Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in
Bonaire

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Captain Don's Habitat, Dec, 2005, by ken, ontario, canada ( Contributor 15 reports with 15 Helpful votes). Report 2258.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	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.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, png, many Caribbean, multiple liveaboards
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	0-0°F / -18--18°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-90 Ft/ 15-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	500 psi back on boat, suggested to limit boats dives to "not much more than 1 hour" in consideration of other novice divers
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	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.

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Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in Bonaire

Captain Don's Habitat, Dec, 2005,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in
Bonaire