We just had a great week at Coco View Resort the second week of January, 2012. This is my second time and loved every minute (except perhaps the no see-ems). We stayed in an oceanfront room with a nice tiled porch, hammock, two Adirondack chairs. and a fantastic view of the water. The management has done a great job with the hearty food since the last time I was there in 2010. Every morning you get a nice buffet breakfast with optional omelets cooked your way, fresh french toast, pancakes to die for, eggs, bacon, all sorts of cereal selections, fruit, yogurt, peanut butter, toast, juice, awesome coffee and more. Lunch changes each day and menu is posted. there is a meat or fish selection, with soup every day, rice and beans with tortillas every day, salad every day (great variety of dressings) and other assorted veggies to fill you up. dinner is the same, with the final night a steak and lobster tail dinner (all you can eat). the steak was delicious, cooked perfectly. The kitchen staff really works to give you good food, but not always a lot of fish as you might think.

The dive center has the perfect set-up with each diver getting a cubby area to store everything (no worries about thfrogfish, eft). It is so functional and the boat is about 15 steps away and a walk on situation. It is so easy and fun. There is also a night dive system that beats all I have ever seen. They are very safety conscious at all time. There is a dock manager on staff at all times as well, in case you may need anything. They help with tanks if you need that too.

The dive masters give a briefing of the dive site before each boat ride out and stay with the group to show you sea horses, frogfish, mantas, and other interesting critters. They change your tanks after the first dive and the second dive is always on the wall in front of the resort. You get dropped off and are on your own to get back. Everyone gets an orientation meeting upon arrival and an orientation dive as well so you know the sites and how to return. It is a very well marked system and you could just dive the walls in front and see a lot. We had two sea horses, huge crabs, spotted ray, a turtle, morays, snake eels, and awesome octopus on a night dive and many more treats.

All of the rooms are decent--the best being the ones over the water. they seem newer and more update, but all of the rooms are ocean view with a hammock and patio or deck. I could go on and on, but believe me, this is the dive operation for any level of diver for a fun vacation, with a fantastic staff, great bar overlooking the water on a screened in area, pool table, ping pong, checkers, backgammon, computer with wi-fii connection and more.

Enjoy--

I had an amazing time at the Coco View!!! I had one of the over the water bungaloos and I loved it!!! Many nites I would lay on the hammock listening to the waves lap under me. It is its own private Island so you get a ton of peace and quite. The staff is so friendly, Big Papa, Bertha and Margaret really made my stay special. If you are a diver, this IS the place to stay, it is VERY gearded towards diving. I am not a diver and still had a great time. I would recommend this resort for sure!! Big ups!!!

We visited CoCo View Resort at the beginning of December 2011. This has got to be the best dive operation we have ever seen. From the rooms to the facility to the food and then best of all the dive operation itself it's A+ all the way. We enjoyed one of the bungalows over the water which was an 30 second walk to the lodge where you have your meals and beverages. It was clean and spacious with a comfortable bed. Only thing my husband would have liked was a table to set up his camera gear but there were some low tables and the dresser top so he made do just fine. For $5.00 you can get up to 3 beach towel exchanges a day which meant always have a dry one on the boat. The food is all buffet style, good and lots of variation. Coffee was always on by 6 when we got up and a full buffet breakfast with hot and cold choices was ready by 7. Diving started at 8:30 so mornings were relaxed (if you are early risers like we are). Lunch and dinner were also good with plenty of variety. Tim Blanton runs a great photo operation and can work with photographers and videographers if you want some tips. We were extra fortunate in that Stan Waterman was there at the same time we were. Google him if you don't know the Emmy award winner for 'The Deep'. He is 88 years old and still did a dive every day. In the evenings he showed us some of his films and he was always mingling with everyone and sharing his amazing stories. It was a real treat to meet him and spend time with him. Patty runs a terrific dive shop with the best selection of dive equipment/gear, etc. we've seen on Roatan. Equipment issues were dealt with quickly and never interfered with our dives. Now the dive operation. There are 4-5 boats and each one has it's own huge locker. You let them know if you are diving that day and they load and unload everything for you. The boats have a large camera table and a very large fresh water tank for rinsing your camera gear; it's really well set up for people with cameras. Kirk was our Dive Master for the week and David our captain. Kirk can find anything, even tiny little wire shrimp less then 1/2". He was amazing and we loved that he went really slow, took great care of everyone and was a terrific creature finder. David was always there to hand our cameras and gear up to, changing over tanks, and provide us with kleenex or anything else we needed. Thanks so much to both Kirk and David; we hope to dive with you again! There are 3 shores dives right out front (they refer to it as The Yard), which includes the Prince Albert Wreck, CoCo View Wall and Newmans wall. You can do as many dives as you want here. I really can't say enough about CoCo View. If you want to dive dive dive, while still enjoying good accommodation, good food and great staff this is the place. There is a reason why we were 2 of the few who were first timers. Most people have returned time after time and every 10th visit is free. One fellow returns about every 6 weeks and was on his 102nd visit. Say no more.

