Travel:
Piece of cake, Continental.. Denver to Houston to Roatan and we landed about 10 minutes late.
Customs was quick as I was one of the first off the plane
Accomodations
I have a mixed bag on this one. We stayed at Bananarama resort on West bay. The bungalow was fine and quaint and overall the resort was clean and the service was very good. Affordability was great. This resort sits on one of the nicest beaches on the island however the resort markets to the cruise ships and they open their resort and beach to a hoard of people. When we returned from our morning dive around noon, the place was over run with cruise boaters. It was difficult to order any food and get served in a timely manner in order to make the 1:30 dive. While I understand them trying to drive cash into the coffers, I think the owners should make a decision on who their customer base is. I heard a lot of grumblings from other guests. As it turned out we would usually go next door to eat our lunch.
Dive op
While I have no complaints to the dive staff themselves, (Marco was our Dm on most of our dives and he was very attentitive) we had a major problem upon arrival. We had booked a package which included 10 dives a piece. I had communicated with the owner (Jamie) that we wanted to dive Thursday in the afternoon after our arrival. We made it to the resort in time but we were informed that there was no room on any of the boats. Ok, I could live with that but when we tried to book our dives for the next morning we were informed that there was no room on those boats for Friday... and Saturday and Sunday weren't looking very good either. WHAT? They figured we had all week to get our 10 dives in and didn't seem too concerned. I explained that those 10 dives would be completed by Monday and I was going to buy 10 more dives.
Needless to say I was a little pissed. I don't know who to blame, management or the dive shop but clearly there needs to be communication on scheduling dives prior to guests arriving.
Sooo, we ended up going nest door to Mayan Divers at the Mayan Princess resort. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I bought 10 dives a piece for me and my wife and we spent the next few days diving with them. Not only is their boat superior to any of the boats next door but we had small groups and were treated very well. We got to do the dives we wanted and at the pace we wanted to dive. Liber and Anja the owners really went out of their way for us. This is a small one boat operation and you can expect really personal service from them. Anja is a great DM, very patient and she found lots of critters to photograph. I prefer a slower pace and would prefer to look at the Macro underwater world. So two thumbs up for Mayan Divers.
On Tuesday we took a taxi to Cocoview with another couple, as I wanted to see the resort and do some shore dives. Very well run operation there. We did a couple of shore dives on the Prince Albert wreck but unfortunately the vis was terrible. The boat sits in an inlet and is effected by tidal flow but I was still glad we made the trip.
We started diving on Wednesday with Bananarama as I had signed up for the rest of the week with them but low and behold the screwed us again. We had two dives on Wed morning and when we showed up for the afternoon dive they said we weren't signed up. I was on vacation and decided it wasn't worth the agony of raising hell, instead I can vent on here. Then to top it off, when we went to sign up for the night dive they wanted my wife to pay 50 bucks to do a night diving course because she didn't have her AOW. They never had a problem taking her to 70 or 80 feet but I guess this is a way to get an extra 50 bucks. She decided against it and did not get a night dive (which was part of our package). In the end we were unable to get all of our dives in but they let me give our remaining dives to a couple we had met there.
The Diving
We got 20 dives in including a trip to Mary's place and another site on that side of the island. Both of those dives were outstanding. A few of the dives we did on the northwest side were not in very good shape. I thought the coral and reefs looked dead and very off color, although there was a thriving fish population on them. Overall I did not think there was an abundance of fish but we did see a lot of turtles and Moray eels which are some of my favorites. I did enjoy the west end wall and Pablos place which is at the tip of the Island. Those were some of our favorite dive spots.
We enjoyed our trip, loved the people down there and will return sometime in the future. It certainly is affordable.
Time to plan the next trip.
Bruce
Piece of cake, Continental.. Denver to Houston to Roatan and we landed about 10 minutes late.
Customs was quick as I was one of the first off the plane
Accomodations
I have a mixed bag on this one. We stayed at Bananarama resort on West bay. The bungalow was fine and quaint and overall the resort was clean and the service was very good. Affordability was great. This resort sits on one of the nicest beaches on the island however the resort markets to the cruise ships and they open their resort and beach to a hoard of people. When we returned from our morning dive around noon, the place was over run with cruise boaters. It was difficult to order any food and get served in a timely manner in order to make the 1:30 dive. While I understand them trying to drive cash into the coffers, I think the owners should make a decision on who their customer base is. I heard a lot of grumblings from other guests. As it turned out we would usually go next door to eat our lunch.
Dive op
While I have no complaints to the dive staff themselves, (Marco was our Dm on most of our dives and he was very attentitive) we had a major problem upon arrival. We had booked a package which included 10 dives a piece. I had communicated with the owner (Jamie) that we wanted to dive Thursday in the afternoon after our arrival. We made it to the resort in time but we were informed that there was no room on any of the boats. Ok, I could live with that but when we tried to book our dives for the next morning we were informed that there was no room on those boats for Friday... and Saturday and Sunday weren't looking very good either. WHAT? They figured we had all week to get our 10 dives in and didn't seem too concerned. I explained that those 10 dives would be completed by Monday and I was going to buy 10 more dives.
Needless to say I was a little pissed. I don't know who to blame, management or the dive shop but clearly there needs to be communication on scheduling dives prior to guests arriving.
Sooo, we ended up going nest door to Mayan Divers at the Mayan Princess resort. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I bought 10 dives a piece for me and my wife and we spent the next few days diving with them. Not only is their boat superior to any of the boats next door but we had small groups and were treated very well. We got to do the dives we wanted and at the pace we wanted to dive. Liber and Anja the owners really went out of their way for us. This is a small one boat operation and you can expect really personal service from them. Anja is a great DM, very patient and she found lots of critters to photograph. I prefer a slower pace and would prefer to look at the Macro underwater world. So two thumbs up for Mayan Divers.
On Tuesday we took a taxi to Cocoview with another couple, as I wanted to see the resort and do some shore dives. Very well run operation there. We did a couple of shore dives on the Prince Albert wreck but unfortunately the vis was terrible. The boat sits in an inlet and is effected by tidal flow but I was still glad we made the trip.
We started diving on Wednesday with Bananarama as I had signed up for the rest of the week with them but low and behold the screwed us again. We had two dives on Wed morning and when we showed up for the afternoon dive they said we weren't signed up. I was on vacation and decided it wasn't worth the agony of raising hell, instead I can vent on here. Then to top it off, when we went to sign up for the night dive they wanted my wife to pay 50 bucks to do a night diving course because she didn't have her AOW. They never had a problem taking her to 70 or 80 feet but I guess this is a way to get an extra 50 bucks. She decided against it and did not get a night dive (which was part of our package). In the end we were unable to get all of our dives in but they let me give our remaining dives to a couple we had met there.
The Diving
We got 20 dives in including a trip to Mary's place and another site on that side of the island. Both of those dives were outstanding. A few of the dives we did on the northwest side were not in very good shape. I thought the coral and reefs looked dead and very off color, although there was a thriving fish population on them. Overall I did not think there was an abundance of fish but we did see a lot of turtles and Moray eels which are some of my favorites. I did enjoy the west end wall and Pablos place which is at the tip of the Island. Those were some of our favorite dive spots.
We enjoyed our trip, loved the people down there and will return sometime in the future. It certainly is affordable.
Time to plan the next trip.
Bruce
