Roatan Review -- a bit long.

[KYDan]

Just back from Fantasy Island Beach Resort. An excellent week to be gone and miss tornados, snow flurries and rain back home.

FIBR, pretty much lived up to its reviews here on the board. My personal evaluation:

• Diving—pretty good. Reefs were in nice shape, except for the swim through part of Mary’s Place. That had been beaten to death. The rest of that dive, and most of the rest of the sites looked to be in good shape. The house wreck is an easy dive, an enjoyable diversion. Not spectacular. The boat dives were one nice wall dive after another. The boats can handle 20 divers and we had up to 15 on some of our trips. Too many folks, particularly for one DM; but that was what I signed on for, and realized it was going to be that way going in.
• Dive Staff—a bit uneven. Our boat had to be towed in twice (the two dives I sat out!). Stuff happens. Otherwise helpful and service oriented. Seems like they were a bit slow changing the filters on the compressors one day. Some folk complained about “oily” tasting fills one day. NOT ACCEPTABLE! I thought I caught a bit of a taste on one nitrox fill, but barely noticeable. None the less, that is a serious knock on the dive service crew. DM (Mark) good, knew his stuff, and was safety conscious.
• Rooms—the ones I saw were in good repair, and well appointed. For the price. Not the Radison, or 4 star, by any means. Clean, well air conditioned, and plenty good enough for the likes of me.
• Food—all inclusive. Plenty to eat at each meal. Some meals were kind of weak. The Friday night seafood and lobster tail slaughter was a high point. The food is not the strongest selling point of FIBR. At more expensive “all inclusive” resorts some, or all alcohol is included. Not at FIBR on the package we had. Some other folks I talked to (from Canada) were wearing armbands and some drinks were included for them. Apparently you can buy different levels of “all inclusive”. Bottled water was extra cost, but “purified” water was always available and no charge, by the glass, and in a pitcher in our room refrigerator. No charge for refills. I stayed plenty hydrated with no problem or extra expense.
• Happy Hour—exactly that, 60 minutes. All drinks half price. That made the $2.25 local beers $1.125 each. The wait staff had a hard time working the cash registers and service was slow. Easier just to buy 4 for $5 and share with your friends. A couple of surprisingly good “Port Royal” brewskies at the end of the day were plenty for me, anyway.
• Critters—Monkeys, ducks, nutrias, iguanas, peacocks, sheep, goats, and one very friendly lemur generally gave us something fun to watch. The monkeys will carry off unattended stuff. The critters did provide a lot of entertainment.
• On Site Deco Chamber—only visited the on site Dr. because my buddy cut her hand. You can opt to pay $2 per diving day to help support the onsite Dr. and deco chamber. Since we did, the daily visits for peroxide and band-aids were covered. Actually the initial evaluation of the wound (enough to be concerned about, but not enough to prohibit diving) was worth the money spent. If you opt for the $2 daily contribution, deco treatments are covered, as well. A worthwhile investment in my opinion, even should one have no reason to cash in on it.

Overall the resort was nice, the diving was a little better than I expected after reading reviews here on Scubaboard. The staff were attentive, and excepting the gal tending bar through the week, efficient. Dive staff seemed to be hard working, and the two tow-ins for our boat seemed to be a run of bad circumstances at a time when the resort was full and the dive boats were running a capacity. Food was pretty much as written up in earlier Scubaboard posts. A picky eater might find the choices quite limited, but an omnivore like myself will not go hungry. Accommodations were OK. Not particularly fancy, but clean comfortable, and in good repair. All that and $1.125 beers at happy hour, made the experience a positive one for me.

This trip was with the Bluegrass Dive Club http://bluegrassdiveclub.com/ and we had 40 people in our group. That limited choices on where we could stay, and perhaps got us a better than normal price on our trip. Usually the club’s trips are with a lot less people, but the annual “spring break” trip is pretty popular.

I’d like to visit Roatan again, and enjoy some dives with fewer divers, and better food. I’d rate my overall experience a high B except for the compressor thing. That knocked the overall rating to a C. No matter how busy the resort may be, that was not OK. I give the trip’s value for money spent an A-.

KYDan

 

[Free_Flow]

Thanks for the input Im headed to FIBR on Friday
Not good about the filter on the compressor
Any suggestions about what to bring?
were there alot of bugs?
How was the vis?
Cant wait to go!
Russ

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

Thanks for the review. We will be going back in 31 days.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[CUunderH2O]

My dive buddy and I were at FIBR the same week as KYDan. Overall, my impression was a solid A-.

Our flight was direct from Toronto to Roatan on WestJet. The crew was hilarious on the way down, making for a great flight.

I found the food good for the 3-star that it was, though it was a bit more bland than I'm used to. They had green Tabasco sauce, which solved that issue. Their homemade ice cream, especially the blueberry, was really good. With our package, we got all our bottled water free, except from the cooler at the dive shop where they charged $1 to our room for it. Didn't drink much alcohol, so we didn't care about the limited range of alcoholic drinks (only Imperial beer & rum drinks). The female bartender was REALLY SLOW. They don't have a good system at the bar for preparing drinks, so order 2 at a time if you can. We never made it to happy hour, as we were either doing a 4th dive or I was downloading my photos for the day.

We had Darren as our DM, he was good. He never complained about my buddy and me getting back on the boat last, either (we like our long, leisurely dives). I didn't get any bad air, but my buddy had one suspicious fill -- nothing bad enough to have to abort or share air.

