Thumbs up to Anthony's Key Resort

[KevWind]

Well I am going tomorrow so I"ll be happy to give a review when I return.

 

[designbysue]

Doctorfish, if you are interested in the dolphin issue, why not start a thread on it? Sue's trip report shouldn't be an opportunity to investigate AKR's practices. If you want to research what AKR does, you can do so and include it in your thread. I'd be interested to read it. Just not here.

It always amazes me how the threads get ripped from the original intent as this one keeps getting pulled, but my response to this is the dolphins are "under the care" of RIMS (Roatan Institute of Marine Science - I think) I do not think they are part of AKR - just located there. Start another thread and do the research on RIMS - if you find this is bad do let us know. I do know that 18 of the dolphins were born there and because of the concern for inbreeding they try to introduce wild dolphins (my understanding is that the wild dolphins break in to introduce themselves.) The other and last comment I will make on the dolphins in this thread is that I met a journalist that was there for the week (met him at the airport on the way home - wished I had more time to talk to him) and he told me of how these dolphins are worked with to study communication between the dolphins and how we might learn to speak dolphin. So there is a lot more to RIMS than just a dolphin doing tricks.

 

[philba]

...
I think checking out the negatives are definitely a good idea, but as you know one thing can bother a person and then their view of everything can become negative. I have been to a lot of dive resorts and my overall view of AKR is that it is one of the best run that I have been to.

Hope that helps
Sue

Thanks. I've traveled enough to know that there are always some reviewers that have to trash even the best places. But still you can get a sense of what kind of issues there are. A few negatives don't rule a place out in my mind. It looks like a fair percentage the dive complaints came from (or about) cruise ship divers. That probably puts a strain on AKRs dive facilities. My guess is the last rental regulator in the shop is not one you'd want to use. But it's probably not good that a resort allows themselves to be overwhelmed.

 

[designbysue]

Well I am going tomorrow so I"ll be happy to give a review when I return.

Please do post. Am interested to hear another view of the resort

---------- Post added February 15th, 2013 at 03:53 PM ----------

Thanks. I've traveled enough to know that there are always some reviewers that have to trash even the best places. But still you can get a sense of what kind of issues there are. A few negatives don't rule a place out in my mind. It looks like a fair percentage the dive complaints came from (or about) cruise ship divers. That probably puts a strain on AKRs dive facilities. My guess is the last rental regulator in the shop is not one you'd want to use. But it's probably not good that a resort allows themselves to be overwhelmed.

Interesting that you put together the cruise ship divers and the complaints. Another view of this now is that not only can the add a crowd to the mix possibly, but may cruise ship divers are not as hard core and there for definitely have a different view of service as compared to those of us who just want to be dropped of the boat and picked up an hour later.

 

[Lorenzoid]

On a non-dolphin note, tripadvisor's reviews have a number negative comments about AKRs dive operation: shoddy dive equipment, disinterested DMs and high diver to DM ratio (12:1 in one case). I didn't see anything like that on scuba board so was wondering if it was a reality or a small number of negative reviewers. Your thoughts?

In general, AKR get's high marks from the tripdavisor reviews but I always look at the negative reviews because they can be revealing.

I don't generally give Tripadvisor reviews of dive operations a lot of weight. My guess is that most people who post on Tripadvisor travel a lot in general but don't do a lot of dive travel (or diving, for that matter). I put a lot more weight on what people on SB or similar diving forums have to say, since I can look up their other posts/reviews and see what kind of diver they are.

Even for general travel advice, Tripadvisor reviews tend to be inconsistent. A guy from the UK says a hotel is great, and a guy from the US says it's horrible. It's really difficult to tell what their perspective is, unless they post a lot of hotel reviews. Reviews on SB (and other dive forums) tend to be more consistent.

 

[designbysue]

My original intent was to post on Scubaboard and when I told the manager at AKR she requested that I also post to Trip Advisor - apparently TA is a good resource for the resort.

 

[philba]

I don't generally give Tripadvisor reviews of dive operations a lot of weight. My guess is that most people who post on Tripadvisor travel a lot in general but don't do a lot of dive travel (or diving, for that matter). I put a lot more weight on what people on SB or similar diving forums have to say, since I can look up their other posts/reviews and see what kind of diver they are.

Even for general travel advice, Tripadvisor reviews tend to be inconsistent. A guy from the UK says a hotel is great, and a guy from the US says it's horrible. It's really difficult to tell what their perspective is, unless they post a lot of hotel reviews. Reviews on SB (and other dive forums) tend to be more consistent.

