Trip Report Anthony's Key Resort (AKR) trip report - November 2013

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Lorenzoid

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My wife and I spent the week of Sat. 11/16/2013 through Sat. 11/23/2013 at Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR) on the island of Roatan, Honduras. It was my second time in the Bay Islands, having spent a week in West End and a month on Utila about 10 years ago, and the first time in Honduras for my wife. Overall, we had a great time. We had amazing luck with the weather considering it was the height of the rainy season; sunny days all week except for a few brief drizzles. Roatan is an easy 3 hr 15 min. nonstop flight for us from Atlanta. Here's our impression of AKR:

SUMMARY: AKR is a well-oiled machine, as dive resorts go, but I doubt we’ll be back. The main things that did not appeal to us were: (1) being mixed with inexperienced divers, (2) dive scheduling/availability, and (3) some aspects of the food/beverage scheme. Secondary to that is that my wife and I are just not what I would call resort people; we've enjoyed some dive resorts, but on the balance we more enjoy doing our own thing. If the diving were truly extraordinary like, say, Indonesia, these things wouldn’t bother us so much. But there are too many other good places to dive for us to spend our time here. Judging from what I have read on SB, if we were to return to Roatan, I suspect we would want to give CocoView a try. We opted for AKR over CocoView because AKR had a second-diver-half-off promotion, but in retrospect we feel it was sort of a false savings.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT: Pick-up at the airport and check-in at the resort were flawless. AKR is partly on the island or key (Anthony’s Key, that is) and partly on the "mainland" (Roatan), which is basically a hillside. Rooms are divided between these two areas, and we opted for a Standard (non air-conditioned) Hill Room. This being the low occupancy season, AKR graciously upgraded us to a Superior (air-con) Hill Room. However, with air temperatures moderate at this time of year, and we being tolerant of heat and humidity, air con wasn’t really necessary for us. I felt the air temperatures of about 88 F daily high and 78 F nightly low were very pleasant. The Key Rooms are right on the water, which is picturesque but not especially important to us, as we’ve done the bungalow-on-pilings thing before. The pool, which we never had time to use, is on the Key. The dive shop, breakfast area, and boat dock are on the Hill or mainland side. There are some (well crafted and maintained) wooden stairways between the Hill Rooms and the dock, but after a day or so we hardly noticed the climb. (The staff carries your luggage on arrival and departure days.) So a Hill Room was a good choice for us. There is a water taxi that goes back and forth constantly between the Hill/mainland and the Key, 24 hours a day, and the journey literally takes 30 seconds. The grounds of both the Hill and Key areas are meticulously maintained and planted with tropical flora. Wildlife fans will find agoutis, iguanas and birds all over the Hill area. There is a wood deck or boardwalk that allows wildlife to pass underneath undisturbed. If you have non-divers in your group, are on your honeymoon, or have issues with stairs, you might choose a Key Room; otherwise, I recommend a Hill Room. The infamous sand flies bit us up, despite liberal use of DEET and baby oil.

DIVING: Orientation was given early the morning after arrival. For the week, each diver is assigned a boat and a divemaster and a padlocked locker in a building next to the dock. Each day you sign up on a chalkboard to indicate the dives you intend to do. The first dive is usually around 8:30 am (though some days it may be a bit earlier), the second around 10:00 am, then lunch, and then a third dive around 2:00 pm. A half hour to 45 mins. or so of your surface interval between the first and second dives is spent back at AKR. Two nights a week an optional night dive is offered. Most dive sites are about a 10-15 minute boat ride from AKR. AKR has something like a dozen boats, all spacious and looking great. Very impressive operation.

You are expected to take your gear from your locker each morning and set it up on your boat, though of course the divemasters will help where needed. The DMs are essentially all locals, in contrast with what I recall from West End and Utila 10 years ago. Our DM was excellent, as was our boat captain. The boats are spacious, and so by my definition not "cattle boats." The normal ratio of divers to DM appeared to be 8:1. Our boat had a total of eight or nine divers each day, though it appeared designed to handle twice as many. However--and here’s the big one--four or five of the other six or seven divers we had on our boat each day had horrible buoyancy, consistently flailed around with their arms (not just sculled but swam!), kicked up silt in the swim-throughs, and banged into the reef with their fins, causing pieces of coral to break off much to our horror. It was mainly a group of four, and it was one in particular who was responsible for most of the damage and was seemingly oblivious. My wife and I chuckle when we recall the DM asking everyone on the first day about their experience, and at least one from this group responding that she had "over 100" dives. These people were ecological disasters and not fun to dive with. They strayed from their buddies, few of them had computers, and I’m certain none had any dive plan other than to follow the DM and surface when their air runs out. On one of the two wreck dives, the four of them reached depths of 100-115 feet, where they did a swim-through across the wheelhouse. My wife and I often stayed shallower than they did, as we not only have conservative Suunto computers that indicated shallower would be in our best interest but I tend to feel the narc at just over 100 feet and don’t like the feeling.

