AKR, Fantasy Island & Coco View Comparison

[JRRKAR]

My wife and I are looking to book a trip for next year to Anthony's Key Resort, Fantasy Island or Coco View. I'm interested in anyones opinion about which is better and why. Neither of us have been to any of these, so all opinions are welcome. Thanks.

Jeff

 

[DandyDon]

Actually, only AKR is really what I'd consider big. If you do a SEARCH of this Forum on each, it'll take you all night to read the reports. My long report on FI was posted only a couple of days ago, and my warnings on Coco View excursion boat are not much older.

Each has many, many fans, and I'm sure you'll love it at any. I like the seclusion of FI over AKR, and the Air Conditioning and Cable TV that CCV doesn't have. I didn't use either much, but I was glad I could when I wanted to.

Have fun...

 

[cxg31s]

Out of the 3 I'd pick Fantasy Island any day. I stayed there in Jan and would go back in a heartbeat. Rooms are clean and bug-free, each comes with a mini-fridge which is VERY nice when you're wanting some cold water, the 1/2 price happy hour is awesome with STRONG drinks--everyone congregates at the bar every evening to watch dive videos, hang out and exchange stories, the food was great, the diving was really good--we never repeated a site and the DM pointed out every critter he came across and was also very informative about life on the island. It's very easy to get a cab to go into town--just tell the front desk and they call one for you. We arranged our transport through our DM--he doubled as a cab driver--so that worked out great for us. Basically it was a wonderful hassle-free vacation where I truly felt spoiled.

CocoView is more rustic and very isolated on its own island--you have to take a water taxi just to get to the mainland to get to town. It's known as a dive camp, which is fine, except half the dives are the drop off dives on the Prince Albert and CocoView wall. I mean how many times do you want to dive the same site in a week?

We toured AKR and it was HUGE and seemed very nice. It was too big for my tastes and I didn't like how some of the rooms were up on the hill requiring a LONG hike up the stairs and they only have about 14 rooms with AC, which I'm sorry is a necessity in a humid tropical environment even in the winter. I thought AKR is awfully expensive considering that you get to stay in a bug infested "rustic" cabin--you can stay in a nice clean air conditioned room with a FRIDGE at FI for less and I think that's a much better value. The only benefits of AKR that I can see is that it has a great kids' camp and it's closer to West End than the other 2.

All the Big 3 resorts have about the same deal: packages usually include hotel, all meals, 3 dives a day and 1-2 night dives. FI and CocoView have unlimited shore diving--AKR doesn't have very good shore diving if any, from what I understand. Maybe someone else can clarify that....each place has its own fan club, so your decision should be based on what YOU want out of your vacation. You need to look at what you MUST have vs what you can live without and go from there. Good luck!

 

[Hawkeye Mark]

I go for Fantasy Island especially if any non divers involved. My wife liked the sandy beach. Not much into dive camp atmosphere. FI has real resort food, a real bar with frozen drinks and happy hour. Hey its a vacation. I can put up with rustic accomodations but must have AC. Cable TV was a plus although not necessary. Toured AKR last day. dive boat definitely first class but i would hate to be on a room on the hill.

If i return to roatan it will be to FI.

 

[JRRKAR]

Thanks for the info. I talked to our travel agent and found a great deal at Fantasy Island from January 3-16, 2004. A week of diving, food and 16% is $466. It goes up to about $950 after that. For the price it is a great deal and it will work for our schedules. I'm sure that time frame doesn't work for many people, so that's why the price is low. FI sounds like a great place. We've never been there, so I guess we'll see. We are planning to go to AKR for the dolphin dives.

Since our plans are made at FI, is there any other information that would be appropriate? Like only drinking bottled water and cleaning tootbrushes with bottled water....Dives to request....How to get the most dives in...etc. Any information to be used to get the most out of our trip would be very much appreciated. Also if anyone can make it from January 4 to 11, the more the merrier.

Thanks again.

