large_diver
Contributor
My daughter Abby and I took our first trip to Coco View last week = we both loved it. We flew from Boston to Roatan on Delta, connecting in Atlanta. Trip was generally smooth with no significant problems. Per bag weight limit for checked baggage is 50 lbs. For International trips like this on Delta, 1 checked bag per passenger is “free”; additional bags are $30 each way and can be paid for in advance. They seemed pretty liberal with hand luggage, although I did see a few customers getting pulled aside for overly large bags. We just moved to the US from Europe recently and haven’t done much domestic travel since we moved back, so all this was new to me.
We stayed in ocean front room 21, which is on the 2nd floor of the 2nd ocean front building, in the corner farthest from the dining hall. Comfortable and clean, with 2 full beds, a powerful (but noisy) air conditioner, 2 ceiling fans, a chest of drawers between the beds, a desk/chair, mini-fridge, coffee maker, a 5 gallon jug of water (great idea!) with pump/4 drinking cups, a shelf that ran the length of one bed for storage and an area for hanging clothes with 8 hangers and another small shelf above. The open air deck facing the water was great for hanging out on, with 2 wooden Adirondack-style deck chairs, a hammock and a rope for hanging things out to dry (6 clothespins…could have used a few more especially after one of our neighbors took some of ours). Other guests we spoke to mentioned that the cabanas and bungalows are bigger…but to be honest, we had all the space we needed. The shower also always seemed to have plenty of hot water.
Weather was nice and warm = mid-high 80s F air temps on most days and only one very brief daytime rain shower during the week. Water temps were a consistent 81F on all dives according to my computer. Call us crazy, but we both brought 5mm suits and wore them all week. I never felt too hot and at the same time never felt too cold (my daughter said the same). On the days when I did 4 dives, it was certainly nice to have the extra neoprene.
My daughter completed her certification referral dives at CCV, and I was definitely impressed with what I saw of the Dockside Dive team and Alejandra, her instructor. Dockside is a very well-stocked dive shop….not the typical “basics-only” vacation resort dive shop. Key takeaways = new rental gear in great condition, in-house photo expert offering instruction/photo/video services, etc., tons of accessories such as clips/keepers, lanyards, dive lights, dive bandanas, etc. Dive shop owner Patty Grier is also a trained paramedic; in addition at CCV there is Andrea, an experienced RN who provides medical care on a volunteer basis = both were a huge help with my newbie daughter's ear issues....getting her back in the water despite some congestion problems.
Instruction looked very good = Alejandra did not baby her in any way, which I liked (building self-sufficiency). I watched them underwater during 1 boat dive = good to see Abby do well on full mask removal/replace
DIVING:
The CCV dive boats are definitely a treat. Not so impressive at first glance, but we quickly came to appreciate the 3 exit points and the center dive well. Open air but plenty of shaded space on the boat – perfect for pasty white northeasterners trying to avoid sunburn. Dive conditions were choppy for much of the week. On our last day we had 3-4 foot waves (with occasional 6s) on the longer trip to Calvin’s Crack, a 35 minute trip east of CCV….Abby had no problems re-boarding the boat using the center well (getting gentle underwater reminders to watch her head). Much easier to wedge yourself in the well and remove fins vs. using the bucking bronco stern. We had 10 or 11 folks on our boat most days, and things never felt crowded….again, having 2 side exits and the stern exit prevented any exit log jams. All our fellow divers on CCV IV were very encouraging and supportive to Abby and all congratulated her when she finished her certification dives successfully. David our captain and Kirk our DM were both great = laid back but efficient, always there to help and with a good sense of humor. DM intern Bill was also a great help, hanging with Abby and me during our sometimes extended descents to gently open her ears. We were taking 4-5 minutes to get down to 30 feet to allow her time to equalize properly…..good to have Bill there, particularly when we were doing this over the walls on the drop off dives.
We certainly found as much diving as we wanted during the week. I managed 20 dives and Abby did 10 (due to her cold/sinus/ear issues). Unfortunately we didn’t do any night dives (again, taking things easy with her ears) = next trip. For the times when Abby couldn’t dive, she loved falling asleep in “her” hammock and sunbathing in some of the sundecks along the waterfront. I felt very safe leaving her alone at the resort for short amounts of time. She also came out on the boat with us a few times when she wasn’t diving – reading and swimming while we were underwater.
Marine life = lots of great small life; the only larger stuff we saw during the week was 1 turtle, a large tarpon and many sizeable grouper. Macro life was beautiful = more sea horses than I've seen in all my previous diving to date combined, morays, drum fish everywhere, tons of angels (queen, French, gray), butterfly fish, toad fish, trumpet fish, being surrounded by a school of nearly 100 squid, flamingo tongues on almost every dive. And the walls – not sure I’d ever get bored diving on Coco View and Newman’s walls. Always something going on and something slightly different every time.
