LizSeale
Registered
Hi all,
This board was so helpful to me before going to Aruba that I thought I'd post a short review for others to check out.
My family and I were in Aruba from April 12 - 19, and my husband and I dove with both JADS and Unique Sports. We had great experiences with both operators.
We stayed at the Radisson, which is about 40 minutes away from JADS but JP picked us up the first morning and gave us a mini-tour of the island on the way to the shop. It was nice to learn more about the island, and made the ride seem shorter. I'd taken a break from diving for 6+ years (but had about 100 dives under my belt when I stopped) so the first dive was a very shallow shore dive which helped me get remember everything I needed to know and allowed the DM to assess my abilities. A very nice dive from Rocky Beach - there was quite a bit of current (took 22 minutes going out, 11 coming in!), but nice to see that the reef was looking pretty healthy. On a side note, my regulator, which I'd had serviced right before going to Aruba, malfunctioned (flooded with water whenever it was submerged...kind of a bad thing, no?); I was able to use my alternate just fine.
We did 2 dives the next morning from their boat, which is small. JP is expecting to get a very nice, brand-spanking-new, much larger boat sometime this summer. There were 5 divers, the DM (Walter) and the captain, which was a snug fit for the small boat. We dove the Renaissance planes first. The other 3 divers were newly certified, and Walter had to return with one of them had to come back early (there was a good current). The rest of us continued our dive, and Walter came back to check on air. When he saw we had plenty, he led us around a bit more. We then headed to Sponge Reef. We did not get to see much other than a lot of fish - nice variety, though. They took us back to our hotel afterwards, which was only about 15 minutes from the dock.
The next day, trouble with something on the boat forced them to pull it out of the water for the day so they changed the dives to shore dives. We decided we did not want to do that and JP was very gracious and promised us a refund for day. After calling around a bit, we found Unique Sports was planning a 2-tank dive at 1 pm, and they promised that we'd go out even if we were the only ones on their (huge) boat. The advantage of Unique Sports was that it's right next door to the Radisson, so about 15 minutes before scheduled departure time, we sauntered over and discovered that we were the only 2 signed up to go! As promised, we went out. Initially, the DM (can't remember his name, but he reminded me of Wilmer Valderama) wanted to do 2 shallow dives, but when we told him we were both AOW and had plenty of experience, and were interested in doing something deeper, he redirected the boat and we ended up diving the awesome Blue Reef! Since it was just the 3 of us in the water, we got to spend plenty of time just cruising along and checking out everything we wanted to. The DM was fantastic at pointing out all sorts of critters both big and small - I spotted a big moray swimming along the reef! It was excellent! Afterwards, we headed back to the dock to pick up more divers (most of them getting certified or doing a resort course) and a couple more DM's. Another experienced diver joined us as well, so the second trip out was definitely more crowded, but not too bad. Our original DM took the us and the other experienced diver into the water first at the Pedernales so we were able to enjoy seeing all 4 parts (most people usually only see 3, apparently) of the ship before the crowds came along. Another great dive, and tons of sea life to observe!
Once topside, we decided for a variety of reasons to abort the rest of our dives. :-(
We'd signed up for an 8-tank package, and while JADS usually does not refund because they operate such small groups, JP was having no trouble filling up the groups so he kindly offered to pro-rate us. He even delivered the refund to our hotel!
All in all, while Aruba is not a popular dive destination, if you are an experienced diver, you will certainly find plenty to keep you interested and excited. Both Unique and JADS were great and we'd go back to either or both next time we go to Aruba.
This board was so helpful to me before going to Aruba that I thought I'd post a short review for others to check out.
My family and I were in Aruba from April 12 - 19, and my husband and I dove with both JADS and Unique Sports. We had great experiences with both operators.
We stayed at the Radisson, which is about 40 minutes away from JADS but JP picked us up the first morning and gave us a mini-tour of the island on the way to the shop. It was nice to learn more about the island, and made the ride seem shorter. I'd taken a break from diving for 6+ years (but had about 100 dives under my belt when I stopped) so the first dive was a very shallow shore dive which helped me get remember everything I needed to know and allowed the DM to assess my abilities. A very nice dive from Rocky Beach - there was quite a bit of current (took 22 minutes going out, 11 coming in!), but nice to see that the reef was looking pretty healthy. On a side note, my regulator, which I'd had serviced right before going to Aruba, malfunctioned (flooded with water whenever it was submerged...kind of a bad thing, no?); I was able to use my alternate just fine.
We did 2 dives the next morning from their boat, which is small. JP is expecting to get a very nice, brand-spanking-new, much larger boat sometime this summer. There were 5 divers, the DM (Walter) and the captain, which was a snug fit for the small boat. We dove the Renaissance planes first. The other 3 divers were newly certified, and Walter had to return with one of them had to come back early (there was a good current). The rest of us continued our dive, and Walter came back to check on air. When he saw we had plenty, he led us around a bit more. We then headed to Sponge Reef. We did not get to see much other than a lot of fish - nice variety, though. They took us back to our hotel afterwards, which was only about 15 minutes from the dock.
The next day, trouble with something on the boat forced them to pull it out of the water for the day so they changed the dives to shore dives. We decided we did not want to do that and JP was very gracious and promised us a refund for day. After calling around a bit, we found Unique Sports was planning a 2-tank dive at 1 pm, and they promised that we'd go out even if we were the only ones on their (huge) boat. The advantage of Unique Sports was that it's right next door to the Radisson, so about 15 minutes before scheduled departure time, we sauntered over and discovered that we were the only 2 signed up to go! As promised, we went out. Initially, the DM (can't remember his name, but he reminded me of Wilmer Valderama) wanted to do 2 shallow dives, but when we told him we were both AOW and had plenty of experience, and were interested in doing something deeper, he redirected the boat and we ended up diving the awesome Blue Reef! Since it was just the 3 of us in the water, we got to spend plenty of time just cruising along and checking out everything we wanted to. The DM was fantastic at pointing out all sorts of critters both big and small - I spotted a big moray swimming along the reef! It was excellent! Afterwards, we headed back to the dock to pick up more divers (most of them getting certified or doing a resort course) and a couple more DM's. Another experienced diver joined us as well, so the second trip out was definitely more crowded, but not too bad. Our original DM took the us and the other experienced diver into the water first at the Pedernales so we were able to enjoy seeing all 4 parts (most people usually only see 3, apparently) of the ship before the crowds came along. Another great dive, and tons of sea life to observe!
Once topside, we decided for a variety of reasons to abort the rest of our dives. :-(
We'd signed up for an 8-tank package, and while JADS usually does not refund because they operate such small groups, JP was having no trouble filling up the groups so he kindly offered to pro-rate us. He even delivered the refund to our hotel!
All in all, while Aruba is not a popular dive destination, if you are an experienced diver, you will certainly find plenty to keep you interested and excited. Both Unique and JADS were great and we'd go back to either or both next time we go to Aruba.
. If you are lucky white asparagus will still be in season. yummo!
