Dive Review of Sandals in
Curaçao

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Sandals: "Good Diving - Lack of Capacity", Oct, 2022, by John kirkenir, NJ, US ( Contributor 17 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 12131.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Curacao has some very good diving. The coral is in good shape lots of turtles and smaller fish, clear warm water, etc. Sandals resorts as a rule run very good dive operations. The Curacao operation is a good operation. The boat is a nice catamaran and a good platform for diving. There are refreshments between dives and there is a Divemaster to diver ratio of no more than 8:1. All the dives are led. The first diver to get to 1,000 psi ends the dive. Maximum time for a dive is 45-50 minutes. This can be a problem if you have a big air user on the dive. We had a couple dives that could have been 45-50 minutes but were 30 minutes because a new diver hit the 1,000 limit. Try to not get new divers in your group. Talking to the Divemasters usually will do the trick. The biggest problem at Sandals Curacao diving is capacity. There were not enough spots for all the people that wanted to dive. We go to Sandals because we love to dive and really like that two dives a day are included in the price of the vacation. We arrived on Monday and went right to the Dive shop to fill out the forms and sign up for the Monday dives. Joanne the manager checked us in and got us to fill in all the forms. She told us it was a very busy week and the first time we could dive was Wednesday on the 11am dive. You can imagine how unhappy that made me. A big part of the problem was that there is a Sandals Elite Diver program (that I never heard of before this trip) that guarantees a spot on the boat for all the dives. There was a large group of the Elite Divers this week and they had about half the spots on the boat so there were effectively 10 open spots for all the rest of us. By the end of the week most of the Elite divers had left so there were spots available but this did not help my wife and I at the beginning of the week. We were told that we could come to the shop at 8:15 am and see if anyone didn't show up for the dives. Since it is included in the price of vacation sometimes people don't get up for the early dive. That did work on a couple mornings but it kind of stinks to get up early on vacation and get told there were no spots. The staff was very good and very safe. Thane was our divemaster on most of the dives we did. He is excellent. Takes his time and is quick to point out interesting critters and fish. We also dove with JJ and Troy who were both excellent to dive with. Joanne at the shop was very helpful and apologetic for the lack of space but there was nothing she could really do. What could they do? Obviously, get another boat. There was talk that one is coming but they are short on staff so not sure how that will work out. Curacao also has great shore diving. They could organize shore trips for the divers that didn't get on the boat. and lastly, there are other dive boats right in the marina next to resort that they could use as overflow back stops. None of these options were used. Strictly the sorry the boat is full come back tomorrow or the next day. Sandals is not a cheap place to stay I expect much better from them. The diving was very good though. We saw lots of turtles (especially at Turtle Paradise). No rays or sharks. Lots of smaller fish and critters. No Seahorses though. Water was warm (82 degrees F). Visibility was generally 80+ ft. Seas were choppy at times 2-3 ft. All dives were drift dives so the boat came to pick us up. All in all a nice place to dive. My advice is to hold off going here until they get their act together and increase the capacity or comes up with options when the boat is full.
Websites	Sandals Sandals
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bonaire, Cozumel, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Florida, curaçao, Bermuda, North Carolina, Aruba, Curacao, Antigua, Dominican Republic, Hawaii
Closest Airport	CUR	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	70-100 Ft/ 21-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Led Dive start ascent and safety stop at 1,000 psi
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	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	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Sandals in Curaçao

Sandals: "Good Diving - Lack of Capacity", Oct, 2022,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Sandals in
Curaçao