BettyfromToronto
Contributor
My husband & I recently stayed at Fantasy Island after 3 months of anticipation; reading everything on the forum – good and bad. Here is my take on everything.
Flight from Toronto was direct/non-stop and uneventful until we tried to land. Looking out the window we couldn’t see the runway or even the ground – it was solid white. Just as we are about to land the engines rev and we go straight up. “That ladies & gentlemen is what we call a missed landing”. After the aborted landing we are supposed to come around for a second try but instead we are diverted to Belize where we sit for about 1.5; get refuelled and return to Roatan safely about 3 hrs later. I say safely because at about the same time as our aborted landing a small jet near the Honduras capital crashes killing all 14 on board including 4 Americans & I Canadian.
So we arrive and it is pouring. Thank goodness it is a short drive to FI. We arrive late after lunch but they have kept it open for us. Well I don’t think for the 3 of us travelling together but more likely for the 12 from a LDS. No matter we just follow the group.
Check-in was easy and we are put in room 216 just down the hall from the dining room. Convenient and dry as some rooms towards the dive shop require you do go out in the rain before getting under the covered walkway.
It continued to rain hard but we took our gear down to the lockers as somehow we were missing a fin strap and had to buy a whole new set for both. Only $20 and Bilma was amazing trying to get it installed. Glad we were set-up as we really didn’t have the time in the morning.
It was still raining when we met in the conference room at 8am for our orientation. No one showed. After many phone calls Darren finally arrived. Seems he was told about the LDS group but not us. They had their orientation Monday afternoon. Not sure why we c couldn’t be part of that. Anyway it was done quickly and we were on the boat shortly after 9am. Also on the boat were 4 Americans from Illinois & Iowa; Instructor, DMs & very experienced. Thanks guys for making our trip fun. For the most part it was just the 7 of us with an occasional couple or threesome who have a condo nearby.
1st dive was just for getting sorted out. We both needed to adjust our weights as we had bought new wetsuits. After this dive; Joe started his AOW and did his next five dives with Pete; the instructor. He hadn’t finished all of his reading & quizzes in the book so he had to focus on that on Thursday afternoon and missed a dive. Then we both decided to do the Nitrox course which may have been too ambitious. We thought we had 3 days to complete but then found out that Pete was leaving at 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and Saturday was his day off. We both ended up forfeiting dives on Friday to complete our homework and write the exam. Too much stress for a vacation but we both passed. I decided to do the afternoon dive whereas Joe passed as he was exhausted. We then did 3 dives on the Saturday and called it a week.
I thought the diving was good except I was expecting lots of colour but that was probably missing due to the weather. It pretty much rained every night and was wet in the morning. We got some sun in one or two afternoons but the visibility at the surface was bad so probably didn’t allow any sun to penetrate. Joe’s big complaint was that there were not lots of fish. A school of snappers totalling two. Our boat captain was Alonzo and he was amazing helping me on the boat which was greatly appreciated. Our DM was Miguel and we were a little disappointed that we were not seeing the stuff Nelson was showing the LDS boat. Only saw one seahorse and never saw the turtle. The reef was still much better than Cuba but we would have liked more fish. I must mention though that we flooded our u/w case ont he last day and we lost of Canon G10. Thank goodness we had downloaded all the pictures the night before. Bummer.
I was lucky to meet Rich there and he is right that there is a lot going on to fix up the resort. You’d come back from a day of diving and you could see the changes. I loved the dining room and the selection of food. Yes the ice cream is to die for – especially the coffee flavour. We loved sitting in the lobby bar; everyone with their net books or iPads. We never went to the beach as some people were getting sand flea bites. Even so Joe got 2 on his back and I got one on my leg. No big deal and we never used our deet once. Maybe because of all the rain???
We decided not to dive our last day so we could try and dry out our gear. I had brought down school supplies for the Roatan Children’s Fund which is based out of Coco View. Rather than just pick up the stuff, Yansey came over by skiff and took us back to CCV for a tour. Much smaller and compact and really dedicated to diving; whereas FI was an AI with diving. We had a lot of families there last week plus a couple of church groups who had been there to build schools or something.
