Has anyone been to Turquoise Bay, Roatan recently?

[simonds]

I have read mixed reviews of the dive operation at Turquoise Bay and wondered if anyone has been there lately? I visited the resort a couple of weeks ago and it looked lovely. My questions relate to the dive operation. I was surprised to hear they do not use local dive masters. (Fantasy Island, Reef Club and Anthony's Key all do.) Also do they have a mixture of dive sites? I like wall diving and realize that the diving on the north side is more of a sloping reef. But do they have cut-throughs there? Do they come back to the dock between morning dives? Did they adhere to their dive schedule so that there was a decent time for lunch?

 

[Garrobo]

Not me.

 

[Doc]

This is the dive operator: SubWay Watersports

Blow him an email inquiry as to their schedule from Turquiose Bay AI.

Mixed reviews? On Trip Advisor (which is no real standard for measurement) what few negatives they got were from people renting gear. One guy, a snorkeler, was really disappointed in the actual resort's services (note your foreknowledge of the reef structure, something he wasn't aware). The resort itself got whacked a few times, but a lot of it came from people unfamiliar with how the Bay islands is different from the rest of the Caribbean.

They would likely do the morings from The View to Grouper Alley http://www.subwaywatersports.com/pictures/diving/dive sites/dive-sites-north.jpg

I'm not sure what I would care if they hired locals for DMs or not. They likely know how to find cool stuff hidden on the reef.

It is not a dive resort, it is a resort that offers diving.

 

[300bar]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Moved to the Bay island forum.

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[simonds]

Well, I think I read mixed reviews on Scubaboard.

 

[James Bond boat entry]

Take note the two decompression chambers on Roatan are located at Fantasy Island and AKR.

Hyperbaric (Decompression) Chambers available in Roatan

 

[adjuster-jd]

I'm not so sure Fantasy Island still has an operational chamber. Unless they reopened it in the past several months, I think it was shut down sometime last year.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

Yes you are right, the chamber closed at Fantasy Island quite a while ago, the only operational chamber on Roatan is at Anthony's Key.

Its amazing how many Divemasters still put the number for the Fantasy Island chamber on the emergency assistance plans, lack of attention to detail!

 

[adjuster-jd]

Is there any hope that the FIBR chamber might be reopened? When I was at FIBR a couple years ago, they charged a $2 per day chamber fee which went to support their chamber. Apparently that wasnt enough to keep it going..
How much use did the chamber get?

 

[ncchuck]

I'm not sure how the chambers became part of this discussion. Is someone suggesting the divers not visit a particular resort because it lacks a chamber? Makes no sense. Very few resorts world wide have their own chamber. Many islands don't have one. The one on Roatan is open to everyone at every resort. Is someone suggesting we don't visit locations without chambers? It's may be nice to know an island has a chamber but no one asked in this case. The resort in question is about 40 minutes from the chamber while many times divers may have to travel many many hours. Dive safely.