Florida Diver to take a large trip, but confused....

[dpspaceman]

Hello fellow Floridians,

I've done quite a bit of research on this topic and was pretty convinced - for some reason and as we are about to pull the trigger I'm second guessing myself.

Who is going:
My wife and I are both divers with 20-40 dives. My in-laws will also be joining - they have similar amount of dives. They are in their 50's.

Original thought:
I had decided that I thought Roatan / CoCoView would be a fantastic place to take a trip to. After debating within myself about potential spots, I kept coming back to this location for ease of diving, food included and frequency of diving.

Context:
My wife and in-laws are form Ecuador. In-laws have been to the Galapagos, wife has not. They have recommended that we do a dive trip together to this spot as well. There is always next year and I know that if we do Galapagos, we won't be doing nearly as much diving - but the animals is very different. Tons of sharks, huge schools of fish, etc. etc.

Today:
Having come this far, I started researching and checking out some of the videos of CoCoview/Roatan dives and while beautiful, appear to have very little sea-life. Is this a gross error on my part from videos I've seen? Landscapes/Corals look pretty amazing (i.e. Mary's place), but is the wildlife mediocre?

Once this train of thought started going - I began to look at other options. Little Cayman, Utila. Heck, maybe just take a giant Florida Key's dive road trip if I'm going to see just as amazing stuff? We also have some plans to dive the Keys (which we really haven't explored).

I'm not sure if I'm asking anyone here for the perfect answer, but something to help me find the confidence again in a place like CoCoView, Roatan from the perspective of someone that has been diving almost every weekend Fort Lauderdale, Heron, Pompano, etc.

Any tips? Just want to make sure I'm taking them to a great place to dive as they have been to Galapagos, etc. Granted, I already told them that this is not a big-game viewing place, more macro, etc.

 

[jimw]

I've been to both Cocoview and the Galapagos, CCV will be great for your group IF they do not seek big animals, but rather lots of interesting smaller stuff. It's been some years since I stayed at CCV--haven't been there since the new owners took over--my best guess is that I would still like it as much as I did during the 6 trips I made there. AND, of course; you will be able to dive as much as you can stand!! I did a liveaboard dive boat in the Galapagos and there were only 14 dives for the week--ALL were high quality dives and I did not feel shorted, BUT; one could get twice the number of dives at CCV. You won't be seeing Penguins, surfing sea lions or many big animals at CCV, but you will have constant access to diving and boat dives with a 2nd dive, a drop off on the way back to the dock on one of 2 walls or the wreck of the Prince Albert out front of the resort. I say do both, but do CCV this time to gain experience as the currents are less as is depth and the water temp is higher.

 

[PatW]

I have done CoCo View twice. The fishing pressure is pretty high so large snapper and grouper are pretty scarce. However, the small stuff is very good: butterfly fish, tangs, sea horses, morays, angelfish, toadfish and so on. It also has good corals. Visibility is often superb. Here it is easy to do 4 dives per day. This place is really all about diving and nothing but diving. For more variety topside, I would think Anthoney's Key Resort would be better.

You will see more large fish ay Key Largo, decent coral, good small stuff but the visibility is not great but not bad. Because the reef is pretty far out, it is usually 2 dives per day.

Many divers like Cozumel. It tends to be deeper diving with high speed currents. The visibility tends to be good and there are good populations of large fish. Also the resorts offer quite a bit of bang for the buck.... Free drinks, good food etc. the nicer resorts feel rather high end for a modest price. This is a good place for non divers.

You might a think of the Cayman Islands. I have done both Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Very good sea life. Quite a few turtles. Decent corrals. Visibility is often superb. But both are out islands. Three dives per day.

Each place is different and each has its charms.

 

[Damselfish]

No place is perfect. If you've done your research and think you made a good choice, at some point you need to just go enjoy the things that are good about a place, and not fret over the things it doesn't have - which hopefully you are mostly aware of in advance since you did all that research. I know this is challenging when you are good at it and wind up being the main person planning a trip that other people are going on. You keep worrying if everyone will like it and descend into analysis paralysis. I can identify. I've learned to drag other people into the research or at least decision as much as possible.

