Fantasy Island closing 06/01/13 (for 4 months?)

The title of this thread is all I got. There is some locally expressed doubt that this will be for only the duration of the stated period.

This is a beautiful location that was allowed to decay for many years. I hope the dive staff can find work- with their solid reputation as DMs, I am hopeful that they will find employment quickly. A good bunch of guys that held this ramshackle resort above water.

If anybody spots the FIBR DMs working elsewhere, please post it for all.

This is pretty interesting - I don't see them reopening in 4 months unless it's being shut down for major renovation. That would mean that it had a new investor or new owner or something. My guess is they are shutting down thinking it will save them money during the slower season.....which means if it does open back up it will be in worse shape than it is now if that is what they are doing.


Anyway it goes it's such a shame because it could be turned into a really nice location with the right management/owners.

A small group of us have reservations at Fantasy Island Aug. 24th to the 31st & I just received an email from Nick that the resort will be closed due to starting their renovations on Aug. 24th. He has offered us a "beautifully decorated duplex cabin with great ocean view" at Turquoise Bay. He claims that it is more expensive but he will pay for any increase in price. Has anyone been to/stayed at both of these resorts? And if so, what are your thoughts on the comparability? I went to the TB website & their prices seem cheaper than FI, so I'm not sure where he's getting that they are more expensive. We would really appreciate any advice we could get on what to do. Thanks!

Not sure I would do that. I have some friends who just returned from TB last week. They did not like it at all and said that they would never return to Roatan. I had recommended Roatan to him as a change of pace in diving. I told him that Roatan is a great place with many different places to dive. He said that there were hardly any fish, coral was so-so, and that the place was pretty enough but very isolated from anything else. He said that he would go back to Cozumel and that Roatan "s....cked". Left a bad taste in him. My 2 cents

alphawhite1981:

.... what are your thoughts on the comparability?

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One is closed, one is open.

One was a Dive Resort located in the middle of a very unique diving environment (Roatan's South side),
the other is a Resort that offers Diving, located on the less interesting (to many) North side of Roatan.

FI was among the very short list on Roatan of dedicated AI Dive Resorts. If you wanted three dives a day (a break-even calculation for the cost/benefit ratio of an AI versus a day-dive op), if you wanted to dive the very interesting South side environment, FI was an option (for some). The resort services (other than diving) were spotty, at best. You could dive as much as you could stand the Nitrogen loading.

In the category of (South side) dive-centric resorts you will find CoCoView (CCV), Reef House Resort (RHR), Barefoot Key (BFK). On the North side you will find Anthony Key (AKR).

Turquoise Bay (TBR) is located on the quite different North side diving environ and has the potential to be a nice resort, just like FI. They use an outside dive op that gets good reviews, one which employs one of the best DMs on the island, Osman Gomez. They occasionally make the passage to dive South side (esp when the conditions close down their side), but they stay far East when they do.

The overall choices on the Island are now less in number. Are you in search of a dive vacation or a vacation with some diving? There is a huge difference- irrelevant to some, some are happily ignorant of the distinction, and then there are those who wind up in the wrong place... this can go both ways in the equation!

TBR offers a vacation (varying reports of consistency) with some diving.

If more than 2 dives a day is not a requirement for you, many travelers find a fit among the many offerings that range from the West Bay, West End zones. Again, that s a totally different u/w environment and these are guest houses, day-dive ops, and resorts that offer diving. It's not a bad thing, it just is what it is.

Know what you want, be realistic with your self perception, fulfill your needs and use precious vacation accordingly.

Thanks everyone for the information! Doc, we are divers that like to vacation, so our trips are defined by diving. We just found out that CocoView Resort has availability, which was our first choice to begin with, but were originally told that the week we wanted was full. I guess they had some cancellations, lucky us! I'm told it will end up being more expensive, fewer boat dives, doesn't have a pool or beach & no AI alcoholic beverages, but the 24 hour shore diving, resort location, over the water cabanas & dive boats sound like it's worth the trade off. Any thoughts or advice?

alphawhite1981:

....I guess they had some cancellations, lucky us! I'm told it will end up being more expensive, fewer boat dives, doesn't have a pool or beach & no AI alcoholic beverages, but the 24 hour shore diving, resort location, over the water cabanas & dive boats sound like it's worth the trade off. Any thoughts or advice?

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That's our favorite on Roatan. We get in up to 27 dives in a week without much effort. I know where your thought came from in reference to the number of boat dives, but you'll understand the fallacy once you've done CCV for the week.

I think you're prepared for CCV's "downside", the lack of pool, beach and free booze, but that's not what we book our trips for in the first place. It is a resort that is design built out from your room to the shipwreck... Just for divers. You get what you pay for, and in this case, it's really a bargain.

They do often get cancellations, when a large group trims their reservation numbers. It can be worth it to be wait listed or even opt for the Beach Houses. Those other AI resorts I mentioned above are also good options, but for my needs, we always go to CCV, although I have seen and/or dived with all of the others for a look see. Each has its fans, very few have compared them all.

I believe that the food is as good as AKR, but it is not served by waitstaff. You eat whatever you want (always a meat/chicken or fish, usually a shrimp appetizer). Take as much as you want, linger and yack, or hurry to your room for a quick nap.

The mathematics of cost make sense for an AI if you want more than 2 a day. The night dive access at CCV is a big part of it for me, I usually am doing 5 in a week.. It's a quick fin out to the placed wreck, only a fool could get lost.

The other downside to CCV or any other of the AIs is the fact that a cab ride is needed to go off premises for dinner, say, to the inviting West End area. If you really want to miss a night dive, go have fun, but I recommend the West End over the more commonly visited Geos in French Harbour... Meh.

My best suggestion is to truly take advantage of what this specific u/w area has to offer. Fantasy Island and CCV share access to a most unique reef structure. Go very slowly, with good buoyancy, get in close, see the cool little stuff.

In a way, you bring up a key point about the loss of Fantasy Island. CCV is usually booked-up well in advance, so this isn't going to make it any easier.

I can confirm what your friends said about Roatan. My husband and I just returned from Roatan and the diving has declined. We stayed at Pristine Bay, which was beautiful, but it was a ghost town. Next trip will be to Cozumel or Ambergris Caye.

Pristine Bay is a North side Roatan Golf Resort. You have to battle through the website, but there is a skewed reference to the availability of diving. Scuba Diving Roatan | Snorkeling | Las Verandas Luxury Hotel & Suites

Word is that it's a highly regarded golf course... Tiger Woods has played it more than once. Mr. Woods docks his yacht and dives the South side with Barefoot Key (BFK), one of the places mentioned above.

Connorc:

I can confirm what your friends said about Roatan. My husband and I just returned from Roatan and the diving has declined. We stayed at Pristine Bay, which was beautiful, but it was a ghost town. Next trip will be to Cozumel or Ambergris Caye.

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Diving everywhere has declined. But especially not in Cozumel and Ambergris (unless you compare them way back ten years ago).

Roatan is a big island....


In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement.
The stories differ primarily in how the elephant's body parts are described, how violent the conflict becomes and how (or if) the conflict among the men and their perspectives is resolved.
In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once, they also learn they are blind. While one's subjective experience is true, it may not be the totality of truth. If the sighted man was deaf, he would not hear the elephant bellow. Denying something you cannot perceive ends up becoming an argument for your limitations.