We had a great room in the row of rooms right next to the dive shop that came with a spectacular view, so no complaints there, although the air conditioner starting up sounded like a small engine plane taking off. Most people we spoke with had the same issue with the AC noise.

I was wary of the biting bugs, but I must say that I came away with fewer bites than most places I have travelled. I sprayed unscented Sport Fishermens' OFF (30% DEET) on my legs the first couple of days, and the only day I got bites was when I lay on the beach once for half an hour before lunch. Only on the way out when my luggage was searched they took away my can of OFF (it only came in aerosol form, and they didn't like that).

Shore dive got murkier throughout the week, like diving in fog, though not so bad on top of the wreck and on the starboard side. We never saw much of the plane, it was pretty silted up, although most of our shore dives were twilight/night dives anyway. Mary's Place is vastly overrated, and our dive on it was like an Indy race, so much so that I nearly lost my breakfast in it. I ended up spotting tons of macro stuff on most dives which was great -- got lots of photos (which I will spend the next few weeks editing & posting on my site). Boat dives one day had bad viz in the shallows, due to surge and big surf, but viz improved dramatically once you got to the wall. When we left on Saturday the wind had picked up again, making the boats stick to the closer dive sites. Note that the shallows all have noticeable surge. Some sites had a lot of dead coral, it was sad to see it in that state.

We did the shark dive with Waihuka (sp?), for 85 bucks. Well worth it if you haven't dove with sharks before. They do a decent DVD movie of your dive for an extra 50 bucks. Split the cost with friends and burn extra copies at home.

As for what to bring, well, I brought about 60 pounds of dive gear, and a carry-on of shorts, t's, tanks, bathing suits and 2 pairs of sandals. It went a long way. The place is very casual.

Overall, for the price FIBR was great. The place is geared toward divers who want to dive, eat, sleep and just take it easy. Worked for me. I'll go back if I want a relaxing week of diving and R & R for a great price, but there are too many other islands I haven't yet dove.

Oh, and we found out the day we left that if we wanted to stay another week, it would only cost us $300 US. Wish I had a job that allowed me to do take an extra week off!

Sorry if I hijacked your thread, KYDan.

 

[Doc]

Doesn't sound like a hijack to me- sounds like two good trip reports !

Yes, to those who know- Mary's Place is just another dive. Many dive ops do rush through it, some others do it differently. All in all, Calvin's Crack is usually preferred.

Did y'all see any cool little critters? What did the DMs point out?

 

[CUunderH2O]

DM pointed out 2 seahorses, a toadfish, and a small octopus. On my own, I found a nice nudi while everyone was rushing to get into Calvin's Crack. And during a night shore dive I found a microscopic blennie in an orange sponge on the starboard side of the Prince Albert. It was so cute! On our night boat dive, I saw a bunch of tiny orange shrimp, and found a inch-long crab on top of a vase sponge. Very cool. I was bitten by a damselfish while trying to get photos of one of seahorses. Pesky fish, those damsels! Other cool stuff was a school of squid, and some flying gurnards on a couple of dives, as well as a few coral banded shrimp. Nothing really big (except the sharks). The biggest fish I saw was the huge (4 foot) puffer fish on the Prince Albert on our last night dive. Big, clumsy thing. I was dissapointed not to see any turtles. We consistently found a spotted moray during our safety stop on the shore dive. I watched it eat a fish right in front of me; the're really fast when they strike! Got photos of some needle fish while snorkeling on our last day, beside the gazebo. Saw lots of trumpetfish on all dives (different types), and many scorpionfish, as well as a ton of juvenile drumfish. It was a good week.

 

[KYDan]

I forgot to mention that. The bluberry was excellent. Also, I liked the coffee flavored ice cream very much. The desserts were not particularly varried, but all were tasty...I tried 'em all.

Russ, don't worry about bringing too much stuff.

I got a couple of no-see-um bites, and no mosquito bites that I know of. Some of our people who laid out on the beach said they had more. Other reviews spoke of more insect problems, so I'd be prepared with a quality replellent, and hope to be pleasntly surprised, as we were.

I was concerned about drinking water quality, and considered bringing my own purifyer. Not necessary.

I brought my dive gear, a few changes of clothes and one clean pair of sox for the trip home--never know if it'll be snowing in Kentucky this time of year.

Since my wife cut her hand, first aid supplies come to mind. The band-aids we broght with us were better quality than those the on site Dr. or boutique shop carried. We did not bring any hydrogen peroxide. None was available for sale, on site, but I'm sure a local pharmacy woluld be able to provide. No need to bring an pro-grade first aid kit, particularly since the resort has their own Dr. I like to pack some first aid items, in case a cause myself a little ouch. A few pepto tabs and some imodium are OK supplies to have, as well.

Consider spending the $2/diving day to help support the Dr. and on site deco chamber. It worked out well for us, and the chamber was not in use durring our stay, but it was nice to know that it was available.

On our package no gratuities were included. Think about bringing along some cash for the folks who provide the diving, clean the rooms, and provide personal service. Most of the staff were hard working and attentive. They deserve a little consideration (IMHO).

 

[k8brandt]

I also prefer Calvin's Crack to Mary's Place. When the boat goes to MP, I will usually follow along above the crevasse. It's cool watching the divers bubbles come up, I see more fish there too. Although my favorite dive spot has been Half Moon Bay Reef.

Those damsel fish can be downright ornery. I've been nipped a few times too. Lucky they aren't any bigger.

If you want a quicker bartender and better happy hours (yes plural) swim or kayak across the channel to CocoView. Michelle and Reina is top notch!