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Brodydog
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Ah I see now. @CajunDiva should be able to answer if they any age restrictions at Media Luna.
Trip Report Media Luna Review vs CoCoView
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Karloss
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Media Luna is more of an AI that has a separate dive op while CCV is a divers dream that offers meals and a place to sleep. Media Luna's accommodations with CCV's food and dive service would be the bomb. Let me add In My Honest Opinion, I could be wrong.
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I enjoyed reading Tammy (Brodydog) comparison of the two.
One big thing that was missed...the actual location of the rooms. At CCV they're "Bay Islands Old School", 16 rooms are up on posts over an active changing reef. Phenomenal view and effect.
The shore dives are not anywhere in the same chapter. CCV's spittin distance shallow wreck is a navigational landmark and a critter haven. Funny though, I was the first person to refute the belief the MLR had no shore dive....I had been doing it for years before it was built! The enforced time limits on tank use is a deal breaker. It is a good night dive but they won't let you do it.
The argument is lost on me though, I didn't travel all that far to not dive. Getting my 27/wk at CCV. You may enjoy the "free" drinks while I'm doing that.
One big thing that was missed...the actual location of the rooms. At CCV they're "Bay Islands Old School", 16 rooms are up on posts over an active changing reef. Phenomenal view and effect.
The shore dives are not anywhere in the same chapter. CCV's spittin distance shallow wreck is a navigational landmark and a critter haven. Funny though, I was the first person to refute the belief the MLR had no shore dive....I had been doing it for years before it was built! The enforced time limits on tank use is a deal breaker. It is a good night dive but they won't let you do it.
The argument is lost on me though, I didn't travel all that far to not dive. Getting my 27/wk at CCV. You may enjoy the "free" drinks while I'm doing that.
Great honest review without bias. Thank you.
We are still in the Dive Dive Dive stage (hope it never ends) but have sent friends to Cocoview who were disappointed with the lack of options. This should offer some options.
I must point out that though we have seen drastic improvement in the food at Coco over the years it is still out least favorite part of the resort. Your feed back on cool-cold food sounds like a deal breaker, but we are food snobs and cook above par. So that's us.
Thanks again for your fact-experienced based review. Well done.
On a side note, of all the diving I have done I have racked up some decent shots of most of the critters I wanted to shoot and some I did not know I wanted to shoot. The Spotted eagle ray is my nemesis. I either see them with the wrong lens or just too far away. Good for you!!
We are still in the Dive Dive Dive stage (hope it never ends) but have sent friends to Cocoview who were disappointed with the lack of options. This should offer some options.
I must point out that though we have seen drastic improvement in the food at Coco over the years it is still out least favorite part of the resort. Your feed back on cool-cold food sounds like a deal breaker, but we are food snobs and cook above par. So that's us.
Thanks again for your fact-experienced based review. Well done.
On a side note, of all the diving I have done I have racked up some decent shots of most of the critters I wanted to shoot and some I did not know I wanted to shoot. The Spotted eagle ray is my nemesis. I either see them with the wrong lens or just too far away. Good for you!!
OP
Brodydog
Contributor
I agree. I never thought I would be saying CCV had better food than someone else. That was always one of my complaints about CCV. ML has an extensive buffet of items to choose from and I was impressed the first couple of days. The food had good taste and some of it was hot. The pasta dishes, pizza and baked fish were always good, but I can only eat so much pasta in one week. I've never been a fan of buffets so maybe that's it.
Even though CCV is served buffet style, everything is kept hot and you have one or two different choices of main dishes at every meal.
aquaadventures
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No kidding, horrible website. The location marker is the least of my concerns. The site has lots of pretty pictures but very little information and virtually no details.
Nothing about the dive operations at all except 4 pics of scuba divers on Activities page. Book now takes you to Henry Morgan Resorts where you select dates, room, and get a price. Absolutely nowhere can I find what that price includes, if anything other than the room. Nothing about meals much less alcoholic beverages included. If that includes diving then that is cheap. If not, then how do you book diving? And the site specifically says "19% IVA not included" and gives a fee for adding Internet Access.
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Which drove me to look at their website yet another time.
Not sure where or how they have "18 total years" of operation, but from their other data, you can compute that if that was so, they have served an average of 555,000 meals per year at each of their two properties.
1014 guests per day eating all 3 meals at both properties....Each day, every day, since they opened.
Crowded place, from their own data.
The map shown designates the location of HMR, not MLR.
The premise of this thread is a bit odd. It's burgers vs hot dogs.
HMR does a lot of charter flight business and MLR makes its money as a cruise ship day spot. It would more properly be compared to Fantasy Island or Turquoise Bay.
CCV is a dive resort, which only can be compared to AKR or RHR. The descriptions here otherwise seemed valid, though.
