My wife and I spent 30 nights at the Sunscape Curacao Resort from mid-August to mid-September, 2021, with me diving and snorkeling, and my wife snorkeling. Overall, it was a great trip with excellent diving and good snorkeling. I took all of my own dive gear except the usual tanks/weights, so my comments below about dive rental gear at both dive ops are based only on observation, and the fact that no one had any problems with rental equipment. First, the diving and snorkeling.
We used Ocean Encounters, the on-site dive op at the Sunscape and Lion’s Dive, for boat diving, and The Dive Bus, located one block from the Sunscape entrance, for shore diving. Both dive ops were outstanding, and lived up to their long standing excellent reputations on SB. The reefs were in very good condition, and I did not see any large scale areas of deterioration. Underwater wildlife was better than I had expected. There were no disappointments on any of the dives, and I finally got to dive the Superior Producer wreck because there were no cruise ships in town on that particular dive day.
Ocean Encounters’ boats were very roomy, comfortable, well equipped, and the scuba rental gear was in excellent condition. The entire dive and boat staff from the Sunscape and Lion’s Dive were outstanding, with on-board and diving procedures as you would want them to be. Dive groups were generally determined by experience levels as much as feasible, enabling the DMs/Instructors to gear the dive profiles to the needs/desires of all divers. While there, I saw DMs/Instructors work seamlessly with divers across the spectrum of abilities. I had used Ocean Encounters for diving on cruise stopovers on three different occasions in the past couple of years, and was happy to see they maintained their same standards of excellence despite Covid and dive staff turnovers. I really appreciated the slow pace of the dives and allowing divers to wander left/right and up/down from the course to allow all of us to spend as much time as possible looking for the good stuff. Most of the dives were approximately 1 hour.
The Dive Bus. During a one day cruise stopover in 2019, I used The Dive Bus for a two tank shore dive at their house reefs Pierbaai and Car Pile. I had such a good time diving with them that it was a no-brainer for me selecting the Sunscape because of its close proximity to The Dive Bus for shore diving opportunities. Mark and Zoe certainly did not disappoint on their selection of dive sites, with an eye toward snorkeling at the end of the dives, and fun filled, relaxed diving. Both kept the dives light hearted, humorous, and slowed paced. On the dives, we had 3-4 divers of mixed experience levels. Both Mark and Zoe managed the dives expertly, and every diver got the maximum enjoyment and benefit out of the dives. It was a real pleasure diving with them. I had a rental car, so my wife and I followed Mark or Zoe to the dive sites which they selected to give me the best dives, and my the option to snorkel while and after I dived. This was the optimum solution for us, allowing me to dive and snorkel, and my wife to snorkel. I can’t imagine a better dive op for shore diving in Curacao. All of their dive rental gear appeared to be high quality and in excellent condition. As with Ocean Encounters, all dives were approximately 1 hour in length.
Snorkeling. My wife likes to snorkel in shallow water, up close to nice coral with a lot of wildlife. While every beach visited had very good coral, the majority of it was often at 20-25 ft depth. We found the best shallow water coral at Blue Bay Resort, just north of the northern most rock outcrop on the north side of the bay. Similar snorkeling was very good at Gros Knip, and Klein Knip beaches on the south side of the bays and along the rock face outside of the bay. Of course, snorkeling with the turtles at Playa Piskado, was a highlight, so much so that we made three trips up north to see these wonderful creatures. Thankfully, no one was harassing the turtles. The lagoon inside of the breakwater at the Sunscape had some developing coral, but more sea life than we saw at most of the beaches and dive sites. The rocks in the lagoon were teeming with fish, including a huge lion fish.
The only down side to boat diving during our stay in Curacao, was the persistent winds that popped up on a daily basis about the time we were finishing our first dive, and continued causing moderate chop and swell until very late in the afternoon. The wind and swells made for some pretty sporting trips up the dive boat ladder and across the boat deck. Despite the rocking, the Ocean Encounters’ boat and dive crew got everyone up the ladder in a surprisingly quick and efficient manner. On some of our trips, we had some very “green” divers until the boat reached calmer waters. Because of the orientation and sheltered position of the bays where we entered the water for shore diving, choppy water was never an issue for diving and snorkeling. We tried to snorkel the outside of the Sunscape breakwater on numerous occasions, but the chop and swell made that virtually impossible.
Sunscape Curacao Resort. The layout, grounds, rooms, facilities, staff, beach, protected dive, swim and snorkel lagoon inside the breakwater were very good. The on-site dive op, Ocean Encounters was excellent.
One of the Sunscape’s positives is the entire staff was extremely friendly and helpful throughout our stay. Unfortunately they were somewhat hamstrung by less than adequate manning throughout the resort and training in some situations. Perhaps the staffing shortage and training was the result of Curacao not being fully recovered from the Covid lockdown and infection rate, or a management issue. In all fairness, things generally seemed to be running a little smoother at the resort by the second week of our trip.
