We were in Roatan 8/2-8/9/14 with a group of 12 divers and 4 non-divers. We stayed at the Mayan Princess (for the non-divers mainly) but lucked out with the diving as Mayan Divers are a top-notch group located on premises. Our experienced divers in the group have over 500 dives and have seen many sharks on trips (most in Turks and Caicos live-aboard- saw multiple sharks on 26 out of 27 dives). We much prefer to see sharks on regular dives vs. "shark" dives where they feed them....
That being said, we had several in our group that were interested in doing the shark dive (2 newer divers and our adult sons that love sharks). We did not see any sharks on the regular dives out of West End.
So, 7 of us signed up for the shark dive by Waihuka ($100 plus tax=$125 was the charge per person, included transportation from our hotel).
things to know:
Go-Pros are not allowed (supposedly because they are shiny and irritate the sharks) but still cameras are okay
they videotape the dive brief, boat ride and underwater portion and sell them afterward - $45 or $50 depending on how many DVDs they sell
You bring your gear and set it up there, plus they give you a couple of extra pounds to stay on the bottom where they tell you to go (our awesome DM Mark from Mayan Divers came with us and set up our gear and did dive also)
there is A LOT of current at the location and you literally pull yourself down the line from the boat, and back up
It takes out a morning or afternoon of your regular dive schedule, they are located in Coxen Hole so a taxi ride away (20 minutes from West End)
They seem to do multiple dive times a day, most days of the week so I don't think you would have difficulty scheduling
Total bottom time was probably about 45 minutes, max depth 75'
I would say it is worth it to do once...if you really want to see sharks. There is a certain amount of Disneyland photo-op quality about it. I felt a bit like we were herded into the brief, into the boat and as we were being sold videos they were briefing another group. It is a money-making operation.
We saw 12 sharks at once and they did come fairly close. There is a large rock/reef formation that we were lined up in front of while the chum bucket was in front of us. They have been doing this for 12 years and the sharks know where the food is and come when expected.
So I guess I recommend it if you know what you are paying for and really love to see sharks. They are amazing animals and I loved being that close to them.
Hope that helps, have fun in Roatan!
