Henry Morgan resort, Roatan

[ogopogo007]

Have been to Roatan in the late 1970's & early 1980's, headed back next month
Dove a lot of the Carribean since.

Since the arrival of cruise ships on Roatan, are the fish a goner?

what about the yappy dogs?

Has the island 'Cozumel'd itself?"

TIA

 

[Doc]

Have been to Roatan in the late 1970's & early 1980's, headed back next month
Dove a lot of the Carribean since.

You're going to see a lot of changes. HM Resort, for one. Roatan used to only have Dive resorts. Now you have resorts that offer some diving. You're about to see that distinction first hand.

Since the arrival of cruise ships on Roatan, are the fish a goner?

The environment is still better than most Caribbean destinations. The change in fish population is not directly caused by the cruise ships, it's more a factor of the Red Lobster Syndrome as well as localized land development and siltation run off.

what about the yappy dogs?

Depends on where you stay. Dogs are all over the Caribbean, surely you have seen a few in your travels.

Has the island 'Cozumel'd itself?"

It's only a matter of time, but no... not even close.

TIA

If you were there in the "Late 70's and Early 80's" and have "dove a lot of the Caribbean since", you pretty well already knew the answers to these questions.

When you first went there, you were quite the adventurer. Nowadays, people are asking how the ATMs work and about Cell Phones and internet.

Roatan is the current last outpost in the Caribbean. As economic situations improve, the onsalught of paradise seekers will expand to other newer islands. Surely the addition of an island as a cruise ship port marks the beginning of the end, and in this era, that change is much accelerated as compared to the changes that came over Cayman or Nassau from their 50/60's starting point.

There is still much to see for most visiting divers, and if a diver is truly an advanced Caribbean diver, he is likely to find treasures beneath the sea as well, certainly on Roatan.

To those who are reading and wondering, "Go, see it now".

 

[ogopogo007]

Used to be quite an adventure to get from Toronto to Roatan. Sometimes stopped in Atlanta, then Miami, then Belize City, then San Pedro Sula. Change planes to la Ceiba & perhaps, if not getting dark, might DC3 to the Island. almost left a dive buddy in la Ceiba once, he thought we were in San Pedro & decided to do a city taxi cab tour.

Now it's a direct flight from Toronto, on the beach by noon.

Evening entertainment was sitting around Anthony Key Resort telling knock knock jokes.

The past few years, have been diving in San Andres.

Is the water cold enough for a 5 mil wetsuit in Roatan? I had met a lady from New Orleans in Roatan & she used a tee shirt over a swimsuit. Looked cute underwater but she seemed cold on the surface

 

[oldmaninthesea]

I stayed at Henry Morgan Resort from Feb 13 to 27. Send me a private message if you have specific questions.
The vis was so-so. A lot of rain prior to our arrival, good weather the first week and more rain the second. The cruise ship people have very little impact on West Bay. Maybe 40 or 50 extra people snorkeling virtually none diving. They main snorkeling area is patrolled by several guys in kayaks who do a pretty good job of telling people not to stand on the reef.
I dove with TGIDiving at Henry Morgan Resort. Good operation. Most dive sites have one or two boats. TGI has a large boat and takes up to 20 or so divers and several divemasters. Most dives there were around 10-12 divers on the boat. Much less than last year. Some afternoon dives only 4 divers.
Comparing this year to last there seemed to be fewer people visiting Roatan both cruise shippers and 1 week 2 week visitors. I am new to diving and don't have much to compare it to but Roatan seems to be a long way from the overdevelopment on Cozumel.

 

[Ayisha]

If you want a quiet, undeveloped area basically in Roatan with a very healthy reef, stay at the Reef House Resort. We just returned on Friday from the Reef House Resort and loved it, had a great time. It's on a tiny caye off Roatan, they have a water taxi/shuttle (10 minutes or so) that takes you across from Roatan. West end was a little more developed, but NOTHING like Cozumel. It's one of the least developed places I've seen. It will no doubt be different from the way you remember it, but it will surely be fun anyway!

 

[leadweight]

Certainly, cruise ships will not make Roatan a better place to dive. Bugs will keep Roatan from ever becoming as developed as Coz or Grand Cayman.

As for a 5 mil, the water was pretty cool in January. My worn out 3 mil plus chicken vest was not enough. All of the instructors were using 5/4 suits.

 

[Ayisha]

The water temps were 77 - 79 F last week on the South side. I wore a 3 mm full wetsuit and I was fine. Some people wore a 5 mm full wetsuit, even with a hooded vest and some even wore a 7 mm full wetsuit. Most of our group was ok with a 3 mm full wetsuit, especially the males.

March will presumably be warmer when you go. Also, most of the time, it was hot and sunny, so you really warm up between dives. It all depends on your tolerance.

 

[ogopogo007]

We had a great vacation at Henry Morgan. Food was very good, thanks to the Italian influence.
Diving was good to great, lot's of large groupers on the wreck dive & Pablo's Place was the best. Dove with TGI that was mostly a nice, laid-back atmosphere, perhaps lost in translation, after the afternoon dive, back at the dive shop with water in my ear, we had to made a decision to do a 2 tank dive the next am as the boat was going to be ferried around to the east side due to forecast north winds (same time Texas had a blizzard on the panhandle & torrential rains along the Gulf Coast)

I really felt hustled to commit to a 2 tank dive, that left early on the bus for a 45 minute drive to the boat...on weather than may not arrive. As it was my wifes' birthday, I had arranged a cake to be made that night, I didn't want to get up that early the next day.
So we declined to go diving, next morning the seas were flat & we did a dive after the boat came back. Much todo about nothing.
The night dive was really lame, the sun was barely down & we were in the water, Not much to see, we ended up back under the boat with 1500 PSI. Turn the lights off for a moment, swish hands back & forth, then a couple of OK signs & up into the boat. I can understand that the dive instructors want to get on with their evening adventures, but it wasn't worth $45.

We stayed healthy & safe. Some trip stuff that didn't work well, not HM issues but Conquest Vacations issues. Originally the departure from Toronto was 6:25am, direct flight to Roatan. We couldn't get a red eye from BC in time, so we took time off from work & flew in the night before. Our connector flight to Vancouver was delayed a bunch, so caught a later flight east.
Day before departure, Conquest decided to combine Cuba & Roatan flights, departing 12:55pm, so now we were facing a lot more that just a few hours layover in the airport, so the expense of a airport hotel was added to the trip & our connections home didn't work anymore due to the much later arrival back in Toronto. But the red-eye would of worked but $60 each to change the ticket.

Conquest Vacations stopped operating this past week, after 36 years in holiday travel. Hearing horror stories about vacationers having to pay the hotel directly for their vacations before checking out. Bummer, we were thinking of going back next year.
Things could of been a lot worse