Divers charged $20 each to go to Mary's Place

[BettyfromToronto]

A co-worker who is newly certified just returned from a week at Henry Morgans. So when I asked "how was the trip" he says "Where are all the fish?" Hmm. Same comment from my hubby after our trip in February.

He paid $100 to do the shark dive and loved it but said the current was really strong. Then he tells me they asked everyone on the boat for an additional $20 (above their 7 nights AI + 5 day 2 dives/day package) to go to Mary's Place. What???? :shocked2: They wanted the extra cash to pay for fuel.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? When we stayed at Fantasy Island we didn't have to pay extra to dive Mary's Place.

 

[Scott]

Could be because of the added distance from the west end where Henry Morgans is located to Marys Place. While FI is about a 10 minute ride to Mary's Place, from the west end it could be, guessing, 30+ minutes depending on the boat?
I wouldn't have a grief over it if I knew in advance, if they sprung that on me during our return, I would be upset.

There is always some current on the shark dive if it was on Cara a Cara, some days are better than others. That's why they have a continuous line from the boat to the bottom. In October we stayed at CCV and dived with Waihuka Adventure Diving. Our cost was less than $80 each. IIRC, there was an eight diver minimum.

 

[Mike]

A Then he tells me they asked everyone on the boat for an additional $20 (above their 7 nights AI + 5 day 2 dives/day package) to go to Mary's Place. What???? :shocked2: They wanted the extra cash to pay for fuel.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? When we stayed at Fantasy Island we didn't have to pay extra to dive Mary's Place.

Fantasy Island is on the south side not far from Mary's Place dive site. Henry Morgan is on the north side of Roatan. I've heard, and experienced extra fees for 'special' dives on Roatan.

Every dive destination is a little different, the thing I noticed on Roatan was that the boat rides are all very short, so it's a place where a 20 minute ride is a long ride to a dive site. I was apologized to more than once due to the 'long' boat ride or two we were on. It's just a Roatan thing that dive ops consider what might be a normal boat ride elsewhere a long one there due to the abundance of close dive sites.

I'm sure your friend was given the option of paying the extra fee to dive what is considered a premierer dive site on Roatan or not going that day. (at least I hope he was)

 

[CajunDiva]

Betty - please help me to understand something...are you saying that your friends asked to dive Mary's Place right after doing the shark dive? It's important to understand that the operator of the shark dive is an independent contractor and is not part of any resort packages. If you pay them $100 for a shark dive, that's what you get. If your friends then asked them to go to Mary's Place, it would be completely fair for them to request additional funds to cover their expenses.

 

[ed fisher]

My wife and I stayed at Henry Morgans October 29-Nov 4th and our dive club dove with the on site shop TGI. I have nothing but good things to say about their operation. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we had moderate westerly winds. They bussed us to the boat docked just west of the airport and dove 8 sites there including Mary's Place. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the winds layed down and they brought the boat to West Bay and we dove from there including the night dive. We had great diving and plenty of fish, eels, turtles, grouper, cuddlefish and octopus at both locations. The surface viz on Sunday and Monday was a little chalky from the previous weeks storm until about 12 feet but at least 50 feet+ below that. Perhaps that they were making a special trip around the point for one location was why they requested a surcharge. The shark dive which was operated by a seperate shop far exceeded our expectations and even though the surface current was strong, any diver that can backroll enter and descend a downline can easily handle it.

A co-worker who is newly certified just returned from a week at Henry Morgans. So when I asked "how was the trip" he says "Where are all the fish?" Hmm. Same comment from my hubby after our trip in February.

He paid $100 to do the shark dive and loved it but said the current was really strong. Then he tells me they asked everyone on the boat for an additional $20 (above their 7 nights AI + 5 day 2 dives/day package) to go to Mary's Place. What???? :shocked2: They wanted the extra cash to pay for fuel.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? When we stayed at Fantasy Island we didn't have to pay extra to dive Mary's Place.

 

[Rainer]

We went to Roatan in January-February of this year. We stayed on West Bay Beach (Bananarama). For us, going to Mary's Place was an extra cost (we didn't end up going due to other commitments). My wife and I thought the diving was *excellent*, but then again, we don't have much warm water diving experience to compare it with.

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[BettyfromToronto]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

CajunDiva: The dives were on separate days, different dive ops. What I was trying to say (poorly I guess) was that he knew he had to pay extra for the shark dive and he did. He didn't know about the extra fuel charge for Mary's Place until they were on the boat. I guess it was majority rules and he went along with it.

Scott: Thanks for the geography lesson. I didn't realize the ride from HM was alot further. I guess everything was close from FI. If I knew that ahead of time I might pick my resort based on the dive sites I want to dive.

 

[cgoodman]

We dove with TGI at the HM from Nov 7th through 21st. During that time, one day there was a Mary's Place dive. It was optional and did cost an additional $20 for the longer boat trip. All divers know that in advance. You pay at the dive shop, not on the boat. Those that didn't want to pay the extra could do a regular priced boat dive. The cost of diving in Roatan is very reasonable. Rates at TGI start at $35 per dive. We did 18 dives each in the two weeks and were charged an average of $25. We didn't prepurchase the diving with our SunWing AI package.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

better than when we were in AKR and they didn't do Mary's Place due to the spike in fuel price at that time. But they were able to go to AKR's private beach off the airport. Not sure why they didn't kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[BettyfromToronto]

I spoke to my friend again and I misunderstood. They were told just before hand.

But he said for the shark dive where he spent alot of $$ for a 35-40 minute dive, the OP kept trying to give them tanks with only 2000psi. He said they all complained and only then did the dive OP top them up.