Fantasy Island Roatan Trip report

Hello All
We just returned from Roatan and thought we would post a trip report. 4/10 - 4/17
We stayed at Fantasy Island and found this to be a very nice place to DIVE YOUR BRAINS OUT. We logged 19 dives in 6 days over 17 hours under water with only 1 dive on day 6.

Accommodations : Fantasy Island
We would rate this about a 3 star type resort and a very good value for the price. Very clean and everything worked just fine including the A/C and satellite TV in your room. The food is average to above average depending on the day. There is always 4 or 5 choices for dinner and lunch. Breakfast is pretty much a static meal for choices but they will make omelets or eggs while you wait. The pool is small but the 2 beaches are very nice and protected lagoons. This place has a charm we both found fantastic with Monkeys,Iguanas,Watusas roaming the grounds during the days and small Bats flying around at night. Watching these creatures is part of the fun there and feeding the monkeys is a real treat. The general karaoke and lounge singer type entertainment for night life. We mostly did happy hour 5 to 6, 1/2 price drinks then dinner at 6:30 with new friends. A after dinner drink at the Gazebo for a while then back to bed to rest for another day of diving ahead. The Gazebo was a great place just to sit and soak up the island and its views.

Dive shop :
These folks have it all with lockers just a short walk from the boat.
3 scheduled boat trips daily 9,11, 2:30 all 1 tank trips
Towels on the boats and HOT showers at the dock which is a great thing between dives.
Unlimited shore diving with a boat to take and pick you and your gear up from the gazebo until 8:00 pm after that you must take your gear back to your room because the dive locker room is locked up.
They will also load extra tanks on the boat and drop you off on either of the walls(Coco View /Newman's) or the Prince Albert on the way in. This saves the swim out from the Gazebo and gives you more bottom time to explore.
Gazebo dives are very easy you follow a cable out and back about a 40 yard swim each way with little or no current.
Divemaster gave good briefings and would allow you to do your own thing if you wished once they saw you were a competent diver. The just ask you let them know before leaving the boat and followed the same general dive plan. We had from a low of 4 to a high of 14 on the boats.

The Diving :
We can see why Roatan is a very popular choice as a dive destination. We had prefect weather with 81 degree water and almost flat seas for 5 of the 6 days we dove with little or no current on most dives.Visibility was atleast 60' due to windy conditions when we arrived, 80' plus was the norm and off the walls well over 100' was common. Most dives were over 50 mins with some going over 60 mins as we had a boat full of great divers. SHOUT OUT to all our new friends from the LITTLE KEM boat and Special thanks to Mark (DM) and Mel our Captain. The highlight of the trip was Tuesday 4/12 on our second dive which was cut short to chase down the Whale Shark which had been spotted off the island. After about a 30 minute boat ride, we were dropped off on top of almost every divers dream. We got to swim with a Whale Shark not once but twice and seen him 3 times from the boat. The second time I was 10' or less from it and while it was only about 20' I can tell you we still are wearing the smiles . As for the rest of the diving it was Fabulous and the walls there are simply INCREDIBLE . We have seen more colorful walls and I'm not saying they were not colorful but these wall are just HUGE and go on forever. We seen lots of sea life including 2 Seahorses a first for us.SLOW AND EASY is the key to finding the small creatures which live here. Most dives were buoy moored site dive but we also did 7 drift dives. We did 2 night dives which were both very good with lots of life. While I have read shore diving from Coco view is easier, I am not sure how. I can tell you that the Gazebo dive were VERY EASY and the Prince Albert shipwreck is one dive nobody should miss. We burned 2 tanks on it.

Side Trip :
On our day before flying we did the Canopy tour , which was a blast.

Conclusion :
While we usually don't return to a dive destination due to the length of the LIST of got to dive places in the world. Roatan is one dive vacation we will have to return to someday in the future. The rustic charm and beauty of the island is just icing on the cake. I hope that never changes. This is a great value and with great diving.

Great report!!

Any pics by any chance?

J.

awesome report.... i think fantasy island is where my wife and i will end up
staying in our (postponed) trip to Roatan, so this report is priceless

i do have a question: did you rent a car? is there a point to renting a car
in Roatan?

thanks RM

will my wife be able to walk to whatever shopping there is in the island from
Fantasy Island?

H2Andy:

thanks RM

will my wife be able to walk to whatever shopping there is in the island from
Fantasy Island?

Click to expand...

No. There is 1 of two western style food markets just W of FIBR & CCV by about three minutes (less) by car. The small town there of French Harbour has no shopping for tourists. It isn't a bad hike and daily bit of exercise, though.

She can get quite the daily dose of shopping by visiting CoCoView every morning when one select local vendor shows up to peddle their wares, always the better of the best. Brilliant creations of (authentic, legal by-catch) black coral jewelry (another reason not to eat shrimp), native shells, batik wraps, primitive and exotic art stitchery on flour sack clothing, coconut shell art, local lapidary jewelry art with or w/o hair braiding, and lots of others.

She can take a car to Coxen Hole and poke around the shops there, also the 2nd grocery store with lunch counter. I believe they still sell t-shirts cheap upstairs.

The cruise ship dock has an active straw market on docking days, and there is also a secondary straw market set up just E of the airport in Dixon Cove on those days as well.

The West End has much the same stuff every day of the week. I am decidedly wishy-washy about the West End as a base dive area, but as a "total vacation package" (T.V.P.), at least in terms of Roatan, it's as good as it gets. On the T.V.P. quotient scale in the Mar Caribe I would give it a 2.8 out of a 10 (Cayman and Cozumel being a close tie at 10). By comparison Utila would be a 1.25 and Guanaja a 1. (These low scores are NOT a bad thing, it's just that they are what they are)

Most of what you will find to buy is largely Guatemalan import.

The exceptions? The previously mentioned vendors at CCV, and many of the more intricate wooden creations, mostly elaborate boxes.

Grocery stores, why do I mention them? Great gifts of inexpensive and good Rum (Nicaraguan Flor de Cana), raw cinamon sticks, various coffees (Indio Fuerte will remove hair from your teeth and tongue), hot sauces, etc. Try to look for products with the Honduran label. Cigars, although fun to bring back, are cheaper in the states. Not bad sampler packs avail at the departure louge airport stores.

Andy, if shopping is her bag, take lots of $1 bills, a backpack and a sense of humor with a dash of whimsy for the primitive and simplistic. It aint quite Cayman.

thanks again...

actually, this may just be her thing. she loves to shop for "out of
the ordinary" things

she's also quite the walker, so i think she'll love it