HELP! Plaza Resort Bonaire Gets Mixed Reviews

[herbdb]

I was at the Plaza a week ahead of the group of 26. There were 62 divers in our group. I did not hear any significant complaints about service or facility. There was some griping about waiting for rooms to be cleaned, but when you arrive at 5 in the morning that is expected.

Sometimes I suspect that Trip Advisor reviews may be faked for whatever reason. Its best to get input from someone with recent experience.

Here is a link to some of my Bonaire pictures. The shots of facilities are all taken at the Plaza.

Bonaire 2011

 

[Mike]

We have a trip planned to Bonaire in early October. We're booked at the Plaza Resort with a really good package deal. Is it too good to be true? I HAVE 3 DAYS TO PULL THE PLUG AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!

There are very mixed reviews about Plaza Resort on Trip Advisor and there are an unusual number of TERRIBLE reviews compared to other resorts. We are divers and don't expect 5 star resorts in dive destinations, but I don't like roaches either and I demand air conditioning that works.

Someone please tell me if you have recently stayed at Plaza Resort and if the reports of construction, dirty rooms, poor service, roaches, broken A/C are true.

We are supposed to be booked in a newly renovated Premium Grand Suite, but is it all that they claim?

It's amazing isn't it with reviews sites anymore. It's hard to understand how their can be such complete flip-flops in people's experiences at a place. How can one person have had the absolute worst experience of their life and leave the "we would never stay there again!" and another will say, we had the absolute best experience of our life!

Here's what I can tell you - there are two perspectives - a "divers perspective" and a "vacationers perspective"

From a divers perspective (somebody that goes somewhere to dive the hell out of it) the Plaza will be awesome in almost every way. The house reef is great, the central location is great, go north or south to dive, you're 4 minutes from town and dining, they have a sort of okay beach and pool, tanks are always around in convenient places to grab a shore dive, it's easy to load up and get out in the morning to go do shore dives on your own, the dive op is pretty good and friendly, the food is good the place is pretty nice the newly renovated suites are really nice.

From a vacationer's perspective (somebody who goes on vacation at a place to veg, enjoy the beach, get a massage, order room service... etc..) the Plaza will fall down in a lot of ways. Mosquitos in the lobby will eat you alive (seem fine elsewhere), the hotel desk staff are indiferrent to rude at times, wifi.. hmmm sometimes it works, sometimes it won't. The older rooms will be highly unapetizing, the renovated suites will be nice. Room service will be lacking, you'll notice the lack of maintenance all around you, broken tiles in the walk ways and the pool, unkempt grounds, letting things go, you'll feel like a 3rd class citizen as the beach staff comes around all the time demanding proof of you being a guest so you can be on the beach, watch out for the staff running through the place in a golf cart going way to fast... the wait staff at the main restaurant are hit and miss in service, some is truly attributable to them just sucking at customer service, some is attributable to the Bonaire style and it takes time for natives to warm up to you. The long and the short is, the place isn't a dump, but it could really use some improvements here and there and some TLC. If the ownership dumped some money into it and had a full time staff maintaining it, the place truly has the potential to really be something.

From a divers perspective who wants to stay in a place that isn't on par with the YMCA the plaza gets 5 stars. From a vacationers perspective from someone who wants a great vacation expeirience the Plaza will probably gets 3-4stars depending upon how much you are expecting and how demanding you are.

So how much of a diver are you and how much of a vacationer are you?

* as for the room not being ready, if you want a room ready when you get there, you have to book an extra day to ensure it, other than that the Plaza is pretty up front telling you that you might or might not have a room ready when you get their ahead of the normal check in time. I always book the extra day.

* the suites are kind of far from the dive op/parking lot where your rental truck is, but that's all relative. Kind of far is like a 6 minute walk. They have some wagons around that you can grab to help haul your gear, but put it in perspective. It kind of gets old after doing it 3-4 times a day, but it's nothing really to complain about.

I've stayed in the new premium grand suites and they do look like the pictures, very nice, very upscale they certainly are out of place with the rest of the resort which is sort of just average. They are located closer to the beach and pool, very convenient to that area. Euro fixtures, clean Euro design. I would stay in them again without hesitation.

 

[midas6t6]

Scubasam is right, comments about tanks being a long walk and driving the truck to do the shore dive are off base. For the house reef tanks are staged by the pool, about 40' from the beach. You can drive right up to the dive shop to pick up your tanks to go shore dive. The resort is spread out but it's no more than 250 yards from the farthest room to the parking lot. Dive lockers are at the dive shop right by the parking lot - get one when you arrive if you need and one's available. They do have a few carts around to wheel your gear from your room as well but they get snatched up quick.