My wife and I like to take our time and look for small stuff. The people from the above-mentioned group were seemingly in some kind of race, and a couple of times when we were all proceeding single-file through a crack we saw a couple of them swim with their arms to race ahead of us through an alternative path above or below us, often stirring up silt. I know that getting mixed with poor divers can happen anywhere in the world, but it does not seem unreasonable to wonder if AKR attracts this type of vacation diver. I couldn’t help but take pleasure in seeing the guys who dove in nothing but board shorts get stung by jellyfish during the night dive, while my wife and I were well protected in our full suits. Incidentally, a 3 mm full suit would have been fine given the sunny weather we had (and 84 F bottom temps), but fearing a chill on surface intervals on rainy days I had only brought my 5 mm, which turned out to be overkill.

Our dives averaged 52 minutes, with our longest being 1 hour, though on almost every dive my wife and I returned with about 1000 psi. Most dives ended on a shallow coral head, and some divers exited a few minutes earlier than others, but it seemed implicit that we were not to linger TOO long. My wife and I would have been happy to stay on some of those sites for another 15 minutes—-we’re talking as shallow as 7-10 feet. We overheard some of the above-mentioned divers laugh off the fact that they returned with only 150 psi (and one time I believe we overheard "50 psi"). Until the DM became familiar with everyone’s abilities, he would ask us to signal our remaining air about 30 mins. into the dive. I have no idea if he was aware people were returning with so little air.

We thought the dive schedule was a bit too spare for us. Rather than departing at a leisurely 8:30 for the first dive, a more appealing schedule would have us doing an early morning dive before breakfast and a night or twilight dive every day, not just two days a week (though I'm not sure what our conservative Suuntos would think of 4-5 dives every day). Our conclusion was that AKR tries to toe the line between being a true dive resort and a resort where non-divers won't feel left out. For example, they really emphasize the dolphin interaction program. (We were told the dolphins are not captive but somehow can be attracted for the dolphin dives.) There is one small shore dive site with tanks available, but it’s on the Key, requiring you to put your gear in the water taxi and then, from the landing, carry it to the site. Moreover, the shore dive site is closed in the early morning and at night, so unless you opt to skip a boat dive, you would need to hustle on over there immediately after the third boat dive. They really should make it available for night dives and early morning dives.

As for the quality of the diving itself, I thought there was somewhat less marine life, especially fish, than I remembered from 10 years ago. I believe we see more fish in Cozumel and Bonaire. On the positive side, we saw only five or six lionfish the whole week. The coral appeared to be about average for the Caribbean--no worse than I remember it being 10 years ago. We were most interested in macro life, and when we were not being herded through endless swim-throughs and had a chance to slow down, we saw lots.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE: My wife and I are very much into eating good food, and when we’re in a city or region known for its food we eat really really well. But honestly, we just don’t need fussy food when we’re at a dive resort or on a liveaboard, because it’s hard to pull off and more often than not just comes off as pretentious. I’m sure AKR thinks its food is top notch, but in my opinion it’s similar to what you’d get at a chain restaurant like Friday’s or Red Lobster. In all fairness, that’s pretty remarkable for a relatively isolated island in Central America. Meals are served by waiters, which is different from the far more common buffet setup. We concluded that the waiter service is not so much for the purpose of adding an upscale air as it is to cut down on waste. More on this below. Breakfast is the most flexible meal, and you can pretty much make up whatever combination of the typical breakfast items you like. The cook is apparently well versed in gringo preferences, and this is not one of those remote non-English-speaking places where you need to go through a game of charades to get an egg cooked “over easy”--they know the term. And there is a table (yes, a mini-buffet) of excellent fresh fruit, which we wished was available at all meals, not just breakfast. We don't eat sweets for dessert, but fruit would have been welcome. Lunch and dinner are a different matter, as you are rigidly required to choose between two main platters, plus soup and/or salad, and dessert. We chose soup AND salad at every meal because the soup and the salad were always both very good, and we were hungry. We noted that every leaf of lettuce was remarkably perfect--not something we expected on a tropical island. A bread basket and real butter came with each meal. But if you wanted just one extra bread roll, the waiter brought an entire additional basket. One night I sheepishly asked for a couple of extra lionfish fingers because they were so good, and the waiter huffed “I’ll see what I can do” and brought an entire additional platter, complete with the apparently obligatory side item(s) such as carrots, rice, plantains, etc. The dinner platters for the week were:

