I just returned from Bonaire last evening, after staying at Buddy's for a week. And I have to say I agree with the OP.
We arrived on the early morning (6:15 AM) flight after having traveled 17 hours from Seattle. Got to Buddy's around 7 AM, only to be told our room wouldn't be ready till noon. This was despite the fact that we had been assured we'd have a room when we arrived, and that they were checking in all the big groups that arrived on the same flight without issue.
OK ... so we went off to get some breakfast, did the orientation, did a dive, and came back. It was 12:30. The room still wasn't ready. So we went and did another dive.
Came back around 2 PM. Room STILL isn't ready ... and about half our luggage is now missing. Despite the fact that we had put it right where they told us to ... and despite their assurances that it was quite OK to leave it there ... someone had decided to take it back to the airport. Since we'd been diving, that luggage had all our ID, money, and everything else in it. So off we went to the airport to hope and pray we could retrieve it. It was sitting on the sidewalk ... right where the Buddy's driver had put it without checking to see if it actually belonged to anybody they had just transported out to the airport.
By this time, I was getting so tired of hearing "there's nothing we can do about it" from the staff at the front desk I was ready to hit someone ... particularly given that by then we had been on the go for about 30 hours without sleep and all I really wanted was a place to sack out.
Finally ... around 3 PM, they told us our room was ready. Nobody offered to help us haul our luggage from the lobby to the second-floor room they assigned us ... we did it ourselves (again, the staff at Buddy's only seems to be interested in helping the large groups that frequent the place).
The room ... 109 ... was old, not in good repair, and it stank like old, unclean mildew. The air conditioner in our room had two speeds ... arctic and off. We chose the latter. The hot water heater is someone's idea of a bad joke ... when I was in college we used to call those "pony kegs" ... there was almost enough hot water for one shower, and the temperature was turned down so low it was more warm than hot ... I never once used the cold water knob in the shower all week long.
About the only good thing I could say about that room is that if it was any closer to the water we'd have been sleeping on the dock. We went there to dive, so that was a plus for us.
As for the other amenities ... the place was overcrowded! And therefore, the locker room was inadequate for everyone to have space for their gear. A couple times I came into the locker room to find that someone had removed my gear from the pegs where I'd hung it, and someone else's gear was there. Once I even found someone's wetsuit hung over mine on the same hanger!
The boats were packed! If you weren't standing there when they posted them on the bulletin board, you didn't get on ... within minutes every boat dive was filled up. We got in the six boat dives that were included in our package, but it took some effort on our part to make sure we were standing there when they posted the next day's dives and signed up immediately.
We wanted to do the Salt Pier, but even though we signed up (and paid) for the trip immediately, they put us off for a couple days, and finally gave us our money back and told us that no divemasters were available to take us ... guess they figured we weren't as lucrative as those big groups that they were taking. With a few exceptions, I got the impression that the help there really didn't much care whether we had a good experience or not.
One DM, in particular, really had an attitude problem. Generally on boat dives, I'll stay reasonably close to the DM because they tend to know where the "good stuff" is (like seahorses and such). This fellow was just there ... I didn't see him making any effort at all to locate any critters for anyone. So after a while I wandered off on my own dive. He had set a 60-minute time limit, so at 60 minutes I was back under the boat. Looking up, I saw 14 people all hanging onto a line, waiting to board the boat. So I figured I'd wait a few minutes to let the mob board before heading up (we were in 14 feet of water). After a couple minutes, he comes down and gives me a thumbs-up. I looked up, saw that about eight people were still waiting to board, gave him an OK, and continued looking around till the cluster cleared the ladder. As the last person reached the ladder, I headed up ... cleared the surface at 66 minutes. Back on board, one of the folks I was traveling with mentioned that she had finished the dive with almost 1300 psi (shallow dive). I said "wow, I thought I was doing good coming back with 1,000". The DM gets in my face and said "And I came back with 2,000 .... 60 minutes means 60 minutes" ... and then he stalked off to the flying bridge. Nice guy.
For the most part, I found the "help" to be about the least "helpful" of any place I've ever stayed. And the repair work the OP mentioned ... well, while we were there they had work trucks blocking the little turnaround where everyone needs to go park in order to load their gear. And at the roadside fill station, seemed like the kayak rental guys had priority over customers when it came to parking ... and blocking access to the fill stations. Hell, once they even backed up to block me in while they loaded their kayak paddles (those paddles are heavy, after all ... they couldn't have parked 30 feet further down and carried them from their shed so as not to block people in while they were doing their thing).
On the positive side ... I took a 1/2 day photo class, and got way more than my money's worth. And the reef there is very nice ... in fact, it's a fantastic night dive. And the beach bar makes killer sandwiches for a decent price, and service is reasonably efficient.
Other than that, I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Buddy's, overall, is the worst place I've stayed yet on Bonaire ... and for sure I don't need to repeat the experience.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
