Trip review ScubaBoard Invasion 2014 Roatan AKR

[cardzard]

ScubaBoard Invasion 2014 Roatan Anthony's Key Resort Trip Report -
The short version...

It was frigin AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for the details.

We (Roxanne and I) started this excursion once again choosing Bay Adventures for our travel agent to take care of all the booking for the group. They were there to help with questions, travel insurance and assisting with airfares. I must say that Al and Felix did an exceptional job (as always) which made our planning much easier.
We can not thank them enough for their efforts!!!!!!!!!

We chose Anthony's Key Resort (AKR) as the 2014 ScubaBoard Invasion hosts. They did a wonderful job from the very moment we arrived once we cleared baggage screening. There was a little confusion when private venders tried to handle our bags. They had already started to gather our bags with the green tags, but AKR took control and made sure our bags were secured. they welcomed us and there was a AC van waiting to take us to the resort. We were informed our bags would be taken to our room on the island. HOW EASY IS THAT. It was about 15 minute ride to the resort where we were greeted with drinks and an orientation about the resort. A few minutes of handing in our paperwork or filling out the missing paperwork and we were headed to the island. Our room was ready, clean and worked well as a home away from home for the time we spent at the resort. The view and cabana porch were AWESOME, one piece of advise DO NOT lay in the hammocks for to long or you may not want to get up. We heard more than 1 crew member fell victim to the hammocks during the week and were planing to smuggle it home in their suitcases. We felt the property was well maintained and spacious after all we had our own island with a pool and bar. The back and forth transfer to the island was a very simple boat ride and we never waited more than a couple minutes. The food was good and beautifully presented and the waiters were always ready to help. The welcome party was held on the island complete with tiki torches, bar and music. Some lucky crew members won GoPro cameras and Light & motion lights among other prizes at the welcome party. The farewell party was held on the main island at the bar. They gave us the entire bar area ( how cool is that) and presented ScubaBoard with a gorgeous cake for it's 14th birthday! We announced the winner of the weekly contests and gave away lots of prizes from this year's Prize Sponsors ( I cannot THANK the Prize Sponsors enough. YOU FOLKS ROCK!!!)
Yolanda and Mandy and the rest of the AKR staff did an outstanding job of taking care of our group.
Thank you for all your efforts!!!!!!!!!!

Diving
Kevin and his staff worked with me in advance with information on the boats and pre-planing. To say the Invasion crew members are not you normal dive group is a VAST understatement, but Kevin took us in stride. When divers first checked in at the dive shop they were each issued a locker for the week. The gear lockers were HUGE and complete with a hanger located right on the dock. Every morning your locker number was assigned to a boat on the large chalkboard outside the dive shop making it easy to find you boat. Kevin & Denny worked very hard to make sure even with our group rotations that no group missed any of the MUST DO dive sites during the week.
Once again the Scuba Gods smiled of the Invasion crew and we were blessed with great weather and calm seas. Most boat rides were 1 tank and took less than 15 minutes to be onsite. Except the day everyone goes to the other side of the island to dive and visit Maya Key.On that day, we took 2 tanks and dove the other side of the island. Maya Key is an animal sanctuary with lots of rescued animals native to Honduras. We had a great lunch and tour on the key then it was back for more diving. With 3 scheduled boat dive per day, 2 boat night dives during the week and shore diving I don't know how you could ask for more. AKR dive shop staff is a well oiled machine and they handled us beautifully and efficiently. Kudos, kudos, kudos! We had great DM’s and Captains for the week who took us on many fantastic dives.

The staff at AKR was top notch all week long. Thank you for all your efforts!!!!!!!!!

Highlights for me was the shark & dolphin dives and the Spooky Channel site.

With so much diving (poor us) we did not get to venture out from the resort much. This is also our 4th visit for us personally to Roatan which should also tell how much we enjoy the diving there. However we did make an afternoon trip with our friends Laurens & Elzie to Gumbalimba Park which was about a 20 minute ride from the resort. There we learned about the island's history and met some of the local animals. While holding the Macaws was very cool nothing compares to monkeys climbing all over you. There is video and who knows it may make it into this year's Invasion video. This was a nice way to see more of the island and though we did not choose to they have a huge zip line system there also. Some of the other Invasion crew tried it out and had a great time.

