Dive Review of Plaza Resort Bonaire/Toucan Dive Shop in
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Plaza Resort Bonaire/Toucan Dive Shop: "Bonaire Fall 2016 at the Plaza Resort with Toucan Divers", Nov, 2016, by Eric Ohde, CA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 9380 has 1 Helpful vote.
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
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We put together a group trip (13 folks) to the Plaza Resort Oct 29th thru Nov 13th, 2016. Some of us went for 2 weeks and others came for either the first week or second. The Plaza Resort is coming back, it apparently went thru some dark times where the dive operation and resort were not so good. We are happy to report that the Plaza Resort is a nice place to stay, good food generally and a fantastic 5 star dive operation with Toucan Divers. The rooms were in good shape, all new A/C units and the rooms are slowly being remodeled. The grounds are being renovated and the staff is quite friendly and accommodating. The Tipsy Seagull, is only the restaurant currently on the grounds. We found the food to be generally good although we did have a few issues getting breakfast in time to catch the 0800 dive boats. But the food and beverage manager had only been there 2.5 weeks, so changes were happening each day. We had Quincy, as our waiter each night and JoAnne during lunch. They were both extremely friendly and helpful and made our dining a pleasure each day. Toucan Divers has done a complete turnaround under Rene', the new manager, and his right-hand man/main captain, Hagen. They were fantastic! Rene' and Hagen met me at check-in and assured me we would be well taken care of, and we totally were. The dive-shop staff was very helpful, DM's were engaging and good at finding critters, dive boats were clean, fully stocked with cold water, fruit, towels and tanks. We did a combination of boat and shore diving thru the two weeks, and all the dive shop employees were super helpful giving us suggestions on shore sites and accommodating our requests for boat dives as well. We rented 4-door trucks the 2nd week and visited many of the shore sites with recommendations from our new Toucan buddies. I would not hesitate to recommend staying at the Plaza as it was super convenient, only all-inclusive on Bonaire and a really great dive operation! Plus FREE NITROX! A few negatives still to be fixed were: the workout room was dangerous, machines didn't really work right, floor was super slippery, mats were mildewed. And the only ATM is located in the Casino which is not operated by the Plaza. The ATM didn't work for any of us, but bank ATMs downtown worked fine. The Casino would provide you cash from the cash cage for a 10% fee, which is highway robbery!!!!! I did talk to management about this as if you need cash you need to go off grounds. I would definitely go back to the Plaza Resort and definitely dive with Toucan on our next trip back to Bonaire. The all-inclusive rate was reasonable which allowed us to go into town a few nights and enjoy some of the local restaurants as well. Thanks Rene, Hagen, Donna, Spider, AJ, Jullian, Ken and your world famous rock painter artist Captain too, at Toucan Divers for taking such good care of the "Ohde Group"!!
Websites	Plaza Resort Bonaire
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Ft. Bragg, Monterey, Channel Islands, Catalina, La Paz, Maui, Cozumel, Mahahual.
Closest Airport	>1 mile away	Getting There	Flights arrive and depart on weekends from Newark, Atlanta and Houston.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	84-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	70-100 Ft/ 21-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Boat dives were generally 60 mins then a 3-5 min safety stop. We could dive with the DM or go out 30 mins and then turn around. We did some one way drift dives too as we were all competent divers so we were not limited to getting access to tie-off dive buoys.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	We had at least one dedicated photo bucket for camera's only and there is dedicated camera only rinse station at the shop as well. Very good

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Plaza Resort Bonaire/Toucan Dive Shop in Bonaire

Plaza Resort Bonaire/Toucan Dive Shop: "Bonaire Fall 2016 at the Plaza Resort with Toucan Divers", Nov, 2016,

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 Plaza Resort Bonaire/Toucan Dive Shop in
Bonaire