My wife & I along with 17 others from our LDS were there from 7/20 to 7/27.
Accommodations
We arrived at the resort around 07:00 Bonaire time, checked in, then went and devoured breakfast. Our room wasn't ready till around 14:00, and we were one of the lucky ones in our group, some folks in our group didn't get their room till after 16:00. Several of our group just fell asleep on the couch and chairs at the front desk house, as there is no other place to go, and we weren't leaving all that luggage unattended. I can understand that rooms weren't ready when we arrived, but I can't understand why the rooms weren't ready around noon. Without a room, they couldn't get us our rental vehicle, more on that later. I had expected the flakey Wi-Fi internet, as that is in other reports about Buddy Dive. We stayed in duplex 515. The duplex was clean, the furnishings were ok, all the air conditioners worked well, but it took 3 days for the resort to get someone over to fix the hot water heater. I was told the following by the resort staff, " we'll get someone right over there", "they be there right after they get done with lunch", they'll be there first thing this morning, they'll be there this afternoon and "I'll get them right over there". I'd even told them what was wrong with it. I was getting really tired of taking navy showers. Even the rinse off shower on the pier was warmer than our showers. Everything else in the duplex was in perfect working order, lights, TV (turned on once), refrigerator/freezer, stove, and microwave. Included in our package was a rental truck for each duplex. Though we tried though out the day after we got our room to pick up our rental, the staff kept telling us to check back later, then after the shift change they could not issue out rentals. We were able to get it first thing in the next morning though. It was good basic transportation, got us where we wanted to go and back every time. Though on a side note, we wondered if it would start a several times, but it always started right up.
Meals
Breakfast was included in our package. I had no complaints, nor did I hear of any from others in our group. Nothing fancy, but good. There were fruits, baked goods, sausages, bacon, potatoes, fruit drinks, coffee, omelets to order and waffles, available every day. There were also pancakes, French toast, and sausage gravy available on other days. The croissants were good, but they had this cinnamon bread/cake that was to die for!
Also included in our package was 50% discount on food, on the first $150 charged to the room per person. (I hope that makes sense to everyone.)
I think we ate lunch at the resort once. As once we got our rental vehicle we went to the grocery store. At the store we picked up lunch supplies, snacks, and soda. We had dinner at the resort four times. Prices were a bit higher than what I would expect here in the USA, but not outrageous. Buddy Dive does have their menu and prices on line, so there were no real surprises. The food was good, nothing bad, nothing stands out as great either. My wife and I had a total bill just over $200, but this also included some extra boat dives we did. This was well within the amount we had budgeted. We had dinner out three times. We went along with some others in our group to It Rains Fishes, Patagonias, and Capt. Dons on different nights of our trip. All were good. It Rains Fishes was quite good and I would return. At Patagonias I had one of the best steaks Ive ever had. The service was not quite up to par. I saw some other issues that made me wonder if the restaurant would make it in the long run. We went to Capt. Dons to check it out for future trip and decided to eat while we were there. The food was good, and the service was alright. I liked the setup at Capt. Dons better than Buddy Dive.
Diving
I slacked off a bit on this trip, I only made 22 dives. We did have one person in our group make 26 dives. Overall the diving was fantastic. Visibility averaged over 80 on all the dives. Though there seem to be a lot of plankton in the water that made it a tiny bit hazy. I did several morning dives and night dives at Buddy Dives house reef. I also did a night dive at Something Special. We had four days of boat diving. We had no bad dives. Though one of the dive masters assigned to our group was bit blunt or verbally rough on a couple of our divers. I personally had no issues with this dive master. Ill just say that there are sometimes better ways of speaking to recreational divers. We did have some current at Buddy Dive house reef all week. The current was from the north, and generally light, though one morning it was bit stronger. Nitrox fills were 30% to 32% and tanks were usually filled 2800 to 3100, though as I recall we had a few 2500s and two 1500s. The 1500s & 2500s tanks were on the boat and they had extras to replace them with each time. Tanks were always available. Most of the dives had a max depth of less than 80, though there were a couple got around 90 and I did do one deep dive to 132.
The folks at the Digital Photo Center were very helpful with my very basic photography questions. They also put on a slide show, The Creature Feature, with some question and answers on Sunday evening.
Overall, we enjoyed ourselves and we will return to Bonaire. Would I stay at Buddy Dive again? Probably, but I think Ill shop around a bit first.
