Guest User
October 24, 2024
We did not arrive at One Ocean in our rental truck until after dark. Tsjitske, the property manager who lives off-site, was sitting outside waiting to greet us. What a pleasant and unexpected surprise! She gave us a 30 minute tour of our apartment, the grounds, and a general orientation to the island's layout with regard to supermarkets, roadways, and dive sites. Before we arrived, we got several very useful emails offering to arrange airport shuttle service or anything else we needed. They provided extensive restaurant and non-diving activity recommendations, as well offering to place a full breakfast in our fridge for our first mor ing there so we wouldn't have to try and food shop immediately after arriving the previous night. We accepted that offer and accepting it was worth it. If you stay at One Ocean, do yourself a BIG favor and ask for the 1st day breakfast service. You will not be sorry - we couldn't finish eating all the food provided in a single meal. We also decided for convenience to get our SCUBA tanks from One Ocean's partner dive shop - VIP Diving. Special thanks to Sharina, Martin and Perta at VIP. After we showed our certification level and nitrox cards at the shop on our first day and got our respective lead weights, for the rest of our stay on Bonaire the VIP Diving staff delivered two day's worth of tanks to One Ocean every other day and regularly took away our used tanks. No daily trips to and from a dive shop, or doing so during its business hours. Daily tank exchanges for us was as simple as pulling into our parking area in front of One Ocean at the end of a day if diving, placing used tanks under a tree in the yard, and logging the fresh tanks we took from the secured tank locker each morning. When we wanted 2 tanks each at 2AM, we just walked outside, loaded them in the truck, and set off for some night dives! As divers, we also appreciated the dedicated gear locker that came with our One Ocean apartment rental. It was outside and down on the beach level, directly next to a large sink for soaking gear and an outdoor shower with foot rinse spout. In the gear locker there were half a dozen strong hangars specifically designed for divers reg sets, BCs, and wet suits. There was also a large plastic tub for our daily use carrying masks, fins, lights, etc. back & forth to the truck. In addition, our private locking gear locker contained a cooler and two beach chairs for our use. Mid-week we got a very much appreciated housekeeping visit from Carolina. We left for the day before she arrived, and came back several hours later to an apartment that looked like we hadn't even been sleeping there, much less cooking, relaxing, drying wet swimsuits, and relaxing throughout the entire apartment. That brings me to the accommodation itself. We stayed in the Junior apartment. It had an ocean view from the bed, across a small but comfortable wrap around balcony. The bed was very comfortable, the air conditioner downright frigid wh