We spent a week at Cocoview, Dec 3-10, 2011. It was our first visit. We booked our accommodations and package through Roatan Charters but made our own flight arrangements. The folks at Roatan Charter were prompt in answering questions we had via email or phone.

We flew from Atlanta to Roatan on Delta. After clearing Immigration we met a woman holding a Cocoview sign in the luggage area. She instructed us to collect our bags and clear customs. Right after Customs our bags (with the big Pink Cocoview tags) were collected. We waited approximately 20-30 minutes for a bus that took us another 20 minutes to the dock for a 5 minute launch ride to Cocoview. We arrived at approx 1:45pm. We were greeted, given keys, dive waivers, a drink voucher and invited to lunch. They had held lunch for us which was very welcome.

As this was our first visit we opted to do the optional afternoon 'check out' dive that every guest (it seemed returning guests are exempted) must do before diving. By doing this we learned we wouldn't have to miss the first boat dive in the morning. There is a charge if you want to do this afternoon check out dive. There were three of us so it was $10 each payable to the divemaster. The checkout consisted of watching an approximately 15 minute video about the resort, the dive operation, and camera/photographer etiquette. You presented your C card and Nitrox cards to get weights. We met our dive master, geared up and walked from the shop and around the side of the clubhouse to the waterfront for a shore dive. The entry is easy...sandy, turtle grass...in about shoulder deep water (for me anyway...I am 5'4") there is a stationary wooden platform that you can hang on to if you need to while you put on your fins and make any adjustments. It is then about a 10 minute shallow swim to the house reef. Cocoview fronts a channel. The reef on the Cocoview side is the Cocoview wall. The reef on the opposite side of the channel is Newman's wall. Our divemaster briefed us about the underwater navigational aides on either side of the channel. In the middle of the channel at approx max depth of 65 is the Prince Albert...a small freighter. You need to know where the navigational aides are and how to use them as the viz in the channel varied dramatically. Sometimes you could see the Prince Albert from the wall and sometimes it was so murky you had to follow the aides. When we did our checkout the viz was pretty good but there were later dives where we were glad we paid attention!

We opted for an overwater bungalow. There are 4 of them. A/b and C/D. Duplex style. We had C. It had a King bed, a dresser/mirror, chair, night stands and lamps to either side of the bed. There is a long built in bench along one wall. An open closet arrangement with shelves and a place to hang a few things (not enough hangers). There is a built in wooden box with a lock and key in the closet area for valuables. They collected our passports and return tickets and held them at the front office. In this way they confirmed our return flights and actually had boarding passes for us at the end. I suppose you could have other valuables held at the front if the little wooden box didn't make you feel comfortable. There is a small fridege and a 5 gallon bottle of fresh water in the room. There were several plastic tumblers, a pitcher and a small coffemaker. Ice is available in the clubhouse.

The bathroom is rather spartan. No hairdryer. Only two weasely bathtowels. What woman doesn't want at least two...one for her hair and one for her body? Beach towels are rented for $5 for the week in the front office. You can trade them in for dry towels anytime and we did...often...as nothing dries here. The bungalows have a small deck with two Adirondack chairs and a table. There is a hammock, a close line, and several pegs onthe wall to hang things. The bungalow is clean but no frills. There is a window air conditioning unit, a ceiling fan, and a floor pedestal fan. 3 nights we were happy with fans and window open. It was warmer toward the end of the week when the sun had shone more during the day and we were happy to be able to cool off the room.

