TabeaK
Contributor
We are just finishing up a nice week of diving on Bonaire, having stayed at Captain Don’s. We originally wanted to stay at Buddy, but they were sold out.
We booked Captain Don’s through a deal with Maduro Dive Travel. Accommodation in a Junior Deluxe Ocean Front Room with breakfast and 10 boat dives. They charge for use of the room safe (what?!).
Breakfast wasn’t anything to write home about - rubbery eggs, soggy potatoes, okayish bacon, small selection of bagels, toast, ham, cheese and the like. Decent coffee and juice selection. Only had lunch at resort once and it was okay.
Hotel was maybe 60-70% full, never more than 12 people on a boat dive, usually less.
I will not be back to Captain Don’s - in my opinion the only reason to stay is the house reef, which is really nice (La Machacca and Cliff are easily doable on 1 tank).
The hotel itself has seen better days. Our room had two holes in the ceiling where it rained through - took a couple of days to get maintenance take a look. Thankfully it didn’t rain much. Housekeeping was hit or miss and just didn’t show some days. The balcony of the room was nice with a good view. The dive op was okay. On the boat dives, the guides basically take you on a lap around the reef and that’s it - limited critter spotting, we did most of that ourselves. On the plus side, they let us dive however long we wanted, which for us was mostly 80-90 mins on a tank. Nitrox was reliable all week. In general, the dive op staff didn’t seem that engaged. They did their job, provided the basics of service and were safe though - just not real enthusiasm. Nice touch was that the printed invoice at the end of the week listed the dive sites done from the boat.
The setup for shore diving is okay at best. The locker area is not in great shape. Big lockers (bring a padlock), but no space for hanging stuff - hooks inside the lockers are rotted out. Need more benches for people to put on their wetsuits - we opted to do it on our balcony instead. 1 of 2 showers barely working. 4 big rinse tanks and 1 for cameras were adequate but needed more water changes. By mid morning the rinse tanks were gross and full of plants droppings that grow above. No good place to hang wetsuits or anything else really.
No real checking of dive certifications at the beginning of the week. We waved our cert carts from 30 feet away and were never asked for Nitrox cards. You cannot do your mandatory marine park orientation dive until Sunday morning, even if you arrive plenty early on Saturday. Which means you miss the first boat departure on Sunday. Don’t really understand that, since the checkout dive was a completely unattended dive on the house reef.
Morning boat dives are single tanks - boat comes back in between. In my opinion, two tank would waste a lot less time and facilitate going to further away sites.
My biggest pet peeve has having to lug our Nitrox tanks for shorediving up and down a hill - they only stage air tanks near the shorediving entry. Little trolleys are provided, but why not make it easier for guests?
The dock for shore diving is nice for entry - giant stride, but beware of the shallow water and plan accordingly. I am fairly small and hit the ground, after that I put more air in the BC and was okay. The exist ladders are in pretty rough shape, so be careful, saw multiple people busting their ass during the week.
Setup for loading tanks onto trucks for diving around Bonaire was okay - there were parking spots for loading & unloading that were close enough to the dive shop.
Also, of positive note, the hotel had the testing figured out at the end of the week for leaving the island. A rep from Covidtestbonaire stopped by at 3pm on Friday and we were able to get out test back by 8pm ($35).
Diving itself was amazing and dining out spectacular as always on Bonaire. But next time, I will stay somewhere else but Captain Dons.
We booked Captain Don’s through a deal with Maduro Dive Travel. Accommodation in a Junior Deluxe Ocean Front Room with breakfast and 10 boat dives. They charge for use of the room safe (what?!).
Breakfast wasn’t anything to write home about - rubbery eggs, soggy potatoes, okayish bacon, small selection of bagels, toast, ham, cheese and the like. Decent coffee and juice selection. Only had lunch at resort once and it was okay.
Hotel was maybe 60-70% full, never more than 12 people on a boat dive, usually less.
I will not be back to Captain Don’s - in my opinion the only reason to stay is the house reef, which is really nice (La Machacca and Cliff are easily doable on 1 tank).
The hotel itself has seen better days. Our room had two holes in the ceiling where it rained through - took a couple of days to get maintenance take a look. Thankfully it didn’t rain much. Housekeeping was hit or miss and just didn’t show some days. The balcony of the room was nice with a good view. The dive op was okay. On the boat dives, the guides basically take you on a lap around the reef and that’s it - limited critter spotting, we did most of that ourselves. On the plus side, they let us dive however long we wanted, which for us was mostly 80-90 mins on a tank. Nitrox was reliable all week. In general, the dive op staff didn’t seem that engaged. They did their job, provided the basics of service and were safe though - just not real enthusiasm. Nice touch was that the printed invoice at the end of the week listed the dive sites done from the boat.
The setup for shore diving is okay at best. The locker area is not in great shape. Big lockers (bring a padlock), but no space for hanging stuff - hooks inside the lockers are rotted out. Need more benches for people to put on their wetsuits - we opted to do it on our balcony instead. 1 of 2 showers barely working. 4 big rinse tanks and 1 for cameras were adequate but needed more water changes. By mid morning the rinse tanks were gross and full of plants droppings that grow above. No good place to hang wetsuits or anything else really.
No real checking of dive certifications at the beginning of the week. We waved our cert carts from 30 feet away and were never asked for Nitrox cards. You cannot do your mandatory marine park orientation dive until Sunday morning, even if you arrive plenty early on Saturday. Which means you miss the first boat departure on Sunday. Don’t really understand that, since the checkout dive was a completely unattended dive on the house reef.
Morning boat dives are single tanks - boat comes back in between. In my opinion, two tank would waste a lot less time and facilitate going to further away sites.
My biggest pet peeve has having to lug our Nitrox tanks for shorediving up and down a hill - they only stage air tanks near the shorediving entry. Little trolleys are provided, but why not make it easier for guests?
The dock for shore diving is nice for entry - giant stride, but beware of the shallow water and plan accordingly. I am fairly small and hit the ground, after that I put more air in the BC and was okay. The exist ladders are in pretty rough shape, so be careful, saw multiple people busting their ass during the week.
Setup for loading tanks onto trucks for diving around Bonaire was okay - there were parking spots for loading & unloading that were close enough to the dive shop.
Also, of positive note, the hotel had the testing figured out at the end of the week for leaving the island. A rep from Covidtestbonaire stopped by at 3pm on Friday and we were able to get out test back by 8pm ($35).
Diving itself was amazing and dining out spectacular as always on Bonaire. But next time, I will stay somewhere else but Captain Dons.
