Fantasy Island - Mini Trip Report

[ivansie]

Hi all,

I am considering a trip to the bay islands later this year with my wife, as everybody has said, the prices for the all inclusive are good with premier diving and also getting there is not that expensive out of MIA.

I have a couple of questions some of them have already been kind of answered in some post but will like as much first hand information from people that have recently been there. Do the all inclusive include drinks? because I read some post regarding prices for beer, or do they only charge for alcoholic beverages?

Also I am considering the following resorts to go with my wife who is also a diver although we have never dove for 1 week straight 3 to 4 times a day:\

Anthony's key
Cocoview
Bay islands beach resort
Fantasy island

I know probably each will have its fans club but I am trying to gather as much info as possible before making reservations. We will probably go in august/sept.

Bye
Ivan
=-)

 

[AggieDiver]

Lets see, as far as I know, none of the packages include alcoholic drinks. Somebody can correct me if I am wrong, but usually they don't. As for the resorts, alot of it depends on what you are there for. Bay Islands Beach Resort and Anthony's Key are on the north side of the island, and Coco View and Fantasy Island are on the south side. The walls are steeper and deeper in general on the south side and the water in general is somewhat rougher with the standard trade winds that blow, but at times the north can be just as rough. The north side walls tend to slope more gently and many sites have an inner and outer "wall" with a step in between them.

Bay Islands Beach Resort is small and very quiet. I liked it alot when we stayed there, but some people apparently have had bad experiences there. I tend to believe if you ask enough divers you would find that to be true about any resort. The main complaints lately seem to be with the age and quality of the boats BIBR has.

CocoView is hardcore diving heaven. You can do 5-6 dives a day if you really wanted to and had the energy. There seem to be some persistent rumors of travelers diarhea(sp?) being not uncommon there, but if you are careful with what you eat and drink as you should be anywhere in the tropics, and bring along meds in case you get it, its not a reason why I would avoid the resort. I am not sure how plush the accomodations are, I have never heard anybody complain about them being inadequate, but I have also never heard anybody rave about how good they were either.

Anthony's Key is probably the largest of the four, and seems to be a nice mix between dive dedicated and providing some other topside activities. They have the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences onsite and offer dolphin snorkel and dive opportunites for a price. They are very close to Cocoview in terms of ratings of the dive op and customer satisfaction, and are slightly cheaper in general, althought the shore diving is probably not comparable and 3-4 dives would be about all you could expect to get in per day.

Fantasy Island seems to be the least favorite among reviews and reports I have read. They are located on the south shore right across the lagoon from CocoView, and it is possible to dive the Prince Albert from FI, although it is not as convenient as it is from CocoView. They also share the same walls nearby, so the diving should be comparable in quality if not in number of dives available per day. There seem to be some good reports, but a comparably large number of reports of boat problems, and other resort staff problems in general. I haven't heard much lately, so maybe somebody else can fill in the blanks here with new info on whether they have fixed the boat problems and dealt with any staff issues recently. FI seems to sell the "upscale" nature of their resort versus the others. They even imported some white sand for their beach at one point in the past from what I understand, although I am not sure if they still do so to replenish it. At the time I was told that, I was told that they also claimed not to have "noseeums" on their beach, which from the reports I read shortly afterward was not true.

If I had my choice based on what I have seen personally at each place and read in subsequent reports, if I wanted to do nothing but dive, I would go to CocoView, if I wanted something slightly cheaper and more rounded topside, I would go to AKR (which I am in May), if I wanted small and quiet I would go to BIBR. At this time personally I wouldn't go to Fantasy Island based on what I have read and heard, although others may be able to tell you more that would contradict what I heard in the past.

Good luck and have a blast!

AggieDiver

 

[leadweight]

I have been to Anthony's Key, Coco View and Fantasy Island. Coco View has a nice dive operation, but the hotel and food operations are not so great. The roof in my room leaked right over the bed. The roof in the dining area leaked in at least 10 places. The food was OK, but not special. I hate to say this because the food manager is just about the nicest woman you could imagine. Otherwise I did not find the staff to be all that friendly.

It has been a while since staying at Anthony's Key. I wanted to go there this year, but it books up early. People that I spoke to at the Roatan airport after their trip (I have flown out of that airport twice this year) were all very satisfied. The water is calmer and the visibility better on the north side where AKR is, but the bottom is decorated better with coral, soft coral and sponges on the south side where CCV and FI are located.

My trip report for FI is above. I am returning in May due to low Taca airfares and a package price of $798 including tax. In terms of hotel and food, FI is the best of the three. The number of dives made there is really up to you. The availability of the skiff makes a fourth afternoon dive, or transition to night dive easy. Meals are served over a longer time period which gives some flexibility for those night dives. The big drawback to both FI and CCV is the inlet on which they are located reduced visibility around the Prince Albert and some of the dive sites just east of the inlet. To the west vis was pretty good. FI also gave us a trip to the west end to dive. The cost was lunch in a nice place that they took us to and $5 if you rode back to FI in the bus. I went back in the boat. It was an experience as the water was rough.

