subsurfacephoto.com

To start out our trip report, I must first relate the fact that we were originally booked for our spring trip to Sunset Water Beach Resort, but unfortunately, Sunset closed in July, 2009. After much scrambling, we finally booked our trip to Lions Dive after doing our research. All indications were that Lions Dive would be a fine place to stay. In many ways it was, but there were more than a few hiccups during the course of the week.

Before I get too far, let me say that the dive operator, Ocean Encounters was fabulous. They made up for the many shortcomings of the resort itself.

When we arrived at the resort after a loooong day of traveling, we were going through the check in process, which overall went relatively smoothly. When we arrived, I told the front desk person that pour group had all arrived, and was greeted by a panicked look. It was evident that the person at the desk was not used to checking in large groups or was relatively new. Anyway, another more experienced person came out from the back office and proceeded to get all of us registered. Unfortunately, there were only two young men available to help with the bags. Many of us just wanted to know where our rooms were, and asked for a map. There was no map, we were told rather smartly. So, many of us simply wandered around the resort searching for our rooms, as it was much faster than waiting for the two guys to finally make their was back to the front desk.

Our rooms were all as expected, with a small refrigerator, the usual bed arrangements, and a small balcony, which was barely large enough to hold a small table and chairs. Very clean, well kept, and the bathrooms appeared to have been renovated recently. There was plenty of storage for our clothes, and the use of a safety deposit box in the room was a welcome addition, and only cost $1.50 per day. No soap or shampoo was provided in any of the rooms, but there were plenty of large towels. The television was satellite, but was very sporadic in terms of reception or programming. The room TVs did not receive many broadcast signals, yet the TV at the bar got many more.

After settling in, we decided to head to the beach bar for a beer. Upon arrival, I noticed there were only four other people sitting at the bar, and three bartenders. After sitting for a few minutes, I finally got the attention of one of the bartenders, who appeared to be a little miffed that I was interrupting his conversation with the others, as well as his ogling of the girls coming and going at the beach. This came to be the norm throughout the week. The bartenders pretty much ignored everyone unless you called to them directly.

The resort has three restaurants, Hemingway, the beach bar/restaurant, Nemo, the fancier dining area, and Piazza, which is a poolside restaurant and bar. At all three the food was actually fine, but the service was the worst I’ve ever encountered in all my travels. Breakfast was served buffet style, starting at 7am which was fine for the divers, as we needed to get to the boat by 8:15am every morning. Every lunch and dinner we ate the the resort was not less than TWO HOURS LONG. There were many times when either our orders were lost, or were incorrectly billed. We had made arrangements for the half-board meal plan, which was breakfast and dinner daily. By prior arrangement, we were allowed to eat breakfast and lunch on our plan, and then eat dinner in town, if we wished. It was a good thing I had brought along a copy of the e-mail from the resort stating this would not be a problem. There was more than one occasion where the restaurant staff refused to make the switch. and many of our bills at the end of the week had to be adjusted for the incorrect charges and double billing for food and drinks. In one instance, the restaurant staff tore up the bill right in the face of one of my group. Hardly professional and very rude.

We all also found that if you did not speak Dutch, we felt as though we were second-class citizens. There were two instances, one at the front desk, and another at the Hemingway restaurant, where I was asked to wait while another Dutch speaking customer was helped. There was another group from the States at the resort at the same time as we were, and they all commented on the same treatment. This was not the case when we stayed at sunset Waters in the past, nor when we traveled into town for meals.

The dive operation, as mentioned was great. Large boats, great staff and good diving. There were a few windy days, which caused some of the group to take dive days off. The trips to East Point and Klein Curacao as well as the Mushroom Forest dive sites were well worth the extra $44. during these trips, we were served a,ight lunch on board the boat, as the boat got back to the dock around 3:30 in the afternoon instead of the usual 12:30. All dives were preceded by a thorough briefing describing the dive site, expected conditions, dive plan (depth and time) as well as important safety procedures. Water temperatures ranged from 78 to 80 degrees, with visibility averaging 70 feet on most sites. As far as underwater critters, we saw a few turtles, many of the usual small tropical fish, many eels, and many flamingo tongues. The reefs were in good shape, with not too much damage nor hardly any bleaching apparent.

If the resort can remedy their poor service and rude attitudes towards English speakers, it could be a real gem of a destination, considering it’s proximity to Willemstadt. As of today, however I can’t recommend Lions Dive & Beach Resort as a destination for divers, unless you can tolerate the lousy service and pool attitude.