I would not say that the bungalow was particularly quiet. There are no radios, phones or tvs. You share a wall with unit D. We could hear our neighbors when they were up and moving about. You could hear muffled conversations and laughter. You could tell when they were moving about the room. As the bungalows are built on pilings over the water you could feel their foot falls. You could tell when they were showering. Worst of all was the banging screen doors. You know that this is an issue at the resort when there is a sign by the key pick up area that states something to the effect 'as a courtesy to other guests don't slam screen doors.' You would think they could remedy this problem. I asked the gents in Bungalow D (It had two twin beds) if they would try not to slam their doors. They were very accommodating. Not sure I would stay in an overwater bungalow again if I return.

The dive operation/shop is very well run. Very tidy. We were assigned the same boat... Cocoview II for the week. We dove with the same core group all week. There were usually 8 of us but as few as 3 and as many as 12. The boat is large and 12 was not a crowd. Our boat captain for the week was Rueben and our dive master was Jessie. Both long term employees. We were 2 of 3 "newbies"...that is new to Cocoview...on the boat. All the other guests on the boat had been to Cocoview anywhere from 5 to 20+ times! Each boat (there were 4 there at the time) is tied up stern end to the dock. Each boat has its own locker/bay area that fronts the boat. The locker/bay areas are walk throughs. They are situated between the clubhouse and the boats. You come from your room or the clubhouse to decking on the clubhouse side that has rinse tanks, showers, and racks and lines for drying gear. From this deck you proceed into the locker area and suit up, pick up your gear, analyze tanks, etc. Staff always had our BC's and tanks already on the boat and set up. Walk on through and onto your boat. Your assigned spot in the locker area is roomy and there are shelves and pegs for hanging things. There are benches and tables. There is a nitrox analyzer in each locker/bay (which appeared inaccurate per a fellow diver who was traveling with his own). Nitrox was available for a by the tank charge or for a flat $125 per week per diver. We left all our gear (other than wrist computers) in the dive locker area. Security was never an issue. Boat dives left at 8:30am and 2pm. Divers are given a 15-10 minute warning by airhorn if necessary. The dive brief is given on the boat at the dock. The boat captain and/or dive master would tell you the approximate run time to the dive site and the captain would blow his whistle to give you a five minute warning. This was great. You could gear up and be ready to go the minute you were moored. No bobbing and listening to a dive brief. Also since everyone was pretty experienced everyone was ready to go...we were all in the water within minutes. Loved this!!! You could exit via the stern or amidships and return was by two stern ladders.

Dives averaged an hour+ and we roughly stayed together following the divemaster. Now here is one negative. We were the only two on the boat without cameras. In spite of the photographer etiquette brief we found most of these folks would mow you down for a shot. We got to the point where we ignored poor Jessie if he signaled to show us something because we knew we would be besieged by photographers flailing about and hovering ove us to get a shot. Perhaps they should have refresher courses in etiquette for photographers.

After the first dive of the morning or afternoon we would motor back toward the resort. In the morning you would be dropped on Newman's reef to swim back to the resort. In the afternoon we were droppe don the house reef...Cocoview. You could also skip these dives and come back with the boat if you prefered. Obviously you could do shore dives anytime you wanted.

We saw more seahorses and pipe fish in a week than we ever have before (we have over 500 dives each). Lots of free swimming green morays. We saw them every day if not every dive. Also saw a free swimming spotted eel one dive. Odd behaviour. We speculated with some of the other divers that someone might be feeding them? Lots of Indigo hamlets...a personal favorite. I believe we have seen 6 in all our previous dives and I counted up to 11 on a single dive and we saw them every dive! Saw Queen angels every dive and lots of Gray and French Angelfish. Everyone is worried about the lionfish but we didn't encounter as many as we have in other parts of the Caribbean. We saw some large groupers and snappers. A few turtles. Enjoyed the juveniles on some of the shallower reefs. All in all good diving. A great/efficient dive operation.