Other general feedback:
- All I brought to wear were t-shirts, 4 bathing suits and 2 pairs of shorts. This was perfect given how casual CCV is.
- Good and plentiful food, buffet-style. I let CCV know in advance that Abby is a vegetarian. If there wasn’t a specific fish dish on the menu, they went out of their way to make her something special, including veggie burgers at the mid-week BBQ……the cooking staff were so helpful and thoughtful, always checking in with Abby to make sure she was taken care of.
- All staff super helpful and friendly
- We were able to connect to the wireless internet access from our ocean front room; 10% of the time this was slightly slow. This usually corrected itself with a screen re-fresh or opening/closing the browser window.
- I did a 1:1 check-out dive with a DM on Saturday (scheduled in advance = $25)…..absolutely worth it (saw a turtle on CCV wall during the front yard “tour”…..particularly to be able to enjoy a full day of diving on Sunday
- Mellow bar scene....not a big party/night life place….but a nice place to have a drink, play pool, play ping pong, pull out a game (we had an ongoing Uno deathmatch going on), etc.
- All rooms were booked when we were there last week - things never felt crowded – eating or diving. As I mentioned, we had 10-11 on our boat and were blessed with a very nice group of folks who jelled pretty well.
- There were bugs, and we came suitably paranoid having read many stories about them. We applied bug spray each AM, PM and after diving (including towelettes in the bus to CCV) and despite a few bites had no major issues. We sat outside quite often on our deck and really weren't bothered; consistent breezes (and time of year) probably helped with this.
- My feet were a mess by the end of the week – blisters on the tops of my feet. I’ve done 20 dives in a week before…I guess in the past I had been doing enough diving at home just prior to the trip so that my feet were battle ready. I brought a pair of nylon dive socks ($6) that I started wearing later in the week. These were originally for Abby, but they saved my feet!
- Water on the boats is paper cups and a large water jug. We brought some plastic water bottles from home; you can also buy bottles of water in the gift shop and re-fill during the week.
- Plenty of hanging lines in the dive locker gear for wetsuits, including bootie pegs. Dive lockers have hanging pegs. I saw that several folks brought their own BC hangers; I normally just looped one of the BC tank straps on the pegs. The whole dive garage/storage lockers set-up at CCV is great.
This place is really all about diving. No pool, no TVs, etc. If you like a relaxed atmosphere with a ton of potential diving and not many other distractions, this is the place for you. We loved the atmosphere, the well-organized dive op, the extremely casual dining, the whole CCV vibe. We are already trying to figure out when we can go back
My mission on this trip was to get Abby certified and excited about diving. She looked very confident underwater and surfaced after each dive with smiles and excited comments about what she had seen. She is definitely hooked……and has even started talking about New England diving with me this summer. Mission accomplished!
Chris
We stayed in ocean front room 21, which is on the 2nd floor of the 2nd ocean front building, in the corner farthest from the dining hall. Comfortable and clean, with 2 full beds, a powerful (but noisy) air conditioner, 2 ceiling fans, a chest of drawers between the beds, a desk/chair, mini-fridge, coffee maker, a 5 gallon jug of water (great idea!) with pump/4 drinking cups, a shelf that ran the length of one bed for storage and an area for hanging clothes with 8 hangers and another small shelf above. The open air deck facing the water was great for hanging out on, with 2 wooden Adirondack-style deck chairs, a hammock and a rope for hanging things out to dry (6 clothespins…could have used a few more especially after one of our neighbors took some of ours). Other guests we spoke to mentioned that the cabanas and bungalows are bigger…but to be honest, we had all the space we needed. The shower also always seemed to have plenty of hot water.
Weather was nice and warm = mid-high 80s F air temps on most days and only one very brief daytime rain shower during the week. Water temps were a consistent 81F on all dives according to my computer. Call us crazy, but we both brought 5mm suits and wore them all week. I never felt too hot and at the same time never felt too cold (my daughter said the same). On the days when I did 4 dives, it was certainly nice to have the extra neoprene.
My daughter completed her certification referral dives at CCV, and I was definitely impressed with what I saw of the Dockside Dive team and Alejandra, her instructor. Dockside is a very well-stocked dive shop….not the typical “basics-only” vacation resort dive shop. Key takeaways = new rental gear in great condition, in-house photo expert offering instruction/photo/video services, etc., tons of accessories such as clips/keepers, lanyards, dive lights, dive bandanas, etc. Dive shop owner Patty Grier is also a trained paramedic; in addition at CCV there is Andrea, an experienced RN who provides medical care on a volunteer basis = both were a huge help with my newbie daughter's ear issues....getting her back in the water despite some congestion problems.
