Bonaire Dive Experience

[louden]

I did the dive described below as part of a tour organized from the Emerald Princess on 27 Oct 08. The text below is taken from a letter I wrote to Princess regarding the experience.

 

The purpose of this letter is to comment on a shore excursion booked for me by Princess with dive operator “Yellow Submarine” at Bonaire.

 

The excursion I was on had 25 or 26 divers departing from the ship. Upon getting our equipment at the dive shop we were divided into two groups of 16 and (9 or 10). I was in the group of 16. The boat assigned for this group was very crowded. Getting everyone into the water for the first dive took over 15 minutes from the entry of the first diver. This was partially caused by equipment failures. On the second dive I lost my weight belt due to a faulty buckle. I had discovered the buckle was a problem on the first dive but thought I had found a solution to cope rather than disrupt the other divers. The loss of the belt in the early part of the second dive caused an uncontrolled ascent that could have had significant medical implications. I was dismayed when I was required to pay for the loss of the weights. Considering the fact I was issued faulty equipment I don’t think I should have been fully responsible for the loss.

 

I spoke with several of the other divers following this dive. They all agreed that they did not enjoy the dive because of the crowding and delays in getting everyone in the water. Since this was the most expensive of the dives offered during this cruise I don’t think the divers got value for money. I suggest that Princess contract with another dive organization for dives in Bonaire. The following day, I participated, along with some of the other divers from the previous day, on a dive in Aruba. We all agreed that this dive, with Red Sail Sports, was all that we had anticipated and was a wonderful experience. This is a dive organization to recommend.

[10X]

I have been to Bonaire twice and did not use a ship's excursion either time. Just find a buddy and go. I went to Divi Flamingo, which is located about 200-300 yards from the pier. I paid the daily $10 Marine Park fee and $20 for unlimited tanks and was diving off their dock within minutes. We were literally diving just yards off the bow of our ship. My total cost for two dives was about $30 and no crowded conditions. We could have done more dives at no additional cost but my dive buddies wanted to quit after two dives and do some sight-seeing. The house reef at Divi is very nice, starting in about 30-35' of water, going down to about 100'. We did the deeper stuff first and finished off with the top of the reef for our second dive. I will not hesitate to do this again.

 

Denny

[bruce-r]

I have been to Bonaire twice and did not use a ship's excursion either time. Just find a buddy and go. I went to Divi Flamingo, which is located about 200-300 yards from the pier. I paid the daily $10 Marine Park fee and $20 for unlimited tanks and was diving off their dock within minutes. We were literally diving just yards off the bow of our ship. My total cost for two dives was about $30 and no crowded conditions. We could have done more dives at no additional cost but my dive buddies wanted to quit after two dives and do some sight-seeing. The house reef at Divi is very nice, starting in about 30-35' of water, going down to about 100'. We did the deeper stuff first and finished off with the top of the reef for our second dive. I will not hesitate to do this again.

 

Denny

Your "dive" buddies are nuts. The sights to see in Bonaire are underwater.

[scubadiver888]

Louden,

 

I was in Bonaire December 12, 2007 on a Princess cruise (Crown I think). If you go in April/May they use smaller ships. Additionally, the ship held something like 3000 but I found out they were packing the cabins with 3 or 4 people. Total count was around 4500 people. In other words, if you go November/December the place is packed.

 

I booked the shore excursion with Princess and ended up with Yellow Submarine as well. I think we had 22 people on our trip. They broke us up into two groups of 11. It was pretty crowded and took a while to get everyone in the water.

 

We had no equipment failure and the dive itself went pretty well. They took us out to Klein Bonaire and we saw a lot of marine life.

 

As I become a more experienced cruiser I plan on booking more and more private excursions. I think all the once a year divers, i.e. the people who will not dive every port, pick Bonaire as the port to dive. The less known a port is, e.g. Dominica (although that is changing), the fewer divers on the shore excursion.

 

Bonaire is, in my experience, the most packed shore excursion any ship offers. There are so many people who get turned away that even if everyone on your excursion never dives with the ship again, they will still fill the excursion. Yellow Submarine is following the rules laid out by Princess. Like a good BUSINESS, more customers + less employees = more profit.

 

I'm just going to dive privately when I go to Bonaire in April.

[scubamargie]

Louden, I'm so sorry about your experience. We agree with Denny, Dive Flamingo is very convenient and cheap. No taxi fare, no long "marine park briefing", etc. Just grab your tank and weights and you're in the water in minutes. Sadly Hurricane Omar did quite a bit of damage to the reef in Bonaire. We dove there 2 weeks ago and found a fair amount of the reef was covered in sand. Lots of coral was broken, and a lot of debris covered the reef. Very sad, but still lots of fish. Since we only saw the Divi resort reef I'm not sure what the other sites look like. Maybe other divers can comment on the conditions they observed.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

My DB wants to dive in Bonaire this May. Is Dive Flamingo the best private operator? Do they do groups or does everyone just jump in at the pier? Is that the best location for diving in Bonaire? We have a very limited amount of time as we are only there from 7-1. I know my DB only plans on diving this one time and he wants the best experience he can get!

[Scubagolf]

My DB wants to dive in Bonaire this May. Is Dive Flamingo the best private operator? Do they do groups or does everyone just jump in at the pier? Is that the best location for diving in Bonaire? We have a very limited amount of time as we are only there from 7-1. I know my DB only plans on diving this one time and he wants the best experience he can get!

Two rules I live by when it comes to diving off of cruise ships:

 

1. Unless the boat has it own PADI dive operation, always book your diving with a private operator.

 

2. Always go to SCUBABOARD.COM for reviews and referrals for dive operators world wide.

 

3. E-mail the private operator with questions about cost, equipment, timing, etc.

 

We are on a cruise in Mid-Feb that includes an afternoon stop in Bonaire. We also arrive at 1PM and sail at 7PM. We have our diving lined up with Buddy Dive.

[kwfl]

Sorry about your experience,OP!

 

My post to another thread:

Bonaire is perfect and beautiful for diving.

If you are comfortable diving without a guide/group go it alone!!!!!

You can rent gear as soon as you get off the boat at every resort in Bonaire. I'd recommend: Plaza Resort, Captain Don's or Buddy Dive.

Make a shore dive- none suck. You may take a taxi to get on a boat that wil take you back to a spot you could have easily acessed from the shore!! You swim out less than 2-300 yards and can begin dropping down the wall. When it's time to turn around, go back along the wall- impossible to get lost! You can get gear and take a taxi to somewhere more remote like Salt Pier, but you don't have to to have an enjoyable dive.

 

And a note to divers everywhere: hurricanes are a natural and cyclical phenomena! We had several in a two year period in Key West. We noticed additional dead corals on our <<already fragile>> reefs!:( But in the 3-4 years since, we've noticed a significant re-growth. The canes sandblasted and scoured the reefs- leaving new places for growing coral formations!! It's really amazing to see new coral growth on spots that were previously vacant!:D