Yes, the reviews are contradictory but more information is better. As you read them you can see a pattern. I generally ignore the reviews from one-time reviewers and the insanely enthusiastic. The negative ones are valuable as you generally hear specific situations. I take the negative ones that looking like general bitching with a grain of salt though. I also tend to put more weight on more recent reviews and ones from people with lots of reviews. Also the managers' responses to negative reviews say something about how much they care. The AKR situation with taking cruise ship divers comes out in those reviews - it's worth knowing so I can avoid going at peak times. While dive resort reviews are definitely a mix, IMO they are still worth reading.

My original intent was to post on Scubaboard and when I told the manager at AKR she requested that I also post to Trip Advisor - apparently TA is a good resource for the resort.

Everywhere I've gone in the last couple of years, I hear over and over again "please rate us on tripadvisor". When I was in Maui last month I even saw several restaurants asking for TA reviews.

 

[wolfegirl]

I just got back from AKR and would not call their dive operation either shoddy or featuring uninterested Divemasters. They have around 10-12 boats; everyone is issued a locker for the week for their gear and you 'sign up' for each day's dives by putting your locker number on your boat's daily list. Of 18 dives, ONE had as many as 10-12 people w/1 divemaster. All the rest were more like 6:1, sometimes 4:1. Visibility was fantastic -- easily 90-100', and the DM was almost always visible, as well as frequently heard rapping his tank to point out an interesting fish/turtle/ whatever...

I did not rent any dive gear, so cannot comment on their wetsuits, BCs, etc...but the boat we were assigned was fine. There was pretty much no or very little swell, so that was great for easy entry/exit. Since I was traveling with only 1 other person, we seemed to be on the 'couples' boat; several large groups seemed to have been assigned boats that would keep the big traveling groups together, so if that's the practice, I can see how diverM ratio could get high.

-MB

On a non-dolphin note, tripadvisor's reviews have a number negative comments about AKRs dive operation: shoddy dive equipment, disinterested DMs and high diver to DM ratio (12:1 in one case). I didn't see anything like that on scuba board so was wondering if it was a reality or a small number of negative reviewers. Your thoughts?

In general, AKR get's high marks from the tripdavisor reviews but I always look at the negative reviews because they can be revealing.

 

[salth2owannabe]

I've been to AKR twice and really enjoyed it, and wouldn't hesitate to go back. With that said I have experienced some of what the above quoted post refers to. Both years I had the same dive master and boat captain and these two guys were great and I'd request them again. Both years we had stayed extra days on the island and as a result were able to do extra dives while the others I had dove with all week were sitting out pre-flight. I was assigned a boat with "overflow" and one day divers and had a different dive master and boat captain each time. Each time the dive master was very disinterested and it was obvious they were just going through the motions. On the second year we had some very young and inexperienced divers. The dive master dropped us in to some fairly strong current, instead of planning a drift dive, it was obvious we were jsut expected to get the dive over with. The dive master paid no attention to the younger divers and was back on the boat in about 40 minutes. No assistance, no plan, etc. If that had been my only experience with AKR I'd never go back and freely share a bad review.
I was initially concered about the cruise ship passengers and how that would affect my experience at AKR. During the week they would come and go and AKR does a great job of keeping them seperate from the weekly guests. You really don't know they are there.

 

[large_diver]

I just got back from AKR and would not call their dive operation either shoddy or featuring uninterested Divemasters. They have around 10-12 boats; everyone is issued a locker for the week for their gear and you 'sign up' for each day's dives by putting your locker number on your boat's daily list. Of 18 dives, ONE had as many as 10-12 people w/1 divemaster. All the rest were more like 6:1, sometimes 4:1. Visibility was fantastic -- easily 90-100', and the DM was almost always visible, as well as frequently heard rapping his tank to point out an interesting fish/turtle/ whatever...

I did not rent any dive gear, so cannot comment on their wetsuits, BCs, etc...but the boat we were assigned was fine. There was pretty much no or very little swell, so that was great for easy entry/exit. Since I was traveling with only 1 other person, we seemed to be on the 'couples' boat; several large groups seemed to have been assigned boats that would keep the big traveling groups together, so if that's the practice, I can see how diverM ratio could get high.

-MB

Nice to see another diver from Needham around here We are going to Roatan again in a few weeks = Coco View