For the most part, food preparation was less than desired, and suffered from lack of people to do the jobs, and likely inadequate training of kitchen staff. Sunscape has five mostly open air restaurants: The World Cafe for buffet style meals; Da Mario’s, with an Italian menu; Himitsu, a Japanese steakhouse wanna be; Oceana for sea food, steak, etc.; and Blue Water Grill, another buffet restaurant. Unfortunately, the menus at all but the World Cafe were the same every night, so after two weeks at the resort, we wound up eating the same couple of dishes that were pretty good at Da Mario’s, Himitsu, and Oceana for dinner. Breakfast at the World Cafe, which we had to use on dive days, was marginal, primarily because they have not figured out how to keep hot food hot, and cold food cold. Oceana was good for breakfast, but it took a while because they were short staffed. Food preparation was likely more of an issue for us than the majority of guests who were only there for a week stay. I think if we had only been at the Sunscape for a week, we might have had a better impression of the food, as there were at least a couple dishes that were good at each restaurant. We did not use the World Cafe for anything but breakfast, so Ican’t comment on the overall food quality there.
The 24/7 coffee bar was excellent, providing the usual hand brewed espresso based coffees, hot chocolate, teas, snack sandwiches, and desserts.
Off site dining. You won’t find better seafood than at the Sea Side Terrace restaurant, right next to the north side of the resort, and De Visserij (The Fishery) in Piscadera, about a 20 minute drive north of the resort. Lion fish, when available, and red snapper were outstanding. You can’t go wrong eating at either place. Thanks to Mark and Zoe at The Dive Bus for recommending those two restaurants.
Despite our generally mediocre impression of many food items at the Sunscape, I would be willing to stay there again on a future trip to Curacao in the future. The resort does have a lot going for it: All inclusive, location, resort facilities, beach, rooms, staff friendliness and efforts to resolve problems, and an excellent on-site dive op and proximity to The Dive Bus to cover all of your boat and shore diving needs. Last, but not least, the Sunscape has an outstanding policy for Covid testing and care should you get nailed with Covid. The current ”3rd day on the island” Antigen Covid test is done at the resort (I recommend get there very early) so you don’t have to go anywhere to get the test. The resort also covers the cost of the Antigen test, administered on the property, which is currently required before you return to the U.S. I do not know if this is standard practice at other hotels and resorts on Curacao, but if you do get Covid while at the Sunscape, the resort will provide you room and board for 14 days at their expense while you are in quarantine. That benefit could be a real money saver for a person/family that tests positive for Covid on the pre-departure Covid test.
We used Ocean Encounters, the on-site dive op at the Sunscape and Lion’s Dive, for boat diving, and The Dive Bus, located one block from the Sunscape entrance, for shore diving. Both dive ops were outstanding, and lived up to their long standing excellent reputations on SB. The reefs were in very good condition, and I did not see any large scale areas of deterioration. Underwater wildlife was better than I had expected. There were no disappointments on any of the dives, and I finally got to dive the Superior Producer wreck because there were no cruise ships in town on that particular dive day.
Ocean Encounters’ boats were very roomy, comfortable, well equipped, and the scuba rental gear was in excellent condition. The entire dive and boat staff from the Sunscape and Lion’s Dive were outstanding, with on-board and diving procedures as you would want them to be. Dive groups were generally determined by experience levels as much as feasible, enabling the DMs/Instructors to gear the dive profiles to the needs/desires of all divers. While there, I saw DMs/Instructors work seamlessly with divers across the spectrum of abilities. I had used Ocean Encounters for diving on cruise stopovers on three different occasions in the past couple of years, and was happy to see they maintained their same standards of excellence despite Covid and dive staff turnovers. I really appreciated the slow pace of the dives and allowing divers to wander left/right and up/down from the course to allow all of us to spend as much time as possible looking for the good stuff. Most of the dives were approximately 1 hour.
The Dive Bus. During a one day cruise stopover in 2019, I used The Dive Bus for a two tank shore dive at their house reefs Pierbaai and Car Pile. I had such a good time diving with them that it was a no-brainer for me selecting the Sunscape because of its close proximity to The Dive Bus for shore diving opportunities. Mark and Zoe certainly did not disappoint on their selection of dive sites, with an eye toward snorkeling at the end of the dives, and fun filled, relaxed diving. Both kept the dives light hearted, humorous, and slowed paced. On the dives, we had 3-4 divers of mixed experience levels. Both Mark and Zoe managed the dives expertly, and every diver got the maximum enjoyment and benefit out of the dives. It was a real pleasure diving with them. I had a rental car, so my wife and I followed Mark or Zoe to the dive sites which they selected to give me the best dives, and my the option to snorkel while and after I dived. This was the optimum solution for us, allowing me to dive and snorkel, and my wife to snorkel. I can’t imagine a better dive op for shore diving in Curacao. All of their dive rental gear appeared to be high quality and in excellent condition. As with Ocean Encounters, all dives were approximately 1 hour in length.
