Den Laman vs. Buddy's

[pediatron]

I am working on planning my second trip to Bonaire. We stayed at Den Laman last time and liked the room and the convenience of the tanks/storage right downstairs. We also liked the very short walk to the hot dog and ice cream places. Our experience with BDA was not as good as others. It was a very busy week. We wanted to do a rescue course - told could not accomodate. We wanted to do town pier - told could not accomodate. We wanted to pick a dive site (rappel) -- took all week before we could get them to agree to it. The attitude that week at least seemed to be as little service as possible and zero smiles. We walked over to Buddy's to check it out and stopped by the dive shop. Could have easily done town pier or other special dives -- no problem. Much friendlier. But, rooms seem much farther away from where tanks/gear are stored. Many don't have full unit air conditioning and they won't guarantee that at time of booking. Any comments from those who have knowledge of both places would be greatly appreciated.

 

[piikki]

We stayed at Den Laman too and liked the convenience of everything being close-by. Booking second time we went with DL again but didn't notice that some things had changed that might have affected the choice if I had noticed. I don't know when you went for your first trip but last time we were there one was able to check-in early morning coming on the redeye flights. This time you cannot even go dump your luggage until the office opens unless you pay for the night before. Argh! I think this is different with Buddy.

Buddy also picks you from airport which is convenient because at least last time with DL truck the returning was a PITA. I don't know if Den Laman has become popular enough that they have started to cut down with the services but I was not happy about the closed door policy (who wants to hover around with luggage at 6 am).

We also visited BDA at a busy week and had some of the same problems as you. We did not want boat dives though but it would have been very hard to get sites one wanted. We went over to Buddy's and I was wondering about the same thing about the rooms being quite far from the dock. Then again we did not dive house reef too many dimes anyway, so as long as one can park the car close to the door that would be the thing that would matter. I have heard some people say that some rooms at Buddy's are quite in need of updating and that certainly isn't the case at DL.

 

[spectrum]

This time you cannot even go dump your luggage until the office opens unless you pay for the night before. Argh! I think this is different with Buddy.

This is hit or miss at Buddy. We lucked out and had rooms waiting when we arrived on the Sunday Morning Red-eye. They dropped us at our rooms to crash and said to stop at the frond desk when we were ready to begin our day.

As we left they mentioned that rooms would not be ready for some of the folks being picked up from the inbound leg of our plane. I don't know if they can guarantee anything by special arrangement but it seems to be hit or miss. With such a large part of the turnover is a short span in the middle of the night I'm not sure how you avoid it short of loosing bookings for the week in some cases.

We stayed at Buddy Dive last spring and wanted for nothing. Our rooms were nice enough and well tended on a daily basis.

Pete

 

[tedtim]

We just returned from two weeks staying at Den Laman. I guess that it was not quite as busy as described by the OP.

We met a few people who took the redeye. They did not seem to have a problem getting a room.

We flew in on Saturday evening. There was nobody in the office when we arrived, but they showed up when we called them on the house phone. They were a bit embarassed and indicated that they were informed we would arrive on a later flight. I think if they know that you are coming in, you can make arrangements for someone to meet you.

As for the diving. Well, Den Laman has two boats, but during our stay there was not enough demand to run them both. First person to sign up for a boat dive gets to select the site, else it is divemaster's choice. We signed up a few days ahead and had no problems.

As for courses, well I wanted to sign up for the extended version of the introduction to fish identification. Because I was the only one looking for that course, it did not happen. I did notice that they ran a rescue course for two people while we were there.

As for smiles.....there were lots to go around during our stay.

Never asked about Town Pier, but then again we did it last time and believe that it is overrated. There was also an additonal cost due to the requirement for a divemaster as I recall during our last visit (used Wannadive). During the orientation we were given the standard briefing about Town Pier: 24 hours prior notice required; they need your passport number; harbourmaster permission required; can't be done if a cruise ship is expected in port. It did not seem to be a popular choice for a dive through BDA. When we dove at Buddy Dive during the first week their dive board indicated that the Town Pier dive was not available. It might have been the timing.

