Ambergris Caye - what is the sargassum situation in January?

[coldwaterglutton]

I am booking my annual dive trip to Belize, and rather than go to Turneffe Island Resort as we normally would my family is considering The Phoenix in Ambergris Caye.

I have read many amazing reviews of that resort so it sounds very nice, but we have two non-divers so beach/non-dive becomes important. I am concerned with some of the reports that the sargassum can be overwhelming at Ambergris.

Any views on whether that would be true early this coming January?

 

[ReefHound]

I am booking my annual dive trip to Belize, and rather than go to Turneffe Island Resort as we normally would my family is considering The Phoenix in Ambergris Caye.

I have read many amazing reviews of that resort so it sounds very nice, but we have two non-divers so beach/non-dive becomes important. I am concerned with some of the reports that the sargassum can be overwhelming at Ambergris.

Any views on whether that would be true early this coming January?

Unless you plan to take dive boats out to the atolls you will find the diving disappointing. There's no comparison in the quality of the inner reefs and the outer atolls.

 

[mattfish]

My wife and I stayed at the Phoenix a few years ago. It’s very nice and the units are more like condos than hotel rooms. There was no beach at the resort when we went, but you could snorkel off the local dock. I don’t think sargassum will be a concern in January.

The diving locally is just average. It’s not bad, just not fantastic. It’s nice that you can be at the dive spot in like 5 mins though.

 

[Eric_K]

Looking forward to our upcoming stay at Phoenix in May 25, and saw this. We've stayed at Phoenix 5+ years now. It's perfect to be near restaurants in San Pedro while close to our preferred dive operator. We've chosen Ramon's Village based on sister in law's decades long great experience with them. Very accomodating, guides know what they are doing, and dive boats are run professionally. Wife doesn't dive but resort along with the occasional boat ride for her are great!

 

[John Trecker]

Ramons was frightening to dive with! Yikes! Lots of safety and customer service concerns.

 

[Eric_K]

Ramons was frightening to dive with! Yikes! Lots of safety and customer service concerns.

Maybe be more specific. That certainly hasn't been mine and others experience with many years of participating in their service. Would like to hear more to see what to look out for, and change operators if I see that. Did you discuss gaps with Dive Shop Manager at the time?

 

[John Trecker]

Ramons dive ops lacked communication and coordination. Their boats tend to be huge cattle cars with lots of large groups with no one really coordinating the overall operation. I repeatedly watched customers trying to get information and being rebuffed by the Team at the front desk. Lots of telling people to just sit down and wait and then five minutes before the boat takes off it’s a fire drill.
I saw at least one person end up sick on oxygen and being sent to the hospital. At that point, I just stopped diving and went over to amigos which was much much better.
On the situation where I saw the customer who ended up getting sick, it did not appear that the operation had a clear processing procedure in place to manage that person. Again another fire drill with not a lot of coordination or for thought.
I would never send my friends family to that operation
I was trained at Stanford as a research diver and have very high safety standards. Mine might be higher than most, but when I see people ending up sick and in the hospital that raises questions.
I most definitely discussed gaps and tried to get fixes. I was actually very vocal about it. I ended up hiring a private dive guide so that I did not have to deal with the cattle car situation. I also negotiated that I would go in first with my dive guide so that we would avoid the cattle car rush. But eventually I switched operations. Very glad that I did.Good luck.
my private dive guide was actually pretty good and had good eyes. Found juvenile peacock flounders, which I’ve never seen and were quite magical That particular dive was worth seeing those alone.