Dive Review of
S.E.Aruba Fly and Dive in
Aruba

Belize, Cozumel, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Florida Keys, Bahamas,
Dominican Republic, Fort Lauderdale

Dive Conditions

Return after a speficied time or with 500 psi.  Buddies were allowed to
dive on their own.  

[None]  

Overall Rating

Aruba is a great trip from the NY metro area because it is a direct flight.
 On the way home, you go through US customs on Aruba, which eliminates the
big bottleneck at JFK.  On our return, we were advised to be at the Aruba
airport three hours early.  We checked our bags and got through customs
within about half an hour, so I would not get there quite as early next
time.  Jet Blue ran on time, as always.

 And now for the diving...  I hooked up with S.E Aruba Fly and Dive.  I had
a very enjoyable experience diving with them and would happily dive with
them again.  I dove on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the week between
Xmas and New Year's- a peak week.  There were 12 divers the first 2 days
and 18 the last day.  !2 divers on the boat was very comfortable.  On the
last day, there were a lot more divers and the shop ran a second boat.  !8
divers was cozy but not crowded.  All things considered, pretty good... 
There were enough divemasters and staff to keep things running well.  Ben,
the captain, picked me up from my hotel every morning.  He explained to me
that  on the first day the crew sizes the new diver up to determine how
experienced they are and to see how much help they need.  If you are an
experienced diver, you are given some latitude.  If you seem to need help,
the staff rides closer herd on you.  There was a DM in the water per 6
divers.  Divers had the option of diving on their own with their buddies
instead of following the group.  The dive briefings were good and
informative.  There were suggested bottom times.  Only once was the dive a
bit shorter than I would have liked it to be.  The dive operation was
professional, friendly and competent.  The level of service was in the
middle.  You aren't on your own, like I was in Florida, but you aren't
fawned over the way I have been in Cozumel or the Turks and Caicos.  This
was fine with me.

I won't bore you with specific dives, but I can say that there was alot of
coral in very good shape.  There were a lot of fish and a lot of schools. 
Aside from seeing 2 turtles (my first in 50 dives) and a scorpionfish,
there weren't very many striking or unusual fish.  I did see the biggest
rainbow parrotfish ever and an enormous puffer.  Aruba also has the most
honeycomb trunkfish that I have ever seen.  The only thing that was a bit
of a bummer was that we had to wait for about half an hour before we could
splash when we dove the Antilla.  Apparently there are a limited number of
mooring sites for the wreck and we had to queue up and wait for a site to
open up.  It was the first time that I was stuck in traffic waiting to
dive.

This minor disappointment notwithstanding, I had a great time diving with
SEAruba and would recommend them instead of the bigger dive ops on Aruba. 
I had a great vacation week and a great time diving.  Aruba was a
successful trip and had piqued my interest in Bonaire.

Joel Solomon 

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