I have recently embarked on a tortuous journey with GM Christian Ambrosi of Ocean Encounters who are located in Curacao. I recently took a trip to Curacao in October and did a fairly large amount of research prior to going. My original intent was to stay at the Breezes resort and book a 4 day/2 tank package through Ocean Encounters, add an additional night dive and, if I could, achieve my boat dive specialty while there on two of the nine dives I would be doing. Be aware that everything following isnt my opinion, its taken from email conversations with the staff at Ocean Encounters and me.
First to back drop the process, by staying at Breezes I noticed I got one free shore dive per day through Breezes. I thought that Breezes had their own water sports shop including a place to get tanks and weights provided that you had your own gear and a buddy to go with you off of their house reef. This is important because it added to confusion later with conversations with Christian.
My original contact was Morag Ambrosi who was more that helpful. My original question was what to wear. I was trying to get information to decide what to pack, and also if I needed to book then or when I got there. After emailing Morag, I decided that my gear I use for kayaking .5mm NRS short sleeve top and .5mm NRS shorts (FYI-after taking the trip I can say I was more than fine) and she replied with all of their packages and special dives. I wasnt sure what the upgrade was but had a good idea. Morag confirmed that if you had a normal package, for a little extra money, you could dive in special spots. This was acceptable because some were farther away and the overhead for them increases and so does the price to go. This is where it all went BAD. I informed her that I was an advanced diver with the adventures in diving book and would like to inquire about achieving my boat diving specialty during my nine dives with them. She sent me back their process for this. It is as follows: The boat diver course was $228.00 plus 5% tax, and would be done in two, one tank afternoon dives. I replied that I hoped there was a misunderstanding and that I already planned on doing nine dives with them. Because the boat diver specialty skills are all out of the water, until you actually go into the water (no skills in water, just a dive), I thought maybe she didnt realize I was saying I wanted the nine dives and maybe she thought I just wanted the boat diver. That, I would have understood. I replied with a statement that the only thing needed was for me to complete the knowledge review and go over it with the instructor, that an instructor wasnt needed to actually be in the water but present on the boat. This is important because Ocean Encounters have a lot of dual qualified staff such as a boat captain who is an instructor or a divemaster/instructor. This is where things got REALLY BAD. Morag replied that due to their high safety standards, an instructor must be directly instructing on separate dives and stated that if I have any further questions to direct them to their GM.
In my first email to Christian, I summed up the conversation with Morag although at the time, not being familiar with the name Morag, I assumed it was a male name and referred to all conversation with her as Mr. or him. At the end of the email to Christian I told him I would not be booking my dives through Ocean Encounters and then became flippant by mocking the safety standard comment. Asking that if its a safety standard to dive from a boat then why let anyone without the boat specialty dive from a boat as, I could die or something could go horribly wrong. The comment came after I spoke with an instructor at my dive center to figure out if the additional class was needed. I thought that I probably didnt realize that a class was needed. After I told them I would not be booking through them I received a reply stating that Christian was giving my emails to the GM at breezes in preparation to refuse me diving services. That confused me because I had just told him that I would not be booking through Ocean Encounters. I then thought that he was asking Breezes to not allow me to dive when I was there taking away my free shore dive. I replied that this was unfair to ask another shop to not allow me services because I disagreed with a policy. Christian informed me that I was rude, and that if I couldnt listen to him, I would no doubt not listen to his instructors and thats not why people come to work in the morning. Again, I was confused as I had told him I wouldnt be booking through Ocean Encounters. When I arrived at Breezes I realized what he was actually talking about. Ocean Encounters had a hub at Breezes and thats who would be giving me the equipment for shore dives. Had I known that prior to my conversation with Christian I wouldnt have replied with confusion.
In the end I ended up booking with Caribbean Sea Sports and had a great trip, also achieved my boat dive specialty for much less than $228. It was actually $35 for PADI Card. I did email Christian when I returned to tell him that I did in fact return safely and that his competitors charged much less for that particular specialty. I was flippant in that reply as well and included a cartoon sketch of a scuba diver that I said was me for him to post around his shops to ensure I didnt make it past security when I returned June 2012 along with a running total of the money I have spent at another place because he denied me free dives as part of a vacation package. Was that childish? Well, thats rhetorical. Should he have refused me service for not booking with Ocean Encounters? Thats for you to decide on your own opinion. In the end, he apparently emailed my name to other outfitters to also deny me service. I guess as I continue to travel around I may run into one. I will admit though, even though this has cost me an opportunity to dive with one particular outfit (and maybe more) I wanted to tell my tale in an accurate manner, not to say an outfit was being absurd, but to accurately display the events that took place. I wrote a poor review on trip advisor and Christian replied to it saying I was disgruntled because I was refused services. I wanted to get the word out that I was refused service after I said I would not book with them. He also said it was for inappropriate language. I didn't swear or call him names but I was flippant. He also said that my email had been blocked due to repeated harassment. The email written upon return could have been considered harassment under the pestering portion of the definition but the repeated part again was another lie. Funny that he used the terms honesty and integrity in his reply to my post when he did quite a bit of lying himself. Unfortunately it took me writing a book to explain the entire story.
