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Dive Review of Fantasy Island in
Honduras/Roatan

Fantasy Island, May, 2007,

by Pat Sinclair, FL, USA (Top Contributor Top Contributor 31 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 3599.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Bob and I decided to go back to an old favorite in Roatan – Fantasy Island for our anniversary week this year.

After a long flight from Tampa to Roatan we did not experience the usual slow lines in customs, however, for some reason getting the shuttle to Fantasy Island took over 2 hours. The heat was oppressive and since I was not feeling well already, my usual nice demeanor went south. The shuttle was cram-packed with people and the a/c did not work, so the trip from the airport was not a pleasant one. Once we got to the resort we checked in and went to our room. Room was clean and neat and I immediately laid down and took a nap. Fantasy Island does supply some amenities in the rooms, hair dryer, TV and alarm clock.
Once up from the nap, we went to the dive shop and checked in with Roberto the manager. Since we have been here 3 times before the morning “check-in” was waived and we were assigned to the boat with Pedro (Captain) and Manuel as the DM. We have dove with these two on all our previous trips and were quite happy to be diving with them again.

Day 1 - We went to the main lodge for breakfast and then went to the room and carried all our gear to the dive shop. We did our 1st dive of the day, a check out dive. Our 2nd dive was at the Mr Bud, a small wreck of a tugboat. We found a large green eel on the wreck. The reef after the wreck was to me, more interesting. There were large schools of creole wrasse and many, many blue chromis everywhere, as well as the Indigo hamlets which I associate with Roatan. The 3rd dive was Inside Out Reef, I observed lots of new growth on the corals here and there was a massive awarm of blue tangs towards the end of the dive..

Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 – I was sick so I could not go diving. I finally convinced my husband to go diving without me on Day 3 and Day 4 and he enjoyed the diving. I have no idea where he went while I was sick, nor did I care, at least he was diving, since the purpose of this vacation was to dive. But he did say he had a good time and enjoyed the dives.

Day 5 – I did the 3 dives this day, but never wrote down the reefs we went to, nothing other than the depth and the viz.

Day 6 – First dive was to “40 foot ledge” – depth was 65 and we saw two yellow seahorses. There were two boats worth of divers, and everyone was congregating around those poor two seahorses, major mess. I have no idea what dive op the 2nd boat was from, but this was way too any divers in a small space. The second dive was at “Doc’s Dive” – depth was 69 feet and there was lots of coral and bleaching was evident on this reef. There were fields of dead antler coral, so very sad to see that. The 3rd dive was at “Little French Cay Wall”, depth was 61 feet, and again there was evidence of coral bleaching, however, we did find an area in which antler coral was re-growing – really good to see that.

Day 7 – after breakfast, we finished packing the gear and bags. Then we checked out and went to the airport. I wish I had not gotten so ill on this trip – missed out on half of the diving and was feeling cranky before that. Oh well, this is the first trip I got ill on, so I must count my blessings.

Other Stuff – on almost every dive we did there were three or more large black grouper or one or two large snappers hanging around like puppy dogs under the boat. Occasionally they would even stay with us for the entire dive. We saw the occasional great barracuda, but we never saw any sharks of any kind or any rays of any kind during the whole week’s diving. There were lots of macro life (cleaner shrimp, secretary blennies, etc) and tons of fish life around on the reefs. The turtles were wonderful to see and swim with as well.

The Diving – My husband and I both agreed the walls on this end of the island, are spectacular. However, on this end of the island, it is all walls all the time, not much else for someone like me who is more interested in the shallower reef diving.


Bottom line: the bottom times were very good, and the food was OK and the rooms were nice and well kept.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Grand Cayman, N. Bimini(Bahamas), Statia, Cozumel, Jamaica, Curacao, Fl Keys,
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm, choppy
Water Temp 80-82°F / 27-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 2
Water Visibility 40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions stay with the DM
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Great opportunites for macro life here.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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