Disappointment @ Anthony's Key

[joemdiver]

We just returned from a cruise. One of the main reasons we booked this cruise was because they use Anthony's Key for their excursions. We were anxious to check out the resort for a future week long family vacation. My wife and 3 other non-divers in the family booked the Dolphin Encounter and had a wonderful time! My 12 year old and I booked the wall and reef dives and I'm sorry to say we were rather disappointed. The whole group of 30 divers were made to dive in one large group with 1 dive master leading us around and 1 following. Aside from being against PADI guidelines, this size group made the diving really slow and overcrowded. Anytime the DM would point out anything of interest the less experienced divers were bumping into each other trying to see what he was showing us. This was far from the outstanding service I was expecting from all I've read regarding this resort. My son had difficulty equalizing on the first dive and I had to take him back to the boat. No DM came to check if there was a problem nor did they ask about his welfare between dives. They did not appear to even realize that he had returned to the boat or that I was missing from the group for the first 15 minutes of the dive.
We used Hugh Parkey's in Belize and they were great! We were in small groups (6 to a DM) and the service was top notch. Our DM (Karim) would make sure everyone in our group would get a good view of anything interesting during our dive and they were very good about making sure to point out the rules of the marine park. A few people in another group complained about the no gloves rule but the DM's stuck to the rules and made sure everyone knew the reasons for the park rules.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

You got the cruise ship experience at Anthonys. I just returndd from leading a trip to Anthonys with 24 divers. We were given two boats and never had more than 12 on any single dive. It was probably the best dive trip we've ever done.

 

[DeputyDan]

I dove with an operator once that also served the cruise ship lines (I will not post names) but needless to say, the clients that were staying on island and diving with the operator has one set of rules and DM's and the curise ship folks had another set of rules and DM's.

From a business point of view I can understand - does not mean I would like it.

 

[Doc]

As they said above, if you're a cruise ship diver... sorry- you're a cruise ship diver.

AKR is a great place to be a diver. That said, they also make 90% of their income (and I'm not exaggerating here) from cruise ship divers, mostly the ones that come over to 'pester Flipper'. It can be quite the surge of crusie ship divers.

AKR is a top rated resort in Roatan, and for that matter, anywhere in the Caribbean. Would I (or my favorite Roatan Resort, CCV) put that many people in with but one Dive Master? Not a chance, but you reference a "standard" which doesn't apply. BTW- The time to call any "standard" into question is when you see it happening.

Much as a cruise ship passenger knows that if he wants diving, his horizons are limited, a resort must know that when they accept cruise ship divers, they are getting into a different realm. Most dive ops dumb down the dive to the lowest common denominator and do the traditional cattle boat operation. I would, with 30 divers have at least 2, if not three DMs in the water, if but for nothing else, to attempt to limit the possibility of incident.

Thirty divers in the water for the first time in months? Surprised anyone saw anything.

 

[FloridaScubaDepot]

I just spent a week in March with my wife at AKR, and had a terrific time. No more than 10 people on our boat all week, and sometimes as few as 4. I'm heading back this Sunday for another week with a small group from our store. I'll keep an eye out an post what I see. (Maybe I'll even post with a trip report from the resort)

Knowing many people who visit on a regular basis, I'd suspect your experience is Not a typical AKR resort guest experience.

 

[Doc]

I'd suspect your experience is Not a typical AKR resort guest experience.

They weren't "guests" of AKR, they were visiting from a cruise ship.

AKR offers a better experience for its guests. The regular guests also get to watch the cruise ship divers. The dolphins like 'em, too.

 

[FloridaScubaDepot]

Understood RoatanMan...

I guess I should have used a little better wording in my reply... We had fun watching the cruise ships folks too...

 

[Tom Smedley]

AKR is primo. Go there as a guest and not as a pod person. Enjoy the banana pancakes and banana syrup as the hummingbirds sip out of your syrup bottle.

 

[georoc01]

I had a similar experience, although we had 3 dive masters for 28 divers. The other boat had 2 dive masters for the 21 divers there.

By the time you included the discovery divers and the dolphin divers, they had well over 100 divers off of my cruise ship. Way too many for the number of instructors/dive masters they had. It seems to me they could have limited the overall number of people on the excursion, creating a better enviroment for it. They seem to do that for the other excursions that Princess offers off of their boat.

I did point this out to the dive instructor on the cruise ship. Given that Princess is pulling out of Roatan in a couple of weeks, I doubt it will make a difference.

Now our Belize and Cozumel experiences were much better as far as dive masters/diver ratio goes.

 

[dgreenh]

I guess there is a huge difference in the experience between resort guests and cruise ship divers. AKR was awesome, we are going back in June. We had 10 max on the boat usually less. Food and service were excellent.

I'm not sure what PADI guidelines you are referring to. I don't know of any guidelines if you are an open water diver or above and you are not taking a class. Now if you took the cruise ship resort course then that is another issue.