Aruba Dive Shop-'NOOB' Needs Help (Cruise Ship Diver)

We will be in Aruba for 1 day in December via cruise ship. While my son (dive buddy) is an experienced diver, I have only logged 11 dives which includes my certification dives.
Can anyone recommend a dive shop? I also posted this over on the ABC islands board and have not received any recommendations other than to book through the ship which I really dont want to do. Thank you in advance for your help.

My first post! (grin)

For what it's worth, I am on a cruise in October that will be stopping by Aruba for a day. I checked around with the various shops, and I settled on JADS. They were the most accommodating for our schedule (we're in port from noon to 10pm). We're going to get in an afternoon and a dusk/twilight dive that day.

Even though the posts in the ABC forums state that JADS caters to more experienced divers, I have less than 20 dives in my logbook, and they were cool about it.

And, best of all, they'll come get you and take you back.

I stopped there on my Panama Canal cruise and booked through the cruise. The dive was with Red Sail Sports and we had only four divers on a big boat. They took us to the Antilla and the Pedernales, both great dives.

Thank you both so much for the suggestions. I will email them both and see what they say. Actually, I was looking at JADS until I read somewhere that they cater to more experienced divers. The fact that they would pick us up at the ship is a huge plus! Thanks again!

I had good dives with Clive Paula at Dive Aruba, can recommend without reservation.

I've been to Aruba three times a week at a time.

JADs is on the south end of the island. They have to pick people up because they're so far away. If they have to pick you up, drive down to their shop, dive, and then drop you back off, thats a lot of time. The dive sites on the south end are advanced. Unless you have significant experience you don't want to go to those sites.

If you stay on the Palm Beach resort side, all of the dives are 45 feet or less. There are a lot of reefs and wrecks.

The more common dive firms are unique/pelican and red sail. I have always dove with unique/pelican. Both of these could be criticized as cattle boats as if you end up with a discover scuba class on a big boat there will be a lot of divers. I've been on both Discover scuba dives with 20 other people and dives with just my wife and the divemaster.

Avoid Mermaid. Enough said. Do your own internet search if you must.

Clive with Dive Aruba has a very small center console boat. He had an incident last year, which while not his fault, I found disturbing. In particular, he didn't properly cover the body, allowing the press to obtain disrespectful photos of the deceased. If I die on a dive, I don't want the Aruban press making a spectacle of me.

Themons, I don't totally agree with your post.

True, the shore dives in the San Nicolas area where Jads is located are, depending on the weather, mostly for experienced divers. But JADS does most of its boat dives on the reef on the South coast of the island. These dives are suitable for all divers. Jads' dive boat is moored right behind the airport which is just outside of Oranjestad and pretty close to where the cruise ships come in. So I don't see your point that there are long drives, if you choose to do boat dives. Plus, the long drives that Themons is talking about if you choose to go all the way to San Nicolas for shore dives, are about 30 minutes, and in my book, not that long.

And another point that I have made many times already on this board: the diving near the hotel area is awful compared to the diving elsewhere around the island. The Antilla is a good dive, but only if you can get there first thing in the morning, before the masses arrive. So my advice is to avoid this area and choose to dive on the South coast of Aruba. And if you're up for something trully special (and you're diving skills are up to it), dare to do the Baby Beach shore dive and other sites around this area. After this dive, you'll feel ripped off if a dive operator ever again takes you to the Pedernales.

Anyway, have fun and dive safely!

Just am curious...years ago cruised into St Lucia and Barbados was there for a day and used the cruise ship excursion desk for an organized two tank dive at each location. I also am going to Aruba in November for one day with a cruise ship. Why wouldn't I use the shore excursion desk to set up my dive?

jreggied:

Just am curious...years ago cruised into St Lucia and Barbados was there for a day and used the cruise ship excursion desk for an organized two tank dive at each location. I also am going to Aruba in November for one day with a cruise ship. Why wouldn't I use the shore excursion desk to set up my dive?

Click to expand...

I nearly always book through the ship.

We're too chicken not to book through the cruise ship. If you're late, your in big trouble. If the cruiseship booked scuba excursion comes in late, no problem.

Also, on our last cruise, the ship developed an engine problem and was late getting into Cozumel. A number of people who had booked independent trips were not able to go diving. For the cruiseship booked tours, they just moved the schedule back.

So, if you book it though the cruise ship, you have protection both ways.