First to back drop the process, by staying at Breezes I noticed I got one free shore dive per day through Breezes. I thought that Breezes had their own water sports shop including a place to get tanks and weights provided that you had your own gear and a buddy to go with you off of their house reef. This is important because it added to confusion later with conversations with Christian.
My original contact was Morag Ambrosi who was more that helpful. My original question was what to wear. I was trying to get information to decide what to pack, and also if I needed to book then or when I got there. After emailing Morag, I decided that my gear I use for kayaking .5mm NRS short sleeve top and .5mm NRS shorts (FYI-after taking the trip I can say I was more than fine) and she replied with all of their packages and special dives. I wasnt sure what the upgrade was but had a good idea. Morag confirmed that if you had a normal package, for a little extra money, you could dive in special spots. This was acceptable because some were farther away and the overhead for them increases and so does the price to go. This is where it all went BAD. I informed her that I was an advanced diver with the adventures in diving book and would like to inquire about achieving my boat diving specialty during my nine dives with them. She sent me back their process for this. It is as follows: The boat diver course was $228.00 plus 5% tax, and would be done in two, one tank afternoon dives. I replied that I hoped there was a misunderstanding and that I already planned on doing nine dives with them. Because the boat diver specialty skills are all out of the water, until you actually go into the water (no skills in water, just a dive), I thought maybe she didnt realize I was saying I wanted the nine dives and maybe she thought I just wanted the boat diver. That, I would have understood. I replied with a statement that the only thing needed was for me to complete the knowledge review and go over it with the instructor, that an instructor wasnt needed to actually be in the water but present on the boat. This is important because Ocean Encounters have a lot of dual qualified staff such as a boat captain who is an instructor or a divemaster/instructor. This is where things got REALLY BAD. Morag replied that due to their high safety standards, an instructor must be directly instructing on separate dives and stated that if I have any further questions to direct them to their GM.
In my first email to Christian, I summed up the conversation with Morag although at the time, not being familiar with the name Morag, I assumed it was a male name and referred to all conversation with her as Mr. or him. At the end of the email to Christian I told him I would not be booking my dives through Ocean Encounters and then became flippant by mocking the safety standard comment. Asking that if its a safety standard to dive from a boat then why let anyone without the boat specialty dive from a boat as, I could die or something could go horribly wrong. The comment came after I spoke with an instructor at my dive center to figure out if the additional class was needed. I thought that I probably didnt realize that a class was needed. After I told them I would not be booking through them I received a reply stating that Christian was giving my emails to the GM at breezes in preparation to refuse me diving services. That confused me because I had just told him that I would not be booking through Ocean Encounters. I then thought that he was asking Breezes to not allow me to dive when I was there taking away my free shore dive. I replied that this was unfair to ask another shop to not allow me services because I disagreed with a policy. Christian informed me that I was rude, and that if I couldnt listen to him, I would no doubt not listen to his instructors and thats not why people come to work in the morning. Again, I was confused as I had told him I wouldnt be booking through Ocean Encounters. When I arrived at Breezes I realized what he was actually talking about. Ocean Encounters had a hub at Breezes and thats who would be giving me the equipment for shore dives. Had I known that prior to my conversation with Christian I wouldnt have replied with confusion.
In the end I ended up booking with Caribbean Sea Sports and had a great trip, also achieved my boat dive specialty for much less than $228. It was actually $35 for PADI Card. I did email Christian when I returned to tell him that I did in fact return safely and that his competitors charged much less for that particular specialty. I was flippant in that reply as well and included a cartoon sketch of a scuba diver that I said was me for him to post around his shops to ensure I didnt make it past security when I returned June 2012 along with a running total of the money I have spent at another place because he denied me free dives as part of a vacation package. Was that childish? Well, thats rhetorical. Should he have refused me service for not booking with Ocean Encounters? Thats for you to decide on your own opinion. In the end, he apparently emailed my name to other outfitters to also deny me service. I guess as I continue to travel around I may run into one. I will admit though, even though this has cost me an opportunity to dive with one particular outfit (and maybe more) I wanted to tell my tale in an accurate manner, not to say an outfit was being absurd, but to accurately display the events that took place. I wrote a poor review on trip advisor and Christian replied to it saying I was disgruntled because I was refused services. I wanted to get the word out that I was refused service after I said I would not book with them. He also said it was for inappropriate language. I didn't swear or call him names but I was flippant. He also said that my email had been blocked due to repeated harassment. The email written upon return could have been considered harassment under the pestering portion of the definition but the repeated part again was another lie. Funny that he used the terms honesty and integrity in his reply to my post when he did quite a bit of lying himself. Unfortunately it took me writing a book to explain the entire story.
