Mushroom Forest, Watamula, and Alice in Wonderland - how to dive all in one day?

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Just rent a car at the CUR airport for the entire time.
I assume this is your first time diving Curacao?
Perhaps better to stick to two dives for the amount of excursioning involved.
Do Alice (a shore dive) and one of the others...
 
I like Curacao diving and have done a lot of trips there, and feel Curacao's better diving is mostly located to the west where the 3 dive sites you mention are. That said, I haven't seen any dives there that are worth paying for private charters and jumping through lots of hoops for. IMO Mushroom Forest in particular isn't all it's cracked up to be (anymore) - used to be pretty cool, but storms and popularity have taken their toll. So maybe you can simplify your plan by not getting hung up on that one - if you happen to find a convenient charter that is going there great, if not don't fret about it. Watamula is nice if you can find someone running their boat there that day. (If I had to choose between between MF and Watamula I'd pick Watamula.)

Alice in Wonderland is the shore dive at Go West (formerly Ocean Encounters West, formerly All West) so easy to do on your schedule. It's a nice reef well worth at least a few dives.

Personally with one day and flying early the next morning, to dive that area I would get to Go West when they open, pay them for tanks for the day, do how ever many shore dives on Alice in Wonderland that fit, and knock off early enough to allow myself a decent time before flying not to mention gear drying time. Or given that you need a buddy - if you can't find a boat trip someplace else that works out better, you could just do the morning 2 tank boat at Go West, then squeeze in an early afternoon shore dive there on Alice in Wonderland after if you are comfortable with the time to fly - your call. (I probably wouldn't be.) Maybe you can find someone on the boat that you can shore dive with. Or of course you can try and arrange to rent a DM through Go West for that dive or a whole morning of shore diving, or see if they know of someone else looking for a buddy that day, but sometimes they can be pretty busy and not have the staff so who knows. (If you do this hopefully you're a morning person, it's a bit of a drive out there.) IIRC, Go West opens at 8. They're not well set up for before/after hours diving even for people staying at the adjacent resort, otherwise I'd suggest starting your diving early or even the night before if it wasn't for the buddy need. (What time are you getting into Curacao on the 17th?)

Another thought, stay at the Marriott. Nice place, and the dive op there Caribbean Sea Sports has a good rep. I haven't shore dove there and while I'm pretty sure it doesn't measure up to AiW, it's supposed to be nice. The location is a good compromise, and not horribly far from the airport or anything. Maybe you can squeeze in a late afternoon or evening shore dive there on the 17th and do their 2 tank boat in the morning. I've seen them diving pretty far to the west, I think they may even do MF from there, but I'm not sure about that and no idea what day.
 
Maybe I will stay two full days in Curacao instead of one. Actually I was going to spend one night in Curacao at the beginning of the trip before going to Bonaire, but I now see there is a 9:50 p.m. flight from Curacao to Bonaire so I might just take that straight to Bonaire. That would eliminate one of the flying days.

I guess I need to decide soon before that flight sells out. Fortunately I have not booked the inter-island flight yet.

---------- Post added April 16th, 2012 at 08:39 PM ----------

I just read up on flying after diving. Sorry for not doing that first. I'll definintely knock off early on the last day...and drink water like a mo fo the whole time. And I don't drink alcohol, so that will help.
 
Maybe I will stay two full days in Curacao instead of one. ... That would eliminate one of the flying days.

I'm wondering how you decided to do both islands in one trip? I've thought about switching my trip to Bonaire via Curacao instead of just staying on Curacao..... but I hate to lose the inter-island vacation time, worry about the puddle jumping planes, and figure that there is a "next time".
 
I'm wondering how you decided to do both islands in one trip? I've thought about switching my trip to Bonaire via Curacao instead of just staying on Curacao..... but I hate to lose the inter-island vacation time, worry about the puddle jumping planes, and figure that there is a "next time".

This is my first time to Bonaire...but I also want to dive some of the popular dives on Curacao I missed before...and the best flight for me this time from Miami goes to Curacao and departs from there early a.m....so those reasons basically.
 
Go West would be the option for Watamula. This is definetly a boat dive. Alice would be a shore dive, as others stated. Mushroom Forest is also a boat dive and this can be accomplished out of Sta. Cruz Beach. Captain Goodlife can drop you off and pick you up after the dive. At Mushroom Forest, you can dive into the Blue Room, both in one dive. From Sta. Cruz Beach, Mushroom Forest is a 2 minute boat ride. We (Lionfish Elimination Team) dive thre often, and Goodlife drops us on various reefs.

I would recommend you stay an extra day to Desat. Better safe than sorry.

Do you have a dive buddy? If not, one of us will gladly dive with you.
 
Hello all... here is a suggestion that would work, Alice in Wonderland in the morning and I can schedule Watamula for the afternoon. Unfortunately, our schedule is set due to our weekly schedule and pre-bookings however we do have other boats that you can arrange a private charter and divemaster. If you want to consider this option email me for a quote. Otherwise, like others have suggested, Alice in the AM and Watamula in the PM.

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
 
Thanks for the responses. I've sent a message to the Ocean Encounters email box.
 

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