First time Roatan/Turquoise Bay Resort

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Jayfarmlaw

Contributor
Divemaster
Messages
1,635
Reaction score
1,692
Location
Tuttle, Ok
# of dives
500 - 999
we are relatively seasoned Cozumel divers with 2 to 3 Trips a year. We just signed up for a trip to Turquoise Bay Resort with a group from Oklahoma in mid february Any tips, tricks, advice on traveling/diving/ staying in Roatan or Turquise Bay Resort specifically? I'm hoping that since we will be a group of 12 or so, the airport won't be the nightmare it is reported to be. I think the resort will have someone there to help navigate everything.

I contacted the resort and they do have some Aluminum 100's available along with nitrox. I hope to do both. That's about all I know for the diving side. Any information or tips would be appreciated. I've read everything on this forum I saw for the last three years on TBR.

thanks in advance for your response.

Jay
 
There's a really good dive nearby called Keyhole. It's on Subway's list so you'll likely go there.
 
"Airport nightmare" is BS as far as I'm concerned: major US hubs are worse when you're coming from abroad. The TBR people will be waiting on the other side of the immigration/luggage "nightmare". They brew decent espresso on the arrival side -- we had to start driving at dark o'clock to catch the early morning flight from O'Hare, so proper coffee was much appreciated.

Do tell the ladies to put all their cosmetics in checked luggage on the way out: the "last minute pre-boarding security check" is basically makeup shopping for the nice officers.

TBR is fairly far from civilization so a quick hop to town for get a better drink or fancier dinner isn't really an option. We were not thrilled with the bar. Beer is beer, though. Food was good with enough variety to keep people happy, but like with drinks: I don't know what your tastes are. Rooms are closer to the dive shop than cabins, not that it makes much difference. We had a 2nd floor corner room and had enough breeze on the terrace we didn't even bother going down to the pool area.

TBR also caters for family vacationers from the mainland, you'll be on the boat much of the time and won't see a lot of them.

Do not miss Mickey's talk if there is one: it's worth hearing in general and he'll give you a few pointers as to what to look for and where.

The dive op (SWS) is great. It's 100% valet diving and once I saw they're not afraid of BP&W I was happy to stand aside and let them work. The schedule was 3 tanks/day except for Pigeon Cay trip: 2 tanks b/c of the time it takes to get there and back. One of the days will be 2 tanks + night dive unless you're staying less than a week.

Shark dive is a separate operation for a separate fee and you sign up in advance. They'll cover it in the briefing. I'm guessing you'd lose a day/half a day of "regular" diving to that one. (We didn't go.)
 
We stayed there. Service was good. Watch out for sand fleas
 
We stayed there in April...LOVED the diving!!! Ask to be on Captain Steve's boat with Nelson as your DM. Those two are awesome. Tell them Dave and Danee from Portland say Hi!!! :bounce: Marys Place was the bomb but a bit rough. Make sure when you go thru the reef swim you take a light and look up at the little holes and crevices in the walls and ceilings.
 
On the off-chance you might be an Undercurrent & not have noticed it, they've got an Oct. 2016 issue trip report on Turquoise Bay Resort. I've noticed it's a popular destination with groups in my area; all 3 that I pay attention to had trips set up to go there this fall!

Richard.
 
My wife and I just returned from a trip to TBR 48 hours ago. We did 18 dives in 6 days including two night dives and the shark dive. While the weather was challenging Subway went out of their way to keep us diving and happy. The first several days they bused us over to the other side of the island because of the wind direction and surge. Visibility was not what I'm sure it usually is but over all we were very pleased with the trip. They do have Nitrox but had a problem with their membrane while we were their and were blending. My fills varied from 31 to 33 over the week. The dive masters (Maynor was our favorite) were great. We were allowed to dive our tanks for the most part.

We were part of a group of 21 from our local dive shop and had multiple boats for the trip. I would go back.
 
Thank you for the replies everyone, Saltyhawg...how was the airport? We will be with a group of around 20 (not all divers) I have requested aluminum 100's with Nitrox. 31 to 33% should not be an issue for me. I don't plan to go deep....

Thanks again for the replies!

Jay.
 
Thank you for the replies everyone, Saltyhawg...how was the airport?

Jay.

There was a pretty good line as we entered the country but the lines as we left were not too bad (no worse than Atlanta coming back). It was actually very comfortable in the airport while waiting for our flight home. I actually got cold.

If you get a chance dive Rock Star and Keyhole. Dolphin's Den was good to.
 
How is the "unlimited shore diving" from the resort? Heading here in February with a group of 24-30.
 

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