Moldy Bonaire - The Last Chapter - Captain Don's Dirty Habitat

[PartyStar]

Second and last time taking vaca over Christmas. Plus with all the snow airport closings it would be safer to travel in the summer since sleeping on an airport floor looks scarier than staying inside another moldy dirty hotel room to get my scuba dive fix. Being a 20% cash tipper, they expect higher tips and you feel obligated because they chose this profession and had to work over holidays. (Boo-hoo.) So we’re tipping 30% cash for real icky food but semi-good service. The resort would be better served to bring in Hagan or new restaurant operators and revamp the entire restaurant and fire the tall rude black server who sees you sitting down at his table but takes his sweet time to greet you. Yeah, I know, “Island Time.” Those types will now get island time tips which will be 10% for their games. Yet, I went to another island in Mexico a few weeks ago and the comparisons are like apples n oranges. They try harder and they clean better! I have given up on Bonaire due to the mold. Don’t they have Clorox Clean-up ® over there? The menu at Captain Dons to this day shows they have the “Panko Shrimp $26.50” which was no longer on the menu. The two pizzas we ordered were limp despite a $5 carry out tip up-front while requesting well done. Bad food. The very tall waiter who claimed he has “seven kids” for more tips actually has two and his friendly (sic) Christmas evening handshake right before our dinner had me scratching my head until exactly three days later I came down with a massive head cold and had a cough, runny nose for a month despite the flu shot. Maybe the mold exposure from the lower level room made my immune system weak. Maybe the resort doesn’t like Maduro Dive, who booked our packages. Room placement request denied despite staying there 5 months prior - lower level dilapidated moldy - safe inoperable - leaking bathroom sink pipes were repaired by my dive mate and had occasional leaks throughout the week. Treated like dirty white trash by the woman checking us in 11 PM. Too bad so sad - here’s a smelly dirty lower level room - can’t do anything for you - all the upper rooms are taken. This shouldn’t be a special request - I have severe mold allergies - was hospitalized in Bonaire after staying at Buddy’s - they need to clean better. The dive lockers are atrocious! If you have mold allergies - even if you do not - you could develop them after visiting Bonaire. Pay someone to thoroughly clean your dive locker and your hotel room with Clorox clean-up!! Bring your own pillow / damp rid. Gosh darn, maybe even bring your own bedding. You can smell the mold in the room and in the fridge. What an awful vacation at Captain Dons despite the trip in July. What a difference an second floor room makes! Trash outside our patio all week plus several over-turned rocks exposing mold sitting right by our patio table n chairs. Those teak chairs were probably the best thing about this vaca! The floor in the room was always wet and extremely dirty. I wore out two pair of aloe socks despite tipping the maid $5 a day. How about a few washable throw rugs? This shore diver doesn’t like to have dirty feet. The dive shop was scaled down for Christmas and the boat only went out once a day for several days. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Underneath your little tiny area on the boat, where you put all your junk, was caked with black mold and green algae. They need to clean the boats better, especially underneath the benches where we put our gear. What lazy pigs. We rented a vehicle for shore diving during this time and the tanks we set aside were “disrupted” while waiting to be put inside the truck. Half of the tanks mysteriously lost half of their air and several blew o-rings which we replaced on top of the pick-up truck. I had to borrow a pair of fins on my first dive day and they were promptly returned the following day to the black guy who did not give me any kind of written receipt. Get yourselves a written receipt on any rental gear!! When I was checking out via their terribly goofy system, the blonde dive master was accusing me of stealing their cheap fins and when I showed him my black Mares snorkel fins he shut up. I am glad we did not encounter blonde guy onboard. Not a nice fellow anymore. Bonaire is not cheap and I am not happy after this final trip to moldy Bonaire. It would be fun to VRBO for a month or three but with all the mold all over this island it would be too much of a gamble to ever re-visit when my travel dollars would be better spent going new places and desperately searching for a scuba resort which has 3 things : great diving, great food and a quiet ac unit. A girl can dream. Until then, she will have to upgrade to Four Seasons and take Charters off site because scuba dive resorts are full of mold and mildew. Two words Bonaire and they are not Bon Bini… CLOROX CLEAN-UP.

 

[vincent54]

But how was the diving? Next time try Brac, everything is first class and the service is second to none. Brac Reef Resort is beautiful, clean,Reef Divers is on site. It's always been a stress free destination.

I've been to Bonaire and didn't quite experience what you went through. I loved it. I just remember telling the kids not to use the bidae as a water fountain. Everyone was friendly, even the lizards. I thought the diving was fantastic, saw everything from seahorses to frogfish. Sorry you didn't have a good trip. Cheers

 

[tracydr]

I don't think I've ever flown ( especially overseas) at that time of year without getting sick on the trip home. You likely picked up your cold in the airport on the way down, if you were there a week.
I've also been stuck by airport closing a in the summer. In fact, we were going to Bonaire in July or August and had to leave a day late due to airport closures and then had to stay in Dallas another day at the airport hotel. All because of severe storms running across the south from Dallas to Florida.
I've never been impressed by island hotels, the climate makes it hard to keep things clean and its tough for them to fly everything in from the mainland. I've had far better luck by renting house/condos by owners in Bonaire and Hawaii.