Jeff

 

[Panama Jack]

OK, here is the scoop, the real poop! Stayed at CCV (Coco View) in July for one week. Toured Anthonys Key and had lunch there. Drove around Fantasy Island, didn't get out of the car. Fantasy Island seemed deserted, didn't see a human being when we drove around, rumor is there are hurting for business, but I don't really know. Looks older, in need of renovation, but the diving is good. It is a stones throw from CoCo view, pretty much on the same reef. Coco has shore diving via two walls just off the beach, but didn't see anyone from Fantasy swimming to shore dive, boat dives I think. Coco is very simple, Sleep, dive, but BRING YOUR OWN FOOD!!!! The food sucks, I was on a trip with 12 other peaple and 10 of us were sick at least one day. The food doesn't even taste good, like prison food (not that I have been to prison). I love the diving there, but a vacation needs to have decent food. No night life, tv, phones, and only a few rooms have a/c. Just so you know what your getting into upfront. They also ran out of 02 for the nitrox blending the first day and still didn't have nitrox when we left 6 days later. We all had to dive air and take the nitrogen penalties. You can do as many cool wall dives as you want a CCV, morning, noon, midnight, the pool is always open and they let you dive like an adult. I like that. Anyway, the food is a real bummer when you need a meal after you do 5 dives in a day. Anthonys was nice, but big, and alot of the rooms were up many flights of stairs in the jungle. Food was good, and about half of the rooms are A/C (or will be soon, renovating) Anthonys has a chamber on site (so does Fantasy), they also use membrane nitrox fills (no running out of 02). Anthonys really is the nicest, but the diving will suffer some. No "real" shore diving, a DC 10, nothing like CCV. Also, Anthonys is on the other side of the Roatan Island, where there aren't really any walls, unlike where CCV and Fantasy are located. The boat rides are too long and the General Manager said they dont really go to the other side more than once a week (Mary's Place, popular dive crack) Hope that helps, now you know the rest of the story.

 

[AllenG]

Am I missing something? JRRKAR wrote that he found one week of Fantasy Island and the price of $466 includes diving, food and the ever-popular 16% tax. This sounds too good to be true. That's $400 before taxes!! FI has been in a perpetual struggle since the Jackson family decided to give up on the property, so now one worries that this is another desparate play for cash from the Spaniards that bought the property. About a year ago, they were doing 2-for-1, now $400. Anyone have any more information re solvency of the operation? It's a tempting offer, but it would be nice to know that the place is financially viable before plunking down one's $$$.

 

[AllenG]

Am I missing something? JRRKAR wrote that he found one week of Fantasy Island and the price of $466 includes diving, food and the ever-popular 16% tax. This sounds too good to be true. That's $400 before taxes!! FI has been in a perpetual struggle since the Jackson family decided to give up on the property, so now one worries that this is another desparate play for cash from the Spaniards that bought the property. About a year ago, they were doing 2-for-1, now $400. Anyone have any more information re solvency of the operation? It's a tempting offer, but it would be nice to know that the place is financially viable before plunking down one's $$$.

Also, I've done some quick searchs on the web and didn't find this deal. JRKAR, can you provide any guidance?

Allen

 

[JRRKAR]

The $400 for a week deal is only for January 3-16, 2004. The price starting January 17th is about $950 for the same package. I'm assuming that not too many people would or could take a week off only a few days after New Years and Christmas.

For us however, the timing is perfect. We have horses and are expecting a foal in February. So for us, we need to spend a lot of time training the foal for the first few months. So a scuba vacation will be non-existent till about August next year. So this fits right into our plans. I'm sure we are the minority. We don't have kids, so we don't have to worry about taking the kids out of school, only a couple of days since they went back.

Hopefully things will work out with FI. I heard a lot of conflicting reports. But it seems most of the bad ones were prior to mid year 2002. It seems this is when FI was bought out. I don't know for sure, but looking at the change in reports from bad to good, and this seems to be when it happened. With the recent good reports, and the great price, it is worth a shot. If the tables were turned, meaning good reports turned to bad, I wouldn't have taken a chance. So we'll see, and I will give a detailed report when I get back.

Information from anyone with more insight, would be gladly welcomed.

Jeff