Question Anthony's Key Resort - Roatan

[Wants2divemore]

I'm going to be in Roatan in April 2024 on a cruise stop and trying to decide if I should book a 2-tank dive with AKR through the cruise ship or Island Diving Center on my own. I've read the AKR reviews but they all seem to be by people who stayed at the resort and don't mention much about the boat or diving experience itself.

-How large are the boats?
-How large are the groups they dive with?
-Do they make any effort to group divers into similar ability groups?
-Any other thoughts about the dive sites, boat, or anything else dive related?

Island Diving Center looks great (they group by ability, will refund last minute if cruise ship can't dock due to itinerary change or weather, many good SB & Trip Advisor reviews). I know that many official shore excursion dives are often just large cattle boat messes, but booking outside the ship runs the risk of being left behind if something unexpected happens. IDC should have me back with 2 hours to spare before all aboard time.

Thanks

 

[Tigerfish]

I dove with AKR going on about 1 year now thru the cruise ship and found the experience quite enjoyable.
They have several dive boats, the one that we were on I would say was 36' to 42', typical dive boat no thrills.
I think there were about 16 of us all from the same ship and I believe the trip was sold out.
They made no effort to sort the group, we all dove as a group with a DM leading the way and another DM following behind. Once we made the tour and were back in visible site of the boat we were then all free to swim around on our own as long as we stayed in vis of the boat until our air got to 500 psi (I have been on some dive boats that made us all surface as a group when I still had over 1000 psi left), so that is nice.
The dive sites are a short 15 min boat ride from the dock, so short they took us back to the resort for our dive interval.
I have only dove this one time on Roatan so i can not say as to the dive sites in particular, for me they were beautiful coal reefs, reminded me much of Cozumel some the best diving I have done to date.
The captain and DM's were friendly and helpful, I wanted Nitrox and they took care of it no problem (for a small fee). I am diving with them again this April 4th thru Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas.


Tim

 

[Altamira]

I dove with AKR going on about 1 year now thru the cruise ship and found the experience quite enjoyable.
They have several dive boats, the one that we were on I would say was 36' to 42', typical dive boat no thrills.
I think there were about 16 of us all from the same ship and I believe the trip was sold out.
They made no effort to sort the group, we all dove as a group with a DM leading the way and another DM following behind. Once we made the tour and were back in visible site of the boat we were then all free to swim around on our own as long as we stayed in vis of the boat until our air got to 500 psi (I have been on some dive boats that made us all surface as a group when I still had over 1000 psi left), so that is nice.
The dive sites are a short 15 min boat ride from the dock, so short they took us back to the resort for our dive interval.
I have only dove this one time on Roatan so i can not say as to the dive sites in particular, for me they were beautiful coal reefs, reminded me much of Cozumel some the best diving I have done to date.
The captain and DM's were friendly and helpful, I wanted Nitrox and they took care of it no problem (for a small fee). I am diving with them again this April 4th thru Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas.


Tim

^^^^^^ This. I have dived with AKR on numerous cruises over the years. The dives are as @Tigerfish posted. They run an excellent dive operation, and being the ships dive excursion vendor, if the ship cancels port , your money is automatically refunded, also, if the ship is late to port, they will likely adjust the excursion time so you won’t lose the dives. There is no downside to using them from my experience. Have fun.

 

[zarlor]

I've been hemming and hawing over this one myself. I'll be there on NCL in March and I've seen a few reviews here that the cruise line tours with AKR have some issues. While I've seen great reviews for divers from the resort it looked like cruisers tended to get lumped together more cattle-call style, didn't get as knowledgeable or friendly divemasters (presumably due to the fact that they wouldn't have to worry about seeing the cruisers again the next day or anything like that so AKR might put their newer or grumpier or whatever folks with those dives), and did not get the usual complementary snacks/lunch with their SI (and some complaints about the water just being whatever they have in their orange coolers instead of something like bottled water, I guess.)

Still, we'll be in Cozumel the day before where I want to try to dive again (and where the cruise line does not have any dive excursions) so it may just be easier to book it anyway and see how it goes. I'll report back here if I do that to let folks know how it went.

 

[HaraldGS]

If you ever want to stay on Bonaire, Captain Dons resort is great. Really nice boats and unlimited shore diving too. Will be going back......

 

[mac66]

Dived in Roatan 3 times off of cruise ships. Once with Sun Divers, twice with West End Divers. We stopped at AKR on the way back to check them out. I would have dived with them on my cruise but we had snorkelers and new divers with us the second time out and needed special arrangements.

Having said that West End is a good dive op. The boats held about 30 people but wasn't crowded. Some were divers, some snorkelers. They divided us by skill level in groups of about 5-6 with our own DMs. My wife and sister's in law snorkeled off the same boat as me and my brothers who dived. For our second dive, my brothers (who were new divers) and I had 2 DMs with us by ourselves. They were very accommodating with our needs.

However, I think pretty much any dive op on Roatan would be fine if you didn't have special needs. They pretty much all go to the same places just off shore so the diving is all the same. I wouldn't hesitate using AKR when/if I went back to Roatan.

 

[zarlor]

I've been hemming and hawing over this one myself. I'll be there on NCL in March and I've seen a few reviews here that the cruise line tours with AKR have some issues. While I've seen great reviews for divers from the resort it looked like cruisers tended to get lumped together more cattle-call style, didn't get as knowledgeable or friendly divemasters (presumably due to the fact that they wouldn't have to worry about seeing the cruisers again the next day or anything like that so AKR might put their newer or grumpier or whatever folks with those dives), and did not get the usual complementary snacks/lunch with their SI (and some complaints about the water just being whatever they have in their orange coolers instead of something like bottled water, I guess.)

Still, we'll be in Cozumel the day before where I want to try to dive again (and where the cruise line does not have any dive excursions) so it may just be easier to book it anyway and see how it goes. I'll report back here if I do that to let folks know how it went.

I did book through NCL for Roatan, but unfortunately I still had a bit of upper sinus stuffiness and felt I need to cancel the excursion. Honestly, though, I hadn't realized this trip was during spring break for a lot of folks so as it was the excursion was a full capacity (in fact one person was on stand-by for it so at least my cancellation got someone else onto the boat for the dives!) That being said I'm not comfortable in crowded situations so I'm kind of glad I was not packed onto a completely full dive boat, but it does mean I missed diving Roatan (this time!) That water looked so incredible I definitely will be back and get some diving in and if I go through NCL I may do the ship excursion and will report back what it might be like then.