The clubhouse/community area isa big screened in rectangular building in the middle of the complex (If you go to the website they have a pretty good map of the property). This is where you eat, drink and socialize. We were there on what we were told was a pretty quiet week. No more than 40(?) people ever in the dining room. Meals are buffet style. Thoroughly average food but at least there was plenty of it. Breakfast options included eggs, breakfast meats, toast, muffins, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and juice. There was the option of made to order omelets but that was time consuming and we neve took advantage of it. Lunches included a soup, a hot dish, beans and rice, and a sandwich option. Dinners included a couple of entree choices, vegetables, salad, rice/potato, etc. Only a couple of memorable dishes. One day for lunch they had an awesome Chicken Tortilla soup. One nite they had a spicy fried shrimp dish that was good. Friday's surf and turf was good. Desserts were a weak link. Cookies or dry cake usually...

Alcoholic beverages are not included. You run a bar tab with the very affablel "Willie" at the bar. If you are a wine drinker they have awful boxed wine by the glass or you can buy a bottle of Chilean red or white which is superior and actually cheaper. What ever you don't finish you can take back to your room and stash in your fridge or they will hold it for you.

I'm not sure I would come here if I were not a divere. Maybe when there are more guests the place gets a bit more lively but it was pretty quiet and laid back the the week we were there. No complaints on that from us. There is a pool table in the bar area that got a bit of use each night. The bar is open until 11 pm but we never made it past10 pm. Most folks seemed to retire early. The median age of the guests seemed to be late 30's to late 60's. As we previously noted repeat visitors were the norm. No pool. Nice decks in front of the clubhouse over the water. There is a fitness center that we walked by a couple of times...no one was ever in it. Massages are available. There are excursions available. A couple of guests went on a shark dive...they were taken offsite for this and were gone most of the day...they seemed happy with it. There was entertainment a couple of nights. We were supposed to have a BBQ one night on their private cay but the weather precluded this so it was held indoors. We had hermit crab races one night. You 'bought' a crab for a dollar and with a marker they put your room number on the shell. It was a hoot. You got the pot of $$$ (not much!) if your crab won. Local children did some folk dancing for us one evening. Another night we had "fire dancers". A father and his daughter put on quite a show. After these performances a hat was passed for $$$.

Bugs are an issue. Found several Palmetto bugs in our bathroom on two consecutive evenings. The no see ums are fearsome. "Off" became our signature scent! We wore it morning, noon, and night. You should even wear it in the locker area.

The dive shop is actually a seperate entity from the resort so any charges there must be paid to the shop and can not be charged to the room. I had to have my high pressure line replaced after a dive...cost me $40 and I didn't miss my next dive. A bargain at twice the price!

Gratuities are requested for the staff independent of the usual tips you would give to the dive master and boat captain. I do agree with other comments that this should be built into the price. The staff was always friendly and helpful. Asking for 5% cash for gratuities is quite a bit to come up with at the end. It just artificially makes the package seem more attractive when you are booking it. It all added up...the additional gratuities for staff, Nitrox, beach towels, bar tab, any excursions, and of course the gratuity for the dive master and boat captain. If you don't have sufficient cash at the end there is a surcharge to use a credit card. I believe the surcharge is 4 %. That's annoying! There is an approximately $40 departure tax payable in US$ per person at the airport. (It is actually an odd number like $38.70)

So why do people keep coming back to Cocoview??? The accomodations and food are just okay. The diving is good and the dive operation is excellent. I guess it comes down to the ease of diving and the people. This is an easy, easy, lazy place to dive. Minimal effort involved. Just show up at the boat. Our boat captain and dive master were professional and friendly. The people we met and dove with all week were friendly, educated, well traveled people. Our boat had a lawyer, a physician, a civil engineer, a couple of former military officers, a government employee, a professional photographer, and several business men/women. We never lacked for lively conversation. Some of these folks had been diving together in the past as they were all repeaters (but for three of us). I guess this is the secret of Cocoview.