krukster86
Contributor
Recently got back from a vacation that was 90% diving and 10% destination wedding 
and wanted to share my experience diving with Dive Bus Curacao.
I signed up with Dive Bus because of two things:
1. Wedding party (90 people!) was booked up at Sunscape Resort just down the street and I could not beat their price.
2. I am new to this style of shore diving and did not have a vehicle of my own to explore the island.
Dive Bus has been great with setting up my reservations in advance. Response time was great (thank you Doris!) and they are VERY involved in social media (post dive videos/photos later in the day/next day after diving). For initially lugging gear over, they offered to pick us up from our resort free of charge which was very much appreciated, given the downpour that morning!
Check out dives with Dario were done at the "house reef" Car Pile. Beach entry was just across the street, and the dive site was super easy to navigate. At the end of the dive, we emptied our tanks to around 500 psi and did a weight check. I learned that I was over-weighted by 4 lbs!
The following days, we boarded the Dive Bus to go on excursions with our awesome dive guide Kelly to Tugboat/Pier, Playa Piskado, and Director's Bay. After between dives, we had some fruit during our surface interval, and a picnic lunch at the end of the second dive. Being night dive fanatics, we also booked a night dive on the house reef (Dive Bus only hosts 1 night dive a week) and saw plenty of octopus!
Overall we were extremely happy with the experience. Dive Bus stresses good buoyancy control and avoiding chasing/handling wildlife, unlike some other operators we have used in the past that "herd" or agitate wildlife for the customers. On our dives at Director's Bay, there were excessive amounts of fishing line draped over the reef. We all took time out of our dives to step in with our shears/line cutters to clean up the reef. It felt good to have a positive effect on the reef.
Things I learned:
- The reefs are a quick couple fin kicks away from the shore. I bought a snorkel for this trip and ended up not using it at all except to go snorkeling on my off-gas day on the resort!
- These shore dives are very easy to navigate, and could probably be done without a guide for "first timers"
- It would be a good idea to have a BCD pocket/mesh bag to collect garbage/fishing line on reefs
- For multiple night dives, it would be a good idea to find another operator that will let you dive more than once a week.
- It is hard to find good beer on Curacao!
I am going to use this experience to help plan a trip to Bonaire in the future.
and wanted to share my experience diving with Dive Bus Curacao.I signed up with Dive Bus because of two things:
1. Wedding party (90 people!) was booked up at Sunscape Resort just down the street and I could not beat their price.
2. I am new to this style of shore diving and did not have a vehicle of my own to explore the island.
Dive Bus has been great with setting up my reservations in advance. Response time was great (thank you Doris!) and they are VERY involved in social media (post dive videos/photos later in the day/next day after diving). For initially lugging gear over, they offered to pick us up from our resort free of charge which was very much appreciated, given the downpour that morning!
Check out dives with Dario were done at the "house reef" Car Pile. Beach entry was just across the street, and the dive site was super easy to navigate. At the end of the dive, we emptied our tanks to around 500 psi and did a weight check. I learned that I was over-weighted by 4 lbs!
The following days, we boarded the Dive Bus to go on excursions with our awesome dive guide Kelly to Tugboat/Pier, Playa Piskado, and Director's Bay. After between dives, we had some fruit during our surface interval, and a picnic lunch at the end of the second dive. Being night dive fanatics, we also booked a night dive on the house reef (Dive Bus only hosts 1 night dive a week) and saw plenty of octopus!
Overall we were extremely happy with the experience. Dive Bus stresses good buoyancy control and avoiding chasing/handling wildlife, unlike some other operators we have used in the past that "herd" or agitate wildlife for the customers. On our dives at Director's Bay, there were excessive amounts of fishing line draped over the reef. We all took time out of our dives to step in with our shears/line cutters to clean up the reef. It felt good to have a positive effect on the reef.
Things I learned:
- The reefs are a quick couple fin kicks away from the shore. I bought a snorkel for this trip and ended up not using it at all except to go snorkeling on my off-gas day on the resort!
- These shore dives are very easy to navigate, and could probably be done without a guide for "first timers"
- It would be a good idea to have a BCD pocket/mesh bag to collect garbage/fishing line on reefs
- For multiple night dives, it would be a good idea to find another operator that will let you dive more than once a week.
- It is hard to find good beer on Curacao!
I am going to use this experience to help plan a trip to Bonaire in the future.
). I don't find the swim-outs in general longer than the southern Bonaire sites (as a comparison) and some are shorter. There are exceptions but that's my general impression. The sites are not laid out as conveniently as Bonaire, so if you want to "dive, dive, dive," I would put a little more emphasis on the quality of the house (or nearby) reef. IMHO, YMMV.
