Favorite Memories from the SB Invasion 2025 Belize

[Joneill]

People. Take a step back. Look at the reviews of the other 2 actual “resorts” we could have stayed at. I called the one at the south end. We could have had actual buffet instead of rationed 5th grade cafeteria food. On top of the small portions, it was always cold and sucked.

Turneffe is an awesome place to dive, and one of the best trips (diving only) I’ve gone on with Scubaboard. But it was a horrible choice vs Turneffe Island Resort.

I’m not going to rain sunshine about this trip. It was hell and we couldn’t wait to get off the island. I feel good about telling the story about this sad trip. My night dive sucked, because they were conserving fuel. 10 minutes to dive site, 25 ft. I know. I hung out with all the employees who had to work the fuel situation etc.

It was so bad that most people tipped out their DMs personally. It was a total **** show. I was one of a few who bought the “drink package”. lol. It included everything except wine. And the bartenders allowed me to buy shots or any drink for anyone! The end of the pier bar parties were crazy Thursday and Friday! The employees were pounding booze on drink package customers. No tracking of anything.

Whoever booked it needs to own it. I lived, it sucked. I made a ton of friends after hours. I especially appreciate the head of house cleaning who was at the fun bar at 12 who offered to “clean my room” at any time. I told her my wife probably wouldn’t like it and we’d simply like a roll of toilet paper. Got a roll the next day lol.

Friday night at the pier bar was insane. I’m sure my bar tab 221 lol would have been enough to kill 3 people. Thanks Lancelot, Karin, Brittany, the cleaning staff lol, and all the dive staff. If you chose for us to go here, own it, learn from it. I most likely won’t be back if nothing changes.

Loved diving with you all

Jason

Sounds like someone is still hitting the drink package? I was not on this trip, but you come across as a miserable sh_t in your whiny, accusatory posts here. If you are so smart and knew this place was so bad, why did you book it and go on the trip? Geez - give it a rest!

 

[cardzard]

Roxanne and I have remained quiet and are letting the travel agency work behind the scenes.
We will have plenty to say at the appropriate time.

They say a pictures is worth a thousand words
This was posted 2 months before we arrived.

​

 

[Edward3c]

Anyone could cr*p on you and you’d call it icing. That’s a fault. Got what seems like oil on my bags and my new bag was torn. Such a great place, and the staff were awesome. If you believed the 5* reviews and ignored the 1* reviews that were extensive, recent, and said the same thing, you are an idiot. And when I pointed this out during the trip I was still fed the same line “Scubaboard can have fun in a mud puddle!”.

Did not have fun or like my “mud puddle”. The arrogance about the decision. There are plenty dive groups. If nothing is learned from this nightmare. And it was. Reviews years ago had people leaving early. I flew out, because I can’t predict the seas, and honestly I wanted out so badly I was happy to pay the xtra $500.
Times
Who would ever here do this trip again for even half the cost? No one. It was that bad

I take it you've not done a SB trip before.

Whilst I agree the 'resort' was not as expected, it wasn't a total disaster. We got the 16 dives, the locations being dictated by the weather; with a hurricane just over the Central American mainland < 700ml away. I went to the UAE and Oman diving earlier in the year which cost considerably more for less diving. As it was Ramadan there were no alcoholic drinks – which you appear to value over diving. UAE/Oman cost £470 per dive, Florida/Belize cost £250 per dive, and they were better quality. I also enjoyed to conversation I had with fellow SBs.

Somehow I don’t think Dennis and Roxanne will mis you.

 

[Joneill]

Looks like the owner wants out which might help explain (not excuse) the issues you experienced.

 

[gypsyjim]

Roxanne and I have remained quiet and are letting the travel agency work behind the scenes.
We will have plenty to say at the appropriate time.

They say a pictures is worth a thousand words
This was posted 2 months before we arrived.

​

Slick Promo, that!
We certainly did not have the same impression or experience of BDH, from our recent stay, that she was describing.
Is there a twin sister resort out there that is not as post apocalyptic as the one we visited?
That promo was well done, and almost makes me want to forget the reality we saw, and rush to go back there tomorrow....

 

[gypsyjim]

Looks like the owner wants out which might help explain (not excuse) the issues you experienced.

Not even keeping a spare belt on hand for the generators, which power the entire operation between sunset and sunrise, is definitely an indication that the owner is pinching every penny, hoping to unload his crippled white elephant before it takes him down, financially.

 

[gypsyjim]

If the video which Dennis just shared is only 2 months old, it is obvious that the owner knew he was about to try to unload his failed pipe dream, and was trying to pump it up.
This shows that he remains willing to continue the charade of over promising and under delivering
"Buyer beware"
As we were leaving on the bus to the airport from the Hakim marina, after our final escape from Hakim's BDH I found myself looking around to see if there was an adjacent Hakim's Used Cars lot....

 

[ROXANNE]

Some of Dennis and mine favorite memories are handing out
all the Sponsor Swag to the Crew!
Congratulations to all the winners!
I've posted the winners and their pics on our
ScubaBoard Invasion 2025 Sponsors Thread​

 

[Nuclear Eel]

Slick Promo, that!
We certainly did not have the same impression or experience of BDH, from our recent stay, that she was describing.
Is there a twin sister resort out there that is not as post apocalyptic as the one we visited?
That promo was well done, and almost makes me want to forget the reality we saw, and rush to go back there tomorrow....

You're absolutely correct. As anyone who has done much photography knows, you can make almost anything look good if you manipulate the scene, shoot at a distance, avoid the parts you don't want anyone to see, etc.

The diving was great (at least the limited number I went on) and this resort has huge potential to be an awesome dive destination, but not under the current owner. Here's hoping somebody that knows how to run a resort purchases it from "Sir" Hakim and restores it to what it could be. If that happened I would be willing to return.

I could ignore the deficiencies and material conditions at the resort, what I cannot understand is how the owner could think a group of 60 people was going to be happy with being on an island where there are no other options available for food and provide us with such quality and quantity. I wasn't looking for or expecting 5 star dining but even I was hungry and I have been on a strict low calorie diet for 12 months now.

We absolutely enjoyed all the people we met on this trip. Well, except for one arrogant owner.
Finally meeting Pete was a bonus. Nice talking with you, Pete.

FYI, my favorite place to stay and dive is a family owned place near West End Roatan that most would consider extremely basic (only breakfast and lunch available, no bar, small pool) but I love it and their Dive operation is first class. We're already preparing for our yearly trip. Can't wait.

 

[KristenK]

My welcome home announcement.

Oh no, at first I thought it was a pregnancy test. But Covid, eh?