 

[Scared Silly]

I understand the OP has an issue with mold (more likely mildew) which is difficult to deal with in moist climates. However, the issue at hand sounds more of a problem with the place they stayed not the island of Bonaire. It seems like one place (not in Bonaire) when left I mentioned that the bathroom could use a good scrubbing. The staff thanked us for the feed back.

Now what I find more interesting is the note regarding the NITROX. It is not in the least bit professional.

To All NITROX divers, I have asked from DAY one to not take more than 2 tanks each per dive session AM or PM

Please do not take more. It is selfish to take more and others have NONE.


Please cooperate, Just simple Logistics.

What this note says to me is that they have more divers than cylinders or they are not filling cylinders fast enough. I.e. they are lacking capacity. There are much better ways of politely saying that:

Attention NITROX divers, to assure that all guests may dive NIITOX please do not utilize more than 2 tanks per diver for each morning or afternoon dive session. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

As for the perceived rudeness, if the staff is rude their tip is zero with a chat with manager. That happened on one dive trip.

For the OP it really helps to utilize paragraphs, reading your report as one giant paragraph is difficult.

 

[wedivebc]

There is likely a key on your keyboard that looks something like this [ENTER<-]

please use it your post gave me a headache

 

[tracydr]

I think all the air fill areas on Bonaire request that you don't take more than two tanks. At least, the ones we used did. Although, we often took 3-4 each because we usually dive either end of the island all day, far enough from town to not want to make a drive back in the middle of the day.

 

[wwguy]

"Boo-hoo" is right. Wow, what a rant! I agree with the others... the lack of paragraphs makes your posts hard to read. But after working my way through it I'm convinced you probably don't care. Your entitled attitude and disdain for the people you encounter during your travels are palpable. If there's any truth buried in your post, which I suspect there probably is, it's lost in your vitriol and thus lost on me too.

Mold and mildew exist just about everywhere in the world where water, air, and organic material share the same space. Your claim that there is "mold all over this island" is a gross exaggeration and detracts from your credibility on the mold topic alone. My wife is highly sensitive and moderately allergic to most molds and other household fungi. She's never had any issues during the many weeks she's spent on Bonaire over the years. One of the major reasons she enjoys our annual trips to Bonaire is to escape to a location where her allergies are relieved for a few weeks. Sure there are places on the island to avoid, like anywhere else, but Bonaire is hardly covered in mold as you seem to imply.

It's hard to forget your issues with mold, including an apparent hospital stay on Bonaire, reported in your previous posts. This was your 3rd trip report complaining about mold on Bonaire, including previous stays at Buddy Dive and... surprise... Captain Don's! You previously asked ScubaBoard members for recommendations for mold-free properties and received at least 6... which you apparently chose to ignore. You also previously mentioned that you'd bring Clorox for wipe-down on future trips, which I see no mention of in this trip report. (I'm not sure what's wrong with the bleach products available on the island.)

For those following along, here are the previous threads:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bonaire/434650-moldy-bonaire.html
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bonaire/462440-bonaire-trip-report-happy-camper.html

It's sounds like Bonaire isn't your kind of island. I hope you find better luck someplace else.

 

[drrich2]

I am not happy after this final trip to moldy Bonaire. It would be fun to VRBO for a month or three but with all the mold all over this island it would be too much of a gamble to ever re-visit when my travel dollars would be better spent going new places and desperately searching for a scuba resort which has 3 things : great diving, great food and a quiet ac unit. A girl can dream. Until then, she will have to upgrade to Four Seasons and take Charters off site because scuba dive resorts are full of mold and mildew.

Bonaire is actually an arid island, and thus expected to be less conducive to fungal growth than more humid tropical areas. While buildings on a given island may vary, Bonaire itself shouldn't be so bad on mold.

If you got hospitalized over mold on a prior trip, then perhaps you are not just allergic to mold, but severely susceptible to it, in which case normal resort practices may not be up to the standards you need. In which case if I were you I think I'd look for a small accommodation, such as a 'hotel room' type room, and clean it myself with some chlorox when I got there. And before anybody fusses that you shouldn't have to clean your own room, be mindful that people with special needs sometimes have to take action to meet those needs themselves.

You mentioned the Four Seasons. I have never stayed at one; I've heard of it on this forum, rarely, and recalled it as some high end expensive place. Did a quick Google search & looked at the Wikipedia page. Which seems to confirm it. Okay, if the Four Seasons is on your radar as an option, and reflects your standards, then it's quite possible regular dive resorts are not going to suit you.

I remembered you from a prior post, where you had some criticisms about Little Cayman Beach Resort, a place much loved by a number of folks on this forum to which I've not yet been. On that thread, where you called LCBR 'generic,' you said:

My wish is that Four Seasons / Ritz Carlton would open a joint on Little Cayman for people who like good food / wine, no cattle boats and no sheeple discounts. Sheep belong on farms!

Ritz Carlton?

