Live From West End, Roatan

[Doc]

Yes, let's do the math.... And while I may feel as strongly about Coconut Tree as you do about CCV, one can replace the specific dive shop in my figures above with nearly any West End op and come out with the same total.

Re-read my post. You missed the point. I was talking about AI resorts versus ala-carte... as a general comparison. The original poster brought up a specific resort, CCV- so that's what I used as a comparison. I could do the math with any other AI as well.

I think the math, again, is apples and oranges. More importantly, the traveller must understand and admit what they want out of their vacation.

Too often, vacationers over-state their need for access to diving. Many travellers do a few dives and focus their attention on toasting the sunsets. AI resorts on Roatan, as a whole, are not good for this "vacation with some diving". They are not cost effective and quite often the internal atmosphere is not conducive to much other than diving. For this, how could you beat the West End?

The ala-carte method has its bennefits. Aside from allowing cost/bennefit possibilities for the occasional diver, you can easily try different restaurants, dive ops and more. This is, for the hondo gotta-dive types- this can also be the downside.

Another example: We enjoy Tobago quite a bit. We go to one hotel, the Blue Waters Inn, we dive with an off-premisis dive op called Red Man. We do not elect to utilize the food service or dive op of this otherwise outstanding AI property. Why? It is set up to service European divers who don't come demanding 5 a day. They do two and then go bird watching. So, we just sleep there. We like the view.

Now, in the Roatan example we have above, Undefined turned it into Apples and Nectarines. For the purpose of comparison, your numbers are off. We were showing what the original poster was computing, and for a comparable week in this calendar year, the total price of the AI was $1000.

I say it a thousand times- there is no one resort or operation that will suit everyones needs. But- the first step is to understand what you want out of the trip.

Too many people don't admit to themselves or really understand what they want out of that precious vacation week.

CCV doesn't become cost effective unless we were to exceed 4 dives per day every day.

And that's all I was saying.

 

[leadweight]

Math wizards,

The $41 room has two of us in it, and the dives at Pura Vida are $15 each. I don't mind searching for grub. Also my buddy, the Mermaid only does 2 dives a day, and most days that is what I do. It is a 2 week trip, so the dives will add up. Finally, its not about money. We just prefer town to AI. Many will prefer AI to town. That is why ice cream comes in so many flavors.

Today we launched from the south side again. First did Mary's Place 112'/55 minutes and then a drift dive starting at 40 foot point going west about 3 pins 65'/62 minutes. We had the run of Mary's place and I swam through two or 3 times. We returned to town about 2:30 pm and I finished lunch at 3:45, A burger and two beers at Rotan Ricks, nice. The wind is dieing down.

-Ron

 

[undefined]

If you get a chance, take some photos of the inside of Posada Arco Iris. My wife and I have considering staying there but haven't seen much of the inside of the rooms....

 

[hallboy]

and how is the diving from west end? ( lot of fishes? big ones ? small ones? What vivibility etcetc ) wich dive op?

 

[SteveFass]

undefined - I haven't stayed at the Iris, but I checked out one room and gotta say I was shocked how NICE it was. Beautiful wood flooring, art on the walls, plenty of sq. ft., bathroom in great shape.

Besides not being on the ocean, the only thing I didn't like was there was no hammock to chill out in. You're either in your room or out on the town. Then again, Sundowners is your front yard and they have lounge chairs on the sand.

 

[leadweight]

Arcos Iris is right across the street from the beach. You can see it from the porch. The rooms are nice, and fairly large. The bed is a double, not a Queen. Its OK unless two real heavy folks are going to share it. Lots of wood and there is artwork on the walls.

Diving has been with Pura Vida. $15 per dive if you do 10 or more and have your own gear. Don't expect much serviced at that price and the boats can be crowded. My solution to that is gear up early and start diving when the captain cuts the motor. Leaves more room for the others and my dive will be 5 or 7 minutes longer.

Today was my 800th dive, at Octopus Garden. 50 something feet for 67 minutes. Ideal conditions, my SAC was a measly .36 cubic feet per minute.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

I've stayed at Posada Arcos Iris twice (most recently last July) and have had 3 different rooms, all "shockingly" nice. It's a good operation, things were in good repair, hot water available etc. Very nicely located. They have room pics on their website:
http://www.roatanposada.com/index.html

 

[Bay Island Diver]

the dives at Pura Vida are $15 each.

At $15/dive they can barely be profitabl;e unless the indulge in such dive pratices as dropping divers off on more than one site in the same boat, meaning should an dive emergency arise the dive boat may or may not be there to assist. Have you experienced this?

I have had to lend a customer from Pura Vida a weight belt before because the dive boat left them so quickly they hadn't even decended yet and found one customer had forgotten his belt. If it hadn't been for me he would have had a 50 min snorkel:shakehead

You gets what you pays for!

Will

 

[leadweight]

At $15/dive they can barely be profitabl;e unless the indulge in such dive pratices as dropping divers off on more than one site in the same boat, meaning should an dive emergency arise the dive boat may or may not be there to assist. Have you experienced this?

I have had to lend a customer from Pura Vida a weight belt before because the dive boat left them so quickly they hadn't even decended yet and found one customer had forgotten his belt. If it hadn't been for me he would have had a 50 min snorkel:shakehead

You gets what you pays for!

Will

There was never anything like dropping off divers at multiple sites. Prices all over West End are low. If you don't have your own gear, its $20 per dive like everyone else. I think think their prices are low because the service is minimal. Divers handle their own gear a lot and the boats can be crowded. My solution to crowded boats is to be first in the water. I get an extra 5 or 10 minutes dive time that way while everyone else fumbles around.

If you want your gear carried for you, Native Sons does it for $20 per dive, but their boats have no sun cover. You would probably have to tip more.

We got started using Pura Vida since it was right next door to the hotel. When we moved up the street to Arcos Iris it was simple not to change. The manager, Helen is really nice.

 

[Roatan Marine Park]

Thats good to hear, nice to know those rumurs are not true.