Diving Grenda, Bonaire & Aruba?

[Tiki_Man]

I am on the Celebrity Summit sailing on 3/1/08. I have dives set up at the following locations with these local dive shops. First time to these 3 islands.

 

Anyone have any experience with these shops? Any dive site I should ask for (not that I will get it, but you never know)?

 

Grenada - DiveGrenada - 6 person boat with a wreck and reef dive.

 

Bonaire - Diveinnbonaire - shore dive with guide, max of 4 people (my wife is joining on this dive)

 

Aruba - DiveAruba - 7 person boat - no details.

 

Tiki Man

[madtowngal]

In Aruba, not that dive shop, but Mermaid divers is very good. Perdenalas and Antilla wrecks, are great, there are also some airplane and a tugboat. Reefs are all nice.

[bruce-r]

In Aruba, not that dive shop, but Mermaid divers is very good. Perdenalas and Antilla wrecks, are great, there are also some airplane and a tugboat. Reefs are all nice.

 

I was pretty unimpressed by the Antilla, even though I was pretty inexperienced at the time.

 

I did dive with http://www.divearuba.com and thought Clive was fine. He has a defined schedule on which site he does each day.

[scubadiver888]

Tiki Man,

 

Check out http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv03.htm for all the dive sites at Bonaire. As you'll see there are many. If you are just doing shore dives you will not be able to get out to Klein Bonaire but there will still be plenty off the main island.

 

You can read about the dive sites for Aruba at http://www.geographia.com/aruba/diving.htm. I've been on the Pedernales. It is okay but at 35' you get bored LONG before you run out of air.

 

I haven't been with DiveGrenada. The dive operator I was with was not great. Underwater was good but they had no dock and getting in the boat from shore was not easy (4 foot waves and the sea floor dropped away rather quickly). Additionally, we had to get into the small boat then from the small boat (still in 4 foot waves) hop over to the big boat. Also, they had so many divers on the one boat that there weren't enough tank holders so they had tanks rolling around on the floor of the boat.

 

I've read posts from other people using different dive operators with similar experiences. It seems most the dive operators in Grenada don't have great above water experience. Only 6 people to the boat is a lot better than I've heard before. We had 22 people on our boat.

[gmcrow]

Dec. 07 The Antilla was a nice wreck, and loved the history lesson we got with Red Sail Sports. We had a boat with about 14 divers- split into two groups, but we asked to just buddy dive by ourselves-- it's kind of hard to get lost on an intact wreck in good vis. We had a lovely dive-- lots of pictures, GREAT marine life. The Pedernales was a waste of time--few fish, just chunks of metal scattered across the bottom, bad vis.

[w&k]

We dive with Clive on Aruba... as a matter of fact, we will be there on the 27th off the Galaxy, for our third trip with him. It would have been our 4th time, but last spring, Keith got an awful cold, and shared it with me. The dive site schedule is posted on the website.

 

Sorry, but I can't help you with the others. We are booked with Aquanauts in Grenada for our upcoming trip.

 

Have a great time!

 

Wendy

[scubamargie]

If possible see if you can dive the Veronica L. in Grenada. We dove with Dive Grenada in December and they usually have their schedule all set, but if there's a choice ask for this one. If you get Gary as your dive master ask him to show you the secret air pocket -- you can talk underwater in this little space. We loved this wreck, including the very large Green Moray, spotted moray, large school of jacks, French angels, drums and baracuda. Watch out for the killer damsels -- they're very territorial! Entering the boat will be as another said, a beach entry with practically a swim to get to the boat. However we had only 6 on our dive so the boat had plenty of room.

[123Scuba.com]

I am on the Celebrity Summit sailing on 3/1/08. I have dives set up at the following locations with these local dive shops. First time to these 3 islands.

 

Anyone have any experience with these shops? Any dive site I should ask for (not that I will get it, but you never know)?

 

Grenada - DiveGrenada - 6 person boat with a wreck and reef dive.

 

Bonaire - Diveinnbonaire - shore dive with guide, max of 4 people (my wife is joining on this dive)

 

Aruba - DiveAruba - 7 person boat - no details.

 

Tiki Man

 

I have been to Bonaire many time and can honestly say I've never been to a bad dive site. Heard good things about that op. as well, though have never personally used them myself.

[cinderella29]

If possible see if you can dive the Veronica L. in Grenada. We dove with Dive Grenada in December and they usually have their schedule all set, but if there's a choice ask for this one. If you get Gary as your dive master ask him to show you the secret air pocket -- you can talk underwater in this little space. We loved this wreck, including the very large Green Moray, spotted moray, large school of jacks, French angels, drums and baracuda. Watch out for the killer damsels -- they're very territorial! Entering the boat will be as another said, a beach entry with practically a swim to get to the boat. However we had only 6 on our dive so the boat had plenty of room.

 

Enjoy your cruise , can't believe your off again on another one and you went one after I came off in November, lucky you I have to wait till november

 

Cat

[Scubagolf]

I am on the Celebrity Summit sailing on 3/1/08. I have dives set up at the following locations with these local dive shops. First time to these 3 islands.

 

Anyone have any experience with these shops? Any dive site I should ask for (not that I will get it, but you never know)?

 

Grenada - DiveGrenada - 6 person boat with a wreck and reef dive.

 

Bonaire - Diveinnbonaire - shore dive with guide, max of 4 people (my wife is joining on this dive)

 

Aruba - DiveAruba - 7 person boat - no details.

 

Tiki Man

 

Tiki Man - If you can hear this, please post a trip report for your trip on the Celebrity Summit last Spring. We are sailing on the same itinerary on the Summit in mid-Feb '09 and we would love to hear about the dive operators you ended up diving with and any other pearls of wisdom about the boat and the cruise. Thanks!