Note that at FI there is an alcohol inclusive package, but it seems to be sold only outside the US. Most of their Latin American guests had the wristband. Alcohol prices at all three of these places are reasonable. FI has $1.50 mixed drinks from 5 to 6 each day. A beer at CCV was about $1.80 including tax, but they did not have happy hour every day. AKR, might have been a bit higher on bar prices. At least it is not like Little Cayman where a rum punch costs $8.

 

[ivansie]

Aggie, thanks a lot for your first hand information on the resorts. I think based on what I have read, researched and heard our choice will be between AK and cocoview. I am leaning more towards AK because I know my wife will be comfortable with 3 or so dives a day but probably 5 or 6 will be a little bit too much and also there are a couple of other things to do in an afternoon if you decide not to dive. I love to read so for me thats not a problem I will just pack several books but she is no as avid reader...

Do most of the rooms/bungaloos at these resorts have bathrooms??? or you have to share bathrooms??

I dont think I will have a problem with the water/food and mosquitoes since I come from that side of the world and those thing really dont bother me that much as well as not having A/C...

Well thanks again
Ivan

 

[AggieDiver]

I dont know of any of them that ask you to share bathrooms. In some places you may share a porch or a sundeck with a neighboring bungalow or room, but thats about as close as they get to asking you to share facilities.

AKR does have non-AC rooms that are a fair bit cheaper than the AC rooms if you are used to the humidity and the warmth. Leadweight had some good infor about Fantasy Island and it was as I expected regarding better food and lodging. That was the first I had heard about the rooms at Cocoview being unsatisfactory, but I had always heard the accomodations tended toward spartan compared to the other three.

I too like to read in the afternoons, but AKR is probably the closest of the bunch to west end, which can be an interesting afternoon trip or day before you fly trip. They also offer horseback rides on the beach if you are into that.

Good luck with your plans and let us know how you like it.

AggieDiver

 

[leadweight]

The rooms in the older buildings are problematic at CCV. The over water bungalows are newer and in better shape. the main building needs a new roof.

I could not get a hot cup of coffee there all week because the heater on the coffee urn did not work right.

People say thery are trying to sell the place. that could explain things. On the good side, when we got stuck there for two extra days because the airport was closed, they gave everyone two free days lodging and meals (no diving because the weather was so bad). FI charged guests $65 per person per night.

 

[cxg31s]

I'm afraid Aggiediver's info on Fantasy Island is a bit dated. I agree that there have been negative reports in the past, but it is important to note that there are new owners now and they have worked very hard to get Fantasy Island looking and running great again. They have done many improvements, including adding a mini-golf course and adding onto the dive shop so it will now be a full service dive shop for instruction, equipment sales, etc. I'm going back in Aug or Sept and am looking forward to seeing the improvements.

We toured the island during our stay and saw a lot of hotels and actually stopped to walk around at AKR and out of all the resorts that have been listed: CocoView, AKR, BIBR and Fantasy Island, FI is the most upscale resort by far. Now AKR had a lot of activities and stuff to do--no argument there. It's more of a "campy" atmosphere and the rooms are cabins--there are only 14 rooms at AKR with AC and the rest are "rustic", but yet their prices are higher. FI has AC in ALL rooms as well as a fridge in every room--definitely a must in the heat to keep your drinking water cold and they have great package prices as compared to the other resorts.

As for activities, there are tons of tours available--around the island, to the mainland, etc. The bar is a hub of activity every night and they have a video showing every day at 6pm--the videographer picks a boat every day to go out on and records that day's dives, then you get to see the video and purchase it if you want. There are kayaks, volleyball and tennis and the beach is great--just bring the bug spray. All beaches down there have no-seeums, so it has nothing to do with what resort you stay at. Cabs are readily available and I highly recommend getting out and exploring the island--it is truly a beautiful place.

I think someone asked about drinks being included--at FI, they aren't for Americans but diving is included. When I was at FI, the guests were mostly Canadian and American and the people from the US had dive-inclusive packages and paid for drinks, and the Canadians had drink-inclusive packages and had to pay for diving. With FI's happy hour prices and even regular prices, I only paid $45 for drinks for the entire week, and that included buying rounds of beer for my boat-mates! Since diving is more expensive than alcohol (for most people ha ha) it's a benefit.

Now one final note about the diving at FI....CocoView is definitely a Dive Camp and that's great. But they do 2 tank dives a day and the second tank is usually a drop off on the CocoView wall or the Prince Albert. Now how many times do you want to dive the same site? At FI, they do 3 tanks a day at 3 different reefs, the boats are in great shape and are nice and roomy, they do 1 night dive during the week, and shore diving from FI's gazebo is just as unlimited as CocoView--the skiff is available until 7-8pm to take equipment over and they leave tanks at the gazebo every night for people to use. If you need more, you can request them before the dive shop closes.

So all in all, for the quality of accommodations, food, variety of diving, friendliness of staff, cleanliness and price, FI wins hands down in my opinion. Sorry so long guys but I hope I have provided some valuable info for someone who might be considering staying at FI. Please let me know if you have any other questions!