Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach

[Phil_218]

I am researching a possible vacation to the Bahamas for my wife and I. I dive, but my wife only snorkels and probably will only do that once or twice. So far, I like Viva Wyndham because it looks like they have plenty of activities to keep her busy while I'm diving, and plenty to do in the evenings as well.

The prices seem good, but I've read a lot of mixed reviews on people's experiences at this resort. Have any of you stayed here, and if so, what was your experience like.

Thanks,

Phillip

 

[la_diver]

Stayed at Viva Fortuna June of 2008. We stayed in the new remodeled units. They were very nice but some of our group stayed closer to the beach and their rooms were still being remodeled not nearly as nice as ours. The reef directly in front of the resort (they have white barrels floating to mark it) was great for snorkeling and always had tons of the same fish we were seeing on our dives. The dive shop was great and I know you can get catamarans if you are a guest at no cost as well as other beach items. Food was good not great, just a note: as soon as you get there go to the guest services and reserve nights in the Italian restaurant, it was great but filled up quick and only had limited seating, (if you decide not to eat there just give your reservations to someone else but at least you are booked into a great FREE restaurant, the Chinese was not very good. If your wife gets board you can always go into town and shop but they do have things going on all thru the day. I would go back if they had a good deal. Alot of the people that stayed used the water taxi service (like a cruise ship that brings you in) to get from florida to the bahama's instead of flighing in.. heard it was really inexpensive. Hope this helps

 

[tstormdiver]

I stayed there in Sept of 2008, one night before going on Blackbeards. It's OK. I Wasn't overly impressed, but can't say anything serious against them. There dive operation seemed rather loose (not very well organized) & the reefs (just off shore in about 40- 50ft of water) were not super impressive. For the price they charge for diving there, you might be better off going to another dive operator who may give you better dive sites. If you do go with them for your dives, expect to have to do a back roll out of the boat (very small- bout 4-6 divers max). Like I said, I wasn't overly impressed, but can't say anything major against it. The room was OK. Nothing fancy, but had what you needed. The food was also OK, while not bad, it wasn't the greatest either. Let's just say I was rather underwhelmed by the experience.

 

[FireDivr]

My family and I went last June. Six divers. Nice resort. Good diving. The only deal we had was the dive shop had told us prior to showing up that there was good diving from the beach, and they would rent us tanks to do so. Once there they would not rent the tanks with out going on a boat trip.We made several boat trips during the week as had a great time, were not able to dive as much as we wanted to. Besides that the resort was nice.

 

[Phil_218]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. So far it sounds like its a decent resort for the price and I think I'll move forward with the plans. I'm not decided on whether or not I want to do my diving with the resort, or another company though. I do want to book a shark dive and a dolphin dive with Unexso.

The packages I've been looking at include air travel, but I'll look into the water taxi also to see if that may be a better way to go.

Thanks, again, for the input.

Phillip

 

[Tavi]

Here is the link for Discovery Cruise lines. My wife and I have gone that way a couple of times. It's a minature cruise ship that travels from Florida to Grand Bahama Island.

Personaly I'd rather fly and get there, rather than having to get a hotel for the night before departure, and then having a 6 hour cruise to get there (and back).

They do feed you very well on board. The Buffets are very good!!

When my wife and I are on Grand Bahama Island, we dive with Grand Bahama Scuba Great Operation!! Nice boat, Awesome Crew!! Fred and Melinda do their best to see that everyone has great dives. They dive a nice mix of reefs and wrecks. Shark Dives too. They've been rated #1 in the Bahamas 2 years in a row!! Call or e-mail ahead of time. Depending on where you're staying, arrangements can be made for transportation.

 

[la_diver]

Fortuna has a shark dive that is the same price as a regular dive. There is no feeding you just go dive and the sharks come. On any dive sharks may come out of nowhere. It was awsome. I've heard that there are shark feedings that you pay extra for . If the price was right for a return trip I would go and stay at Fortuna

 

[timb622]

I just booked a 4 day dive trip to Fortuna Beach Resort for early June. They are offering some dive packages right now that you might want to check out. This will be my first time going to this resort, but I did a lot of reasearch on the place and came up with about the same as everybody here has said.