Bonaire Trip Report (June 2016) - Divi Flamingo Resort

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Lavalamp

Registered
Messages
8
Reaction score
19
Location
Greenwich, CT
# of dives
200 - 499
My wife and I were in Bonaire during the week of May 28th - June 4th. Stayed at Divi Flamingo Resort. At the time of booking, we also considered Buddy, Bellafonte, and Village Harbour but the Divi package was too good to pass up.

$891/person for the entire week (7 nights), which included:
- free upgrade to deluxe ocean-view room w/ private balcony
- free 2-tank boat dive every morning
- free breakfast every morning
- free 24-hour unlimited shore dive (self service)
- free airport transfers

The only things for which we had to pay extra: unlimited Nitrox ($125/person), Bonaire marine park fees ($25/person)


The Resort:
Freshly renovated in 2015. Lawns are neat and clean. Pool area is clean w/ classy cabanas.

The dive pier with lockers and rinse tanks is the best on the island and a key differentiator. It is super convenient to be able to rinse and store all of your dive gear right on the pier. There are a number of loyal Divi guests who keep coming back to this resort year and year and it's because they like this pier (and the house reef of course).

In our opinion Divi house reef ('Calabas Reef') is the best house reef of any resort in Bonaire. Some people dive it everyday for the entire week.


The Service: Unfortunately service is where Divi falls short.

Airport Transfer - disorganized w/ excessive wait time. When we landed in Bonaire, they made us wait in the sun-heated dirty van with no A/C for over an hour. The hotel was only a 5-minute drive from the airport, but still they didn't have the common sense wherewithal to drop us off first and come back for the other guests an hour later.

Housekeeping - below par. Balcony furniture pieces were always covered with dust. We couldn't hang dry anything on the balcony rails, chairs, or tables. Even the floor in the room was dusty everyday. We couldn't walk in our room barefooted.

Food & Beverage - below par. Salads and vegetables were never fresh. We even got upset stomach from the hotel food. We started going to Buddy Resort & Sand Dollar for lunch and the food quality at those places were way better.

Connectivity - poor. In-room wifi nonexistent despite the hotel's explicit confirmation at the time of booking that they do have in-room wifi. Well it turned out to be false advertisement. If you want in-room wifi, this hotel is not for you.


The Dive Shop: Typical cattle boat operations.

We did boat dives on 4 out of our 6 dive days. The divers-to-guide ratio was always 16:1, which proved to be way too high. The guide was not able to police the group and curb bad behaviors. So many novice divers were finning the crap out of fragile reefs trying to take pictures. Others were chasing and harassing fish. After four days of this, we decided we were done with Divi cattle boats. We only did shore dives on our own after that.

Some male dive guides had attitude/ego issues. They barked orders at guests as opposed to giving courteous and professional pre-dive briefs. They were impatient with some of the guests who asked questions. If you dive with Divi, we recommend going with female guides - generally friendlier and more helpful.

Self-service station for shore diving was great. Our best dives of the week were the shore dives where we went on our own with our truck - just the two of us.


Our Dives: Bonaire is truly divers' paradise. On this trip we hit up:
  • Klein Bonaire - Sharon's Serenity
  • Calabas Reef x 3
  • 18th Palm
  • Small Wall
  • Karpata
  • Angel City
  • Klein Bonaire - Ebo's Special
  • Klein Bonaire - Sampler
  • Aquarius
  • Salt Pier x 2
  • Tolo / Ol' Blue
  • Klein Bonaire - Keepsake
  • Hilma Hooker Wreck
  • Barcadera
  • Tori's Reef
  • Bari Reef & Front Porch
  • 1000 Steps
Favorites are bolded. We repeated Salt Pier & Calabas for night/sunset dives.
 
Balanced sounding and useful critical review. I've never stayed there; I've stayed at Buddy Dive Resort before. Wondered what Divi would be like.

If you plan another trip, who will you use?

Richard.
 
A boat with 16 diver to one guide would be a major deal breaker! Great report. It sounds like you were lucky to dive a variety of sites.
 
From what I've been told, one of the advantages of staying at Divi Flamingo is the proximity to the capital; you can walk into town & eat at restaurants, etc... Not that it's that hard to drive there and park, but I suppose it's a perk.

Now the idea that the house reef is better than the one at Buddy Dive Resort is new to me; I've dove Buddy's many times, but never Divi's, so I don't know either way.

Many people don't boat dive much if at all on Bonaire, so while 16:1 would be bad news for some, others wouldn't be affected. Good to know, either way.

Richard.
 
As long time users of Divi I agree with the OPs observations, but a little more knowledge could have helped their stay a bit:
- airport transfer = DIY taxi. To the best of our knowledge there is no official transfer service. At least we have never found one. Just grab the first cab you see at the airport and take it to the Divi. Upon arrival send the driver to the desk to get paid. We do tip the driver. Divi pays them. Simple and fast.
- Too many divers to DM? Why do you care about the DM? We tell the DM before each boat dive that we will NOT be part of the cluster and will NOT be following him (or her), we plan to dive as a buddy pair. We have never had any issues with this approach. We hate group dives.
- in room WIFi: depends upon the room and the time of day. If you REALLY REALLY need Wifi, wander down to the front desk. See all those other people in the chairs staring at their laptop / cellphone?

I totally agree on the food and restaraunt service. Poor. We put up with the included breakfast but avoid it for all other meals.
 
From what I've been told, one of the advantages of staying at Divi Flamingo is the proximity to the capital; you can walk into town & eat at restaurants, etc...
Now the idea that the house reef is better than the one at Buddy Dive Resort is new to me; I've dove Buddy's many times, but never Divi's, so I don't know either way.
.
being able to walk to supper is a huge plus since there are no worries about drink driving (and no need to rent a truck)

i think Bari reef (Captn Don & Buddy Dive) is better than Calabas (Divi) as the cruise ships constrain your direction and can create a silt storm when leaving...
 
From my POV, Capt Don's, etc shore diving was better BEFORE cruiseships,and having experienced a silt out on Grand Cayman from side thrusters; I have zero interest in a repeat. The dive gear storage sounds nice and proximity to town and dinner has always been good!
 
I'm just back as well from my yearly (7th in a row) trip to Bonaire. We own a timeshare at Divi Flamingo. We probably bumped into one another.

Honestly, I agree with most of your points.

We always rent a truck so I can't comment on the transfers from the airport to the hotel.

The food is way overpriced and just not good. Including this trip (the breakfast buffet), I believe we have ate at the resort 3 or 4 times total in the past 7 years.

We generally do one day of boat diving while there. We were diving with some friends this year, so we skipped a day of boat diving. I didn't miss it. The boats are crowded. The DM's can be rough around the edges. Although, I've never had a poor encounter with them. The dive boats seem to cater more to the large groups than non-group divers. Generally, if I talk with Serge (the dive ops manager), he can hook us up with a less crowded boat. I imagine that wouldn’t have been too big a problem this trip. When he is running 5 or 6 full boats, I don’t even ask.

We really like the pier setup and Calabas Reef. I’ve done a few of the other house reefs on Bonaire. Buddy’s may have a slight edge.

Yes, housekeeping could be better. I thought it was okay this trip. When the resort is packed, they seem to cut corners.

I also hit up many of the dive sites you listed. I agree with your favs too!

Bonaire is about shore diving. If I can hope on a less crowded boat to Klein, I’ll probably think about it. If not, forget about it.
 
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