CoCoView or Anthony's Key Resort?

[soundfield]

Hello fellow divers,

My wife and I are looking for somewhere new for us to dive and UW video thatwon’t break the bank and we are looking into Roatan. We don’t need to make 5dives a day; 3 would be just fine for us. Between CCV and AKR; what are thepros and cons that each of these resorts have? From what I have read here, CCVseems to get very good reviews. However, AKR looks very nice as well. Sincemany of you have been to both resorts, can you please point us in a direction..I’m having a hard time deciding between the two choices. We are both AOW diverswith 17 years of diving under our belts. We love Cozumeland it’s hard (if at all possible) to beat for the money, but we’ve just beenthere too many times. We love to dive, but we also enjoy the food and cocktailsat days end as well, so we do like “some” night life on occasion… or at least Ido, but it’s not a deal breaker.

 

[Doc]

I've been to both, diving and looking in all the rooms. We always stay at CCV, but I think your needs would be better met by AKR since you say:

" so we do like “some” night life on occasion… " and "We don’t need to make 5dives a day; 3 would be just fine for us"

Reasoning: AKR is closer and a quick cab ride to the West End for night time diversions. Go to an AI on Roatan if you want anything more than two dives a day for best value, AKR makes 3x a day easy- go to CCV if you want 5.

The only thing you mention that would push my advice more to CCV is that you mention that you have 17 years of diving. If you want to see the truly unique environment that CCV offers, the shallow Sunlit walls are a niche area for macro creatures- dramatically different than the more common Caribbean reef wall structures in the shadow of the North side.

You do not say what time of year that you are considering. During the months of Oct>Mar, I would go to the South side due to slightly greater potential for Northers- very rough weather.

 

[CajunDiva]

As RoatanMan said, the recommendation may be dependent on what time of year you are looking at. If you book AKR between October and February/March, you run the risk of having a cold front blow through. If that happens, the waves created by the winds out of the north are no fun to deal with. I have fed many fish during those instances :shocked2: During the same period of time, the seas on the south side of Roatan (where CCV is located) will be flat.

If timing is not a factor, it would be best to consider your preferred environment. AKR has been in business for a long time and you will definitely have a great time diving with them. The atmosphere at AKR is more "resort" like. They have installed a very large swimming pool with a swim-up bar. You will definitely feel that they are always trying to sell you something. They are very good at merchandising. Just check out the dolphin shows!

CocoView is a fantastic dive operation that focuses on just that...diving. Their boats are spacious and stable. Their crews are very good. Accessibility to diving is a piece of cake. If your focus is on diving, choose CocoView. If you are more interested in being "out and about", AKR would be a better choice.

 

[soundfield]

We will be going late April/early March. I like to stay longer then 7 days on my spring dive trips; are there enough dive sites to keep an experienced diver interested for 10-12 days? Also, if I do choose CCV, how far is the ride to the other end of the island and is it expensive? This is going to be a difficult decision for sure, but it sounds like it's worth checking off the list. I was going to go to Bonaire, but my video rig is rather large and heavy to haul around with all of my usual dive gear, so that's why Roatan is on my list. Are the rooms/food at both resorts comparable in quality? Thanks again for your advise!

 

[Oldbear]

If you want to stay 10-12 days...do both. Do the AKR 7-day AI package. I highly recommend the dolphin dive. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cruises/441539-dolphin-dive-anthony-key-resort-carnival-legend.html Sometimes you can get a 2-1 special from AKR; I got one and we stayed there in mid-May 2012. After AKR try CCV's for something a little different. Taxis are relatively inexpensive. I think I spent around $20 to go from AKY to the West Beach area.

AKR and CCV are two very different and unique experiences...why not taste both

Cheers,

~Oldbear~

 

[Doc]

We will be going late April/early March. I like to stay longer then 7 days on my spring dive trips; are there enough dive sites to keep an experienced diver interested for 10-12 days? Also, if I do choose CCV, how far is the ride to the other end of the island and is it expensive? This is going to be a difficult decision for sure, but it sounds like it's worth checking off the list. I was going to go to Bonaire, but my video rig is rather large and heavy to haul around with all of my usual dive gear, so that's why Roatan is on my list. Are the rooms/food at both resorts comparable in of quality? Thanks again for your advise!

Weather should be a non issue at that time of year. Even in the unlikely event of weather on AKR's North side, they have the boats and money to move their dive ops to the shadow of the South side.

