After having been to Roatan on cruise ship dive excursions several times, I wanted to make a dedicated trip to come to Roatan. I took advantage of the 50% off per person sale earlier in the year from Anthony's Key Resort. As a single diver, the pricing worked out well. I booked directly with AKR and my package was 7 nights, 6 days of diving, 3 dives a day, 2 night dives, a trek over to Maya Key, meals, water, tea and coffee, and airport transfers. Despite their website advertising this resort as all inclusive, it is not. There is a charge for everything except water, tea and coffee. Nitrox is $11.50 per tank or $161 for the week. I got a consistent 31% on the Nitrox.
The Bungalow. I stayed in a Key Superior over-the-water bungalow, #18, which requires the one-minute water taxi to go back and forth to the "main" resort with all the amenities. I requested a room close to the taxi dock, and it was 140 steps. There was always a driver available. I'm writing this while in my bungalow since I'm leaving tomorrow, and the diving wasn't that great that I felt the need to do the last 2 dives this morning. More on that to come. The room is sized well enough for a single person with really good A/C and a comfortable queen bed, a mini fridge, coffee maker and coffee supplies. There has been a problem with tiny ants, so everything stays up off the floor. I guess that's to be expected since these bungalows sit right over the mangrove lagoon. My unit shares a covered patio with two other bungalows, but since they've been vacant, I've had the patio to myself. There is free wi-fi in the room and in the lobby and restaurant. Everything on the property is open air, and the only A/C you'll find on the property is in your room.
The Restaurant. The new, ground level restaurant is built but nothing is happening with it opening. So, the existing restaurant is 50 stairs each way. The menu is set with two options for the main course and one option for vegetarian. They are not amenable to customizing your meal. In my opinion, the food quality is below average.
Schedule. The structure of the dive schedule is set up for Saturday to Saturday stays, so on arrival you get an orientation of the operation. You are assigned a boat, captain, and guide for your entire stay. Since my stay started on Wednesday, I got an incomplete, shortened version of the orientation, and I was on a different boat with different crew till Sunday, at which time I had the same boat, crew and divers. They assign you to a boat based on experience. There is a locker room for your gear, and they assign you a locker number and provide a lock. The space is big enough for the heavy gear, BCD, reg, fins, and has two hangers, no shelves. There is one guide and one captain per boat no matter how many divers are on the boat, up to 15 people. The most I had on the boat was 8 other divers, and Sunday and Monday there was just 5 of us. Yay for that! I'm not keen on more than 6-8 divers per guide. There are no surface interval snacks provided. When I did my cruise ship excursions, snacks were provided.
The Service. I give high marks for all the staff on the property. They want you to be happy and will do what they can to make your stay is enjoyable. The dive staff was great. If you needed help with anything, all you had to do was ask. I saw something I've never seen before with one of the captains. As you're exiting the water, you stay on the third rung of the ladder, tilt your body forward, and he removes the tank from your back and hoists it over to your station all in about 20 seconds. You then get on the boat with just your BCD. It was fantastic!!
The Weather and Bugs. It's been very windy since I got here. The mornings start off with a slight breeze and builds to high, gusty winds by the third dive each day, so exiting the water has been rough. At night, the wind gusts were so strong, the bungalow shook, almost like feeling a 2.0 earthquake, shaking side to side. It was raining most of yesterday, but not a downpour; just a light rain. Today it's sunny again. It is sweltering hot and humid...no surprise. The sand flies and mosquitoes are brutal. Sand flies are nasty and invisible. They can deposit their larvae in your skin when they bite, which can cause a bad infection and a parasitic disease called leishmaniasis.
The Diving. There is a coral restoration project going on under water, so I got to see the growing coral garden. The visibility has been less than ideal. The water has a lot of gunk and jellyfish, and I'm really glad I stayed in my 3 mm full wetsuit. The water temps have been 82-89 degrees, and I was tempted to shed the wetsuit. But after seeing what people were looking like diving in shorts with multiple stings, I thought better of it. The reef is suffering much like the rest of the Caribbean. The growth of red and green algae is really sad and it's choking the reef literally to death. It's really brown and colorless down there. There was a site or two that had some impressive barrel sponges sitting amongst a 10-foot perimeter of dead reef. It's not very fishy either. Very few of the typical reef fish could be found. The locals are fishing out the sea. Most of the fish are tiny newborns. There were 3 lionfish this week. The guide speared and killed one of them but then had no interest in killing the other two, even though he told us to alert him and he'd take care of them.
