Did you arrive on a Sat or Weds?
Trip Report Buddy Dive week
- Thread starter Doctorfish
- Start date
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OP
Doctorfish
Contributor
Wednesday, but IMO that should not make any difference in booking boat dives. They made us a promise, took our money, and could not deliver.
So you did not accept an afternoon boat?
OP
Doctorfish
Contributor
We had 12 boat dives booked. We did two afternoon single tank boat dives and still came up short overall. We could have squeezed in all 12 if we had done an afternoon boat dive every day as well as the 3 days of morning 2 tankers but that makes for some rushed days. At the time we booked, we were told we would be able to do 2 tank boat dives every dive day.
It's tough arriving on a Weds, 'cuz the Sat-Sat folks have already booked. A 12-dive package is hard to fulfill. It sounds like getting in your 12 would have been possible. I've never seen or heard any policy that guarantees morning dives or even 2 a day. When I've got a group we'll often schedule 3-tank days so we can have a free day or two to go to the East Side or the Park.
OP
Doctorfish
Contributor
We did 2 afternoon single tanks in addition to the 3 days of AM 2 tanks. We could have done additional afternoon boat dives on the days we did AM dives but would have been rushed. Hard to get off a boat at noon, shower, go to Between two Buns and be back to catch the 2.10 boat. We were told AM 2 tank dives would not be a problem when we initially booked. Sorry I did not get that in writing from the booking agent. Would have gone to Capt Don's or Divi if I had known.
Scoooter961
Contributor
We were there in July and had basically the same experience minus not being able to fulfill the dives. It was our first time to Bonaire and really left a sour taste in our mouths. The front office staff was non responsive at best and they tried to charge me for a dent that was in the truck when i got it. I pointed it out at the beginning and she was like oh that's no big deal. I took pictures all around the truck before I drove it. When I returned it and when she went over it she was like oh this is new and not marked on the check out. I mentioned how she said not to worry about it and she got defensive. I was able to bring up the picture and show her the dent was there and time stamped. 2 Days before we left a large parrot fish was dropped over by the firepit and was rotting and covered in flies and you couldn't sit at the fire pit. I asked the front desk to have someone remove it and even drew them a map of where it was, it was still there when we left. The drive through area wouldn't let us take an extra tank (we had 7 divers) and got up to Karpata and had a valve go bad, so one diver had to use a half empty tank from the previous dive. The boat staff except for one DM we had didn't point out anything just swam around. We left the lowest tip that we have ever left in 10 years of diving. Just overall buddy dive wasn't enjoyable.
Yann do Brasil
New
Just a simple question regarding Buddy Dive drive services --> is it possible to pick up tanks at BDR and change the tanks in Belmar ? or you always need to pick up and give back tanks on the same place ?
That may be specific to DFB and I think they mostly visit Klein or the northern sites so kinda makes sense. During our week we saw multiple snorkel boats but only one dive op tied up to the Bonaire shore and that was at The Lake oddly enough.
I may have missed it but did Buddy Dive make any changes to their routine/gear rinse/tanks for SCTLD?
We used Dive Friends Bonaire and stayed over at Divi (in the timeshare part). For what it's worth I don't remember our DMs for our few Klien trips pointing out much, but then again they were too busy dealing with the clowns bicycle kicking and killing an AL80 inside 10 minutes.
Neither Divi nor Dive Friends were exactly upscale, but they were efficient, friendly, and pretty competently run. If you want the resort experience then probably not for you but otherwise it is a very nice combo overall.
I also do full video walk-throughs now at all car rentals, preferably with an employee of the rental company somewhere in the video. Haven't gotten screwed by anyone but nice to have it as evidence later.
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