I am making a bit of an inferential leap here, so apologies in advance if I'm off on this, but you come across to me as a bit 'high maintenance,' with higher standards than the typical tropical vacation diver. It may just be that you're not going to be happy with 'typical' dive resort conditions.

Richard.

 

[Mike]

Second and last time taking vaca over Christmas. Plus with all the snow airport closings it would be safer to travel in the summer since sleeping on an airport floor looks scarier than staying inside another moldy dirty hotel room to get my scuba dive fix. Being a 20% cash tipper, they expect higher tips and you feel obligated because they chose this profession and had to work over holidays. (Boo-hoo.) So we’re tipping 30% cash for real icky food but semi-good service. The resort would be better served to bring in Hagan or new restaurant operators and revamp the entire restaurant and fire the tall rude black server who sees you sitting down at his table but takes his sweet time to greet you. Yeah, I know, “Island Time.” Those types will now get island time tips which will be 10% for their games. Yet, I went to another island in Mexico a few weeks ago and the comparisons are like apples n oranges. They try harder and they clean better! I have given up on Bonaire due to the mold. Don’t they have Clorox Clean-up ® over there? The menu at Captain Dons to this day shows they have the “Panko Shrimp $26.50” which was no longer on the menu. The two pizzas we ordered were limp despite a $5 carry out tip up-front while requesting well done. Bad food. The very tall waiter who claimed he has “seven kids” for more tips actually has two and his friendly (sic) Christmas evening handshake right before our dinner had me scratching my head until exactly three days later I came down with a massive head cold and had a cough, runny nose for a month despite the flu shot. Maybe the mold exposure from the lower level room made my immune system weak. Maybe the resort doesn’t like Maduro Dive, who booked our packages. Room placement request denied despite staying there 5 months prior - lower level dilapidated moldy - safe inoperable - leaking bathroom sink pipes were repaired by my dive mate and had occasional leaks throughout the week. Treated like dirty white trash by the woman checking us in 11 PM. Too bad so sad - here’s a smelly dirty lower level room - can’t do anything for you - all the upper rooms are taken. This shouldn’t be a special request - I have severe mold allergies - was hospitalized in Bonaire after staying at Buddy’s - they need to clean better. The dive lockers are atrocious! If you have mold allergies - even if you do not - you could develop them after visiting Bonaire. Pay someone to thoroughly clean your dive locker and your hotel room with Clorox clean-up!! Bring your own pillow / damp rid. Gosh darn, maybe even bring your own bedding. You can smell the mold in the room and in the fridge. What an awful vacation at Captain Dons despite the trip in July. What a difference an second floor room makes! Trash outside our patio all week plus several over-turned rocks exposing mold sitting right by our patio table n chairs. Those teak chairs were probably the best thing about this vaca! The floor in the room was always wet and extremely dirty. I wore out two pair of aloe socks despite tipping the maid $5 a day. How about a few washable throw rugs? This shore diver doesn’t like to have dirty feet. The dive shop was scaled down for Christmas and the boat only went out once a day for several days. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Underneath your little tiny area on the boat, where you put all your junk, was caked with black mold and green algae. They need to clean the boats better, especially underneath the benches where we put our gear. What lazy pigs. We rented a vehicle for shore diving during this time and the tanks we set aside were “disrupted” while waiting to be put inside the truck. Half of the tanks mysteriously lost half of their air and several blew o-rings which we replaced on top of the pick-up truck. I had to borrow a pair of fins on my first dive day and they were promptly returned the following day to the black guy who did not give me any kind of written receipt. Get yourselves a written receipt on any rental gear!! When I was checking out via their terribly goofy system, the blonde dive master was accusing me of stealing their cheap fins and when I showed him my black Mares snorkel fins he shut up. I am glad we did not encounter blonde guy onboard. Not a nice fellow anymore. Bonaire is not cheap and I am not happy after this final trip to moldy Bonaire. It would be fun to VRBO for a month or three but with all the mold all over this island it would be too much of a gamble to ever re-visit when my travel dollars would be better spent going new places and desperately searching for a scuba resort which has 3 things : great diving, great food and a quiet ac unit. A girl can dream. Until then, she will have to upgrade to Four Seasons and take Charters off site because scuba dive resorts are full of mold and mildew. Two words Bonaire and they are not Bon Bini… CLOROX CLEAN-UP.

Oh come on now.

Bonaire is moldy so you're never going back or Captain Don's was moldy?

You get more when you pay more, I thought you knew that?

You certainly didn't pay 'more' for Captain Dons.

Go stay at the Plaza Resort or Harbour Village, if you've got more people rent one of the luxury villas like Garden Villas Tortugas or Punto Perfecto.

Captain Dons??? That place is a 3 star if you're lucky. Did you check tripadvisor.com before you booked that place? I'm sorry but your troubles sound like something you'd hear if somebody took a public bus and then complained that it was crowded. They could have spent more and gotten a nice air conditioned taxi ride instead.

 

[Allison Finch]

I have to agree with the others in that you sound like the typical "impossible to please" tourist. I bet you were treated badly because you were hard to deal with and people just didn't care. I find that if you treat people well, you get the same back multiplied.