There were a couple of eagle rays to be found and if the viz was better, it would have been a better viewing. Saw a couple of turtles, a single eel, 3 nurse sharks, and the usual sergeant majors, black durgeons on the top of the reef. I did spot some daytime lobsters, and sadly many, many lobster remains of what was obviously too small to kill. Maybe they don't have protections here for killing lobsters under a certain size. On a couple of dives, it was just a 50 minute swim with nothing to see at all. If it weren't for the guides taking us to known critter spots, it would have been really boring diving, although it required a lot of swimming to get there.
I'd say the best dive of the trip was my last dive, yesterday. The guide found three different seahorses, a yellow one, a brown one, and a white one, and that was spectacular! We also had a turtle scream by us swimming for his life. Don't know what was chasing him, but he was flying. I also found a lobster nestled in a barrel sponge and a group of three Pederson cleaner shrimp. I'll try to post the pictures.
The Night Dive. Night diving is a favorite of mine, and oftentimes, as this was, the night dive was better than day diving. We had five octopuses and several supersize lobsters and crabs. But the jellyfish really put a damper on the fun. In the first 20 feet of water, they were everywhere. Other divers had given the advice to wear all the coverup you can. In addition to my fully body covering, I added a buff over my head that came up over my chin and under the reg. And guess what...I got stung on my upper lip exiting the boat. Ouch! I always carry a spray bottle of vinegar, and by the time I got back to my room, the stinging was neutralized.
Something I noticed during my week here; there was a pleasant camaraderie amongst the divers more than I've experienced at other land-based operations. Underwater, everyone would share their discoveries rather than keeping it to themselves. I thought that was really nice. I also talked to many people who have been coming here for years, although I can't figure out why, because the diving is not worth the trip.
I've now marked this off my list of places to dive, but this is a one-and-done trip for me, primarily because the dive experience was not great. If I had paid the regular rate, I'd be much more grumpy about having to spend the time, money, and effort to come from Oregon.
The Bungalow. I stayed in a Key Superior over-the-water bungalow, #18, which requires the one-minute water taxi to go back and forth to the "main" resort with all the amenities. I requested a room close to the taxi dock, and it was 140 steps. There was always a driver available. I'm writing this while in my bungalow since I'm leaving tomorrow, and the diving wasn't that great that I felt the need to do the last 2 dives this morning. More on that to come. The room is sized well enough for a single person with really good A/C and a comfortable queen bed, a mini fridge, coffee maker and coffee supplies. There has been a problem with tiny ants, so everything stays up off the floor. I guess that's to be expected since these bungalows sit right over the mangrove lagoon. My unit shares a covered patio with two other bungalows, but since they've been vacant, I've had the patio to myself. There is free wi-fi in the room and in the lobby and restaurant. Everything on the property is open air, and the only A/C you'll find on the property is in your room.
The Restaurant. The new, ground level restaurant is built but nothing is happening with it opening. So, the existing restaurant is 50 stairs each way. The menu is set with two options for the main course and one option for vegetarian. They are not amenable to customizing your meal. In my opinion, the food quality is below average.
Schedule. The structure of the dive schedule is set up for Saturday to Saturday stays, so on arrival you get an orientation of the operation. You are assigned a boat, captain, and guide for your entire stay. Since my stay started on Wednesday, I got an incomplete, shortened version of the orientation, and I was on a different boat with different crew till Sunday, at which time I had the same boat, crew and divers. They assign you to a boat based on experience. There is a locker room for your gear, and they assign you a locker number and provide a lock. The space is big enough for the heavy gear, BCD, reg, fins, and has two hangers, no shelves. There is one guide and one captain per boat no matter how many divers are on the boat, up to 15 people. The most I had on the boat was 8 other divers, and Sunday and Monday there was just 5 of us. Yay for that! I'm not keen on more than 6-8 divers per guide. There are no surface interval snacks provided. When I did my cruise ship excursions, snacks were provided.