You don't need to gear up before getting on the boats but I'd guess if it's a large group it would be easier. The boat dives I went out on had 11 divers max and plenty of room - check the sign up board and pick your boat accordingly. The groups generally fill a boat and the independent divers get an uncrowded boat.

 

[herbdb]

When we were there, we actually skipped some of the boat dives because the shore diving was so good and easy. No waiting for everyone to get gear aboard, or the normal gearing up time for a group of divers. Being able to do things on your own schedule is what makes Bonaire an outstanding dive destination.

I agree with the comments regarding the type of vacation available on Bonaire. If you want five star pampering, go to Aruba. Bonaire is a dive destination.

 

[Mossman]

I agree with the comments regarding the type of vacation available on Bonaire. If you want five star pampering, go to Aruba. Bonaire is a dive destination.

Just because it's a dive destination doesn't mean one has to rough it. Yes, the majority of accomodations on the island are decrepit, but they don't have to be.

Harbor Village sounds pretty five-star to me, though I've never stayed there as I found something more to my liking. After staying in run down accomodations at Buddy and Capt. Don's and not hearing anything better from reviews of Plaza, Divi, etc., I found Den Laman and felt perfectly pampered.

 

[sinistar]

My comments are based on two trips to the Plaza, the most recent being February 2011 with a group of 8.

We all stayed in Villas. Group one was in either Villa 1016 or 1017 and everyone was happy. Group two was in Villa 1006 and everyone was happy. The 3rd group had room issues and was in one of the lower Villas at the end of loop (1009 or 1010 or 1011 or 1012). IIRC, they never got one of their A/C units working and the real nasty was that they found mouse/rodent poo and later in the week actually saw they little guy! In the end they worked out something with the mgmt (ie compensation) but definitely not full credit or anything like that.

From a previous stay 6 years earlier, there appeared to be less staff and the grounds lost that lush look. Yes, things like broken outdoor tiles, not as well kept, etc. When we arrived there were a host of small issues and all except the one A/C failure noted above we resolved the first evening.

The villas have dated furniture, but are very spacious. Actually, the bathrooms were very nicely finished. Our villa (1016 or 1017) didn't have much for scenery but worked great for us.

What I liked about the Villas is they are very close to their own parking lot. And you can drive the vehicle right in front of your door which makes loading up gear a piece of cake! any times, we just loaded a bunch of gear and drove around to the Toucan building / tank area. It's a bit of a drive but can be done quickly (less than 5 minutes).

The people on the trip that saw the website and thought it would be plush, lush, have great workout areas, etc were the most dissappointed. Yet they really liked the beach, we all liked the breakfast and thought the staff was very nice.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is for those who boat dive. You have to bring your gear AND WEIGHTS AND TANKS from your locker and tank area to the boat every morning. They do not leave weights on the boat and they do not place tanks on the boat for you. Part of this has to do with checking your own nitrox but the more spoiled divers that like to just show up with a light gear bag were in for surprise when they had to haul weights and tanks. The distance from the gear locker (where you lock your weights) is about 40 steps so not that bad.

Also, some were worried about the 1st day orientation eating into the dive time but in the end it was about 30 minutes and then we were able to dive unsupervised on the 18 Palms site in front of the resort. The walk from the dive shop the beach is way to far to haul weights and gear but they have carts and or will drive a bunch of it there for you in the truck but they are on Dutch / island time so give them a half hour or so.

I'm of the theory, if you make enough noise problems get solved. If you try the Plaza and don't get your expectations up you may end up loving it. I'm not a fan of the their fancy restaurant (Tipsy Seagul) but others like it.

Definitely try the wild side diving - that was awesome!!!!!

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Does the boat dives go to the wild side?

Also, we took Insel that will get us real late there, so I guess our checkout will have to be the next day. Will we be able to do it before the morning boat dive?

Anyone know which part of the resort has been renovated? I got the run of the mill room for 2 people, hope that doesn't mean the worst kept room.

 

[parzdiver]

Does the boat dives go to the wild side?

Also, we took Insel that will get us real late there, so I guess our checkout will have to be the next day. Will we be able to do it before the morning boat dive?

Anyone know which part of the resort has been renovated? I got the run of the mill room for 2 people, hope that doesn't mean the worst kept room.

The dive operation at the resort does NOT go to the wild side. That is a specialized operation with a different company. If you speak with Alex at the shop, I am sure he can provide a reference to the operation that runs it.

With so few flights coming into the resort, they know when people are arriving and will be able to check you into the hotel. If you are arriving late and have paid for a room for that day, you should be able to get right into the room.

