Better late then never, been busy catching up with work. Anyho, got back from Bonaire 2 weeks ago. My buddy, his wife, my wife and I enjoyed our stay at Dream Bonaire Villa for the 2 weeks of Feb. 21st thru Mar. 7th. The house was very comfortable and open floor plan.
The living room was nice and roomy. The owner's had only just installed a brand new large screen LCD TV only a week before we arrived. The portable CD player that they had would not consistently play CDs so they bought a new one for the house.
The kitchen was a nice size and was well stocked with all the cooking and eating utensils needed. The fridge was not quite in good working order. It leaked a bit especially when the ice cubes in the ice maker were frozen solid (probably because it wasn't freezing well -- ice cream was soft frozen), but as long as you kept the door closed tightly and a paper towel by the corner you hardly noticed it. It probably should be replaced also. It would take quite a long time to chill warm items like Beer (about a day) but once they were cold it was fine.
The Veranda was very nice and roomy, and having the 4 sliding glass doors slide entirely into the wall allowed the tradewinds to cool the entire house. The owner also replaced the interior workings of the BBQ and it was like new. We enjoyed BBQ well over half of our stay. The view was outstanding from the Veranda and the living room.
My wife and I let our friends have the Master bedroom and we did not hear them complain about their bed. They did say that the shower was not that strong but they had no problem taking a shower or washing their hair. The owners were aware that they had a water pressure problem in the upper house and they needed to find out what the problem was. When you did turn the water on to fill the rinse tanks down stairs, the upper house lost all water flow. I do believe that they will soon have this taken care of in the near future. My buddy's wife did complain about a sewer smell in the bathroom when running the water and the owners quickly had the septic tank emptied. It had filled quickly and they believe that the water pressure problem has something to do with water leaking into the Septic tank.
The bedroom that my wife and I stayed in was quite comfortable, bed was very comfortable. The air conditioner was fine. The bathroom was very nice and roomy, had two sinks and a large very nice sunken, beautifully tiled tub/shower combo. We had adequate flow of water for our shower.
Having rinse tanks out in the back were great and we did not have to share the gear locker with the people below. They were very nice and let us use them so that we did not have to lug our gear upstairs. I do feel that if both households were to share the locker, it would be to crowded. But I believe that there is plenty of room in the back area to store gear for the divers in the lower house and enough room up top for the upper house divers. We did use a handy pipe that was installed next to the front door to hang our wetsuits on to dry by fresh air. They also had a handy dry rack there by the door for drying our booties, etc.
The ladder that enters the water out back was in good shape and entry into the ocean was easy. The wood decking that is shown on the website is only a frame now after Omar and they have to wait their turn to have it rebuilt.
Also we did take a peek at the lower house, it seems it is owned by another owner (he actually caretakes for the upper house now) and it is not as open as the upper house. You might want to take this into consideration if you want to try out the Villa.
Having Buddy Dive next door was great, the tank pen was right next to our gate and picking up and dropping off tanks was really easy and there is no compressor noise (tanks are delivered daily from Buddy Dive resort).
I will post our opinions of the conditions of the divesites post Omar later, but have to go now.
The living room was nice and roomy. The owner's had only just installed a brand new large screen LCD TV only a week before we arrived. The portable CD player that they had would not consistently play CDs so they bought a new one for the house.
The kitchen was a nice size and was well stocked with all the cooking and eating utensils needed. The fridge was not quite in good working order. It leaked a bit especially when the ice cubes in the ice maker were frozen solid (probably because it wasn't freezing well -- ice cream was soft frozen), but as long as you kept the door closed tightly and a paper towel by the corner you hardly noticed it. It probably should be replaced also. It would take quite a long time to chill warm items like Beer (about a day) but once they were cold it was fine.
The Veranda was very nice and roomy, and having the 4 sliding glass doors slide entirely into the wall allowed the tradewinds to cool the entire house. The owner also replaced the interior workings of the BBQ and it was like new. We enjoyed BBQ well over half of our stay. The view was outstanding from the Veranda and the living room.
My wife and I let our friends have the Master bedroom and we did not hear them complain about their bed. They did say that the shower was not that strong but they had no problem taking a shower or washing their hair. The owners were aware that they had a water pressure problem in the upper house and they needed to find out what the problem was. When you did turn the water on to fill the rinse tanks down stairs, the upper house lost all water flow. I do believe that they will soon have this taken care of in the near future. My buddy's wife did complain about a sewer smell in the bathroom when running the water and the owners quickly had the septic tank emptied. It had filled quickly and they believe that the water pressure problem has something to do with water leaking into the Septic tank.
The bedroom that my wife and I stayed in was quite comfortable, bed was very comfortable. The air conditioner was fine. The bathroom was very nice and roomy, had two sinks and a large very nice sunken, beautifully tiled tub/shower combo. We had adequate flow of water for our shower.
Having rinse tanks out in the back were great and we did not have to share the gear locker with the people below. They were very nice and let us use them so that we did not have to lug our gear upstairs. I do feel that if both households were to share the locker, it would be to crowded. But I believe that there is plenty of room in the back area to store gear for the divers in the lower house and enough room up top for the upper house divers. We did use a handy pipe that was installed next to the front door to hang our wetsuits on to dry by fresh air. They also had a handy dry rack there by the door for drying our booties, etc.
The ladder that enters the water out back was in good shape and entry into the ocean was easy. The wood decking that is shown on the website is only a frame now after Omar and they have to wait their turn to have it rebuilt.
Also we did take a peek at the lower house, it seems it is owned by another owner (he actually caretakes for the upper house now) and it is not as open as the upper house. You might want to take this into consideration if you want to try out the Villa.
Having Buddy Dive next door was great, the tank pen was right next to our gate and picking up and dropping off tanks was really easy and there is no compressor noise (tanks are delivered daily from Buddy Dive resort).
I will post our opinions of the conditions of the divesites post Omar later, but have to go now.