The threesome who had dove with us had told us about a restaurant in Jonesville called A Hole in the Wall. You arrive by skiff and it is all-you-can-eat steak & lobster for $25. We had arranged for Antonio (a friend of our DM Miguel) to take us there & back for $60 for 3 of us. What a place! We arrive a half hour after it had opened and it was packed. It’s really a floating shack with maybe 15-20 tables. We couldn’t find a place to sit so just went ahead and got in line (about 15 in front of us) to get our food. We started with the steak which is amazing and 3 lobster tails each. When we had our food; one of the older guys running the place found a spot for us at the end of a long table filled with visiting American divers who had heard about this place on the Internet. We ended up going back for more lobster. Total bill for 3 lunches plus 3 drinks including a beer was only $81. We then negotiated with Antonio for another $40 to take us to West End. Completely the other direction. What a funky little town. We bought some souvenirs including coffee beans which we always try to buy when we travel. Then on the way home we went by way of West Bay to see Bananarama and then Coxen Hole where the cruise ships come in. Thankfully there wasn’t one.
We were then back to FI with a nice tour of the island to pack up and have a nice dinner and late night visiting with our new friends. Trip to the airport in the morning was long but organized. Thankfully they were not doing the hand checking of each piece of luggage as we were told they would do. (A make work program). It was just a normal check in and we weren’t in a hurry as we had paid a premium and had our seats pre-assigned at booking. The wait for our flight was okay and then we were off and home by dinnertime.
Would we go again? Yes. Right now our next trip is in September and Sunwing finally posted their flights past May 2nd but they don’t start again until November which is not doable for us. Too close to our January trip to Hong Kong with a side dive trip to the Philippines so we’re going to book Couples in Negril, Jamaica. Very nice couples only AI with 2 dives a day for a total of 10. It will probably be a much more relaxing trip than this one which is okay.
I want to thank everyone here who gave me such great information for planning this trip. I will continue to visit and anyone who wants info just needs to ask.
Flight from Toronto was direct/non-stop and uneventful until we tried to land. Looking out the window we couldn’t see the runway or even the ground – it was solid white. Just as we are about to land the engines rev and we go straight up. “That ladies & gentlemen is what we call a missed landing”. After the aborted landing we are supposed to come around for a second try but instead we are diverted to Belize where we sit for about 1.5; get refuelled and return to Roatan safely about 3 hrs later. I say safely because at about the same time as our aborted landing a small jet near the Honduras capital crashes killing all 14 on board including 4 Americans & I Canadian.
So we arrive and it is pouring. Thank goodness it is a short drive to FI. We arrive late after lunch but they have kept it open for us. Well I don’t think for the 3 of us travelling together but more likely for the 12 from a LDS. No matter we just follow the group.
Check-in was easy and we are put in room 216 just down the hall from the dining room. Convenient and dry as some rooms towards the dive shop require you do go out in the rain before getting under the covered walkway.
It continued to rain hard but we took our gear down to the lockers as somehow we were missing a fin strap and had to buy a whole new set for both. Only $20 and Bilma was amazing trying to get it installed. Glad we were set-up as we really didn’t have the time in the morning.
It was still raining when we met in the conference room at 8am for our orientation. No one showed. After many phone calls Darren finally arrived. Seems he was told about the LDS group but not us. They had their orientation Monday afternoon. Not sure why we c couldn’t be part of that. Anyway it was done quickly and we were on the boat shortly after 9am. Also on the boat were 4 Americans from Illinois & Iowa; Instructor, DMs & very experienced. Thanks guys for making our trip fun. For the most part it was just the 7 of us with an occasional couple or threesome who have a condo nearby.
