Anyone have experience with Ocean Encounters?

[jackieec]

Heading out to Curaçao soon for a solo dive trip and planning to dive w/ Ocean Encounters. Does anyone have any experience with them? I'm reading online sometimes the groups are 10:1 DM to dive ratio? Does that sound right? That sounds like an insane amount of people to keep track of underwater and a very short dive if someone blows through gas quickly...in such a big group I can't imagine someone wouldn't.

Id be open to diving with a private DM (and usually do) but they made it seem like its not a common ask in Curaçao and wasn't guaranteed...

 

[rhwestfall]

When we talked with the coordinator of OE at the shop in December (shopping trinkets - get the reef token with a donation), he said it was "crazy with the amount of divers, and they have been on a grind".... We have always done shore diving with The Dive Bus, and they too said it had been really busy... sign of the times... Curacao is changing... not what we remember it being...

Yeah, you go with an operator like that on a boat, and you are likely not going to get what you want if you are an experienced diver...

 

[jackieec]

When we talked with the coordinator of OE at the shop in December (shopping trinkets - get the reef token with a donation), he said it was "crazy with the amount of divers, and they have been on a grind".... We have always done shore diving with The Dive Bus, and they too said it had been really busy... sign of the times... Curacao is changing... not what we remember it being...

Yeah, you go with an operator like that on a boat, and you are likely not going to get what you want if you are an experienced diver...

Woof no wonder. They kept saying "if we can find someone" like it would be a fairly considerable effort. Well I'm happy for them theyre busy I guess! They charge a lot for a private DM (150 / dive) but maybe its worth it in this instance...thanks for the intel!

 

[runsongas]

it depends how independent every buddy pair is. 10:1 is insane if its herding cats underwater, but if everybody is just loosely following the DM and can handle themselves just fine, it shouldn't be an issue. curacao isn't known for particularly challenging conditions either.

 

[Billg68bg]

Woof no wonder. They kept saying "if we can find someone" like it would be a fairly considerable effort. Well I'm happy for them theyre busy I guess! They charge a lot for a private DM (150 / dive) but maybe its worth it in this instance...thanks for the intel!

Dove there with them in August. Ratio sounds about right, as I recall. Could’ve been 8:1, but not 100%.

 

[iointerrupt]

There are pluses and minuses. Ocean Encounters is a well-oiled machine, unlike a lot of dive operations, but it will be a cattle boat experience. Perhaps look into if Dive Charter Curacao is available. Andy's boat only holds like 6 people to begin with.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

We have been to Curaçao a number of times and stayed at Coral Estates. I know that’s not what you’re asking about but, good accommodations and 3 restaurants on site. Dive shop with a DM and it will be super easy shore diving. Find a buddy or use a DM.

 

[davecampbell]

I'll be doing some diving with OE in about a week and a half. We've been out with them twice before, in the last 18 months. The boats are "cattle esque" but they are run very well. I think we had on average about 6-8 divers per guide, and usually had a runtime of about 55 minutes per dive. We try to be the first ones in the water, and the last to board, and don't mind just messing around below the boat at the end of the dive. They also include unlimited tanks for shore diving on days you boat dive with them. We take full advantage of that, doing 2-3 shore dives in the afternoon/evening. Overall, we like them, and find it to be a well run shop with nice boats.
The last trip, we did a day of shorediving in the west end, with Scuba do. There was a little bit of a clerical mixup, and we were picked up late, but they more than made up for it afterwards. I'd give them another go if they offered something I was interested in.
This time, in addition to OE, we'll also be diving a couple days with Scubaçao. One, boat diving in the Westend, and the other, a double tank on the Superior producer. They've been quite professional to deal with so far... so we shall see.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Heading out to Curaçao soon for a solo dive trip and planning to dive w/ Ocean Encounters. Does anyone have any experience with them? I'm reading online sometimes the groups are 10:1 DM to dive ratio? Does that sound right? That sounds like an insane amount of people to keep track of underwater and a very short dive if someone blows through gas quickly...in such a big group I can't imagine someone wouldn't.

I went to Curacao last October and emailed about 5 or 6 dive shops, including Ocean Encounters. They replied that they put 25 to 30 people on a dive boat, that is a ridiculous amount of divers. When I emailed back that was a lot of divers, they stopped responding. The biggest reason I won't ever dive with them is because they are affiliated with the Curacao Aquarium and Dolphin prison and run dives to the enclosure to dive with the captive Dolphins.

I ended up diving with Goby Divers. The most we had on the boat were 6 divers, they came and picked me up and returned me back to Sunscape, and they will store your gear for you while diving with them. Homepage - Goby Divers Curaçao

 

[TabeaK]

We’re here diving with OE right now. Dive shop is a well oiled machine, nice boats, but they are busy. We had several morning boat dives with a 10:1 ratio of DM to divers. Others were more like 8. Afternoon boat dives were much less, we did one where it was just the two of us and the DM…and a boat full of snorklers with their own guide. Definitely more of a cattle boat experience - you are at the mercy of the least experienced diver in your group. We tended to be the first in the water (group 1) and last ones out (end of group 2). That way we always made it to an hour, or even 70 mins.

We tended to stay away from the group and did our thing. DMs were okay with that once they saw we knew what we were doing. Conditions are super easy, no current, I don’t think I went below 70ft the entire trip. No need to. Highlight was Tugboat where I found a frogfish!