becndov
Registered
This was our first trip to Roatan and Fantasy Island Beach Resort and overall we had a great time. Here is our trip report.
Travel
Flights through Delta were on time and uneventful which is a good thing. All luggage made it with the exception of our digital camera and some AA batteries. I don't know why we put them in the checked luggage but lesson learned! Someone went through the camera case, took the camera and cord which connects it to a computer and took three memory cards out of one of the pockets but left us the empty case. How thoughtful! This was the low point of our trip when discovered in our room at FIBR. But after about five minutes we moved on and did not let this ruin our trip.
Representatives from FIBR were at the airport to meet us and take us to the resort. The bus drives to and from the resort were are only exposure to the island itself except for the trip to do the shark dive.
FIBR
The resort was as expected from previous reports on this forum. It is in need of some repairs but still in decent shape and the food I would give a 5 out of ten overall with most of it being a three and selected items at every meal being a 7 or 8. That being said the food was plentiful and I did manage to gain 4 pounds while there so it can't be that bad! The service I thought was great for the Caribbean and to be honest better than you get here in America in most cases. I am used to Island Time with nothing happening fast so this was a pleasant surprise. Our room was clean and the A/C worked, so all was well. Screens on the doors and windows would have been nice. I would rather listen to the ocean at night than the A/C, but oh well. All in all, we were not disappointed with FIBR. You get what you pay for there. It is not a top of the line resort but definitely comparable with other resorts we have stayed at in the Caribbean. If you are on a budget you cannot go wrong by staying there.
Diving
I thought the diving on Roatan and with the dive shop at FIBR was excellent. These were probably the healthiest and most beautiful reefs I have ever seen. The fish were not as plentiful as I would have liked but still plenty to keep us interested. The dive shop manager Robert was very friendly and helpful with all our questions. He also fixed Becky's power inflator, which began sticking open, for no charge, although we did give him a nice tip for his efforts. Out boat captain was Denuward and DM was Miguel. They took very good care of us. Miquel had a sling and managed to kill six Lion Fish during the week we were there. He even let Becky attempt a shot but she was unsuccessful! Four other Lion Fish were seen during the week. Unfortunately I think this is a losing battle. Miquel said he was the only DM at the resort making an attempt to rid the reefs of these predators and even if all the others joined in I do not know if they would ever be removed completely. There are just too many places for them to hide and with only man as a predator, not enough control on their population. But it does feel good to help out in their removal so I encourage all diving with DM's using a sling to help them remove as many as possible.
We got along great with the other divers on the boat. When we first stepped on I was not sure about one diver however. There was this little old man raising stink about the number of divers on the boat. However, after he got over that he turned out to be a very nice person. His name is George and he is 81 years old! I will be happy to be doing that well if I make it to 71, let alone 81 and still diving. We had a great time swapping stories with the other divers. We take Lemon Drops along for after a dive and sharing them with the boat is always popular! As I said before we had our camera stolen and our fellow divers were very generous with sharing their photos so we did not end up empty handed.
Sighting highlights for us while diving were two Eagle Rays, two Southern Sting Rays, a couple of flat worms that we could not identify, four Sea Horses, and an octopus that Becky found free swimming during a night dive. The first time we had ever seen that, very cool! I wish I could dive the oceans more but in a way it is a good thing because we always appreciate everything so much even the common things since we know we probably will not have the opportunity to see them again for another year. Our favorite dive site was go figure, Mary's Place. What a beautiful dive site which lives up to its billing. Another boat had a Hammerhead Shark the day before we went there. We liked the dive so much we talked Denu and Miguel into taking us back there again later into the week. We also did the shark dive and had a great time with that as well. We had twelve Black Tip Reef sharks and Becky managed to find a took after the feeding was over.
Bugs
Insects turned out to be a nonfactor for the trip. For better or worse FIBR fogs the beach every morning. Great for the guests but I'm not so sure about the environment. I only used bug spray one time and that was at the beginning of our stay. I did get a couple of bites but nothing to complain about.
Overall we had a great time on our trip. Will I go back again? Hard to say, but not because of the experience we had. I would recommend Roatan and Fantasy Island to anyone. We just like to experience new places. Some day we will get around to repeat visits and Roatan will be at the top of the list although we will probably stay some place else only for the new experience. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it! I'll probably have more later that I forgot to mention now. Happy diving!
