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.

 

[Doc]

If you like little cool stuff, the South side of Roatan is the place. Shallow vertical walls, Sunlit all day long, it's the sheltered luxurious growth of these soft and hard Corals that provides a home for an abundance of macro and juvenile species.

Click on the link in my sig line (this is weird) and see the truly micro stuff, then look through my other Photobucket albums with Roatan titles. You'll see lots of pix of really cool critters, all shot at CCV.

We travel a lot, all throughout the year. Been to Galapagos ten or so times, the SoPac a bunch. You're right, big stuff and terrestrial diversions, you can't beat Ecuador. In the SoPac, I have made the Philippines my favorite for abundance of colorful macro. The Caribbean really can not compare, but if you want tge "best of what's left" in that Sea, it's Roatan.

We get back to CCV at least annually, we'll be there in May. Easy diving, great boats, perfect naturalist Dive Masters, brilliant shore dive. We rate it highly, as do the people who have been there and tried it.

 

[CajunDiva]

I agree with Doc. I'm devoted to the south shore of Roatan. I never tire of the amazing life found there. We have also experienced the diving on the West/North side of the island, and at the right time of the year that's where you will find the larger creatures to gawk at. We saw turtles on every dive - sometimes more than one. We also saw spotted eagle rays on just about every dive. And then there was the elusive Manta in the distance :shocked2:

There are lots of nice places to stay on West Bay Beach (which is beautiful), where you could take advantage of the diving on that side of the island. Or if you choose the south side, there are numerous options from Barefoot Cay Resort to Fantasy Island to CocoView to Media Luna Resort to Reef House Resort.

We dive frequently in Key Largo, which is our USA dive "home", but we can never stay away from Roatan for long - it's a very special place.

 

[drrich2]

If you're in south Florida, have under 25 (or up to 40?) dives and want to have a good time, you could get a lot of diving in fast at Key Largo; my trip report from Sept. 2013. 20 dives in 5 days. Fine diving. You mention some places you've dove; how did you find the diving at Ft. Lauderdale & Pompano? Might help people advise you if they know what you found lacking, or want something different in comparison to, for example.

Much of what I hear about Galapagos diving is in reference to live-aboards, so the land-based may be different, but aside from being colder than the Caribbean it sounded to me like the conditions could be quite challenging. If you've not hit the 50 dive mark yet, I question the wisdom of planning a dive trip there unless people with 1st hand experience can give strong reassurance to the contrary.

Do a forum search for Roatan and look at some of Doc's other postings in those threads. You'll see the diving varies depending on what part of the island you're on.

I'd suggest a dive-intensive trip to Key Largo, get your AOW at some point if you haven't (helps make sure you'll be allowed on some deeper dives), then a Caribbean destination (whether Roatan, which I haven't hit yet, or other). When you're ready to expand your diving a bit, Florida offers you more, including some big stuff, like at the Goliath Grouper aggregation - my trip with Jupiter Dive Center, Sept. 2014.

Richard.

 

[sheeper]

+1 on drrich2 post! With the amount of dives you have a dive crazy Keys trip would likely be well worth it. And as you are driving, the is no "no-fly" window. Heck, you can do a quick dive on the way home!

I have seen too many newer divers with <50 dives invest huge amounts of money to go to exotic dive spots and get disappointed or worse, give up diving due to a poor experience that was mostly due to inexperience.

Get some Keys diving in and then come dive out of Jupiter, Fl for the big sea life experience that we have here. Sharks, turtles, manta rays and other surprises await.

 

[Floribbean Divers]

CCV is one of my favorite resorts. I know you will not be disappointed if you go there. In fact I would gamble that you will return there many times over as thousands of divers including me have done for years. Awesome dive boats and you could spend your whole week if you wanted diving 24/7 from the shore. DO NOT PASS UP CCV!!!!

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[dpspaceman]

Thanks all. Very much appreciate the tips and advice. We do in fact have a Florida road trip lined up, but do want to do a trip. I guess CCV will be good!

 

[luscioman]

I suggest doing a trip to the keys. With the winter months the wind can be a bit nasty though.

 

[dpspaceman]

We are planning a trip to the keys regardless of whether or not we do CoCoView. We can take a 3-day weekend and make it a 5 day dive trip. Takes us 2-3 hours to get down there. I suspect that CoCoView will work out then!!

---------- Post added February 10th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ----------

Unless you would choose bonaire over roatan?!!?!?! ahhh!!!