The Service. I give high marks for all the staff on the property. They want you to be happy and will do what they can to make your stay is enjoyable. The dive staff was great. If you needed help with anything, all you had to do was ask. I saw something I've never seen before with one of the captains. As you're exiting the water, you stay on the third rung of the ladder, tilt your body forward, and he removes the tank from your back and hoists it over to your station all in about 20 seconds. You then get on the boat with just your BCD. It was fantastic!!
The Weather and Bugs. It's been very windy since I got here. The mornings start off with a slight breeze and builds to high, gusty winds by the third dive each day, so exiting the water has been rough. At night, the wind gusts were so strong, the bungalow shook, almost like feeling a 2.0 earthquake, shaking side to side. It was raining most of yesterday, but not a downpour; just a light rain. Today it's sunny again. It is sweltering hot and humid...no surprise. The sand flies and mosquitoes are brutal. Sand flies are nasty and invisible. They can deposit their larvae in your skin when they bite, which can cause a bad infection and a parasitic disease called leishmaniasis.
The Diving. There is a coral restoration project going on under water, so I got to see the growing coral garden. The visibility has been less than ideal. The water has a lot of gunk and jellyfish, and I'm really glad I stayed in my 3 mm full wetsuit. The water temps have been 82-89 degrees, and I was tempted to shed the wetsuit. But after seeing what people were looking like diving in shorts with multiple stings, I thought better of it. The reef is suffering much like the rest of the Caribbean. The growth of red and green algae is really sad and it's choking the reef literally to death. It's really brown and colorless down there. There was a site or two that had some impressive barrel sponges sitting amongst a 10-foot perimeter of dead reef. It's not very fishy either. Very few of the typical reef fish could be found. The locals are fishing out the sea. Most of the fish are tiny newborns. There were 3 lionfish this week. The guide speared and killed one of them but then had no interest in killing the other two, even though he told us to alert him and he'd take care of them.
There were a couple of eagle rays to be found and if the viz was better, it would have been a better viewing. Saw a couple of turtles, a single eel, 3 nurse sharks, and the usual sergeant majors, black durgeons on the top of the reef. I did spot some daytime lobsters, and sadly many, many lobster remains of what was obviously too small to kill. Maybe they don't have protections here for killing lobsters under a certain size. On a couple of dives, it was just a 50 minute swim with nothing to see at all. If it weren't for the guides taking us to known critter spots, it would have been really boring diving, although it required a lot of swimming to get there.
I'd say the best dive of the trip was my last dive, yesterday. The guide found three different seahorses, a yellow one, a brown one, and a white one, and that was spectacular! We also had a turtle scream by us swimming for his life. Don't know what was chasing him, but he was flying. I also found a lobster nestled in a barrel sponge and a group of three Pederson cleaner shrimp. I'll try to post the pictures.
The Night Dive. Night diving is a favorite of mine, and oftentimes, as this was, the night dive was better than day diving. We had five octopuses and several supersize lobsters and crabs. But the jellyfish really put a damper on the fun. In the first 20 feet of water, they were everywhere. Other divers had given the advice to wear all the coverup you can. In addition to my fully body covering, I added a buff over my head that came up over my chin and under the reg. And guess what...I got stung on my upper lip exiting the boat. Ouch! I always carry a spray bottle of vinegar, and by the time I got back to my room, the stinging was neutralized.
Something I noticed during my week here; there was a pleasant camaraderie amongst the divers more than I've experienced at other land-based operations. Underwater, everyone would share their discoveries rather than keeping it to themselves. I thought that was really nice. I also talked to many people who have been coming here for years, although I can't figure out why, because the diving is not worth the trip.
I've now marked this off my list of places to dive, but this is a one-and-done trip for me, primarily because the dive experience was not great. If I had paid the regular rate, I'd be much more grumpy about having to spend the time, money, and effort to come from Oregon.
