My ScubaBoard Invasion 2017 Roatan Trip Report
We have just wrapped up another wonderful Diving Social Event, ScubaBoard Invasion 2017.
Here’s my trip report.
Our Travel Agent
For the 7th year, we (Cardzard and I) started the event planning by again choosing
Bay Adventures for our travel agent. The ScubaBoard Invasion group ended up with a group of 84. Bay Adventures was there to take care of all the bookings for the group, answer questions, and assist with travel insurance and airfares. All the SB members just love Al and Felix from Bay Adventures! Al and Felix always do an exceptional job which made our planning so much easier.
We can’t thank Al and Felix from Bay Adventures enough for helping with another successful ScubaBoard Event!
Our Resort
We chose family owned and operated,
Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR) in Roatan for our destination. We held the 2014 event here as well and they did such a great job, so we returned to do it again!
Our transports were outside the airport waiting for us and once on property, the resort staff welcomed us with a drink and a smile while helping us check in. Our bungalow was ready, clean and worked well as a home away from home for the week. We felt the room was comfortable and spacious enough for our stay. And we just loved our porch complete with hammocks overlooking the water! They even included a clothes line there to help dry your wet items.
Our group of 84 Crew members had plenty of room to spread out at the resort and the grounds were well maintained. You could sit, swim and relax by the pool and bar with others or if you chose to be more private, there was more than enough room to do so. They even provided chairs in addition to the hammocks outside of each room if you chose to relax there. We heard more than 1 crew member fell in love with visiting and watching the dolphins at Bailey’s Key during the week! And many members also enjoyed the Roatan Institute for Marine Science (RIMS) and Museum located also on site. A gym, Spa, Game Room, Kayaks and Paddle Boards were also available for use during the week.
The main bar located by the dining room was a fun and happening area though out the week to say the least. And “Happy Hour” was always happy!
The food and serving staff were friendly and worked hard to take care of us. Breakfast was from a menu served to order. For lunch and dinner, you had a choice of 2-4 items for your appetizer and main course. The food was good with nice variety and beautifully presented.
The only real problem we had during the week was some confusion with the set up for our welcome and farewell parties we hold for the event. This was due to a family emergency with the staff member that was helping us with all the details. The rest of the staff worked hard to fill our requests with just a little shuffling of the details including providing ScubaBoard with a gorgeous cake for its 17th birthday!
All of the Anthony’s Key Resort Staff did an outstanding job of taking care of our group! And a special thank you to Mandy for her assistance during the week. We cannot thank everyone enough for all their hospitality and efforts!!!!!!!!!
Our Dive Operator
Anthony’s Key Resort has its own Dive Operation on site to host our diving and snorkeling. The manager, Kevin worked with us in advance with information on the boats and preplanning. The 1st morning was a little rough loading the boats as to be expected, but everything went pretty smooth after that. We had 73 divers and they handled us efficiently boarding the boats all week long.
There was a captain and 1 DM on the smaller boats. On the larger boats, we had 2 groups of divers with each having a DM to lead the dives. They helped to set up your gear or you could do your own if you preferred. They assisted everyone into the water and also helped with getting back on board at the end of our dives. Marvin was our DM for the week and he was outstanding!
Most of the dive sites were very nice and the walls were absolutely beautiful. We did have some high winds in the middle of our week, but fairly calm for the rest of the time. A tropical disturbance to our north contributed to that. We did get to do some of the more famous dives like wreck of The Odyssey and Mary’s Place which was just gorgeous!
There are 2 additional dives available to book, a
Shark dive and a
Dolphin dive. We didn’t have the time for the dolphin dive this time, but have enjoyed it on our last visit. We did fit in the shark dive, which is one of our favorite all time dives! I would highly suggest not missing either one of these dives if you can swing it.
One of the
wonderful features for AKR resort is the dedicated boat for snorkelers that go out 2x’s a day and includes a night snorkel as well. I wish more resorts would include this enjoyable service. I believe it would encourage more guests to enjoy the underwater world and maybe take up diving.
The ScubaBoard Invasion and our vision of diving social is not your normal dive group, but the staff of AKR took us in stride and made for a fantastic week of diving and snorkeling!
Prize Sponsors
To all the wonderful
ScubaBoard Invasion 2017 Prize Sponsors who donated Prizes for the Crew to win, thank you again! Some prizes were simply raffled at the welcome and farewell parties and some were won in contests adding to the fun. We had prizes to give away like trips, gear, software and gift certificates. Check out the
SB Invasion 2017 Sponsor's Page to see all the generous donations and the lucky crew who won! What wonderful generosity and support from all of these great SB Invasion Sponsors. You Guys and Gals ROCK!!!
In closing, Cardzard (Dennis) and I want to sincerely thank all the ScubaBoard Members, their Families and Friends who truly made this year’s Invasion such a fun event. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people! Everyone joined together, made new friends and enjoyed the sport we’re passionate about. What great ScubaBoard camaraderie!
All the laughs and memories are priceless! Check out all the fun from the
short farewell video! The event video made with all the Crews images from the week will be coming soon!
We’ll be heading to Bonaire for the next
ScubaBoard SURGE 2018 (our smaller, winter event) and then off to for next year’s ScubaBoard Invasion 2018 (the new thread will be up soon) being held in Cozumel.
@Moonie , ScubaBoard’s infamous mascot has already confirmed he will be attending both events. We hope to see you there too!
Our philosophy is that people and experiences make life priceless! We love Diving Social and wouldn't want it any other way.