From CCV to West End is about 35 minutes by cab when it's avg traffic. I don't know what it would cost, but CCV only has specific drivers that have set rates, protecting you. For day trip outings, again they only have regular drivers from one service and they all speak English. That's not just what they tell you, it's reality.

CCV has a better dive op and boats, it is much quieter, it is the only 24/7 shore dive. The rooms are on stilts over an active changing reef, food is off of a serving line. It is on its own private secure islet accessed only by shuttle boat.

AKR has slightly fancier rooms, sit down table service (a nice touch, but eats time and is 68 steps up 3x a day) and is just minutes away from the West End... Where all of the restaurants and bars are.

Again, you reference "enough dive sites to keep an experienced diver interested...." Depends on what you mean by experienced.

If you need geographical and dimensional reef structure, I would give that award to the North Side. They have two (quite deep) wrecks and AKR has the wherewithal to take you along that coast to the East and you'll see some nice shapes in reef structures caused by eons on heavy wind and wave during the aforementioned Norther season. In that storms come in from that way, it gets deep fast and there isn't as much soft and hard coral. You will likely see more numbers of larger individuals of the common Caribbean pellagics.

The South side is the kind of place that many many divers come away from disappointed. Those who have seen enough Lobsters, Baracudas, Parrot fish and such- and those who have honed their buoyancy skills and their observational abilities... They fall in love. Expect Pipefish and loads of small improbable critters all the time, everywhere. Many of us do one specific dive three times a day. If you need rocks and shapes, it sucks. If you want to hunt the cool macro- it's for you. More of a still photo place, but if you want to do video of that Jawfish aerating his eggs in 5fsw right in front of your room, this will do fine.

Again, I am horribly biased. We all have different needs. I need that five times a day that I get at CCV. I can do other stuff at home. When we travel to other islands and liveaboards.... places only frequented by Asians or Eastern Europeans, the quantity of diving that we ask for is a strain on some of them.

In absolute seriousness- if you believe that you will need access to shopping and bars more than once during the week- you might better pick AKR. You can easily do both through access once in a week from CCV, but after that, it would get to be an odd equation to make that work.

We do a night dive or sometimes two, every night from CCV.

That is my idea of a night life

I go to dive... And see strange (u/w !) critters.

 

[soundfield]

Thanks for your advice! This is going to be a tuff call. My video rig isn't set up for macro shooting, that's for sure. You have given me a lot to think about and I thank you for the information. The night life really isn't a big deal for me...a full day of diving puts me in bed around 10:00PM anyways. So CCV is more of a little critter spot with minimal relief to the reef; AKR has more geological relief with less macro life, but more of the usual Caribbean fish.. did I get that correct?

 

[salth2owannabe]

I've only been to AKR a couple of times, and not to CCV. AKR does typically take you to the south side on atleast one day so you can get a taste of what Roatanman is refering to. We've gone both times in December and due to the weather spent as much time diving the south side as the north. Both sides have neat things to offer. We enjoy the sit down meals/menu and the accommodations at AKR, which is why we went back. Three dives/day with 2 night dives/wk is plenty for me. The night life at AKR was sufficient for us and the bar is ussualy active and the drinks are cheap. Two for one about every other night. The service has always been good and I've never felt they were trying to sell me anything as one post above experienced. I would do as one poster suggested and spend a week at both.

 

[Brodydog]

I like Oldbear's suggestion to split your time between both places. If it were me and I had 10-12 days I would price out a 7 day pkg at one of them with the remaining days at the other location and then price it the other way around with the 7 day pkg at the other location and remaining days at first location. Whichever was the better deal would be the one I would go with.

I have only been to CCV. I loved the diving set up there. They are fantastic at what they do. It can't be any easier to dive from a land based op than it is from there. It's definitely like being on a land based liveaboard. But with that said I would also like to see what AKR and the north side diving has to offer just to compare. I would also comment that for me (others will disagree) the food was just avg at CCV and kind of boring during some meals.

 

[CajunDiva]

It would be a great idea to split your time between the two if possible. We did that several years ago. We spent the first week at Fantasy Island (which is right next door to CCV) and then transferred over to Anthony's Key for the following week.

Roatan has so many underwater wonders to offer...it was really cool to dive both sides of the island during the same trip. Having recent experiences to compare helps older minds take it all in