Aruba For Christmas

[gygirl]

Brian you have been misinformed with regard to Red Sail. I dive with them regularly, and they are very good. They do have alot of other divers on the boat, but also they enough instructors too. Most of the staff are instructors, I think there are only a couple of Divemasters, but they are all very professional and I would certainly dive with them again. We had 40 minute good dives. Where did you hear they were ao bad, as most people I have spoken to have had good experiences with them too ?

 

[NTSilver]

Totally agree on Red Sail as I have seen it with my own eyes on both trips to Aruba.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

I have gone out multiple times on both Red Sail and Unique, both are friendly and have diverse schedules. Unique takes smaller numbers, but they have older, smaller boats so i felt as crowded on them as on Red Sail. Overall, however, I would recommend either of them,,, but Red Sail is more likely to give you grief if they have a big cruise ship account the day you want to dive.

 

[Brian (Auburn)]

seeing as that i will be there over christmas which is a big tourist season i would like to avoid the cruise ship crowd.

ntsilver- would you argue for aor against red sail???

 

[NTSilver]

Brian

We dove with Unique Sports of Aruba (USA) on two different trips to Aruba. On both occasions we witnessed the red sail boats packed with people. They may have many DMs as gygirl mentions, but there are still a lot of people on board. I am not comfortable with that. I do not remeber the Unique Sports boats being old or crowded. There were maybe 6 -8 divers as I recall. And while very safety conscious, they were very laid back at the same time. We went in Sep and Oct. No matter where you are staying the Unique Sports guys will come and pick you up.

On both visits to Aruba there were multiple cruise boat dockings right in the heart of Orangestad. Red Sail has a main departure area in downtown Orangestad. I would think that over the holiday the cruise boats will definitely be docking.

By the way, where are you staying?

Nonie

 

[Brian (Auburn)]

we will be staying at the marriott and from what i understand almost all of the charters either are located near the resort or offer pick up at the marriott. as far as the Natalie Holloway case i am a teenager who grew up within a few miles of where she lived and i dont fell that boycotting Aruba is neccessary. i do believe it was a tragedy and more than likely was not an accident but not far from where she grew up there is an area with a much bigger problem than aruba has.

 

[mike_s]

You obviously know very little about the case. The 3 boys she was last seen with admitted to having sex with her against her will. Natalee was an honors student going to The Univ. of Alabama on a full academic scholarship as a pre-med student. Hardly the kind of person who would " ...just run away."

What bothers me most is the cover up of this case by the legal authorities on Aruba. The drug cartels in Columbia run the casinos and use Aruba as a way station for transhipment primarily to Europe but also the U.S.

I could go on with an awful lot more but why should I. You dont care. While you're there have a drink at Carlos N Charlies. Ask for a shot from the bottle that they keep for young American girls who are there for the last night and leaving the next morning. It's 25.00 a shot and has " .. a little extra something " in it. Enjoy.

Mawg, so many times have you been to Aruba? (none I bet)

Unfortunately I've seen my fair share of information on this. I live not to far from where she was from and the media here has given it more coverage than in your area I'm sure. I've also been to about all the Aruba spots mentioned in stories about her.

Do you know how many people in the US go missing like this each year? Thousands. Crime happens everywhere. IF you boycotted every place that bad things happen, you'd never leave your house.

Brian(Auburn), my apologies for the negative downturn in the thread you started. I hope you have a good trip there. The Marriot is a nice area. There is a dive shop at the pier there that has positive reviews, but I can't remember the name of it. Romeo or something like that might run it? Also the next hotel down at the Holiday Inn is the Pelican Watersports pier. They do a good job also. Most of the dive shops offer free pick up and drop off and pretty much do it on a schedule. You can email what ever shop you choose and ask them what their pickup schedule is. (They follow the schedule in order to keep zig-zagging back and forth between the hotels).

I think that Red Sail operates a desk out of the Marriott also, but they have a reputation as being more of a cattle boat there. They also catter to the cruise lines to add 'more cattle' thus making them not as perferred by divers. The only shop that has really negative reviews is Mermaid Watersports, but I hardly hear of them anymore. Most people use the better shops so you hear more about them.

Hope this helps. BTW....War Eagle!

 

[NTSilver]

Marriott area is nice. Unique Sports is in that general area. Pelican is half-way between downtown and the western end where the Marriott is. Our friends used Pelican and would not use anyone else. As Mike_s stated, they will all come and pick you up.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

Marriott area is nice. Unique Sports is in that general area. Pelican is half-way between downtown and the western end where the Marriott is. Our friends used Pelican and would not use anyone else. As Mike_s stated, they will all come and pick you up.

I believe Unique recently bought Pelican and they are now the same company with two separate piers

 

[tarheeldiver]

Brian
As I said earlier I think if you want small and someone who will let you dive to your abilities Divearuba is perfect. If you want a bigger boat i saw lots of other nicer operations but they definitely had more divers And how many let you do a 90 minute dive.
Also I have been to Aruba before and after the Holloway case and I have never once felt unsafe walking around anywhere day or night more than I can say for my trips to Atlanta (which I love also).
Greg