Dive Review of Fantasy Island in
Honduras/Bay Islands - Roatan

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Fantasy Island, Jun, 2011, by Patricia A. Sinclair, LA, US ( Top Contributor 31 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 6132.
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
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	18 hours 19 minutes in 19 dives (57.84 minutes per dive average) Fantasy Island – food average and somewhat indifferent at times, but it does the trick, and I am not there for the food anyway. Desserts are usually very good. Rooms were clean and neat. Lots of running up and downstairs for me, but I kind of liked the work out…though my legs sure had issues with it the first day or two, after that I was fine. Dive shop, as always, great attention to divers and very safe. DM – first 4 days, Daren, last 2 days, Nelson. Boat Captain Pedro. Nitrox was available for a very reasonable weekly rate. Daren in addition to being the best divemaster on site, is now the new dive shop manager. WooHoo! He is very good with the customers and is most accommodating for anyone wanting to do drop off dives or night dives at the gazebo (down to the Prince Albert and the plane as well as the Coco View wall.) First Day’s diving – Sunday May 29th day 1 is always sans camera on the first two dives. Overall this day, the water was choppy/rough with 2 footers. 1st Dive – Golden Chain Reef, 50 to 75 foot viz, water temp 82F, 45 minutes, 67 feet, used an 80 tank. PSI - In 3000 and Out 1500 This was to be the check out dive, but I went a little deeper than I had originally planned. Saw 3 juvenile spotted drum fish at the end of the dive, a large mature adult was at the beginning of the dive. The was a mutton snapper looking into a large vase sponge, when I passed it, it left and once I was past the area, immediately returned to “his sponge”. Next diver passed, same routine, very funny and interesting. Small spotted moray, a large green moray, many sea cucumbers, large rainbow parrot fish in the terminal phase and I saw so many sharp nosed puffer fish – it looks like there has been a population explosion of this species. 2nd Dive – Missing Link, 50 to 75 foot viz, water temp 82F, 57 minutes, 57 feet, used an 80 tank. PSI - In 3000 and Out 1750 Large schools of Chubs (Bermuda) on this dive as well as a large school of ocean spadefish, which I did not see again on any of the other dives. Large mutton snappers, schools of Creole wrasse, and a free swimming green moray. 3rd Dive – Doc’s Dive, 40 to 50 foot viz, water temp 83F, 51 minutes, 62 feet. 1st dive with the camera, used an 80 tank. PSI - In 2900 and Out 1500 Daren insisted on taking some pictures of me, so I let him. There were, as usual, tons of indigo hamlets, saw a lot of yellow barred hamlets, trumpetfish. Did some shots of corals and sponges as well as the trumpetfish to see how this new camera is going to perform. Second Day diving - Monday, May 30th. Again today, the water was overall choppy and rough. Some rain as well, but we were gonna get wet anyway. Two footers were common today as well. Starting this day I began using (and did the rest of the dive trips) a 63 tank 1st dive – Mary’s Place, 40 to 60 viz, water temp 81F, 50 minutes, 70 feet, had camera as well. PSI - In 3000 and Out 1000 Very small yellow sea horse. Did not manage to get a good shot of this. Got some pictures of Daren and also some Mutton snapper shots. The usual Caribbean fish were in large numbers. Got a shot of two French Angelfish swimming together under a ledge. 2nd Dive – Mr. Bud, 45 foot viz, water temp 82F, 52 minutes, 66 feet. PSI - In 3000 and Out 1250 Saw and got shots of Scorpionfish, lionfish, Daren blowing bubbles through the tug to create a smoke effect, yellow barred hamlet, and a white seahorse. Pretty thing! 3rd Dive – 40 Foot Point, 30 to 50 foot viz, water temp 82F, 63 feet and 55 minutes. PSO In3000 and Out 1200. Flamingo Tongue, Nassau groupers, and tried to shoot those little sharp nosed puffers, but they do not like to hold still for you. Lots of nice corals and sponges. Third Day Diving, Tuesday May 31st. The water was much calmer today and the most we had were 1 footers. 1st Dive – Pirate’s Point, 30 to 50 food viz, water temp 81F, 53 minutes and 77 feet, PSI In 3000 and Out 1100 Large Queen triggerfish that followed us around the reef on the dive. Daren killed a large lionfish and the Queen Triggerfish and the Yellowtail snappers ate the thing clean within 3 minutes. Nothing left but head and the spines. After that saw a small hawksbill turtle, which seemed to like Daren, the turtle swam with Daren for quite a way. I got some nice shots of the turtle both with and without Daren.  2nd Dive – French Cay Bank, 50 to 60 foot viz, water temp 82F, 56 minutes and 62 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1050. Large Green Moray followed us around on this dive. It seemed to love Jesse’s “danglies”. I took a shot of it coming toward me, and the next shot was taken when he hit my camera lens, and sadly this is not a good shot (way too close!) He then backed off and swam a bit further away from us, he stayed around for another 5 minutes in our vicinity. Sponge and coral life on this reef were looking very good. 3rd Dive – Ironshore to Anka’s Place – a one way dive, aka pickup dive. 30 to 40 foot viz, water temp 82F, 57 minutes and 55 feet. PSU In 3000 and Out 1250 Went past the earthquake damage on this dive. Lots of animals making a living in the areas that were destroyed. Small corals and sponges volunteering in that damaged area, so another hundred years and it should be beginning to look good again. Nice large yellow seahorse, no picture, since the battery in my camera died half way through this dive. The Instructor, Tony, dove with us so he could eliminate lionfish. He managed to kill 2 on this dive, one of which I spotted for him. 4th Dive - Missing Link, Night Dive,0 viz, water temp 82F, 52 minutes and 43 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1950 – used an 80 tank on this dive to be safe. We saw 4 octopus, 3 crabs, several lobsters, 1 trumpetfish trying to hide, a 2 foot long chain moray free swimming, 2 green morays free swimming, a parrotfish asleep (stoplight parrot), and saw a spotfin butterfly fish asleep and noticed that the sides on this fish turn black at night. All in all a nice dive. Fourth Day Diving, Wednesday, June 1st. The water was almost flat today. So calm, no breeze. 