CHUD
Contributor
A week after getting home, I'm finally getting around to writing up my notes from my trip to Curaçao 4/1 - 4/9. I was there on a family vacation with my wife and 10-year old daughter.
Overall diving impressions: This was my first warm-water diving experience. I've done all my diving 'til now in Southern California, where it's pretty damn cold -- 7mm is a way of life here. Compared to home, the diving in Curaçao was like taking a bath. I have to say, though, I was expecting more from it -- the visibility wasn't nearly as good as I expected (50 feet or so) and it was overcast much of the time, so the colors weren't as brilliant as I hoped. Don't get me wrong, through, it was still great diving, it just didn't look like a PADI ad.
Lodging: We stayed at the Curaçao Hilton because my Hilton HHonors points paid for half our stay. As a hotel, the Hilton was very nice. We stayed on the Executive Floor (5th Floor), which gave us access to the executive lounge and its free internet access, continental breakfast, and evening cocktails. We stayed in room 519 overlooking the ocean. I was quite pleased with the Hilton as a hotel -- the room was fine, the facilities and grounds were in good shape, the staff were all pleasant. The food was fine, but surprisingly the best and cheapest meals we had were the hamburgers we ordered from room service. So as a guest, I'd give the Hilton 8 out of 10. As a diver, though, it scores quite a bit lower.
Their on-site dive center didn't impress me at all. The staff weren't unfriendly, but they didn't make me feel welcome either, and the three times I went in to ask questions about diving and a snorkel trip they seemed almost baffled at the concept of a guest having questions. The shop itself didn't impress me either -- very small, tucked away behind a gift shop, and abandoned two of the three times I went in there. I ultimately never did any dives with them.
I did, however, do two dives with Caribbean Sea Sports at the Marriott next door. I was really impressed with CSS, both with the shop and the staff. They have a professional dive setup here that is very diver-friendly, and the staff were all extremely friendly and helpful. I walked over from the Hilton and did two guided shore dives with them, and would have done a boat dive as well but I was diving instead with The Dive Bus (more about them later). The Marriott house reef had lots of really cool stuff to see -- octopus, morays, seahorse, baby trunkfish, etc -- and I really enjoyed my two dives with them, especially my first one with Raoul. If I were going to Curaçao again, I would definitely stay at the Marriott and dive with CSS.
I did the majority of my diving with The Dive Bus. The Dive Bus offers a really great service: they come to you, pick you up, take you to the best shore diving sites around Curaçao, feed you, and then take you back to your hotel at the end of the day. They were the BEST! I did a total of six dives with them, one of them their regular Wednesday Night Dive, which was fantastic. I dove their house reef at Pierbaii, and did two trips with them to Porto Mari and Tugboat. GREAT diving, all of it, and I saw more moray eels and octopus and trunkfish and etc than I can even remember. It was the best diving I've done yet.
They also did a Discover Scuba dive with my daughter -- 3 times! Mark was really patient and great with my wife (who decided she's not a diver :sad_2: ) and my daughter (who's a :fish:!). I did a shore dive while my daughter did the book-learnin' part of her Discover class, then I got to dive with her for her first dive. She loved it so much that she went out with us again the next day and Mark did two more "discover" dives with her. She's hooked for life now and can't wait to get certified.
On top of the diving, The Dive Bus had also organized an ATV activity. They picked us up at the hotel, dropped the guests off at the ATV shop, we rode the quads over a mountain biking trail, and met up with the Dive Bus again at the Tugboat dive site. That ROCKED! Quadding and diving in the same day -- ya gotta love it!
I can't say enough good things about the folks at The Dive Bus. They were my absolute favorite part of my trip to Curaçao. If I ever go back there I will definitely be diving with them again. I recommend them whole-heartedly.
Check my gallery for some pix from the trip, or my flickr scuba set to see it all -- good, bad, and ugly.
Overall diving impressions: This was my first warm-water diving experience. I've done all my diving 'til now in Southern California, where it's pretty damn cold -- 7mm is a way of life here. Compared to home, the diving in Curaçao was like taking a bath. I have to say, though, I was expecting more from it -- the visibility wasn't nearly as good as I expected (50 feet or so) and it was overcast much of the time, so the colors weren't as brilliant as I hoped. Don't get me wrong, through, it was still great diving, it just didn't look like a PADI ad.
Lodging: We stayed at the Curaçao Hilton because my Hilton HHonors points paid for half our stay. As a hotel, the Hilton was very nice. We stayed on the Executive Floor (5th Floor), which gave us access to the executive lounge and its free internet access, continental breakfast, and evening cocktails. We stayed in room 519 overlooking the ocean. I was quite pleased with the Hilton as a hotel -- the room was fine, the facilities and grounds were in good shape, the staff were all pleasant. The food was fine, but surprisingly the best and cheapest meals we had were the hamburgers we ordered from room service. So as a guest, I'd give the Hilton 8 out of 10. As a diver, though, it scores quite a bit lower.
Their on-site dive center didn't impress me at all. The staff weren't unfriendly, but they didn't make me feel welcome either, and the three times I went in to ask questions about diving and a snorkel trip they seemed almost baffled at the concept of a guest having questions. The shop itself didn't impress me either -- very small, tucked away behind a gift shop, and abandoned two of the three times I went in there. I ultimately never did any dives with them.
I did, however, do two dives with Caribbean Sea Sports at the Marriott next door. I was really impressed with CSS, both with the shop and the staff. They have a professional dive setup here that is very diver-friendly, and the staff were all extremely friendly and helpful. I walked over from the Hilton and did two guided shore dives with them, and would have done a boat dive as well but I was diving instead with The Dive Bus (more about them later). The Marriott house reef had lots of really cool stuff to see -- octopus, morays, seahorse, baby trunkfish, etc -- and I really enjoyed my two dives with them, especially my first one with Raoul. If I were going to Curaçao again, I would definitely stay at the Marriott and dive with CSS.
I did the majority of my diving with The Dive Bus. The Dive Bus offers a really great service: they come to you, pick you up, take you to the best shore diving sites around Curaçao, feed you, and then take you back to your hotel at the end of the day. They were the BEST! I did a total of six dives with them, one of them their regular Wednesday Night Dive, which was fantastic. I dove their house reef at Pierbaii, and did two trips with them to Porto Mari and Tugboat. GREAT diving, all of it, and I saw more moray eels and octopus and trunkfish and etc than I can even remember. It was the best diving I've done yet.
They also did a Discover Scuba dive with my daughter -- 3 times! Mark was really patient and great with my wife (who decided she's not a diver :sad_2: ) and my daughter (who's a :fish:!). I did a shore dive while my daughter did the book-learnin' part of her Discover class, then I got to dive with her for her first dive. She loved it so much that she went out with us again the next day and Mark did two more "discover" dives with her. She's hooked for life now and can't wait to get certified.
On top of the diving, The Dive Bus had also organized an ATV activity. They picked us up at the hotel, dropped the guests off at the ATV shop, we rode the quads over a mountain biking trail, and met up with the Dive Bus again at the Tugboat dive site. That ROCKED! Quadding and diving in the same day -- ya gotta love it!
I can't say enough good things about the folks at The Dive Bus. They were my absolute favorite part of my trip to Curaçao. If I ever go back there I will definitely be diving with them again. I recommend them whole-heartedly.
Check my gallery for some pix from the trip, or my flickr scuba set to see it all -- good, bad, and ugly.
Maybe there's hope for her yet...