Cocoview isn't perfect or for everyone, despite what some will have you believe. For my part I liked the dive camp atmosphere, the efficient dive setup, and the easy access to shore diving with lots of variety - really it's like having many sites from one convenient entry. I was happy enough with our rustic-but-not-too-rustic over the water accommodations. I appreciated that the place seemed generally very well run. I disliked that the 2 tank boat dives were really 1 tank and a drop off. Good food is important to me and I didn't think the food was very good. And I've since found I prefer the West End diving (much as I like macro critters, I also like fishier places and love structure, and found more of all that on the other end/side - but of course there I didn't have the shore diving or get in as many dives when staying there.) Probably we will return to CCV sometime, but I'm not rushing. And when we do it I will likely combine a week at CCV with some time elsewhere on the island.

 

[sportxlh]

I ......You will see more large fish ay Key Largo, decent coral, good small stuff but the visibility is not great but not bad. Because the reef is pretty far out, it is usually 2 dives per day.......

Hey Pat: just curious about the context behind the 2 dives per day in KL. I virtually always do 4 dives when in Key Largo or Islamorada and usually have time to run to Subway or somewhere similar for a quick sandwich between the morning and afternoon dives. I usually use Conch Republic and their boats are on the ocean side but I've done the same routine with Rainbow Reef, Silent World and Quienscence too. I'd hate to see the OP avoiding KL because they think they'll only get half the dives compared to the other places.

 

[scubadada]

Hey Pat: just curious about the context behind the 2 dives per day in KL. I virtually always do 4 dives when in Key Largo or Islamorada and usually have time to run to Subway or somewhere similar for a quick sandwich between the morning and afternoon dives. I usually use Conch Republic and their boats are on the ocean side but I've done the same routine with Rainbow Reef, Silent World and Quienscence too. I'd hate to see the OP avoiding KL because they think they'll only get half the dives compared to the other places.

I've done the same with Ocean Divers many times, even with a good sit down lunch upstairs at the Galley. In fact, I've done 5 dives/day on Wed and Sat, when they run their excellent night dives on Molasses Reef.

The OP is certainly correct, we have great local diving in SE FL, often more fish, larger fish, and more diversity than places I visit

 

[PatW]

I did Quiesence. You come in and they turn around and go right back out. My wife likes to change suits after her morning's dive. At that op, it seemed that if we wanted 4 dives, it was bring lunch in a cooler.

 

[sportxlh]

I did Quiesence......

I must of hit them on a good day because we had almost an hour before we headed back out. Maybe our dive sites were closer to shore...... I occasionally will bring a sandwich, though I use the a dive boat's cooler to store it in the morning, not my own cooler.... that works out well at Conch since they have a nice pavilion and picnic tables that are pretty relaxing to sit at between the trips. Though I'm usually too lazy to plan ahead and just head to Subway or the diner across the street.

 

[dpspaceman]

This is a great feedback guys and I unfortunately fall into the analysis paralysis category quite frequently. I’m the type of person that needs a toaster and goes on Amazon and spends 2-3 hours reading user reviews to arrive at the best value/quality toaster available. Needless to say, I’m the same way with diving and this is our first dive trip that is being planned with my wife and in-laws.

They are from Ecuador and half of them have been to the Galapagos. I’ve done my best to explain and caveat that this trip is not to be compared with the Galapagos as it is much easier diving (not so much currents, etc.) and that they should not expect giant fish, but more beautiful coral and structure coupled with macro life. In reality, it’s more about being in the water as much as possible.

We are planning to hit the Galapagos (Darwin & Wolf) in 2016 and in between do a couple weekends in the Keys as we live in South Florida. I hope that they do appreciate the beauty and simplicity of doing CCV with what it has to offer as I was the one that suggested it.

---------- Post added February 18th, 2015 at 03:14 PM ----------

Thoughts?