Sat: grilled fish -or- pork kebabs
Sun: creole shrimp -or- roast beef
Mon: fried squid rings -or- fried pork chop
Tue: fried lionfish fingers -or- chicken
Wed: Fiesta Night on the Key: ribs and grilled fish (buffet style--yay)
Thu: shrimp pasta -or- chicken parmagiana
Fri: steak -or- lobster tail

It is possible to request both main items but you might get a disapproving look from the waiter and you would apparently receive two complete platters rather than a little of each item together on one platter. Not wanting to look like a fat American pig, I refrained from making such a request. However, on Steak/Lobster night--our last night at AKR--I got up the nerve to ask for both items and was told there would be a $5 surcharge. I declined and chose the lobster, which came in the form of two small, overcooked, and inedibly salty tails. What a waste of little lobsters. I don’t yearn for steak and lobster at a dive resort, and unless the cook can truly do justice to this kind of food it is nothing but a pathetic waste of resources. I would much prefer a typical buffet, where I can take exactly the items I want in exactly the quantities I want and not take what I don’t want. The waiter service at AKR just didn’t make any sense to me, since the waiter’s main jobs are merely to note your choices from among the very few options, bring them to you, and refill your water glass. Is a waiter really needed for that? Also, we felt the service was a bit rushed. Two seconds after we sat down, the waiter wanted to take our order. That's nice at breakfast because people are often in a hurry, but at dinner we might like to enjoy a beer or wine before ordering our food. And after we put down our fork, it would not be two seconds before the waiter swooped in to take our plates away. Several times we had to fend him off, saying we were not finished yet.

There is a really good hot sauce made by one of AKR's own staff members, Selasie, but despite the fact that seemingly every table was clamoring for hot sauce, they only had two bottles on hand when we were there. If you are able to get ahold of a bottle from another table, you had better squeeze some out quickly, because another table is eyeing up your bottle.

I’m not sure if this is a diving-related or food-related point, but no post-dive snacks are offered. With the third dive getting you back to the dock at 4:00 pm or so, it’s a long stretch between lunch and dinner. A post-dive piece of fruit or cake would have been welcomed after the third dive and after the first dive as well. They do sell snacks in the shop, and the thrifty diver would snag a piece of fruit or a muffin from breakfast for the afternoon. I love when a dive op offers you a post-dive slice of pineapple or something. If I were returning to AKR, I’d bring along some energy bars from home.

OTHER: On Monday after the second dive, our boat took us to Maya Key, AKR’s satellite operation that seems geared toward day-tripping cruise people, on the South side of the island for a "picnic lunch" rather than returning to AKR for lunch. On Wednesday night, dinner is not at the restaurant on the Hill but rather a "Fiesta Night" on the Key, with entertainment and activities like Garifuna dancers, a limbo contest and karaoke. Though the ribs and grilled fish were stellar and plentiful, we left early, as the activities were not of major interest to us. On Thursday, lunch is served not at the restaurant on the Hill but on the Key. On alternate days, happy hour (2-for-1 drinks) is either at the bar on the Hill or at the pool bar on the Key. Alternating meals and things between the Hill and the Key was slightly annoying, as we had to think “what day is it today,” which is something we expressly do not want to do when on a dive vacation. I don’t want to look at a schedule to see whether I need to go somewhere else or whether today's lunch or tonight's dinner is some special event. All my wife and I typically want to do when we’re done diving for the day is have a cold beer or glass of wine, eat dinner, and head off to our room to sleep. The Thursday lunch on the Key consisted of Tex-Mex food, which, in addition to being not all that great, I proceeded to burp up during the afternoon dive. What--no Honduran baleadas? Nope. Actual Mexican food? Nope. It was pure Tex-Mex, complete with shredded yellow cheese, flour tortillas, American-style sour cream, and mild tomato-ey salsa that seemed straight out of Taco Bell’s recipe book. Incredibly, Selasie's excellent hot sauce was not available. On Friday, the evening before our departure, we went out to West End and ate our fill of baleadas. (Wow--they paved the main road in West End, and there are condos!)

