You answered my question in a round about way.
You had a great time at Cocoview, as do many divers. Without really knowing anything about the other operations you decided to draw comparisons.
My only question is does what said really help others make an INFORMED decision. Unless you can give some fact to back up your assertions maybe you should just comment on what you know to be fact, as do I.
Roatanman in his last post gave a nice balanced viewpoint, Cocoview serves their niche extremely well, arguably they could be described as peerless, but that wouldn't really do FI and BIBR justice. But it IS a niche. People who want to go diving, diving, diving and go home needing a vacation. When i go skiing/snowboarding, that is what I want so I understand the mentality well.
Other operators on the island serve a very different niche, they tend to do more hand holding of the their divers and there is little opportunity to dive independently from the group/instructor. They rarely hire divemasters preferring to have instructors do the the instructing and divemastering job. When we look at the original post it it advice for BEGINNERS. I still maintain that a beginner may fall in to the category of liking to have their hand held for a few more dives before doing the independant thing. My ONLY financial interest in any dive operation on this island is the PRO training which i currently do at Coconut Tree Divers, but am not necessarily exclusively teaching there, my involvement with diving on the island stretches beyond Coconut Tree and the West End.
In my posts i try very hard to deal in facts, giving a balanced view of the pros and cons of different dive options. With the EXTENSIVE knowledge I have of Roatan, having dived with many of the operations on the island in five years living full time here, I think my contribution to this forum, far from being unwanted and is extremely valuable to most people.
Especially when it points out bogus posts by people who only have minimal experience on the island but feel qualified to recommend one particular resort as the BEST on the island, all things to all men etc etc. I do have interests on the island but even I don't make outrageous claims like that. Which just highlight the ignorance of the poster rather than knowledge.
I drove in to Coxen hole today as i do about three times a week along the coast road meaning I had a great view of both the North and South coasts of the island. As usual for the months of May, June, July, August and September the trade winds were strong meaning there were many white caps and what i would describe as quite rough seas. Not the sort of thing many beginner divers would enjoy. That means that people at south side resorts CCV and FI amongst others, are either limited to diving inside the reef or have to brave these seas. The north side was a flat calm. In the months of November December, January and February the opposite will be true, and it will be raining on both sides of the island seriously effecting visability. Every year the effects of rain on vis get worse due to the unchecked construction which is happening. This is a MAJOR consideration for anyone planning a dive trip anywhere. Especially if you are reasonably new to diving or prone to sea sickness. How about that for a balanced opinion backed up by fact which no one can argue with? See how it differs from just saying one place is better than all the rest full stop?