Instruction looked very good = Alejandra did not baby her in any way, which I liked (building self-sufficiency). I watched them underwater during 1 boat dive = good to see Abby do well on full mask removal/replace
DIVING:
The CCV dive boats are definitely a treat. Not so impressive at first glance, but we quickly came to appreciate the 3 exit points and the center dive well. Open air but plenty of shaded space on the boat – perfect for pasty white northeasterners trying to avoid sunburn. Dive conditions were choppy for much of the week. On our last day we had 3-4 foot waves (with occasional 6s) on the longer trip to Calvin’s Crack, a 35 minute trip east of CCV….Abby had no problems re-boarding the boat using the center well (getting gentle underwater reminders to watch her head). Much easier to wedge yourself in the well and remove fins vs. using the bucking bronco stern. We had 10 or 11 folks on our boat most days, and things never felt crowded….again, having 2 side exits and the stern exit prevented any exit log jams. All our fellow divers on CCV IV were very encouraging and supportive to Abby and all congratulated her when she finished her certification dives successfully. David our captain and Kirk our DM were both great = laid back but efficient, always there to help and with a good sense of humor. DM intern Bill was also a great help, hanging with Abby and me during our sometimes extended descents to gently open her ears. We were taking 4-5 minutes to get down to 30 feet to allow her time to equalize properly…..good to have Bill there, particularly when we were doing this over the walls on the drop off dives.
We certainly found as much diving as we wanted during the week. I managed 20 dives and Abby did 10 (due to her cold/sinus/ear issues). Unfortunately we didn’t do any night dives (again, taking things easy with her ears) = next trip. For the times when Abby couldn’t dive, she loved falling asleep in “her” hammock and sunbathing in some of the sundecks along the waterfront. I felt very safe leaving her alone at the resort for short amounts of time. She also came out on the boat with us a few times when she wasn’t diving – reading and swimming while we were underwater.
Marine life = lots of great small life; the only larger stuff we saw during the week was 1 turtle, a large tarpon and many sizeable grouper. Macro life was beautiful = more sea horses than I've seen in all my previous diving to date combined, morays, drum fish everywhere, tons of angels (queen, French, gray), butterfly fish, toad fish, trumpet fish, being surrounded by a school of nearly 100 squid, flamingo tongues on almost every dive. And the walls – not sure I’d ever get bored diving on Coco View and Newman’s walls. Always something going on and something slightly different every time.
Other general feedback:
- All I brought to wear were t-shirts, 4 bathing suits and 2 pairs of shorts. This was perfect given how casual CCV is.
- Good and plentiful food, buffet-style. I let CCV know in advance that Abby is a vegetarian. If there wasn’t a specific fish dish on the menu, they went out of their way to make her something special, including veggie burgers at the mid-week BBQ……the cooking staff were so helpful and thoughtful, always checking in with Abby to make sure she was taken care of.
- All staff super helpful and friendly
- We were able to connect to the wireless internet access from our ocean front room; 10% of the time this was slightly slow. This usually corrected itself with a screen re-fresh or opening/closing the browser window.
- I did a 1:1 check-out dive with a DM on Saturday (scheduled in advance = $25)…..absolutely worth it (saw a turtle on CCV wall during the front yard “tour”
…..particularly to be able to enjoy a full day of diving on Sunday- Mellow bar scene....not a big party/night life place….but a nice place to have a drink, play pool, play ping pong, pull out a game (we had an ongoing Uno deathmatch going on), etc.
- All rooms were booked when we were there last week - things never felt crowded – eating or diving. As I mentioned, we had 10-11 on our boat and were blessed with a very nice group of folks who jelled pretty well.
- There were bugs, and we came suitably paranoid having read many stories about them. We applied bug spray each AM, PM and after diving (including towelettes in the bus to CCV) and despite a few bites had no major issues. We sat outside quite often on our deck and really weren't bothered; consistent breezes (and time of year) probably helped with this.
- My feet were a mess by the end of the week – blisters on the tops of my feet. I’ve done 20 dives in a week before…I guess in the past I had been doing enough diving at home just prior to the trip so that my feet were battle ready. I brought a pair of nylon dive socks ($6) that I started wearing later in the week. These were originally for Abby, but they saved my feet!
- Water on the boats is paper cups and a large water jug. We brought some plastic water bottles from home; you can also buy bottles of water in the gift shop and re-fill during the week.
- Plenty of hanging lines in the dive locker gear for wetsuits, including bootie pegs. Dive lockers have hanging pegs. I saw that several folks brought their own BC hangers; I normally just looped one of the BC tank straps on the pegs. The whole dive garage/storage lockers set-up at CCV is great.
This place is really all about diving. No pool, no TVs, etc. If you like a relaxed atmosphere with a ton of potential diving and not many other distractions, this is the place for you. We loved the atmosphere, the well-organized dive op, the extremely casual dining, the whole CCV vibe. We are already trying to figure out when we can go back
My mission on this trip was to get Abby certified and excited about diving. She looked very confident underwater and surfaced after each dive with smiles and excited comments about what she had seen. She is definitely hooked……and has even started talking about New England diving with me this summer. Mission accomplished!
Chris
