Last minute questions for the Bonaire trip...

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

The Plaza will give you a key for your locker for the week. You don't need a combination lock. Tanks are right outside the lockers at the dive shop and also by the beach for shore diving. They are all air. Nitrox you will have to set up separately. Yes, there are safes in the room.

By the way I was at Plaza Resort Bonaire two weeks ago and the water temp was 78 degrees -- much cooler than usual. I've been twice before in February and the water then was around 80.

I always travel with collared short sleeve shirts. That and a pair of shorts will get you about anywhere in Bonaire. Long pants are nice if you're outside to avoid the bugs, however. Take some DEET as mentioned above.

I've also never had a problem with theft. Just leave the windows down and the doors unlocked.

 

[Bosun]

Never stayed at Plaza, but most dive ops lock away the tanks when the dive shop is closed. Habitat offer their guests free access to air 24 x 7, but nitrox you have to sign out tanks in shop hours - Hardly an issue and better for safety. Drop a mail to Toucan to check their availability.

Mossers are not too bad, but nuke your room when you go to dinner so you have no univited guests. Some hotel bars have spray if needed.

Our KLM flights UK - Amsterdam - Bonaire and return Curacao - Amsterdam - UK had no excess but the puddle hop did BON - CUR on the way home with DAE did.

We paid about $1 ( or was it £1 ($2)) per kilo (2.2Lbs) overweight on the Curacao - Bonaire one way flight.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses.

1. Can I get away with a nice T-shirt in those "collared shirt" places?

2. Are the bugs pretty bad? Worse at night? Bad all of the time?

3. What do you do with your prescription glasses for driving, while you're diving?

4. Do the dive equip. lockers at Plaza Resort require us to bring our own combination lock?

5. Are there safes in the rooms?

6. Is Nitrox available at all hours? In other words, do I need to reserve it, to have it ready very early in the morning before we go out for early morning dives? Or do we have to wait until they open to get it? What about getting it the night before?

7. How does this tank thing work? Do they just have a place with full tanks that you get yourself? And another place to put empties?(Plaza Resort)

8. How strict is the 44 lb. per person policy on the Curacao/Bonaire flight, and how much is it gonna cost if you bring two 50lb. suitcases?

Thanks again for all of your help. You people are great!

Matt

1. All money spends equally well on Bonaire, wet or dry, no matter what the purchaser is wearing. I wear collared shirts from Rum Reggae and nice shorts when we're going out to dinner there, but that's just my thing. My wife buys them for me. My last work assignment had 'Hawaiian Shirt Thursdays' in the office complex, so I was the best dressed on Thursdays!

2. We've only really encountered them around dusk and later, or in the gear drying room (little bitty buggers that hide out in our BC's etc. that swarm off when we take them off the hangars). I barely notice them, my wife has more reaction / itching than I do so she uses DEET.

3. I leave my prescription eyeglasses in the room safe and I wear my contact lenses during the day for diving / driving. When I go out to dinner I switch. If I night dive after dinner, I switch back.

4, 5, 6, 7. We haven't stayed at the Plaza but heard it's nice.

8. DAE was very precise and methodical in their excess baggage charges. We paid US$51 for the CUR-BON hop, then after 9 days, paid US$60 for the BON-CUR-SXM hop (with a few things we bought on Bonaire added to our luggage contents) on our way to EUX. Our $$ actually went further on the second leg. It would be nice if such charges were prorated for flight distance but I don'y know of ANY airline that does that. You might want to check this thread for more details on our DAE experience. Overall quality of service was just fine, no problems.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=179082

 

[cneal]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses.

6. Is Nitrox available at all hours? In other words, do I need to reserve it, to have it ready very early in the morning before we go out for early morning dives? Or do we have to wait until they open to get it? What about getting it the night before?

