BIBR Roatan

[Tim_Barker]

My wife and I were there last January and discovered the rooms while plain were kept clean. The food menu was pretty much set to a specific routine but was also not to bad. The diving was great as were the dive crew, we had Hector (Divemaster) and Tex (Boat driver). At the end of each dive we just had to let Hector know we were heading up and then Tex would pick us up. This practice was great especially if there is one or two divers who consume their air faster than you, they would just go up and the rest can stay down

. Apparently this practice does not occur everywhere, some places your dive time is regulated by the first person who gets low, one goes up every one goes up.

 

[smokey braden]

tim barker,
welcome to this board.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

What an excellent post AllenG made there.

 

[riftvalley84]

AllenG, I liked your advice about carry certain essentials in your carry on. We are already booked to stay at Fantasy Island in Roatan in February. Now, I'm a little nervous about the negative comments. Has anyone else heard other positive or negative comments about FI? Would it be better to book dive packages that weren't associated with the resort? As long as it's clean, the food is good & we get our money's worth from the diving, we will be happy. We are there for 2 weeks and plan to log in about 24 dives. Has anyone done a shark dive there? Is it worth the $110?

 

[Bay Island Diver]

Yes the shark dive is worth it - if you haven't ever had loads of sharks swimming around you before. There are better places in the world to do this, but it is still fun here. I have done it three times and every time has been a blast.

We have a lot of divers from FI come over and dive with us once or twice during there stay. A lot say they will stay in the more vibrant West End next time they visit.

The decision is how im portant being able to beach dive is. If you want to 4-5 dives a day, the AIs such as FI and CCV are your best choice. If three dives a day plus a couple of night dives is enough for you, I would recommend West End so you have the benefits of a nice town and lots of different places to eat!

Weather also plays a part. If you are visiting between Novcember and February, the south side resorts are better to ensure calm seas and nice diving. The rest of the year you are best off choosing a North Side resort.

Will

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Anthony's Key is a wonderful upscale dive operation.

 

[spcoun]

AllenG, I liked your advice about carry certain essentials in your carry on. We are already booked to stay at Fantasy Island in Roatan in February. Now, I'm a little nervous about the negative comments. Has anyone else heard other positive or negative comments about FI? Would it be better to book dive packages that weren't associated with the resort? As long as it's clean, the food is good & we get our money's worth from the diving, we will be happy. We are there for 2 weeks and plan to log in about 24 dives. Has anyone done a shark dive there? Is it worth the $110?

HELLO RIFTVALLEY84

I just returned from FIBR Nov 4-15, We arrived sat morning at before noon so our room was not ready, but we did plan for that, and had swim suits in carry on as well as reg, computer, just in case we could dive, we went to the dive shop and filled out all form work, but we were too tired to dive that day.

So Sunday morning 8:00 am went to the dive/tours/recompression chamber briefing, and was very informative (including adding new under water sign language to my repertoire) Diving was real close to resort most dive were wall dive vis varied from 100' 25' after big rain towards end of trip, but most of time it was 50-80'

Two days of rough weather 1-3' but all boats were solid and well maintain except one day hydrolics fail on rudder and we began to drift back towards fibr along coco view wall, dive master asked if wanted to dive or be towed back to resort (last dive of the day) we all chose to do coco veiw wall enter the channel and dive around the Prince Albert (with skiff following above) there was only six of us plus dm on that dive. That was one of the best dives that we had, vis at the prince was even good saw the residents of the prince albert which include 5" yellow seahorse (someone will say it was 4" because of the 33% factor But it was so cool, i took my wife back on one of the shore dives, (the shore dive is not really a shore dive).The skiff will take you out and drop you out over the prince albert and then you navagate to the gazebo (don't forget to do your compass heading before you go down) all in all i did 24 dives from Sunday to Monday didn't dive on tues and wenesday we flew. Food was good, rooms were Ok, you can request newer rooms but they are far away, ac worked great, bring wash cloths.

All water served in restraunts are purified as well as the ice, diving was awesome, I would have got in one more dive but i developed a rash at the armpit and side so i noticed in morning, went to chamber to see the doc, wasn't going to be there until 9:30 (he was making house calls) theres a provision in the paperwork to donate $20.00 to the chamber (My wife and I did) he examined me and cleared me to do the 11:15 dive. He did check on me everyday the rest of my trip.

Didn't dive the 2:30 dive that day cause we signed up for the South Shore Canopy Tour (aka ziplines) they have one close by, but it requires lots of climbing and hiking and with the amount of dives my wife and i were doing, we chose the no strain ziplines, only three places you had to walk a little up hill.

The bad part was the misqitoes were killer (we planed the tour and did malaria pills)

So far to date it was the best dive trip for the dollar i've ever had, been to Cozumel 4 times, Aruba, Riverra Maya, Islamorada FL. Fantasy Island.

We flew Taca, One stop coming in (Tip) fly in and out on Sat. stay two weeks if one is not enough but don't leave mid week like we did.

We left the resort wen, at 10:30 for a 12:55 flight (ontime), stopped at La Cieba, then San Pedro Sula then San Salvador, El Salvador, Then on To San Fransico CA, On time at 11:20 PM it would have been only one stop on SAT.

All in all the people were great, dive shop was great.

If you think about the people that work there, and how they live, it seems kind of crass to complain about the quality of the rooms, because it doesn't live up to our expectations.

The new pool is great.

Bring different bug juice and switch it around I think the bugs are smarter the we are.

Watch out for a gang of terrorists that run thru FIBR about twice a day, they steal, they pull the vegetation off the trees, drink your drink and eat your food, But they are still cute. MONKEYS

My favorite DM: is Derry and Capitan: Deemis

Hope this helps and i hope you have as good as time as we did.

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

It's clean, the food is good & you'll get our money's worth from the diving.

Having been to FIBR for the last two Mays, I pretty much agree with spcoun. The only advise I would offer is to make sure you get a tet booster, hep A, polio, typhus and malaria inoculations/meds. Very real possibilities in Honduras.

Also, get bug juice with the highest concentrate of DEET and avoid the beach at night.

Regards,
Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[riftvalley84]

Thanks for the very practical advice, spcoun & Dave! We are excited about our trip. We have 3 kids (12, 14 & 16) who dive as well but they are also looking forward to some beach time & are looking forward to the monkeys. Our intention is to sign up for 10 days of double dives, plus a couple of night dives which we have never done & a shark dive. We have had our Twinrex Hep A & B shots but didn't realize that we should get any others. Any suggestion on the best malaria med that won't interfere with diving? At this point we are not planning on going anywhere other than FI since we are there to dive.