Travel
Flights through Delta were on time and uneventful which is a good thing. All luggage made it with the exception of our digital camera and some AA batteries. I don't know why we put them in the checked luggage but lesson learned! Someone went through the camera case, took the camera and cord which connects it to a computer and took three memory cards out of one of the pockets but left us the empty case. How thoughtful! This was the low point of our trip when discovered in our room at FIBR. But after about five minutes we moved on and did not let this ruin our trip.
Representatives from FIBR were at the airport to meet us and take us to the resort. The bus drives to and from the resort were are only exposure to the island itself except for the trip to do the shark dive.
FIBR
The resort was as expected from previous reports on this forum. It is in need of some repairs but still in decent shape and the food I would give a 5 out of ten overall with most of it being a three and selected items at every meal being a 7 or 8. That being said the food was plentiful and I did manage to gain 4 pounds while there so it can't be that bad! The service I thought was great for the Caribbean and to be honest better than you get here in America in most cases. I am used to Island Time with nothing happening fast so this was a pleasant surprise. Our room was clean and the A/C worked, so all was well. Screens on the doors and windows would have been nice. I would rather listen to the ocean at night than the A/C, but oh well. All in all, we were not disappointed with FIBR. You get what you pay for there. It is not a top of the line resort but definitely comparable with other resorts we have stayed at in the Caribbean. If you are on a budget you cannot go wrong by staying there.
Diving
I thought the diving on Roatan and with the dive shop at FIBR was excellent. These were probably the healthiest and most beautiful reefs I have ever seen. The fish were not as plentiful as I would have liked but still plenty to keep us interested. The dive shop manager Robert was very friendly and helpful with all our questions. He also fixed Becky's power inflator, which began sticking open, for no charge, although we did give him a nice tip for his efforts. Out boat captain was Denuward and DM was Miguel. They took very good care of us. Miquel had a sling and managed to kill six Lion Fish during the week we were there. He even let Becky attempt a shot but she was unsuccessful! Four other Lion Fish were seen during the week. Unfortunately I think this is a losing battle. Miquel said he was the only DM at the resort making an attempt to rid the reefs of these predators and even if all the others joined in I do not know if they would ever be removed completely. There are just too many places for them to hide and with only man as a predator, not enough control on their population. But it does feel good to help out in their removal so I encourage all diving with DM's using a sling to help them remove as many as possible.
We got along great with the other divers on the boat. When we first stepped on I was not sure about one diver however. There was this little old man raising stink about the number of divers on the boat. However, after he got over that he turned out to be a very nice person. His name is George and he is 81 years old! I will be happy to be doing that well if I make it to 71, let alone 81 and still diving. We had a great time swapping stories with the other divers. We take Lemon Drops along for after a dive and sharing them with the boat is always popular! As I said before we had our camera stolen and our fellow divers were very generous with sharing their photos so we did not end up empty handed.
Sighting highlights for us while diving were two Eagle Rays, two Southern Sting Rays, a couple of flat worms that we could not identify, four Sea Horses, and an octopus that Becky found free swimming during a night dive. The first time we had ever seen that, very cool! I wish I could dive the oceans more but in a way it is a good thing because we always appreciate everything so much even the common things since we know we probably will not have the opportunity to see them again for another year. Our favorite dive site was go figure, Mary's Place. What a beautiful dive site which lives up to its billing. Another boat had a Hammerhead Shark the day before we went there. We liked the dive so much we talked Denu and Miguel into taking us back there again later into the week. We also did the shark dive and had a great time with that as well. We had twelve Black Tip Reef sharks and Becky managed to find a took after the feeding was over.
Bugs
Insects turned out to be a nonfactor for the trip. For better or worse FIBR fogs the beach every morning. Great for the guests but I'm not so sure about the environment. I only used bug spray one time and that was at the beginning of our stay. I did get a couple of bites but nothing to complain about.
Overall we had a great time on our trip. Will I go back again? Hard to say, but not because of the experience we had. I would recommend Roatan and Fantasy Island to anyone. We just like to experience new places. Some day we will get around to repeat visits and Roatan will be at the top of the list although we will probably stay some place else only for the new experience. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it! I'll probably have more later that I forgot to mention now. Happy diving!
