others who did some boat dives with them and there is one thing I have issue with. Red Sail, like a lot of operators in the Keys and Caribbean have a time limit on your dive that is driven by turnaround time not your profile or plans. I think it is 45 minutes, but I may be wrong. There are smaller ops in Aruba without this restriction if you want to do some boat diving. I just don't like the idea of packaging up up my gear flying to another country paying for a hotel and boat charters only to be told then that I have to be back on the boat in 45 minutes regardless of my NDL or gas supply.
of course all of this is my 2PSI
~Chris