In closing, Roxanne and I want to Thank all the 2014 ScubaBoard Invasion Crew Members, their families and friends who truly made this Invasion such a success. We couldn’t of asked for a better group of people! Everyone worked together, made new friends and were good to each other. What great ScubaBoard camaraderie! All the laughs and memories are priceless!

And thank you again to all the wonderful Prize Sponsors who donated more than
$20,000 in prizes!

To see who won what, check out the Prize Sponsors page.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sc...469722-2014-scubaboard-invasion-sponsors.html

If any other crew members would like to post a trip report of their experiences, please post here.

 

[Smit]

What Dennis said. Freakin' awesome! :banana:

 

[Colin Gray]

Right on with that report. Thanks to you and Roxanne it was "awesome".

 

[The Chairman]

It would be easy to criticize Dennis and Roxanne for not handling as many problems this year, but it just wasn't their fault. You see, we just didn't have that many problems for them to fix and absolutely no biggies! Yay!!!

I have seen and been to a lot of resorts and many, many more dive ops around the world. I have never seen this level of service before delivered so seamlessly and with so much joy. Like Dennis said, it started at the Airport. I took my bags off of the carousel and they were whisked away from me. I did follow them through customs, but then I did not deal with them until I got into my cabana. The cabanas were clean, the AC was nice, the back porch was awesome and the wireless was fast & stable.

The diving was also incredibly easy. You were assigned a locker right by the boats. In the morning you set up your gear, or let them do it, and you were ready to start the fun. John Carter (not from Mars) was our Dive Guide and he was great. He took care of everyone, including their gear. I have to say, that I was spoiled by the 5 minute trip to the reef. You barely get settled and bingo: it's time to splash! The views are stunning as there are lots of crevasses and walls. Not nearly as many fish as I was expecting, but then I live in the Keys but there were an abundant number of lobsters. Some of the fish were very big and friendly though. Petting a hundred pound black grouper is always fun. Lots of fun swim throughs and artificial reefs made this one of my favorite places. After the first dive, it was another five minute trip back in. The DG changed tanks out for you while you relaxed on the dock. Usually when this happens, I have to redo it at least a bit to get all my routings right. Not here, John got it right each and every time.

Make no doubt about it, this was an awesome place to relax and dive for a week. You can bet that I will be going back. However, it was made even nicer by Dennis' attention to detail and his insistence that things be done his way. He brings the absolute best out of any resort and is why we have as many repeat divers as we do. Dennis and Roxanne, you guys ROCK. This was the best Invasion ever and it was definitely the most relaxing. I can't wait for Coz next year and the Philippines the year after.

 

[snowdog61]

This was my first Invasion and yes, I was a bit hesitant to jump at first. I mean really, 7 days with a group of people you barely know, locked into a dive resort and pulling a freshly certified insta-buddy with me was cause for some trepidations. We managed to get 9 tanks together before the trip and jelled pretty darn well - I'm low and slow and usually toting a camera and my biggest complaint would be having a buddy that had my six so much i was finning him frequently when I'd stop to shoot (not really a complaint right? as it's way better then the disappearing, splash and dash partners I've had before). For me the trip couldn't have been much better. Couldn't have asked for a better dive team if I had hand picked them. I got to see what great trim looks like and got tips on how to improve mine. And come on - having a 3 to 5 minute boat ride before you typically splash on the dive site - that's just ridiculous!! Reefs were gorgeous though maybe a bit sparse on creatures - I did think the diving was better on the west side - the Mia Key reef dives were what I was expecting of Roatan and we chose to go back there for the Thursday divers choice. No complaints though on any of the locations - those spooky caverns and deep cuts/swim throughs were amazing! I guess my biggest regret was not getting more shore dives in - would have been nice to have gotten wet that first day we arrived and a nice treat prior to the Meet & Greet. The food provided by AKR was way better then any "meal plan package deal" I would have imagined. Who ever was making their soups deserves some applause - consistently good and that conk soup was truly the best I've tasted. Service at times was a bit spotty but everything eventually got there.

Trip planning - wow, hard to imagine all the work that went into coordinating this, getting sponsors, planning the socials, etc. Way to go Roxanne & Dennis - Great execution! And the prizes - yep, yep, yep! Got new tank band weight pouches to fix my trim and a MV Spree trip to still plan. sweet!! Would I do Roatan again? Hell yeah! With this Crew? oh yeah - Cozumel is on my bucket list along with the Pacific. Can't get here soon enough!