Dive Review of Anthony’s Key Resort in
Honduras/Roatan]

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Anthony’s Key Resort: "Good week in Roatan", Apr, 2016, by Joel E Jakubson, CA, US ( 2 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 9349 has 3 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was my second trip to Roatan. My first was in 2008 to CoCo View, so I was looking forward to diving the north side of Roatan. Diving - Even though the resort was full, there are so many dive boats that we only had 11 divers on our boat. During the week, they arrange it so that you get to all the "hot spots" no matter what boat. I was looking forward to a slower paced trip, so I appreciated the three boat dives per day (four on the two days with night dives). The shore diving was reported to be good, but I did not feel in the mood. So my trip consisted of 19 dives. You load your dive gear on the boat from your locker in the morning, and wash it and store it back in the locker at the end of the dive day. First thing - turtles. If you want to see turtles, April in Roatan is as close to a sure thing as you can get. We average at least one or two on every day dive. The reef seemed in pretty good shape - no real evident bleaching. The divemaster led us to one juvenile sea horse during the week, and we saw most of the standards. We did not see a spotted eagle ray, but some people on our boat who were staying longer saw one on Friday afternoon, after the rest of us were finished for the week (oh, well). Visibility was good. The dives were unidirectional - the boat followed us and picked us up at the end of the dive. For the most part, nothing unbelievable or out of the ordinary - just very good, solid Caribbean reef diving, with sloping walls and fun shallows. At night, we saw free swimming eels (also during the day - more than most other Caribbean places I have been), octopus, and the standard array of night critters. I did enjoy the two wrecks, particularly the Odyssey. The wheelhouse was in fairly shallow water (starting at 40 feet) and the dive goes as deep as 120 feet. Since it was a beautiful sunny day, and the water was exceptionally clear, I never went through the hold, and after briefly dropping to the deck at 100 ft, spent the rest of my dive playing around the wheelhouse. About half our boat did the same. Since the resort screwed up my room reservation (more on that later), I was treated to a complimentary Dolphin dive and Shark dive. Dolphin Dive - this was preceded by a mini surface dolphin show. The dive itself was a tale of two dives. 30 minutes of swimming around where the dolphins were not in a mood to cooperate (this in not in an enclosure, so they are free to interact or not as they please) followed by 15 - 20 minutes of intense interaction. It was pretty cool, although if I was paying for it I might choose the dolphin snorkel which was highly rated by those on the boat who took part. Shark Dive - I usually do not go out of my way to go on shark dives, but since it was free I thought what the hell? It was the best of my limited experience. The outfit that runs these dives has been doing it for years, and it is evident that they care about the sharks and spend time educating all the divers. The pre-dive briefing was superb - we knew exactly what to expect, and what was expected of us. There are multiple phases - initially, we are gathered in the viewing area as the sharks came in (they know the drill by now). They were all reef sharks. Then, we were able to swim out and swim amongst the sharks. Finally, we returned to the viewing area as the fish head bucket lid was loosened, and we watched the sharks gather, with a mini frenzy when the lid was finally knocked off. There was even a comical moment (and the highlight of my video) when one shark briefly got its head stuck in the bucket. The resort itself is split between the main island and the Key. The dining room, dive operation, and some guest rooms are on the main island. The key has most of the rooms, the pool and pool bar, spa, and a small dive shack for shore diving support. As I said, my reservation was screwed up. I was supposed to get an air conditioned room on the key, but instead I was put into a non-A/C room. I found out about the day before I left. The resort was full, so there was no available A/C room of the key, where I wanted to stay. My travel agent (Maduro Travel) negotiated a free dolphin dive, free shark dive, and one hour massage in addition to a refund of the room price difference. The first three nights were windy, and the non-A/C room was comfortable (although the dogs barking on the main island were a bit annoying). Once the wind stopped, it did get warm at night but by then I was somewhat acclimated. The resort provided multiple floor fans to complement the ceiling fan. Internet was strong. I know that people want to disconnect, but as someone who is self-employed, I find that working 15 minutes on urgent matters per day allows me to take many more vacation than I could otherwise. Now, let's talk about the food. With only one or two exceptions, the food was top notch. A good mix of Caribbean, American, Mexican, etc. Every dinner offered soup or salad, and you could ask for both if desired. As I recall, there were two or three choices for lunch and dinner every day. Compared to my 2008 trip to CoCo View, the food was vastly superior. Okay, here is my main complaint. There were many large groups, and they had tables set aside for them for when they chose to eat during the meal windows. That meant that there were no enough tables for everyone else, and some people had to wait to be seated. Also, the divers on our boat bonded and formed our own small group, but the resort would not let us push tables together to let us eat as a group. As a solo traveler, I found myself eating alone on occasion, or inviting myself to stranger's tables. I discussed this with Yolanda (one of the managers) one night when we had dinner together, and she told me that the dining room is slated for a complete rebuild and expansion. Summary. Would I go back? Yes, even though I prefer liveaboards, I found this to be a very good place to go at a much lower cost. I think both experienced divers as well as newer divers and diving families would enjoy the trip. I recommended Roatan to a client of mine with three children (the youngest of which was just getting certified), and they stayed just down the road and told me it was a great trip for everyone.
Websites	Anthony’s Key Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Bonaire, Bali, Belize, Caymans, Turks & Caicos, Akumal, Hawaii, Palau, Fiji, Great Barrier Reef, New England, New Jersey, California
Closest Airport	Roatan	Getting There	United connecting in Houston
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	79-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Nominally it was a divemaster led dive, but divers on our boat wandered around, always keeping the divemaster in sight so that we joined back together at the end.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Small rinse tank and camera table on boats. Larger one at the dock. More extensive work on cameras easiest to do in your room.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Anthony’s Key Resort in Honduras/Roatan]

Anthony’s Key Resort: "Good week in Roatan", Apr, 2016,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Anthony’s Key Resort in
Honduras/Roatan]