Dive Review of
Captain Don's Habitat in
Bonaire

Hawaii, png, many Caribbean, multiple liveaboards

Dive Conditions

500 psi back on boat, suggested to limit boats dives to "not much more
than 1 hour" in consideration of other novice divers  

separate rinse tanks on boat & on shore - boat tanks too small, shore
tank left in sun all day and become VERY HOT - i used shower to rinse my
housing after dives, onsite photo shop seems to be always closed.  

Overall Rating

Typical Bonaire dive conditions - easy access to easy sites, short boat
rides, nice diving, lots of little critters. Typical dive was 70 minutes,
60 feet max and 1500 psi left in tank. Bonaire is our first
"goto" location when we want a relaxed week of low pressure
diving. Our 5'th trip to Bonaire & second time staying at Habitat.
We noticed a lack of large fish - only saw 1 grouper all week - saw too
many locals fishing in the park.
Generally did 2 morning boat dives and 1 afternoon or 1 night dive on the
house reef each day.
The dive operation experience was underwhelming this time, especially the
boat dives. Staff displayed minimal effort. Tank swap process performed by
staff after each boat trip seemd to be a random process. All too often
(EVERY DIVE!) we were provided an empty tank and often ended up having to
locate and swap for a full tank ourselves while the dive staff lounged
around.
Boat useage was also poor. 3 boats capable of up to 20 divers each were
available. The number of boats going out & the fullness seemed
unorganized. For example: 1 day, first morning dive used 1 boat with 6
divers & 1 other with 11 (this was great!), second dive of same day saw
20 divers crowded onto a single boat with 2 boats left at the dock (can you
say cattle boat). Multiple times there were divers "left on the
dock" with only a single boat going out, sometimes with a few
snorklers instead of the divers.
Boat signup system is also a little odd. 2 morning, 1 afternoon single tank
boat trips available. You signed up every afternoon for the next day of
boat dives. Signup boards made available while the afternoon boat was out.
Boat(s) filled up extremely fast. This generally meant that if you went out
on an afternoon dive, you could not get back onto the (more popular)
morning boat(s) for the next day as they (it) would already be full by the
time you returned from your afternoon boat trip. So you needed to make sure
you were hanging around the dive shop @ 3:00 if you wanted to choose which
boat trips you were doing the next day. Prepaying for boat trips had no
effect - most people ended up not being able to make as many boat trips as
they paid for. This was not an over booking issue as most times only 1 of
the 3 boats was sent out.
Maybe I have become spoiled by the live aboard experience.
The food on Bonaire can be world class as long as you know were to go:
Bistro de Paris is real french food, Capriccio is real italian, the new
Bambu (replacing Mahi Mahi) is real fusion, La Luna for European.
Habitat required use of rental truck in order to eat at these restaurants.
Previous trip we stayed at Divi and were able to walk into town.
Will definitely return to Bonaire, not likely to Habitat. 

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