Anthony's key trip report

[wildbill9]

Spent a week and these are my observations. Airport arrival took about 20-30 min, had a AKR Rep waiting, sent us to a van and off we went- 9 out of 10 only because they packed us in like sardines but I have been on many airport trips that were worse. Check in was painless since we already had everything filled out. Orientation told us nothing we didn't already know (we had done our homework) 10 out of 10. Even though it was 2:30 pm they had sandwiches on a buffet along with side dishes. Very nice touch, after getting up at 3a we were starved, grub was ok- not great, not bad....just ok but it was an unexpected treat so 10/10. Off to the room. Luggage followed us to the room and room was fabulous! We did upgrade since the bogo made this trip very affordable. Had a day bed that we used as storage, very nice king bed, basic bathroom (no tub but that didn't matter to us), ac was finicky but told the front desk and they addressed it quickly. Had a great deck with hammocks, table and chairs and a FABULOUS view of the open open. One of the best rooms we have stayed in (we do 3 dive trips per year now that kiddo is grown) and we have pretty high standards. Definitely easily 10/10 or better. Breakfast- good, not great. Eggs to order were hit or miss. I eat a big breakfast so 4 eggs over easy, 3 orders of bacon, 2 orders of potatoes, two orders of toast and 2 gallons of coffee. Kinda wierd but on the days they had bacon (every other day) eggs were over cooked, opposite days with sausage they were perfect. Potatoes informally sucked, cold and under cooked. Breakfast 7/10. Off to dive ( I know about darn time). Had met a great group on line (group name Vintage Divers) who had invited us to dive with them. Great group of experienced divers. Assigned lockers and boat for the week. Boat was excellent, dive master great, capt excellent. Well run, professional operation 10/10. Did a quickie check out dives (imho a dive master can tell long before you enter the water if u know what you are doing). Diving was good but not great (our friends call us dive snobs since we compare every trip to Little Cayman). Nice corals, ok colors, not a huge amount of fishy friends- you can see the effects of diving the same site every day. No pelagics. Please don't think we didn't have good dives, we did -just not blow your mind great. I don't have my log book handy so I can't tell u the names or sites. Only site we didn't like was the last day when, per a request, we went to the south side. First dive was very nice but second dive was off the coast of West End, reef was beaten up, few fish, we'll one of the only times we were bored on a dive and were not sad when it ended. Lunch was ok-sandwiches, burgers or fish (GREAT FRENCH FRIES), dinner was beef or fish. Fish was great, beef not so great (don't take a piece of beef, cut it round, wrap bacon around it and call it a filet). Well overall foodles was the biggest disappointment 6/10 (wife said 5/10). Pool was fabulous 10/10. Would we go back? As long as the have the bogo absolutely it was an incredible value. Will we go back? Maybe, we try not to go back to the same place twice (exceptions being Little Cayman and Bonaire). Feel free to ask any questions. Bill and DeeDee

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for posting. Nice to read a good writeup of the experience of staying with the operator.

Richard.

 

[Oldbear]

I could not even imagine considering a trip to AKR and NOT stay in the upgraded bungalows on the island. Well worth the extra money.

 

[novasquid]

wow their special bogo pricing looks pretty good. does AKR have shore diving?

 

[BDSC]

They do have a shore dive. I didn't try it out myself but the folks who did said it was a decent dive. Quite a few did it as a night dive.

 

[BDSC]

By the way, they have extended their 2-1 deal through the end of 2017.

 

[large_diver]

Nice report - thanks for posting.

 

[ReefHound]

I could not even imagine considering a trip to AKR and NOT stay in the upgraded bungalows on the island. Well worth the extra money.

I've stayed in Hill Superior and Key Deluxe. The room itself and the view was much better on the key but honestly I'd rather be on the hill. Maybe if I had a key room nearer the water taxi but we were at the back and it seemed like we were always walking. The steps, oh people whine about the steps on the hill, but you go up and down them for every trip to the restaurant or bar. Last trip we were given a free upgrade to key, next time I think I'd decline it. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for the key. I've also stayed in the dock bungalows and if they had AC those would be fine.

 

[AdivingBel]

I enjoyed the hill room. It seemed easier to navigate the resort as a whole from there, especially the morning rush for breakfast and the first dive boat. We had folks late to the boat a couple of times due to congestion at the "ferry boat." The trade off is certainly the ocean view from your own private deck. Unfortunately (or fortunately) if I'm diving 3+ times a day, about the only thing I do in my room is sleep. If you could stock some fruit and muffins to go with the in room coffee pot for morning breakfast on your deck, that might be the best of all worlds.

 

[wildbill9]

Never had much of a wait for the ferry (5 min max...usually less than 1 min). We didn't mind the walk to the back, we did stay as far away from the ferry as u could be. Found the walk pleasant and peaceful plus we liked being near the pool. BTW pool had a good happy hour. We looked at the shore dive entry and tapped out, little to rocky for our taste. We did 3 dives a day, hit the pool for a dip, grabbed some food, sometimes hit the pool afterwards then back to the room to unlax. We looked at the hill rooms and dock side rooms and both decided we made the right choice but that is just us.