Roatan travel Experience

[dwlmgold]

Did a recent trip to Roatan (CocoView). Some aspects of the airline trip were notable. We did American Airlines out of Miami. It was the first flight of the day into Roatan. A 2 hour flight over Cuba. Immigration in Roatan was worse than I have ever seen. They were fingerprinting everyone over the age of 15 and taking photos of all the kids. We were the only plane in at the time and the delay was for ever. I cannot imagine what it was like with 4 planes on the ground later in the day. The trip home was the other side of the coin. Again American and again the first flight of the day. American uses kiosks to check in and there was an attendant at each one. Scan your passport, pay your bag fees and off to drop off your luggage. I tried real hard to find a way to pay the bag fees on line. No joy. You pay tax on the bag fees at the kiosk. I may try to pay the bag fee round trip next time to avoid the Honduran tax on bag fees. No line at exit immigration or their equivalent of TSA. The normally packed passenger terminal was wide open. No hand check of bags. You still cannot take fluids bought in the security area aboard the plane. All in all, the departure was as efficient and fast as any airport I have ever been in. The real icing on the cake was that there was a TSA Pre line open for international arrivals in Miami! I have never seen that.

 

[KathyV]

Did a recent trip to Roatan (CocoView). Some aspects of the airline trip were notable. We did American Airlines out of Miami. It was the first flight of the day into Roatan. A 2 hour flight over Cuba. Immigration in Roatan was worse than I have ever seen. They were fingerprinting everyone over the age of 15 and taking photos of all the kids. We were the only plane in at the time and the delay was for ever. I cannot imagine what it was like with 4 planes on the ground later in the day. The trip home was the other side of the coin. Again American and again the first flight of the day. American uses kiosks to check in and there was an attendant at each one. Scan your passport, pay your bag fees and off to drop off your luggage. I tried real hard to find a way to pay the bag fees on line. No joy. You pay tax on the bag fees at the kiosk. I may try to pay the bag fee round trip next time to avoid the Honduran tax on bag fees. No line at exit immigration or their equivalent of TSA. The normally packed passenger terminal was wide open. No hand check of bags. You still cannot take fluids bought in the security area aboard the plane. All in all, the departure was as efficient and fast as any airport I have ever been in. The real icing on the cake was that there was a TSA Pre line open for international arrivals in Miami! I have never seen that.

Thanks for the travel info, how was the resort and the diving?

 

[dwlmgold]

Thanks for the travel info, how was the resort and the diving?

It was our 9th trip to CocoView. The next trip is free except for airfare and gratuities. This was not one of our best dive trips. I flooded my Sealife DC 1400 camera and strobe on my first dive. I rented an Olympus TG-3 from the onsite photo shop and liked it a lot. I had been looking for a reason to move up from the Sealife and now I have one. The winds were out of the east at 15-20 knots the whole time so it was somewhat of a chore getting back on the boat. The center well boarding got quite a workout. The worst was that I and my wife became part of the 70% group where the flu shot was not effective. We both came down with it. Even so, we still like going to CocoView. The diving is easy and good and we like the people there a lot.