Aruba For Christmas

[Missdirected]

Has anyone else had a bad experience with Red Sail Aruba ?

snipped

If you want a good dive do not go with Red Sail.........................

I was diving with Native Divers last October when some other fellas joined us. They had the same problem the year before with RedSail. They were given free dives. So they came back to give them another chance and the same thing happened again... they were left standing with no pick-up. Hence, their diving with us.

Too bad you weren't on the board before your experience. This place is full of great information on Aruba. You would have been able to pool that info and made a decision, based on that, wether or not to use them. Have a look in that forum, if you get the chance. Most especially before your next trip

btw, welcome to the board!

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

When I was in Aruba in the spring, Red Sail was great...in November, when I went back, they hinted that I might be bumped from an advance reservation because of cruise ship obligations. I bailed on them and went to Mermaid...to my surprise, many of the Red Sail staff from the spring were now, in the fall, mermaid employees...they refused to say why they left Red Sail...

Clearly, Red Sail in Aruba is having a problem, IMO, even from the DM/instructor viewpoint...it may be temporary, but I'd be wary, given the plethora of other operators in the area. :no

 

[wreckvalle]

Check out the Antilla Shipwreck while you are there
http://www.shipwreckexpo.com/tsarubashipwrecks.htm

 

[427Dave]

I have been going to Aruba now since 1998. I dived with Mermaid the first few times and then they dissappeared, went out of business, however they are back in business now. Then I started going with Unique Sports. They are super. I have dove now with them every year and have been happy enough not to change.

Last year they did buy out Pelican and have combined the operations so the number of divers on their boats have increased, but also the number of boats increased and you can get 2 tank dives in the AM and PM. They have a great staff and make sure their are enough DM's on each trip. On a few trips we had 12-14 people and they had 2 DM's and split the group into 6-7 each. Plus someone is always on the boat with the safety equipment, including oxgen.

Emmit and Su Zan Kimble and their staff are great and they operate a very professional operation. They will do just about anything for you. They also will pick you up at any place on the island.

As for eating, now that is a different story and everyone to their own taste
El Gaucho's is always good. Tango's near the Raddison, and The Paddock downtown plus some many others, the island is just great.

Can not wait until next year now....

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

Correction --- I went with Unique, NOT Mermaid...agree that they are super

 

[Brian (Auburn)]

i must disagree about unique, i found their operation was too limiting, they took big groups instead of buddy teams, which i would be fine with as long as the guides did a good job, but the guide (nameless) i thought was not only irresponsible but also just didnt seem to care. after i switched to Native divers we still went in a larger group BUT our guide Romeo was AMAZING not only did he make sure the group stayed together but also pointed out very interesting stuff. i asked romeo about my other dive with unique and he said that dive can be the best dive in the world or the worst and it all depends on your charter. in my future trips to aruba which i'm sure will be taken i will definantly go with Romeo the first time and stick with him

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I did one 2 tank dive with Unique about 3 years ago because Romeo was full that day. There was 24 divers on the boat with only 2 DM's(2 groups of 12). There were people popping up all over the place at the end of the dive. They were lucky they didn't lose someone.I won't dive with them again.

 

[Hapkiman]

Also passions was great on the beach ,went there for Valentines' day it got me an extra Dive LOL... also the food was good at El Gaucho's but the service was great ,My favorite was Amazonia and there parmesan pork was to kill for.....

 

[akirawut]

Resurrection!!!