Poni Divers — Local services in Serasa

I recently completed a 4days 3night wreck diving trip with Poni Diver, and I had an unforgettable experience. I’m truly grateful to Ms Shasha for organising this amazing trip—her kindness and attention to detail were greatly appreciated. Here are my honest reviews of my experience with them:

1. Price -The pricing is very affordable and reasonable. I appreciate the transparency in their charges, which made the entire experience much more comfortable.

2. Transportation -Poni Diver provides convenient transportation, including pick-up and drop-off from: • Homestay to the dive center • Airport to the homestay -Additionally, I was able to explore Brunei a bit the night before heading back to my hometown. Special thanks to Abg Zul and Abg Hamzah for incharge of the transportation, ensuring a smooth experience.

3. Homestay -The homestay is a peaceful, private retreat, strong wifi connection, offering the perfect environment for relaxation. -The room was equipped with air conditioning, a hot shower, and a comfortable bed. -The homestay is also very clean, and having a kitchen available to prepare my own meals and drinks was a great convenience. Breakfast is provided. -Yanie, who is the person incharge of the homestay, is incredibly friendly, kind and attentive to the needs of all guests.

4. Dive Centre -The dive center is located right by the beach and is well-equipped with all the necessary diving and water sport facilities. -They also provide essential amenities such as water filters, shower areas and changing rooms, which were well-organized and very clean. -The staffs are exceptionally friendly, helpful, and quick to assist. They made me feel completely at ease, and I never felt awkward communicating with them.

5. Diving Experiences -Before each dive, I was required to fill out a detailed form and consent, which I appreciated as it ensured divers are aware of the rules and agreements. -I’m especially grateful to Abg Zul and the boatman, Abg Osman for their constant attention to my safety. Despite struggling with seasickness (which led to several instances of vomiting), they were incredibly patient and supportive, helping me manage the discomfort. -Before each dive, Abg Zul showed us pictures of the wrecks and explained each one in detail. This is a great practice, as it allows divers to know exactly what to expect during the dive. -Abg Zul consistently checked on me during the dives to make sure I was okay and safe. -The wreck dive sites we visited were absolutely stunning—teeming with marine life, beautiful corals, and mysterious. -Meals were provided on the boat, and they were delicious. -After each dive, the boatman kept detailed notes, including dive site information, descent/ascend times, and air usage, which made filling out my logbook MUCH EASIER.

6. Conclusion -As a solo female traveler, I felt completely safe diving with Poni Diver. Their professionalism, helpfulness, and organization made this trip an amazing experience. I would love to dive with them again in the future and explore more of their programs🥰❤️ I greatly appreciate every act of kindness from the Poni Divers team. I wish all the best for Poni Divers and continued success in the future. May this dive centre keep improving and delivering excellent service to their...

My dive buddy and I spent a week at Poni Divers and Homestay. The homestay is nice enough with very friendly staff and decent amenities. The administrative/ operation part of the dive shop is disappointing at best and downright awful at worst. They also attempted to overcharge us for cancelled dives based on refund policies that were unusual AND not disclosed at booking

--Accommodations: clean living room, bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom. Several food places and corner stores in short walking distance. Yani, the main homestay staff, was super friendly and sweet to us the whole time. Several of the dive shop staff clearly tried their best to give us a good experience as well. These folks are the reason I'm giving any stars at all.

--Diving ops: frankly maybe the worst dive ops my buddy and I have experienced across our 1000+ accumulated dives. Booking was an ordeal: we had to ping multiple times to get answers to only half of our questions. Then when we're there, we'd be told to wake up and be ready for breakfast and immediate diving at 6am, only to wait over an hour for it (with no warning), leading to late departure for the whole boat. Communication seemed poor all around: staff being told the wrong time to show up, forgetting to book nitrox, "surprise" customers because booking office forgot to tell the dive shop. The list goes on.

It's worth pointing out that the dive shop insisted on full payment on dives that they cancelled because of weather, stating a "no refund" policy not on their website or disclosed to us at booking. They also tried to substitute low quality city tours for cancelled dives and wanted to charge premium for basically a taxi drive around the city. We were able to negotiate a settlement but only because we knew from our experience this is an unusual refund policy (they at first tried to tell us this is what all dive shops did). I imagine they were able to charge many other divers before and after this. They also offered us a free diving voucher but haven't sent after many weeks and a reminder.

--Diving experience: we had terrible weather the whole time, but were able to enjoy a couple of dives: beautiful swim throughs, huge schools of barracudas and fusiliers, and dark, atmospheric chambers on the wrecks.

Brunei is absolutely worth diving in, but maybe check out the other dive...

Had a very mixed experience with Poni Divers. I booked a package including 2 days of diving, a nitrox course and homestay. Let's start with the positive, the homestay caretaker was lovely and so was the dive instructor and skipper at Poni Divers.

However, the admin side was pretty poorly handled. When booking, the person in charge would repeatedly promise to get back to me and then didn't, and I had to continuously nudge the person. Despite clearly stating which activities I was and wasn't interested in when reaching out, I was still sent various 'deals/offers' those included. I was also told my nitrox course would be a full day in-person course, and it barely lasted half a day, thus adding an unnecessary day to my stay in Brunei.

The dive shop itself was also not well-managed with staff turning up late and then most of them standing passively aound, and thus delaying dives. One morning, we were supposed to start diving at 7:30am and thus be at the dive shop at 7:10am. The majority of the staff however didn't show up until after 7:30am, one diver hadn't been told about the earlier start by the staff and thus came late too, and the boat only set off around 8:30am :(

Then there's the financial side of the experience. This ended up being the most expensive and poorest value diving I've had in Asia. I first pay 400RM extra to the originally quoted price cause PD uses a fixed high conversion rate from RM to Brunei dollars, and then one diving day (3 dives) got cancelled due to bad weather (not their fault) and I only got a pitiful amount refunded. It was apparently in the T&C for the package that I hadn't received and therefore hadn't agreed to. Again, poor admin management to not send the T&C, not present a clear price overview and then still enforce it upon a client. Lastly, when the diving was cancelled, they tried to compensate with a city tour (much lower value than diving), but the tour wasn't presented as an option, we were just informed it was happening and that we were going. I had already visited all the sites included in the city tour, and therefore...