Luko
Contributor
Personally I won't agree because this wasn't my experience : I've been in this situation as one of my second or third dive trip to Indonesia a long time ago (2002) was Bunaken, long before Raja and Komodo. I was disappointed though, gave it a second chance years later, still disappointed.
That doesn't minor any merit owed to Dr. Batuna, co-founder of Bunaken NP, whom i've been speaking to a few times when I was staying at Murex. Compared to Bangka (which place Hanny Batuna told me was his favorite of all : why do you think there is a spot called Doktor's place?) , I am not the only one to state that they might be quite disappointed if they're looking for a healthy coral coverage on the walls of Bunaken.
Funnily enough I remember some words I heard in the early 2000's from a very well known dive pro of the area "Bunaken has sunk".
So another opinion doesn't make it a truth either.
Saying that is a marketing term but doesn't make it an experience either : I've witnessed more than once than more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better, it surely means well off customers, many of whom think more expensive is better.
There are lots of resorts in Lembeh that give a great diving experience at more affordable price (and better guides currently).
As a customer I don't think it's worth 65$ the nitrox dive. For the record I had to pay 87USD for a night dive, on that particular trip I also booked a dive guide (120USD/day), was fine for the first day then they wanted to change him because they prefered to give me their most inexperimented dive guide (seems logical : since I already paid, my diver satisfaction wasn't valuable to them anymore).
Long story short : I had to speak to Danny the owner to get things changed because that was not the plan of the dive manager.
Here's for a customer experience at this"premier" dive resort...
I think it would be fair to give Lembeh first visitors alternatives that are not so agressive on their wallets, and mention that if they're not going to this "premier resort" (whatever that means, beats me) they will not find themselves in a dump nor diving with freeflowing regulators, probably with less groups. (Indah from DiveLodge may witness that too, BSDR is a nice alternative, since you were also speaking about the op : Kaj the ex KBR manager also owns Dive Into Lembeh, NAD is a favorite amongst photographers, etc.)
Right, take this advice from this guy below .