Overall, we had a great time. But I think there are options better suited for my wife and me than AKR.
 
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Thanks for the detailed report. This place has been on and off my dive list for years. Probably more "off" now.
 
Enjoyed your review; extensive and just what someone could use to assess the place to decide whether it was right for them.

The messenger is part of the message. You seem to be one of those people who notices what the other divers are doing. It is miserable to see people damage the reefs.

I did see something troubling. You 'couldn't help but take pleasure' in seeing guys in board shorts stung by jellyfish? (Because they didn't wear wet suits like you & your wife did). Humans have free will and you can get your jollies where you will, I suppose, but that's disturbing.

For a comparative perspective, let's say my wife and I wore wetsuits, hoods and gloves diving with a group in murky conditions, and another guy wore a wetsuit but no gloves, and a barracuda mistook his hand for a fish, and I 'couldn't help but take pleasure' when it bit him.

Got a little sadistic streak there?

Richard.
 
Enjoyed your review; extensive and just what someone could use to assess the place to decide whether it was right for them.

The messenger is part of the message. You seem to be one of those people who notices what the other divers are doing. It is miserable to see people damage the reefs.

I did see something troubling. You 'couldn't help but take pleasure' in seeing guys in board shorts stung by jellyfish? (Because they didn't wear wet suits like you & your wife did). Humans have free will and you can get your jollies where you will, I suppose, but that's disturbing.

For a comparative perspective, let's say my wife and I wore wetsuits, hoods and gloves diving with a group in murky conditions, and another guy wore a wetsuit but no gloves, and a barracuda mistook his hand for a fish, and I 'couldn't help but take pleasure' when it bit him.

Got a little sadistic streak there?

Richard.

I wasn't quite sure how to phrase the bit about taking pleasure in some fool's misery. I'm sure I could have worded it more tactfully. They were mild stings, by the way, though I suppose that shouldn't matter.
 
Thanks so much for the great, detailed report. You really took your time and got it right :D Your sentiments somewhat echo what our experiences have been at AKR. In terms of operations, it's a well-oiled machine. We never had a problem with the way anything worked, but it's much more of a Disneyland diving feel, and the emphasis is on marketing.

We love Roatan period, and it's nice every now and then to experience the diving on the "north" side of the island. When we want to do that we always visit AKR. But in general we prefer Roatan's awesome south shore, where the macro life is plentiful and the amazing sun-lit walls provide life for multitudes of interesting critters. There are some great dive ops along the south shore.

First, near the cruise ship dock there is Barefoot Divers - a more exclusive, "valet diving" kind of place. Next is Fantasy Island, our previous "home" on Roatan. The dive shop there has always provided us with nothing but the best service and their divemasters made us much better divers over the years we visited and dove with them. And next door to Fantasy Island is CocoView...nuff said! Every diver knows about CocoView :D A bit farther east is our new favorite, Media Luna Resort. This is what dive vacations were meant to be like! Notice I said "dive vacations"...it's a perfect blend of luxurious accomodations and great diving. It's not as hard core as CocoView, but with the amazing shore diving available right there at Half Moon Bay, you can make it as hard core as you'd like. If you really like to take your time and hunt for the small stuff without being bothered by novice divers, you can take all the time you like right there. It's pretty incredible. Lastly, the farthest dive op down past Media Luna is Reef House Resort. Although I have not been there myself, this resort is reportedly more rustic and down to earth, but the diving gets good ratings. In my experience the diving out on that end of the island (home to the famous "Calvin's Crack") is pretty much the ultimate.

