Flamingo Bay or Viva Fortuna in Freeport?

[passionforscuba]

My husband and I have been researching this question for about 3 days straight and are not finding the answers we are looking for and are getting frustrated! We only have these two choices because we are using my husband's father's timeshare. From the reviews on here and tripadvisor.com, we have gathered that Flamingo Bay is nice, but you need to walk across the street to use the pool. It has a quiet beach and a nice pool. Our concern is the eating. I get cranky if I don't get to eat easily and we are concerned as to where we would eat. How expensive are the restaurants across the street? Is it a pain in the butt to catch the ferry to Port Lucaya? We plan on diving every morning and then vegging out the rest of the day.

I like the thought of being able to eat whenever I want at Viva Fortuna, but I heard that the rooms are dirty and it has a summer camp atmosphere. That sounds horrible! We also heard that the food was not that great. We are not terribly picky and are looking to primarily dive and relax. We are not drinkers and therefore do not care about the availability of drinks.

I would like a quiet place without tons of screaming kids, access to a quiet beach, easy access to food, and reasonably clean rooms. I don't care much about decor!

We would love any suggestions as we need to book this soon!

Also, my husband is concerned about the water temps, as he definitely likes warm water. We are going during Thanksgiving week. Is the diving beautiful, and is it tropical feeling water in November?

Thank you for your time! It is much appreciated!

 

[osprey]

I have stayed at the Flamingo & enjoyed it. They have a great pool which isn't that far from the hotel. We didn't eat there but heard the restaurant by the pool was great. They have a water taxi leaving every 30min going to Port Lucaya which has a great assortment of restaurants. Zorbas & Shennigans are both resonable.

 

[passionforscuba]

I have stayed at the Flamingo & enjoyed it. They have a great pool which isn't that far from the hotel. We didn't eat there but heard the restaurant by the pool was great. They have a water taxi leaving every 30min going to Port Lucaya which has a great assortment of restaurants. Zorbas & Shennigans are both resonable.

We are feeling that we should choose the Flamingo because I have read better things about it. Did you eat out at every meal, and was that hard to do because all of the restaurants were in Port Lucaya?

 

[del_mo]

I stayed at the Fortuna a couple of years ago. Our room wasn't dirty. What I found was a lot of kids and Europeans that took control of everything. Hanging their laundry out on the cabanas claiming them for the whole day, yet not using them. The food was limited, but okay. They had a nicer Italian restaurant that was worth the visit. Pool was big and nice. Beautiful beach with a reef you could snorkel to about 100 yards off shore. Windsurfing and sailboats in okay condition. They do have a diving facility on property, but we didn't make reservations in advance so they didn't have room for us. Used Xanadu, and were very happy.

The Mrs. and I have talked about going back. No reason not too, but we just haven't. We also stayed in Lucaya and while convenient, the food was very expensive.

 

[Tavi]

If you're using a timeshare, and are through RCI or II, you should be able to trade it.

My wife and I spend 2 weeks each year at Ocean Reef Yacht Club and Resort.

Great place!! The rooms are clean and there are 2 pools and one restaurant on site. helpfull freindly staff!! It Is not all inclusive.

Grand Bahama Scuba is on site. Great staff!! Great Boat!! wonderfull diving!! and it's just a short walk from our room to the boat.

Port Lucaya is a couple miles away, but the bus is only $1.

 

[G'Diddy]

My husband and I have been researching this question for about 3 days straight and are not finding the answers we are looking for and are getting frustrated! We only have these two choices because we are using my husband's father's timeshare. From the reviews on here and tripadvisor.com, we have gathered that Flamingo Bay is nice, but you need to walk across the street to use the pool. It has a quiet beach and a nice pool. Our concern is the eating. I get cranky if I don't get to eat easily and we are concerned as to where we would eat. How expensive are the restaurants across the street? Is it a pain in the butt to catch the ferry to Port Lucaya? We plan on diving every morning and then vegging out the rest of the day.

I like the thought of being able to eat whenever I want at Viva Fortuna, but I heard that the rooms are dirty and it has a summer camp atmosphere. That sounds horrible! We also heard that the food was not that great. We are not terribly picky and are looking to primarily dive and relax. We are not drinkers and therefore do not care about the availability of drinks.

I would like a quiet place without tons of screaming kids, access to a quiet beach, easy access to food, and reasonably clean rooms. I don't care much about decor!

We would love any suggestions as we need to book this soon!

Also, my husband is concerned about the water temps, as he definitely likes warm water. We are going during Thanksgiving week. Is the diving beautiful, and is it tropical feeling water in November?

Thank you for your time! It is much appreciated!

