sharkbait98
Registered
Sorry its so long 
)
HOTEL IN TORONTO
We did a park n fly hotel in Toronto. We stayed at the Sandman Signature Hotel again. I cannot say enough nice things about this hotel. The staff is wonderful, the rooms clean and elegantly decorated. The pool was awesome and the hot tub was HOT. Great way to start a vacation
FLIGHT
We flew American Airlines from Toronto with a 4.5 hour layover in Miami, then Miami to Curacao. The flight was uneventful. However, upon arriving in Curacao, one of my bags did not make it out of Miami. The ground staff for AA was very helpful and did what he could. He gave me approval for gear rental and I have since put in my claim to AA. My bag did arrive with only one day of gear rental needed so it wasnt too bad.
APARTMENT
We stayed at All West Apartments in Curacao. One of the staff was there with our truck when we arrived. He said we could follow him up to the other end of the island so we wouldnt get lost on the way. We told him that we had been to the island numerous times and knew exactly where we were going. I thought that was a nice gesture even after we had kept him waiting because of the missing bag issue.
We rented a one bedroom apartment with a couple of friends of ours. It was clean and functional. Louis, the gentleman I set this up with, was a charm to deal with. He answered all my questions via email and always responded in a professional and timely manner. We did the stay, drive and dive package. This included a 4 door truck, apartment and unlimited air for shore diving. The whole set up with this apartment was wonderful. We had gear storage where you could pick up your unlimited tanks, a fresh water shower and steps leading down to the beach where you could just walk in and dive. Great set up. Good place to do night dives!
There were plenty of dishes, cutlery and pots and pans. They even supplied dish soap. We had a toaster, coffee maker, kettle, full fridge, 4 burner gas stove with oven and a lot of utensils. One room had a king size bed and the living room had a sofa bed which was a double bed. The bathroom was huge. It had a separate bathtub and shower, sink and toilet. The living room and the bedroom each had patio doors and opened up onto our private balcony and what a view. Sunsets every night! What more could one want?
Overall I would recommend this place to anybody and I will be going back there at some time.
DIVING
This is my fifth time to Curacao and I hate to say it but the reefs are feeling the pressure of global warming. The coral bleaching has taken its toll on the reef. Dont get me wrong, it was still good diving with lots to see but the bleaching was hard to look at. We didnt get to dive as much as we would have liked because we had an ebb tide come in and made the shore diving a little challenging to say the least. We did manage to see lots of your usual Caribbean fishes like parrots, surgeonfish, barracuda, wrasses, jaw fish and blennies to mention just a few. We did see some hawksbill and green turtles. No sharks and no eagle rays. We did a night dive at our house reef and saw eels hunting, tons of crabs and shrimp. No Octopus. The visibility this time in Curacao was not the best though due to the ebb tide. After all, this isnt an aquarium.
We had planned to go by water taxi with Captain Goodlife from Santa Cruz beach to Mushroom Forest. We woke him up at 10:00 AM on Monday and told him we would be back on Tuesday to rent his services. He would drop us off at one buoy and pick us up at the other buoy in one hour. We did this last time we were in Curacao. Well, we showed up on Tuesday and he was nowhere to be found. What do you do? Go with the flow. We went shore diving. To be honest, I dont know how pretty Mushroom Forest would have been with all the bleaching.
We also had planned to go to Klein Curacao via the Mermaid but when we got to the dock they neglected to mention that I had to supply my own tanks so that was a blow-out. It was the day the ebb tide was at its highest and I am not to sure about how great the diving would have been with all that going on.
The last day we ended up just going up to Watamula and checked out the crashing waves and then that evening we went downtown and had dinner in Willemstad. This was the first time I had been downtown at night and it was beautiful. They light up the buildings in Punda and they put lights on the floating bridge. While we were eating dinner the floating bridge was moved out of the way of this massive oil tanker. It was neat to see.
FLIGHT
We checked in at the airport and locked the keys in the truck for All West to come pick up. Our AA flight was on time and we flew to Miami. We had to overnight there so I had booked us into the Runway Hotel. It was ok. About a 2.5 star but for $68 including tax, airport transfers and continental breakfast I wasnt expecting the Ritz. The room was clean and the bed comfortable. The shuttle was on time and the driver was nice.
The next day we went to AA to check in and they tried to charge me for my bags. They had changed my flight so I had to do the stopover in Miami. Upon explaining this to the woman at the AA counter she waived the fees. We left on time and the flight was once again uneventful.
We arrived in Toronto early and I called the Sandman and they got the shuttle to us in about 10-15 minutes.
OVERALL
If you go to Curacao and you want diving freedom at a reasonable price then stay at All West Apartments. Its a great place. There is a market in Barber that you can purchase food, beer and wine. You have to go out to dinner at Sol Foods (just google it) as they have really good pizza there and are just up around the corner and down the road from All West.