We ate at the Lion's Den restaurant at Buddy Dive. Great service and a very nice meal. When we dove at Buddy Dive all of the folks were quite friendly.

As for the room, we found it quite to our liking. We do like the smaller places.

I believe the rental vehicles for Buddy Dive are somehow connected to the resort because I recall seeing many rentals with a Buddy Dive logo on the door. You are right that the folks at Den Laman could have provided better directions to their location. We had no trouble, but it was our second trip. As for rental pick-up and return there was no problem. The rental agency was open when we arrived and we took about ten minutes to sort out the administration. We left on the earling morning departure and the rental folks were available at 5 AM for the vehicle return, again without problem.

Maybe we were just lucky, or it could be that the time we selected to go to Bonaire was not during a busy period.

 

[piikki]

I would certainly not expect any hotel/condo to let people in at 6 am for rooms that they clearly state you have only paid from 2pm or so on. A lot of Bonaire places seem to be able/willing to accommodate the red eye flights because there are so many of them which is nice of them.

My choice next time will most likely be affected with the fact that some places are operated more like hotels with front desk staff when some places (like Den Laman) are operated like condos without that service. I don’t mind it most of the time because I don’t really need concierge. I don’t expect to get a room 6 am if I did not pay for it BUT it is a huge inconvenience if the whole place is closed, and I cannot even get my luggage and passport into a safe place. Now I am missing half a day of diving and that will really impact me!!! I will take into account if paying for one extra night will raise my accommodation costs 40%. (Yes, this is possible because the package price per night is quite different to rack night price!!!)

Ok this is bit of topic but I was kind of curious hearing if DL is going this direction.

 

[Diver Rick]

I was there Nov 25 to Dec 2. Stayed at Sand Dollar (directly next to, and almost attached to Den Laman). Using BDA for a week, including a few boat dives.

Several comments:

- Arrived at 5:30 AM, Sunday, along with two other couples, and the security guard at Sand Dollar was waiting for us in the parking lot with our room keys!

- We were unpacked, cleaned up and in diving by 11am our first day!

- Diving a requested site via boat was very easy if you were willing to sign up a day or two ahead of time, as someone else meantioned, they have a "first to sign up to any one boat picks the dive" policy.

- Dive shop folks/DM's could use a few personality pills, but it was a very efficient and safety concisous operation

- Getting tanks and equipement out of the cages all week couldn't have been easier. Any time we needed our gear or a tank outside of regular hours the security guard was happy to open up for us.

I was always curious what other accomodations and dive shops are like, but I don't think I would hesitate to use this combo again.

 

[phelana]

Most properties will allow early check in if pre arranged. Some charge 50% of the previous room cost, most charge the full amount. Just an FYI.

Ann Phelan
Caribbean Wind & Sun Vacations--Your Caribbean Travel Specialist

 

[Diver Rick]

Most properties will allow early check in if pre arranged. Some charge 50% of the previous room cost, most charge the full amount. Just an FYI.

The beauty of our experience was that it was NOT pre-aranged, and there were NO extra charges involved!

:14:

 

[pediatron]

Well, Buddy's couldn't accomodate for more than 7 days so that made the decision easier. (We are coming in on the Friday red-eye and leaving on the following Sun am to give us one more diving day). I am just hoping if I pay Den Laman for the extra night that the room is actually available with someone to let us in when we fly in from Houston that morning. Does that mean they can't use the room the entire previous week so it will be available for my "Friday night" extra stay? I am also hoping that BDA finds their smiles/positive attitudes. I really don't want/expect much from them -- we tend to do mostly our own thing with shore diving, but it would be nice if we could do for instance Town Pier if we gave plenty of notice. We'll see.

 

[DiveMaven]

Keep us posted as to how your stay at Den Laman goes. We're booked for 2 weeks at Den Laman in July and I'm pondering whether or not I want to reserve the extra night just to be on the safe side so we can get into our unit when we arrive on the Houston redeye. This is great information, thanks for sharing.