Dive Review of Reef Oasis Dive Club/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach in
Dominican Republic/La Romana/Bayahibe

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Reef Oasis Dive Club/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach: "Resort good but dive shop policies lacking in realism.", Aug, 2019, by Ronald Bailey, VA, US ( Sr. Contributor 20 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 11008.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	[None]First the resort is big. Check-in was easy. The food is buffet mostly unless you want to make a reservation at some of their restaurants for dinner. The buffets at the two restaurants we ate at have more than enough selections and the food was good. No complaints there. The three freshwater pools were clean. The beach was very nice and clean. It was loudest at the center of the resort/pool/beach area. Otherwise you could get away from the noise elsewhere. The beach front bungalows actually had two rooms per bungalow with connecting interior doors. The lighting at night inside was very bright using the main overhead lights. Easy to work on cameras compared to most other places visited. Only three small drawers to put clothes. Okay for one, but if two or more, work out of suitcases. TV had several english channels. Bathroom was good except toilet had a problem that needed their "technician" to come and correct. Beds were large with two queens or one large king. Maid service was daily. Now the "bad". In all of the reviews about dive operations in the past, at most I may have had a suggestion or two. I am not used to writing negative comments. Two of us booked a 10 dive package. I had even e-mailed to ask about shore diving and was told yes to shore diving. Also their web site mentions that their two island trips were an option for $50 extra. Would consider that after getting there. I booked an 9 day/8 night, 10 dive trip, figuring on the first full day of doing a extra pay shore check-out dive. The last full day for drying gear, relaxing and avoiding any chance of "airplane" bends. At the dive shop filling out paper work, I find out out all dives are 45 minutes and there are no shore dives except a pier dive (same spot as a shore dive) on sunday. The one pier dive took the place of the advertised 2 boat dives. So you lose one dive and no boat dives that day. False info on their brochures and web site at time of booking. Also found out that they have only one boat. So on wednesday and thursday they run the two island dives if 5 or more sign up and pay the extra 50. If you did not want to be forced to pay the optional 50 and wanted to do the regular dive sites, you are out of luck! Again only one boat. The only option then is to do the house reef afternoon dive from the boat. This is the same reef dove from the pier on sundays. The vis there was about 35 feet and very shallow, 30 feet. But only 45 minutes dive time! No need for a full tank! So on two days lost 4 boat dives, replacing 2 of those dives with same house reef dive at the same spot. Not a good substitution. The next two days did get in 4 boat dives at better reefs with 75 foot vis. One dive was 60 feet, the rest around 40-50 feet. Again, 45 minutes. Dive shop policy! Plenty of air left at the end of all dives. Now for more stuff. The dive shop was a relatively far walk to the pier. They wanted divers to put on wet suits and weight belts there, not on the boat, and walk to the boat. They would wheel down weight belts with the tanks if asked. But when exiting the boat, wear belts back. Not exactly customer service. Not done yet! One reason I went to DR was because of the two wrecks there so the grandson could do his first wreck dives. Myself, having been diving for 57 years, I have never had a PADI/NAUI/SSI shop anywhere thru the Caribbean of Pacific, tell me I could not go below 60 feet. But that is their policy! I do understand that policy for a new diver, etc. Both of their wreck dives are done on the same day. One at about 100 feet, the other shallower. With my nitrox certification and my 1962 NAUI Scuba Diver certification (no such thing as open water 1 and 2 then), didn't qualify me. So we had no chance to do the wreck dives regardless of how long we stayed at the resort. Be aware of this before diving with this dive shop. Lastly, The store manager did agree that I could get a partial refund, but because i went thru Caradonna, the refund would have to go thru their main office with Caradonna requesting it. Go figure. So I did not get in 10 dives. In essence I lost 6 boat/reef dives. I did not get a good feel for the total diving there. If I were to go back, I would absolutely use another dive operation. But I would be sure other dive shops had more than one boat, had a realistic depth policy, and did not force you do pay the extra 50 dollars just to get in your dives. Matter of principle. Also know their policy on shore diving. All of this in writing before booking. I do not recommend this shop under current policy practices there. I do feel bad about these negative comments, but fact is fact. You can contact me for further info.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Roatan, Florida Keys and springs, Saba, Fiji, Palau, Hawaii, Turk and Caicos, Caymans, St. Kitts, St. Croix, Curacaqo, Dominican Republic
Closest Airport	Punta Cana	Getting There	Flew from Roanoke, Va. to Charlotte. Then Charlotte directly to Punta Cana
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	83-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	35-75 Ft/ 11-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]45 minute dive times even at very shallow depths.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
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	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	[None]Boat had no camera bucket or shelf for cameras. Had to put housed cameras on the deck. No protection for cameras whatsoever. Could easily be corrected but saw no evidence that would be the case. Think twice about what this means to UWPs.

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Dive Review of Reef Oasis Dive Club/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach in Dominican Republic/La Romana/Bayahibe

Reef Oasis Dive Club/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach: "Resort good but dive shop policies lacking in realism.", Aug, 2019,

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 Reef Oasis Dive Club/Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach in
Dominican Republic/La Romana/Bayahibe