7. How does this tank thing work? Do they just have a place with full tanks that you get yourself? And another place to put empties?(Plaza Resort)

Matt

Everyone else was covered pretty well. You'll have to pick up your Nitrox tanks while the shop is open, Just put them in the back of your pickup. If you're doing a dive at the resort the staff will put them at one of the ocean entries for you.

AL80's of air are left out 24 hours a day, at the dive shop and by the pool. Just grab what you need.

Don't use all of the Nitrox, we'll be back at the Plaza in September.

 

[Bosun]

DAE excess luggage fares are currently

Every kilo above 20 kilos will be charged as follows:
$2 per kilo between BON/AUA-CUR and AUA-BON
$3 per kilo between CUR-VLN
$4 per kilo between AUA/BON-VLN
$6 per kilo between CUR/AUA/BON-SXM
$8 per kilo between SXM-VLN

A Kilo is 2.2lb, if you are a couple of Kilos over I doubt that you would be charged.

 

[divematt]

So,

They weigh everything that THEY put in the plane, or your carry on too? I've got heavy batteries and camera equip. that I can carry on in a backpack that would knock off quite a few pounds of my huge overage. I'm starting to wonder if it isn't smarter to ditch the heavy (8) C-cell lights and extra batteries for night dives for some smaller lights, some of the camera equip., the Nitrox analizer and just trust theirs, and some of the save a dive kit tools and wrenches. I do try to limit the stuff I take, but it can really reduce some of your fun of having all of your usual dive equip. Maybe I'll just chalk it up to the cost of the trip and bite my tongue and we'll pay the hundred bucks.

 

[cneal]

DAE uses small planes. There is checked at the counter and checked at the plane. There is not carry on. Check you camera gear at the plane, you will get to watch it load and take it as it comes off.

 

[divematt]

DAE uses small planes. There is checked at the counter and checked at the plane. There is not carry on. Check you camera gear at the plane, you will get to watch it load and take it as it comes off.

Do they weigh the "checked at the plane" luggage(carry on) or just the stuff that they take at the counter, while letting you "carry" your small backpack to the plane with you?

Thanks

 

[dvrliz1]

Divematt,

Unless your carryon is very large, they will probably not weigh it. My husband and I fly DAE often, and they have never weighed his carryon. He does "drop it off" as we get on the plane, and it has always been fine. I usually use a back pack and they let me bring it on the plane as carryon. My husband's is carryon is always the smallest piece of our luggage set.... DAE is very precious on the checked luggage, I am sure of this...Hope this helps.

Liz

 

[rottielover]

I just was wondering if you could do what I did, and figure out how to mod your 8C cell lights to use NiMH rechargable's?

I have two of the Pelican "Nemo" 4300 8-C dive lights. I finally figured out that the spring contact on the bottom of the battery compartment was too wide, and not touching the "button" on the top of the rechargable battery's (where-as the Alky cells have an all metal top on them, so it didn't matter where the spring hit). I just took some needle nose, and gently crimped the top ring of the springs to that it would touch the button. I can now use either rechargable's OR alky cells in my lights.

My plan was too just include the number of battery's I need to make the lights work, and take the lightweight charger I have for them. I'll then just "top-off" the charge on the batteries each day while I'm out diving and having fun, and they'll be ready by the time we do any night dives. But heck, the batteries that I got would probly still be good by the time I left the island even if I didn't top off the charge.

Anyway, I figured up that I've saved our check-bag's about 5 pounds each in spare battery's this way.

I went ahead and "bucked up" for the "computer controlled" charger, it's got slots to charge 4 cells at a time (AAA - D) and it's a fast/trickle type setup, so that I can "top-off" the charge quickly.

The added bonus to this setup for me, is that I'm using the older model ReefMaster 2 megapixal digital camera that uses 2 AA's with a strobe that uses 4 AA's. I can take my charger, and eliminate a minimum of 16 C cells and 10 AA's out of my wife's and my luggage.

I just wish I had "thunk" of it before my trip to Maui, I could have saved a lot of weight!