1st dive was just for getting sorted out. We both needed to adjust our weights as we had bought new wetsuits. After this dive; Joe started his AOW and did his next five dives with Pete; the instructor. He hadn’t finished all of his reading & quizzes in the book so he had to focus on that on Thursday afternoon and missed a dive. Then we both decided to do the Nitrox course which may have been too ambitious. We thought we had 3 days to complete but then found out that Pete was leaving at 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and Saturday was his day off. We both ended up forfeiting dives on Friday to complete our homework and write the exam. Too much stress for a vacation but we both passed. I decided to do the afternoon dive whereas Joe passed as he was exhausted. We then did 3 dives on the Saturday and called it a week.
I thought the diving was good except I was expecting lots of colour but that was probably missing due to the weather. It pretty much rained every night and was wet in the morning. We got some sun in one or two afternoons but the visibility at the surface was bad so probably didn’t allow any sun to penetrate. Joe’s big complaint was that there were not lots of fish. A school of snappers totalling two. Our boat captain was Alonzo and he was amazing helping me on the boat which was greatly appreciated. Our DM was Miguel and we were a little disappointed that we were not seeing the stuff Nelson was showing the LDS boat. Only saw one seahorse and never saw the turtle. The reef was still much better than Cuba but we would have liked more fish. I must mention though that we flooded our u/w case ont he last day and we lost of Canon G10. Thank goodness we had downloaded all the pictures the night before. Bummer.
I was lucky to meet Rich there and he is right that there is a lot going on to fix up the resort. You’d come back from a day of diving and you could see the changes. I loved the dining room and the selection of food. Yes the ice cream is to die for – especially the coffee flavour. We loved sitting in the lobby bar; everyone with their net books or iPads. We never went to the beach as some people were getting sand flea bites. Even so Joe got 2 on his back and I got one on my leg. No big deal and we never used our deet once. Maybe because of all the rain???
We decided not to dive our last day so we could try and dry out our gear. I had brought down school supplies for the Roatan Children’s Fund which is based out of Coco View. Rather than just pick up the stuff, Yansey came over by skiff and took us back to CCV for a tour. Much smaller and compact and really dedicated to diving; whereas FI was an AI with diving. We had a lot of families there last week plus a couple of church groups who had been there to build schools or something.
The threesome who had dove with us had told us about a restaurant in Jonesville called A Hole in the Wall. You arrive by skiff and it is all-you-can-eat steak & lobster for $25. We had arranged for Antonio (a friend of our DM Miguel) to take us there & back for $60 for 3 of us. What a place! We arrive a half hour after it had opened and it was packed. It’s really a floating shack with maybe 15-20 tables. We couldn’t find a place to sit so just went ahead and got in line (about 15 in front of us) to get our food. We started with the steak which is amazing and 3 lobster tails each. When we had our food; one of the older guys running the place found a spot for us at the end of a long table filled with visiting American divers who had heard about this place on the Internet. We ended up going back for more lobster. Total bill for 3 lunches plus 3 drinks including a beer was only $81. We then negotiated with Antonio for another $40 to take us to West End. Completely the other direction. What a funky little town. We bought some souvenirs including coffee beans which we always try to buy when we travel. Then on the way home we went by way of West Bay to see Bananarama and then Coxen Hole where the cruise ships come in. Thankfully there wasn’t one.
We were then back to FI with a nice tour of the island to pack up and have a nice dinner and late night visiting with our new friends. Trip to the airport in the morning was long but organized. Thankfully they were not doing the hand checking of each piece of luggage as we were told they would do. (A make work program). It was just a normal check in and we weren’t in a hurry as we had paid a premium and had our seats pre-assigned at booking. The wait for our flight was okay and then we were off and home by dinnertime.
Would we go again? Yes. Right now our next trip is in September and Sunwing finally posted their flights past May 2nd but they don’t start again until November which is not doable for us. Too close to our January trip to Hong Kong with a side dive trip to the Philippines so we’re going to book Couples in Negril, Jamaica. Very nice couples only AI with 2 dives a day for a total of 10. It will probably be a much more relaxing trip than this one which is okay.
I want to thank everyone here who gave me such great information for planning this trip. I will continue to visit and anyone who wants info just needs to ask.
