Anyone dive w/ Captain Don's Habitat but not stay there?

[TT_Vert]

Staying there is a bit out of our price range so we are going to stay down the street and do the 12 boat dive and unlimited shore dive package w/ a nitrox upgrade ($60/week). Did you have any issue doing shore dives or getting tanks being as you didn't stay there? Anything else I should be aware of? I have only dove once at bonaire w/ Buddy dive center back 7 or 8 years ago during a cruise. Are there perhaps better options for us?

Thanks
Dave

 

[herman]

Unless you have some specific reason for wanting to use CD's why bother? The dive shop is a little hard to get to- parking wise, they only have one site and it's usually easier to use a shop that is affiliated with the hotel you are using. If I were to chose a shop that was not affiliated with my resort it would be Dive Friends. 5 locations, great staff and all of the locations have good to great access, you can pick up and drop off tanks are any of them. By the way, most places on Bonaire include nitrox upgrades for free so unless CD's is a lot cheaper than the other places, another reason not to use them.

 

[tkaelin]

We dove with Capt Don's our last 4 trips but stayed elsewhere. We stayed at Coral Paradise which is next to CD and a short walk to the dive dock, lockers and tanks. We have had no issues. When we shore dive, we drive up and have always found at least one of the designated short term (15 min?) parking spots for diver/tank pick up upon. A short walk from there to pick up tanks and grab whatever gear we need from the CD lockers below by the water. We do try to plan our shore dives so we minimize having to walk all the way down to the CD lockers to grab gear. At CP there is a great locker, rinse tank, drying area set up so we may plan on an entire day of shore diving keeping our gear where we are staying and just going to CD to pick up tanks, again to minimize the trips down to CD lockers for our gear. At 12 boat dives, it sounds like most of your diving will be with CD and between the boat dives and diving the house reefs there it sounds like you may be only doing some shore diving as well. Enjoy!

 

[TT_Vert]

Oddly, they (CD) state they won't even take us out diving if we don't stay w/ them. Looks like I'll be looking elsewhere for boat diving. Every Dive op i seemed to look at upcharged for nitrox unless you stay w/ them. Am I missing something?

Dave

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately we do not take off property reservations for diving you have to be staying with us in order to make us of our dive facility.


We hope we have informed you sufficiently.


If you have any future questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.


Sunny Greetings,


Niz-Marie

 

[Doctorfish]

Did you look at Buddy Dive? As a bonus, they have a drive through which is very convenient for picking up tanks and rinsing gear.
Their house reef, and access to it are good as well.

 

[TT_Vert]

I did look there also. I am hoping to find a place we can do both boat dives with as well as some shore diving. It seems w/ the all inclusive deals they really hit you on the room which doesn't seem to make it worth it over using airbnb or similar for a room.


Dave

 

[tkaelin]

Buddys and Capt Don are relatively inexpensive dive locations. Coral Paradise is next door and you can book diving with them for Capt Don, Buddys and Dive Friends but I suspect if Capt Don's is out of your budget, CP may be as well. Worth a look. If you want to go the airbnb route check out dive friends as wells as buddys for diving only options. If you want budget check out DiveHut.

 

[TT_Vert]

Looking at all of the packages, it appears without any shore diving for two of us we're at 1600-2000 for a week then we need to add on our boat dives. The place we're looking to stay is $450 for the week and for ~10 boat dives and unlimited short diving we're looking at ~800 for both of us. So we're around 1250 for both of us for unlimited shore/10 boat dives vs. 1600-2000 plus the cost of boat dives which are 35-55 each. Maybe I'm missing something w/ the pricing?
Dave

 

[tkaelin]

I have seen packages advertised for both Buddies and CD through Carradona.com and/or Madurodive.com that are in the price range you are looking for and less. There are less expensive options on the island as well. CP is $2,400.00 for a room with kitchen, balcony or porch, unlimited shore, 11 boat dives and truck. They are great but you can find cheaper places/packages if you are shooting for a certain price range.

 

[TT_Vert]

Care to mention where? I've gone through over 15 dive op web pages and none were under 2k and that didn't include boat dives. Here are where I found the dive ops: Bonaire Dive Shops - Dive Operators - Bonaire Official Tourism Site