We stayed at Flamingo Bay last summer. The rooms are good sized and clean. They also have a kitchenette in each room. You get to use the facilities of the Ritz across the road. it's a short walk to the pool, the beach, water sports and restaurant. The pool is huge and has an indoor/outdoor swim up bar. You can easily find a spot that's not crowded to veg. My wife ate breakfast at the restaurant at the Ritz once and said it was OK but expensive. We ate all our meals in Port Lucaya. Believe it or not, UNEXSO's dive bar has great food, is resonably priced and is open for breakfast. We also love The Pub at Port Lucaya and Le Med. The fish & chips with an ice cold Sands beer from the pub after diving really hits the spot. For breakfast Le Med, you can get a Bahamain lobster omlet (my wife's fav), or my fav steak & eggs. There are many other places in Port Lucaya to eat most are really good. They even have Subway, Quizno's, and Domino's for a taste of home. If you go across the main road to Our Lucaya, there's more restaurants, they have good food, but are much more expensive. We always hit Irie's Carribean restaurant once each trip for our upscale dinner.

When we used it, the ferry cost $5.00 each for a round trip ticket.

I dove every morning on that trip. I always use UNEXSO when in Freeport. If you catch the first ferry run of the day you can get there in plenty of time. The ferry let's you off right next to UNEXSO's boats. They also have lockers you can use for free so you won't have schelp your gear back and forth each day. You'll like diving w/UNEXSO, they're very safe and professional, but you'll feel like you're diving with friends. They've been there since 1965, so they must be doing something right.

Didn't mean to write a book. Hope this helps. Please let us know how you make out.

 

[passionforscuba]

Well, it looks like it is going to be Viva Fortuna for us. We kept asking the restaurant across the street from the Flamingo to fax the menu, and they didn't. When we went to reserve it through RCI(timeshare), it was already taken. So I hope that the Fortuna is okay! Well, we are going for the diving anyway...If anyone can add anything positive about the Fortuna (things to look forward to) I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[flinch]

Hi, we just got home Saturday from Viva Fortuna. Maybe I can help. First the room was fine, need upgraded, but ok. The tile on the floor is worn out which made it look dirty but it was not and was keep clean by the staff. The food was really pretty good, for an inexpensive all-inclusive. Not a large selection but tasty and always plenty of fruit.
Now for the diving. If you have not been diving anywhere else, you will like it. The reefs are below average and the fish numbers compaired to Cozumel, Bonaire, etc. are very low. The shark dives are worth doing and are very fun.
We made the mistake of diving with the dive shop located at the resort. BIG MISTAKE. They are terrible. We did 8 dives with them and always ended our dives due to time limitations with over 1500 psi left in out tanks. Every dive was hurry up, we have to get back to the beach to pick up the next group. We picked them because they load the boat right at the beach at the resort. This was nice, but not worth only being able to dive half tank dives. When I complained about not being able to dive my computer, I was told "sorry, that's the way we do things." The one time we dove a little longer then the alloted 30-35 mins. we were only give a 20 min. surface interval so our second dive had to be cut short do to NDL's. They really don't care. Pick someone else to dive with, anybody else would have to be better.
We traded a time share to go there knowing the diving would not be very good, but I have never
been treated so poor by a dive shop (except maybe in the Keys). Please take my advice, don't use them.
Hope you have a good time. The resort is not bad at all.

 

[passionforscuba]

Hi, we just got home Saturday from Viva Fortuna. Maybe I can help. First the room was fine, need upgraded, but ok. The tile on the floor is worn out which made it look dirty but it was not and was keep clean by the staff. The food was really pretty good, for an inexpensive all-inclusive. Not a large selection but tasty and always plenty of fruit.
Now for the diving. If you have not been diving anywhere else, you will like it. The reefs are below average and the fish numbers compaired to Cozumel, Bonaire, etc. are very low. The shark dives are worth doing and are very fun.
We made the mistake of diving with the dive shop located at the resort. BIG MISTAKE. They are terrible. We did 8 dives with them and always ended our dives due to time limitations with over 1500 psi left in out tanks. Every dive was hurry up, we have to get back to the beach to pick up the next group. We picked them because they load the boat right at the beach at the resort. This was nice, but not worth only being able to dive half tank dives. When I complained about not being able to dive my computer, I was told "sorry, that's the way we do things." The one time we dove a little longer then the alloted 30-35 mins. we were only give a 20 min. surface interval so our second dive had to be cut short do to NDL's. They really don't care. Pick someone else to dive with, anybody else would have to be better.
We traded a time share to go there knowing the diving would not be very good, but I have never
been treated so poor by a dive shop (except maybe in the Keys). Please take my advice, don't use them.
Hope you have a good time. The resort is not bad at all.

Thank you for the advice. We are going to call a shop tomorrow and reserve.It is the one that everyone on this board raves about-Grand Bahama Scuba I think. Thank you for letting me know that the resort is not bad. I am looking at the bright side...food anytime that I want it! We have been diving in many places, including Bonaire, Cozumel, Hawaii, Keys, Cayman, etc, but shockingly, my favorite spot was the Keys! I liked it because it was just so easy-shallow dives with a laid back feeling. My husband likes to see all of the good stuff while diving. I don't care so much about what I see, just that I enjoy myself and am relaxed. The dive shop onsite sounds terrible. I hate it when I am rushed.