1st Dive – Connie’s Dream, 50 foot viz, water temp 83F, 54 minutes and 68 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1200 Black Drugeon hiding in a coral, of course I tried to take a picture of this. Saw something else in another coral head and looked in – two sharp nosed puffers were in there and one was almost rigid. After watching a bit (and after taking some pics) I figured out they were mating. Too Cool, I now have fish porn shots. 2nd Dive – John’s Spt, 50 foot viz, water temp 83F, 54 minutes and 62 feet, PIS In 3000 and Out 1250 Saw a scrawled cowfish, social featherduster worms, white spotted filefish in the orange phase, and some pretty pink star corals. Lots of attempted reef shots and many lionfish on this dive.  3rd Dive – Valley of the Kings, water temp 83F, 59 foot viz, 1hour 1 minute and 55 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1300. So many lionfish. Got a really good shot of one this time. Antonio was diving with us again and I managed to point out 2 lionfish to him to eliminate. The group decided to make a “pyramid” of themselves underwater, so I took a shot of it for them. Attempted shots of yellowheaded jawfish. Fifth Day Diving, Thursday, June 2nd. The water was almost flat today. So calm, no breeze. New DM today, Nelson who will be with us these last two days. Daren is flying out to Long Beach, CA tonight. 1st Dive – Calvin’s Crack, water temp 83F, 50 foot viz, 55 minutes and 70 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1300 Saw a toadfish today, got three interesting shots of it. Attempted shots of yellowheaded jawfish. While watching these, I had a yellowhead wrasse (terminal phase) come up and clean my mask lens and then beginning working on my arm…didn’t know I was that dirty. Found a Spanish hogfish being cleaned agt the end of the dive. 2nd Dive – Half Moon Bay, water temp 82F, 40 foot viz, 52 minutes and 60 feet. PSI In 2900 and Out 1400 Saw 4 Seahorses on this dive, 2 yellow ones (no good shots of these) 1 black and white, and 1 brown that either no one else saw or they were tired of taking seahorse pictures. I loved having this one to myself. Saw a corkscrew anemone and found some banded shrimp hiding in a vase sponge. 3rd Dive - Little French Cay Wall, water temp 83F, 50 foot viz, 59 minutes and 60 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1250. For this dive everyone except Jesse and I went on the Shark Dive. We had a nice leisurely dive with Nelson on this reef. Nelson is great with a spear, he spotted 7 lionfish and killed 6 of them. Saw many anenomes on this reef. Got a nice couple of shots of some juvenile spotted drumfish hiding in a area between coral heads at the end of the dive. The coral garden that we went over the last half the dive are lush and delicate. These are mostly lettuce leaf corals and they are growing with 10 feet of the surface, so you are at between 6 and 8 feet for the last 1/3 of the dive. Surge was strong, so had to be very careful of buoyancy. Grey Angelfish face shot taken on this dive, as well as a French Angelfish and a scorpionfish. Sixth Day Diving, Friday, June 3rd. My last day of diving. Water surface was perfectly flat today. 1st Dive – Caribe Point, water temp 82F, 40 foot viz, 1 hour 4 minutes and 73 feet. PSI In 3000 and out 1100 Got a nice sand diver fish shot. Mostly looked around and enjoyed the dive. 2nd Dive – Pond View Wall, water temp 82F, 30 to 40 foot viz, 1 hour 6 minutes and 67 feet. PSI In 3000 and Out 1150 Got some nice anemone shots on this dive, found many of them in the 30 foot part of the dive (which was most of the dive). Found an odd filament curling around a sponge. Took a picture and thus far have been unable identify. Found a lobster hiding in a sponge…and just in general enjoyed the dive. 3rd Dive – Newman’s Wall, water temp 83F, 50 to 60 foot viz, 1 hour and 4 minutes and 50 feet. PSI In 300 and Out 1250 This dive had all the usual Caribbean fishes – Indigo and Yellow barred hamlets, tons of sharpnosed puffers, trumpetfish, tiger grouper, Nassau grouper, yellowtail snappers and tons of creole wrasse. Again this is a dive in which you spend the last half going over some very lush coral gardens growing in 10 foot of water.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	[Unspecified]
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	82-86°F / 28-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	20-60 Ft/ 6-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	time and depth limits
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Lots of macro to shoot

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Dive Review of Fantasy Island in Honduras/Bay Islands - Roatan

Fantasy Island, Jun, 2011,

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 Fantasy Island in
Honduras/Bay Islands - Roatan