Curacao trip report and pix

[scuba guy ron]

I looked into the dive bus. We opted to shore dive our house reef with our free daily dive. we dove that twice. All of the rest of our dives were by boat. The service we had on ocean encounters was amazing they fed us, took us diving (all dives are guided by the way), took us to a snorkel spot in between dives called the blue room. then took us by boat up into the Willemstead harbor to get some pics from the boat. we were on the boat from 8am to 5pm. these charters are by far among the best I've been on.

 

[Odys]

Great report, excellent pics!

 

[scuba guy ron]

Thx chris

 

[Seaside Curacao]

If you want to try a homestay we are happy to help out, from planning to whatever on-island level of service you might like. It's a fun island!

 

[James R]

I would pretty much agree with the above on Breezes, except that the food when we were there (June 2010) was OK - note: I said OK, not great. The service was hit & miss, maybe depending on the individual's mood, or maybe the moon? Who knows. We were in the tower of rooms above the Japanese restaurant. Our bath/shower (along with everyone else we asked) was a nightmare! No matter how careful you are, due to the design & tiling of the tub/shower combo you will flood the floor of the bathroom unless you use half of your towels creating dams to block the flow of water. It's ridiculous. Now all that said, after a couple days, we kinda got used to how things are at Breezes (and I may have had a few extra drinks each night to help this) and it became a lot more enjoyable. I guess our previous trip had us spoiled a little (Cozumel Palace).

We dove with The Dive Bus for 6 days, and we had an absolute blast! Diving with them again would be a good enough reason to go back to Curacao for me. We really enjoyed shore diving, and sure didn't miss the typical boat full of vacation & resort-divers we've encountered in Cozumel etc.

Here are some photos I took in Curacao

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Another vote against Breezes. We stayed there Nov 1-11 2010. The Japanese restaurant was excellent, but the food was otherwise just OK. Service was poor or non-existent. The phone in our room never worked, despite repeated requests at the front desk to look into it. It took 5 days before we were able to get a WiFi connection that actually worked, and then it would only connect in the Buffet or on the beach.

And another vote in favor of The Dive Bus. Mark & Suzy were great. We did 10 dives with Mark and, as another poster said, they're reason enough to go back to Curacao.

We would certain go to Curacao again, but we'd find someplace other than Breezes to stay.

 

[irie1029]

sweet

 

[scuba guy ron]

We were in the tower of rooms above the Japanese restaurant. Our bath/shower (along with everyone else we asked) was a nightmare! No matter how careful you are, due to the design & tiling of the tub/shower combo you will flood the floor of the bathroom unless you use half of your towels creating dams to block the flow of water. It's ridiculous.

thats too funny james. thats exactly what we had to do with the "towel dam"

 

[RV22]

SGR, thanks for these pics. There is a group of us from Ontario (I think between 15-20) who are heading to the Kura Hulunda Lodge for a week of unlimited diving at the end of January and you've just made me much more excited about the trip!

The pictures were great, especially the fish eye shots.

I'm quite interested to see what the diving is like in Curacao. I hear it is a macro paradise, and great for wrecks. And since there is no real big stuff south of the Bahama's at this time of year, the wrecks are what I'm interested in. I've been to a bunch of other places in the South Caribbean including Aruba, so I'm interested to see how this stacks up.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

There are a few wrecks off Curacao; a couple tug boats and the Superior Producer. There's also supposed to be another wreck near the SP, but I am not familiar with it. There's also supposed to be a pair of tugs but they're in like 150FSW or some such, so beyond normal rec diving. The popular tug boats are shallow. The one over by Directors Bay is perfect for your safety go.
The SP is deep but well within the limits of rec diving. The difficulty diving the SP comes from a somewhat difficult shore entry (rocks and such) a longer than average surface swim (but still very doable) and a prohibition on diving it when there are cruise liners or military ships in the bay.
We saw lots of eels, squid and octopi, but the only big fish were tarpon. Lots of macro photog stuff.