Sharkbait98
)HOTEL IN TORONTO
We did a park n fly hotel in Toronto. We stayed at the Sandman Signature Hotel again. I cannot say enough nice things about this hotel. The staff is wonderful, the rooms clean and elegantly decorated. The pool was awesome and the hot tub was HOT. Great way to start a vacation
FLIGHT
We flew American Airlines from Toronto with a 4.5 hour layover in Miami, then Miami to Curacao. The flight was uneventful. However, upon arriving in Curacao, one of my bags did not make it out of Miami. The ground staff for AA was very helpful and did what he could. He gave me approval for gear rental and I have since put in my claim to AA. My bag did arrive with only one day of gear rental needed so it wasnt too bad.
APARTMENT
We stayed at All West Apartments in Curacao. One of the staff was there with our truck when we arrived. He said we could follow him up to the other end of the island so we wouldnt get lost on the way. We told him that we had been to the island numerous times and knew exactly where we were going. I thought that was a nice gesture even after we had kept him waiting because of the missing bag issue.
We rented a one bedroom apartment with a couple of friends of ours. It was clean and functional. Louis, the gentleman I set this up with, was a charm to deal with. He answered all my questions via email and always responded in a professional and timely manner. We did the stay, drive and dive package. This included a 4 door truck, apartment and unlimited air for shore diving. The whole set up with this apartment was wonderful. We had gear storage where you could pick up your unlimited tanks, a fresh water shower and steps leading down to the beach where you could just walk in and dive. Great set up. Good place to do night dives!
There were plenty of dishes, cutlery and pots and pans. They even supplied dish soap. We had a toaster, coffee maker, kettle, full fridge, 4 burner gas stove with oven and a lot of utensils. One room had a king size bed and the living room had a sofa bed which was a double bed. The bathroom was huge. It had a separate bathtub and shower, sink and toilet. The living room and the bedroom each had patio doors and opened up onto our private balcony and what a view. Sunsets every night! What more could one want?
Overall I would recommend this place to anybody and I will be going back there at some time.
DIVING
This is my fifth time to Curacao and I hate to say it but the reefs are feeling the pressure of global warming. The coral bleaching has taken its toll on the reef. Dont get me wrong, it was still good diving with lots to see but the bleaching was hard to look at. We didnt get to dive as much as we would have liked because we had an ebb tide come in and made the shore diving a little challenging to say the least. We did manage to see lots of your usual Caribbean fishes like parrots, surgeonfish, barracuda, wrasses, jaw fish and blennies to mention just a few. We did see some hawksbill and green turtles. No sharks and no eagle rays. We did a night dive at our house reef and saw eels hunting, tons of crabs and shrimp. No Octopus. The visibility this time in Curacao was not the best though due to the ebb tide. After all, this isnt an aquarium.
We had planned to go by water taxi with Captain Goodlife from Santa Cruz beach to Mushroom Forest. We woke him up at 10:00 AM on Monday and told him we would be back on Tuesday to rent his services. He would drop us off at one buoy and pick us up at the other buoy in one hour. We did this last time we were in Curacao. Well, we showed up on Tuesday and he was nowhere to be found. What do you do? Go with the flow. We went shore diving. To be honest, I dont know how pretty Mushroom Forest would have been with all the bleaching.
We also had planned to go to Klein Curacao via the Mermaid but when we got to the dock they neglected to mention that I had to supply my own tanks so that was a blow-out. It was the day the ebb tide was at its highest and I am not to sure about how great the diving would have been with all that going on.
The last day we ended up just going up to Watamula and checked out the crashing waves and then that evening we went downtown and had dinner in Willemstad. This was the first time I had been downtown at night and it was beautiful. They light up the buildings in Punda and they put lights on the floating bridge. While we were eating dinner the floating bridge was moved out of the way of this massive oil tanker. It was neat to see.
FLIGHT
We checked in at the airport and locked the keys in the truck for All West to come pick up. Our AA flight was on time and we flew to Miami. We had to overnight there so I had booked us into the Runway Hotel. It was ok. About a 2.5 star but for $68 including tax, airport transfers and continental breakfast I wasnt expecting the Ritz. The room was clean and the bed comfortable. The shuttle was on time and the driver was nice.
The next day we went to AA to check in and they tried to charge me for my bags. They had changed my flight so I had to do the stopover in Miami. Upon explaining this to the woman at the AA counter she waived the fees. We left on time and the flight was once again uneventful.
We arrived in Toronto early and I called the Sandman and they got the shuttle to us in about 10-15 minutes.
OVERALL
If you go to Curacao and you want diving freedom at a reasonable price then stay at All West Apartments. Its a great place. There is a market in Barber that you can purchase food, beer and wine. You have to go out to dinner at Sol Foods (just google it) as they have really good pizza there and are just up around the corner and down the road from All West.
Sharkbait98
