Dive Review of Fantasy Island in
Honduras/Roatan

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Fantasy Island, Feb, 2013, by Michele Berg, MO, US ( 2 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 7242.
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	My husband and I had a week's stay at this hotel, along with our scuba club. The property has some very serious issues which are not being dealt with, and which were never addressed by staff, even after numerous reports by guests. One of the most serious is that the resort has four pet monkeys that reside on property. While initially we thought them quite cute, by the end of the week, we realized what a major problem they are. First and foremost, they continually get into the dining area and can be seen walking all over the food on the buffet. We saw one lick peanut butter out of a communal dish. They feed themselves at will, and only occasionally will the staff give a half-hearted effort at chasing them out. Additionally, the monkeys are in the habit of taking things. One in our group had his phone stolen, and could not find it. Twice we chased them out of the dive lockers, where they were taking gear out of the lockers. They got up on the balconies and chewed through several pieces of gear that was put there for a morning dive before the lockers were open. One of our group was bitten by the monkeys as she was retrieving an item it had taken from her. I can only hope that the animals have had some veterinary care and aren't carrying any serious diseases. In addition to the monkeys, there are several roosters living there. We found they typically began crowing around 2am, and kept it up for most of the day. I had never before known just how loud a rooster can crow when it's right outside your room. About half of the rooms are in major decline. The lock on our door didn't work properly, and the TV and some of the lights were missing from our room. Others of our club had no AC, a ceiling fan that fell out of the ceiling and was dangling only by the electrical wire, sewer gas erupting from the toilet like a geyser and spraying the entire bathroom with water, no water in the entire building on multiple occasions, and a list of about twenty or thirty other things wrong. In each case, multiple requests were made to correct the situation. Not one was ever fixed while we were there. If a guest complained multiple times, they were eventually simply moved to another room. Additionally, because of the monkey problem, we were unable to leave our balcony doors open to air out the moldy rooms for any length of time. The pool was unusable the entire week. On the first day the water was filthy. Then the pool was drained and refilled with a combination of ocean and fresh water, but not properly treated, so the water turned black with some kind of growth. The pool man assured us he was about to dump a lot of bleach in the water to "fix" the problem. Most of us would rather be in the ocean anyway, but for any non-divers, this is pretty much the only thing to do at the resort, so it was a major annoyance for them. Also, a warning: the tap water in the rooms is NOT POTABLE. One or two of the rooms had a sticker on the mirror to warn of this. I asked a lady at the front counter if it was safe to drink the tap water, and she assured me it was. Every one of us who allowed any of the tap water to enter our mouths ended up with gastroenteritis. The few who heeded the stickers were fine. The dive shop was quite accommodating, and we had a lot of diving, which was the main thing we cared about. I've never seen so many seahorses anywhere else. If you're a fan of sea rods, this is the place to go as the seafloor is carpeted with them at every dive site. There were very, very few fish other than a plentitude of lionfish. Our group caught over 200 in the week we were there, and we only had about 10 hunters with us. We went on a shark dive that seemed reasonably well-run and saw probably 10 white tip reef sharks, which was fun. Because the diversity of corals was limited and there weren't many fish, the diving was a little monotonous. The owner was present toward the end of our stay, and we attempted to address these problems with him; he did arrange a very nice banquet on the beach for us on our last night and had the chef roast all our lionfish. But the large list of issues gives the impression that the people running things simply do not care to bother keeping anything in good working order. I won't be returning to this resort, and will recommend to anyone who asks that they don't either.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Bonaire, Curacao, St. Kitts/Nevis, Jamaica, Cozumel, Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Florida Keys, Caymans, Monterey CA, various quarries
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	74-78°F / 23-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	- Ft/ - M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Recreational Limits, 45 minute max dive time
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Fantasy Island in Honduras/Roatan

Fantasy Island, Feb, 2013,

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/Roatan