If you have any questions please just ask.
Accommodations
We arrived at the resort around 07:00 Bonaire time, checked in, then went and devoured breakfast. Our room wasn't ready till around 14:00, and we were one of the lucky ones in our group, some folks in our group didn't get their room till after 16:00. Several of our group just fell asleep on the couch and chairs at the front desk house, as there is no other place to go, and we weren't leaving all that luggage unattended. I can understand that rooms weren't ready when we arrived, but I can't understand why the rooms weren't ready around noon. Without a room, they couldn't get us our rental vehicle, more on that later. I had expected the flakey Wi-Fi internet, as that is in other reports about Buddy Dive. We stayed in duplex 515. The duplex was clean, the furnishings were ok, all the air conditioners worked well, but it took 3 days for the resort to get someone over to fix the hot water heater. I was told the following by the resort staff, " we'll get someone right over there", "they be there right after they get done with lunch", they'll be there first thing this morning, they'll be there this afternoon and "I'll get them right over there". I'd even told them what was wrong with it. I was getting really tired of taking navy showers. Even the rinse off shower on the pier was warmer than our showers. Everything else in the duplex was in perfect working order, lights, TV (turned on once), refrigerator/freezer, stove, and microwave. Included in our package was a rental truck for each duplex. Though we tried though out the day after we got our room to pick up our rental, the staff kept telling us to check back later, then after the shift change they could not issue out rentals. We were able to get it first thing in the next morning though. It was good basic transportation, got us where we wanted to go and back every time. Though on a side note, we wondered if it would start a several times, but it always started right up.
Meals
Breakfast was included in our package. I had no complaints, nor did I hear of any from others in our group. Nothing fancy, but good. There were fruits, baked goods, sausages, bacon, potatoes, fruit drinks, coffee, omelets to order and waffles, available every day. There were also pancakes, French toast, and sausage gravy available on other days. The croissants were good, but they had this cinnamon bread/cake that was to die for!
Also included in our package was 50% discount on food, on the first $150 charged to the room per person. (I hope that makes sense to everyone.)
I think we ate lunch at the resort once. As once we got our rental vehicle we went to the grocery store. At the store we picked up lunch supplies, snacks, and soda. We had dinner at the resort four times. Prices were a bit higher than what I would expect here in the USA, but not outrageous. Buddy Dive does have their menu and prices on line, so there were no real surprises. The food was good, nothing bad, nothing stands out as great either. My wife and I had a total bill just over $200, but this also included some extra boat dives we did. This was well within the amount we had budgeted. We had dinner out three times. We went along with some others in our group to It Rains Fishes, Patagonias, and Capt. Dons on different nights of our trip. All were good. It Rains Fishes was quite good and I would return. At Patagonias I had one of the best steaks Ive ever had. The service was not quite up to par. I saw some other issues that made me wonder if the restaurant would make it in the long run. We went to Capt. Dons to check it out for future trip and decided to eat while we were there. The food was good, and the service was alright. I liked the setup at Capt. Dons better than Buddy Dive.
Diving
I slacked off a bit on this trip, I only made 22 dives. We did have one person in our group make 26 dives. Overall the diving was fantastic. Visibility averaged over 80 on all the dives. Though there seem to be a lot of plankton in the water that made it a tiny bit hazy. I did several morning dives and night dives at Buddy Dives house reef. I also did a night dive at Something Special. We had four days of boat diving. We had no bad dives. Though one of the dive masters assigned to our group was bit blunt or verbally rough on a couple of our divers. I personally had no issues with this dive master. Ill just say that there are sometimes better ways of speaking to recreational divers. We did have some current at Buddy Dive house reef all week. The current was from the north, and generally light, though one morning it was bit stronger. Nitrox fills were 30% to 32% and tanks were usually filled 2800 to 3100, though as I recall we had a few 2500s and two 1500s. The 1500s & 2500s tanks were on the boat and they had extras to replace them with each time. Tanks were always available. Most of the dives had a max depth of less than 80, though there were a couple got around 90 and I did do one deep dive to 132.
The folks at the Digital Photo Center were very helpful with my very basic photography questions. They also put on a slide show, The Creature Feature, with some question and answers on Sunday evening.
Overall, we enjoyed ourselves and we will return to Bonaire. Would I stay at Buddy Dive again? Probably, but I think Ill shop around a bit first.
If you have any questions please just ask.