So, you're right - there ARE other options that might be better suited for you! I'm glad you got to experience AKR - it really is a quality dive op. But it doesn't seem to suit your dive personality. But you should check out some of the other Roatan options. In fact, you and your wife seem to have the same interests we do. We formed a group of dive buddies at the beginning of our dive travels and we still dive together to this day. Maybe you guys should join up with us next time and we can all share a boat. I promise you won't have to deal with anyone doing damage to the reefs :D
 
Thanks for the detailed report - very informative. Sorry you guys didn't have a better experience.

Chris

Don't get me wrong--overall, we had a great time. In a trip report, I feel it's a better use of space to detail the things that did not appeal to us than to detail the things that did, because that is what will be most useful to someone trying to plan a trip in the future. Nobody says a trip report must be fair and balanced. I don't feel obligated to advertise for AKR. AKR did some things exceedingly well. For example, we were very impressed with every single staff member we met. Everyone seems to value their job and want to do the best job possible. And as I (too briefly?) mentioned, AKR is a well-oiled machine. I could contrast it with some places where, for example, check-in is chaotic, or special requests fluster them. As far as we could see, AKR handles everything that is thrown at them with ease and professionalism. They also offer the full spectrum of PADI education, right up to IDC, and the Course Director seems really enthusiastic. One evening he conducted a free Fish ID lecture/slideshow, which turned out to be quite enjoyable. I just wish our boat-mates whose diving I disparaged had taken the guy up on his offer to take his Buoyancy course.

Thanks so much for the great, detailed report. You really took your time and got it right :D Your sentiments somewhat echo what our experiences have been at AKR. In terms of operations, it's a well-oiled machine. We never had a problem with the way anything worked, but it's much more of a Disneyland diving feel, and the emphasis is on marketing.

We love Roatan period, and it's nice every now and then to experience the diving on the "north" side of the island. When we want to do that we always visit AKR. But in general we prefer Roatan's awesome south shore, where the macro life is plentiful and the amazing sun-lit walls provide life for multitudes of interesting critters. There are some great dive ops along the south shore.

First, near the cruise ship dock there is Barefoot Divers - a more exclusive, "valet diving" kind of place. Next is Fantasy Island, our previous "home" on Roatan. The dive shop there has always provided us with nothing but the best service and their divemasters made us much better divers over the years we visited and dove with them. And next door to Fantasy Island is CocoView...nuff said! Every diver knows about CocoView :D A bit farther east is our new favorite, Media Luna Resort. This is what dive vacations were meant to be like! Notice I said "dive vacations"...it's a perfect blend of luxurious accomodations and great diving. It's not as hard core as CocoView, but with the amazing shore diving available right there at Half Moon Bay, you can make it as hard core as you'd like. If you really like to take your time and hunt for the small stuff without being bothered by novice divers, you can take all the time you like right there. It's pretty incredible. Lastly, the farthest dive op down past Media Luna is Reef House Resort. Although I have not been there myself, this resort is reportedly more rustic and down to earth, but the diving gets good ratings. In my experience the diving out on that end of the island (home to the famous "Calvin's Crack") is pretty much the ultimate.

So, you're right - there ARE other options that might be better suited for you! I'm glad you got to experience AKR - it really is a quality dive op. But it doesn't seem to suit your dive personality. But you should check out some of the other Roatan options. In fact, you and your wife seem to have the same interests we do. We formed a group of dive buddies at the beginning of our dive travels and we still dive together to this day. Maybe you guys should join up with us next time and we can all share a boat. I promise you won't have to deal with anyone doing damage to the reefs :D

"Disneyland diving"--I love the term!

It's interesting that you use the term "hard core" for CocoView. After all we've read on SB about CocoView, and now having had AKR to compare it with, we're more curious than ever about CocoView.

We're now looking into an April 2014 trip to Cozumel. We LOVE Mexico. (Yeah, that food thing is a big draw. Salbutes! Panuchos! Ay!) We also have a group we dive with that goes to Bonaire every year, and that works out really well.

But keep in touch!
 
i haven't read the entire report because i'm at work, but i'm saving it for future reference and next year's trip planning. thanks for the report!
 
Great report! We are going to AKR in March and you filled in a lot of my questions I had. Was there any view from your room?
 
Great report! We are going to AKR in March and you filled in a lot of my questions I had. Was there any view from your room?

The windows are huge, and though the Hill Rooms face the water, it's essentially a tropical forest that composed our view. Walking outside on the deck, we could lie in hammocks and watch the birds and lizards in the trees.
 
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