Roatan Trip Report

[Colin]

Just back from Roatan and Fantasy Island Resort. We had a group of 27, including one non-diver.

The highlights:
First, I've stayed at FIR before, and found it to be very nice. This trip however, things were not quite as good as they have been in the past. Don't get me wrong, it's still an OK place to stay, but the little things seemed to creep up now and then to make me give a second thought to staying here again. Let me explain: the rooms are getting a little aged, and seemed to always have a musty odor to them, which decreased when we ran the noisy AC when we were out diving. The bathrooms are sorely in need of a remodel job; a bit of mold and mildew in and around the shower/tub. Nothing major, but one would hope the housekeeping staff would notice. There was very little hot water...at best the showers were warm. In fact, the hottest water was at the dock/dive center, and some of the folks who were not in my grouyp showered there after the last dive of the day. Bed pilows were like rocks..we had to ask for two more so that they would stack up to one normal pillow. Some of the rooms are undergoing some renovation, but since the resort was full, I didn't get a chance to peek at one.

Food on the other hand was great! Buffets for all three meals, and there were lots of choices for even the most finicky eater in the group. Breakfast and dinner are served in the main dining room, with lunch served the the beachfront bar area.

Now for the diving:
The diving packages generally consist of three boat dives per day, departing the dock at 9 am, 11am, and 2:30pm. There is one night dive included in most packages. After each dive the boat returns to the dock, since the dive sites are not more than a 15 minute boat ride, in most cases. It's nice to dive that way, since you can then change lenses, grab a cold pop, or run back to your room for something you may have forgotten on the first dive. The boat crews tear down and re-set your gear while you take a break. There are five boats, and each carries O2, first aid, and fresh fruit and water for between dives.

There is shore diving available from the resort's gazebo area, where you can visit the wreck of a old DC-3 and the wreck of the Price Albert all in the same dive. Depth here about 60 feet max. There is a cable run from the gazebo to the airplane and then to the wreck for easy navigation in poor visibility. All you need to do is set up your gear at the main dock, and have one of the dock crew take you over to the gazebo in the skiff, then once you're finished diving, call the dive shop from the gaezbo and they'll come and get you. Gear storage lockers are available, but are not locked until 8pm.

Dive sites had at a minimum 80 feet of visibility, and since there were days when the water was flat calm and sunny skies , some sites had 150 feet plus! Depths range from 100 feet at some of the "advanced sites" to 20-30 at the tops of the reefs. There are the usual suspects when it comes to marine life, including lobster, green morays, spotted morays, etc, etc. 

The highlight of the trip, though was the shark dive, run out of another dive center on the island. They take you out about 2 miles offshore to a reef finger in about 70 feet of water, where there are always sharks around. The divemaster gathers the griup near a small coral wall and then once everyone is situated and comfortable, gives the sign to swim freely with these magnificent animals, some up to 8-10 feet in length. After about 15 minutes of shooting photos, the lead divemaster then opens the cover on a small 5-gallon bucket of food he's brought down. Then the action really heats up! after about 30 seconds, the food is gone, everyone is looking for the bucket, and can't believe how fast things just happened. The only downside to this dive is that the currents can vbe quite intense, so this dive is not for a new diver, or one unaccustomed to strong currents.

So, would I go back? Probably, but I would wait until I heard the resort has remodeled.

Photos coming soon!

Colin.