Snorkeling. My wife likes to snorkel in shallow water, up close to nice coral with a lot of wildlife. While every beach visited had very good coral, the majority of it was often at 20-25 ft depth. We found the best shallow water coral at Blue Bay Resort, just north of the northern most rock outcrop on the north side of the bay. Similar snorkeling was very good at Gros Knip, and Klein Knip beaches on the south side of the bays and along the rock face outside of the bay. Of course, snorkeling with the turtles at Playa Piskado, was a highlight, so much so that we made three trips up north to see these wonderful creatures. Thankfully, no one was harassing the turtles. The lagoon inside of the breakwater at the Sunscape had some developing coral, but more sea life than we saw at most of the beaches and dive sites. The rocks in the lagoon were teeming with fish, including a huge lion fish.
The only down side to boat diving during our stay in Curacao, was the persistent winds that popped up on a daily basis about the time we were finishing our first dive, and continued causing moderate chop and swell until very late in the afternoon. The wind and swells made for some pretty sporting trips up the dive boat ladder and across the boat deck. Despite the rocking, the Ocean Encounters’ boat and dive crew got everyone up the ladder in a surprisingly quick and efficient manner. On some of our trips, we had some very “green” divers until the boat reached calmer waters. Because of the orientation and sheltered position of the bays where we entered the water for shore diving, choppy water was never an issue for diving and snorkeling. We tried to snorkel the outside of the Sunscape breakwater on numerous occasions, but the chop and swell made that virtually impossible.
Sunscape Curacao Resort. The layout, grounds, rooms, facilities, staff, beach, protected dive, swim and snorkel lagoon inside the breakwater were very good. The on-site dive op, Ocean Encounters was excellent.
One of the Sunscape’s positives is the entire staff was extremely friendly and helpful throughout our stay. Unfortunately they were somewhat hamstrung by less than adequate manning throughout the resort and training in some situations. Perhaps the staffing shortage and training was the result of Curacao not being fully recovered from the Covid lockdown and infection rate, or a management issue. In all fairness, things generally seemed to be running a little smoother at the resort by the second week of our trip.
For the most part, food preparation was less than desired, and suffered from lack of people to do the jobs, and likely inadequate training of kitchen staff. Sunscape has five mostly open air restaurants: The World Cafe for buffet style meals; Da Mario’s, with an Italian menu; Himitsu, a Japanese steakhouse wanna be; Oceana for sea food, steak, etc.; and Blue Water Grill, another buffet restaurant. Unfortunately, the menus at all but the World Cafe were the same every night, so after two weeks at the resort, we wound up eating the same couple of dishes that were pretty good at Da Mario’s, Himitsu, and Oceana for dinner. Breakfast at the World Cafe, which we had to use on dive days, was marginal, primarily because they have not figured out how to keep hot food hot, and cold food cold. Oceana was good for breakfast, but it took a while because they were short staffed. Food preparation was likely more of an issue for us than the majority of guests who were only there for a week stay. I think if we had only been at the Sunscape for a week, we might have had a better impression of the food, as there were at least a couple dishes that were good at each restaurant. We did not use the World Cafe for anything but breakfast, so Ican’t comment on the overall food quality there.
The 24/7 coffee bar was excellent, providing the usual hand brewed espresso based coffees, hot chocolate, teas, snack sandwiches, and desserts.
Off site dining. You won’t find better seafood than at the Sea Side Terrace restaurant, right next to the north side of the resort, and De Visserij (The Fishery) in Piscadera, about a 20 minute drive north of the resort. Lion fish, when available, and red snapper were outstanding. You can’t go wrong eating at either place. Thanks to Mark and Zoe at The Dive Bus for recommending those two restaurants.
Despite our generally mediocre impression of many food items at the Sunscape, I would be willing to stay there again on a future trip to Curacao in the future. The resort does have a lot going for it: All inclusive, location, resort facilities, beach, rooms, staff friendliness and efforts to resolve problems, and an excellent on-site dive op and proximity to The Dive Bus to cover all of your boat and shore diving needs. Last, but not least, the Sunscape has an outstanding policy for Covid testing and care should you get nailed with Covid. The current ”3rd day on the island” Antigen Covid test is done at the resort (I recommend get there very early) so you don’t have to go anywhere to get the test. The resort also covers the cost of the Antigen test, administered on the property, which is currently required before you return to the U.S. I do not know if this is standard practice at other hotels and resorts on Curacao, but if you do get Covid while at the Sunscape, the resort will provide you room and board for 14 days at their expense while you are in quarantine. That benefit could be a real money saver for a person/family that tests positive for Covid on the pre-departure Covid test.