Good places both, just don't expect CCV at MLR and vice versa, so they do not lend themselves to a comparison, per se.
Not sure where or how they have "18 total years" of operation, but from their other data, you can compute that if that was so, they have served an average of 555,000 meals per year at each of their two properties.
1014 guests per day eating all 3 meals at both properties....Each day, every day, since they opened.
Crowded place, from their own data.
The map shown designates the location of HMR, not MLR.
The premise of this thread is a bit odd. It's burgers vs hot dogs.
HMR does a lot of charter flight business and MLR makes its money as a cruise ship day spot. It would more properly be compared to Fantasy Island or Turquoise Bay.
CCV is a dive resort, which only can be compared to AKR or RHR. The descriptions here otherwise seemed valid, though.
Good places both, just don't expect CCV at MLR and vice versa, so they do not lend themselves to a comparison, per se.
Last edited:
electric_diver
Contributor
Just got back from a week at Media Luna. I've never been to Cocoview but I have been to Fantasy Island.
However my stay at FI was several years ago
Let me add a couple of things:
Media Luna serves their beer and bar drinks in a paper cup. Bring your own plastic mug.
Media Luna's hilltop rooms are essentially a motel 6 type place so far up the road that you don't feel like you are at the resort. Media Luna's roads and walkways are all uneven and kind of like rough cobblestone. Mobility challenged people and anyone with a knee or hip problem will have issues. However the food is surprisingly good for this price point. The local food (enchiladas, tacos, empenadas etc) were usually very good.
Aqua Adventures offers "unlimited shore diving" with some of their packages. Its actually very very limited.
It is only available during the shops open hours of 8am to 4pm. You have to be back by 4pm. Very annoying for the serious diver. Night dives are shore dives and have to be guided and cost extra or are included in your package. Compare that with FI where they were far more accommodating and flexible.
Tanks were routinely under filled for the first few days but got better after we kept sending them back for proper fills. Many tanks had leaking O rings and I got in the habit of testing every tank with soapy water. I'm glad I did because one tank had a neck Oring that was on the verge of failure. The shop only has one nitrox analyzer so there were constantly looking for it.
However the house reef is great with lots of areas to explore with some great structure and lots of critters.
The DMs were good and let the experienced divers do their thing while taking good care of the newer divers. Our group had divers with <20 dives to several with >2000. We got a good selection of sites including the premiere ones. Our group had divers who did between 1 and 19 dives in the week. The number of people on the boat varied greatly from dive to dive The shop did a good job of managing the chaos and making sure enough tanks were on hand.
For the afternoon boat dive, the staff put others on with our group to fill the boat. However there was always one unsafe moron with zero buoyancy control who required 95% of the DMs attention to prevent him from killing himself or smashing the coral to bits. The rest of us didn't get to benefit from the DM's critter spotting skills which were very good.
If you want to do 2 or 3 dives a day this is a good place. If you want more go elsewhere.
However my stay at FI was several years ago
Let me add a couple of things:
Media Luna serves their beer and bar drinks in a paper cup. Bring your own plastic mug.
Media Luna's hilltop rooms are essentially a motel 6 type place so far up the road that you don't feel like you are at the resort. Media Luna's roads and walkways are all uneven and kind of like rough cobblestone. Mobility challenged people and anyone with a knee or hip problem will have issues. However the food is surprisingly good for this price point. The local food (enchiladas, tacos, empenadas etc) were usually very good.
Aqua Adventures offers "unlimited shore diving" with some of their packages. Its actually very very limited.
It is only available during the shops open hours of 8am to 4pm. You have to be back by 4pm. Very annoying for the serious diver. Night dives are shore dives and have to be guided and cost extra or are included in your package. Compare that with FI where they were far more accommodating and flexible.
Tanks were routinely under filled for the first few days but got better after we kept sending them back for proper fills. Many tanks had leaking O rings and I got in the habit of testing every tank with soapy water. I'm glad I did because one tank had a neck Oring that was on the verge of failure. The shop only has one nitrox analyzer so there were constantly looking for it.
However the house reef is great with lots of areas to explore with some great structure and lots of critters.
The DMs were good and let the experienced divers do their thing while taking good care of the newer divers. Our group had divers with <20 dives to several with >2000. We got a good selection of sites including the premiere ones. Our group had divers who did between 1 and 19 dives in the week. The number of people on the boat varied greatly from dive to dive The shop did a good job of managing the chaos and making sure enough tanks were on hand.
For the afternoon boat dive, the staff put others on with our group to fill the boat. However there was always one unsafe moron with zero buoyancy control who required 95% of the DMs attention to prevent him from killing himself or smashing the coral to bits. The rest of us didn't get to benefit from the DM's critter spotting skills which were very good.
If you want to do 2 or 3 dives a day this is a good place. If you want more go elsewhere.
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