Don't worry about rushing for the morning boat dive, this is the SHORE diving capital of the world. As soon as you have your briefing and permit, dive the house reef. You can multiple dives right off the resort and not cover the same patch of reef twice. One cool dive I discovered was sticking to the broken coral in the shallows, it is amazing how many juveniles and small fish are living in that 8-10 feet of water.

I believe most of the hotel rooms are renovated or in the process of being renovated. The villas are the ones that are definitely NOT done.

 

[scc135]

Those looked like they were being renovated. Should probably let them know in advance that you want one of those. Would just like to echo some shared comments. Mosquitos will eat you alive during checkin, at least, they did me. Others fared better. If you're a mosquito magnet, bring the deet. There's usually bug spray out for guests but sometimes they're used up. There was tons of room for equipment in the villas and the bed was comfortable. Internet was never an issue for me as it was pretty constant on. The closer you are to the central office/reception the better i think. Tanks are a far way to walk if you're feeling pretty lazy, but it's really not that far. Most drive over to load up tanks into the car. The house reef has tanks right on the steps from the beach, and where you kit up. For the price, it can't be beat. Just don't expect the world. As for food, I'm kind of a food snob, so it was ok IMO. Yea, it's overpriced for a la carte, but the breakfast buffet was included and fed for 2 meals, when you make a sandwich during breakfast and take it to go.

 

[jcroy66]

Maybe I'm just a "vacationer" and not a "diver", because I probably wouldn't go back to Plaza. For reference, we stayed there the first week of August 2010. I don't know if we had a renovated room or not. Probably we did, as the room itself seemed nice.

However, for 3-4 days of our 7-day trip, there was no running water, except for a very limited few hours a day. That cuts into my DIVE vacation, because I wanted to do several night dives, but by the time we would have been out of the water, there would have been no running water until 8 AM the next morning. And I didn't want to sleep with my skin and hair covered in salt. So it meant we only got one night dive in the entire week. Plaza claimed that they had 2 spares of whichever part of their desalination equipment broke, and all 3 (the original + 2 spares) broke "at once". Uh huh. (Seems more likely that they didn't bother to reorder right away, but hey, maybe I'm just too cynical.)

As for the breakfast buffet at the Tipsy Seagull, I found I had to be choosy. I love fresh fruit, but I think it was the second morning that I picked up a piece of fruit and the fruit underneath was covered in mold. After that, I kept track of which fruit was there each day, and stuck to the "new" stuff (i.e. if there was watermelon on Tuesday, I didn't eat the watermelon on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday).

Our mini-fridge in the room didn't work. But I can't fault them for that too much, as I didn't report it to management (I wanted the maintenance staff concentrating on getting us running water!). But I definitely would have liked to have had a working, full-size, fridge.

I think the tank situation at the dive shop is a lot more convenient for those diving air. If you're diving nitrox, I found it a pain to dive the house reef, as you had to analyze the tank at the dive shop and then have them drive it to the beach whenever they got a chance (or drive it yourself). So the only times we dove the house reef were the required check-out dive and the one night dive. For taking tanks for shore dives elsewhere on the island, the nitrox room was on the "far" side of the dive shop from the parking lot. Yeah, it's only 20-30 feet or so. But multiply that by 20+ dives and it adds up. And the extra muscle fatigue meant that, again, maybe I didn't get in as many dives as I would have otherwise.

I also learned (the hard way) that if there was a chance we might do an early morning dive the next morning, to *not* lock our gear in the gear room. The one morning, we were up early and decided to go for a dive. A few minutes before the "opening time" for the gear room, I walked down to get our gear. Over half an hour after the gear room was supposed to be unlocked, I finally went back to our room, because the guy still hadn't shown up to unlock the gear room. I should have known better, of course. I know all about Island Time. But I had forgotten. So just a word to the wise - keep your gear in your room if you like early-morning-dives.

It wasn't awful for the price. Our package was $700/person including room, SUV, diving, nitrox, breakfast, and 11 boat dives (we skipped most of the boat dives because they #1 had 18 divers on the boat and #2 about half the time they went to easy sites to shore-dive). But even if I got that same $700 deal again, I probably wouldn't do it a second time. I'm spending more than that on airfare, and I have a limited amount of vacation time. So I'd rather pay a little more and stay someplace that doesn't have those issues, so I can concentrate on DIVING during my DIVE vacation. *shrug*

For reference, our first trip to Bonaire was to Sand Dollar, then last year's trip to Plaza, then this year, we went back to Sand Dollar.

As always, YMMV.