Anthony's Key Resort
Anthony's Key was pretty awesome.
I followed through on the open water cert and the instructor was great. Patience, knowledge, empathy and instruction were all exceptional. Maybe a bit difficult to get the instructor to do the sign offs afterwards (they seem simply too busy) but it all worked out in the end. More on the diving (it was awesome) later.
My girlfriend decided to not do the rest of the open water certs at the resort and used the snorkeling services instead during the week. She had a great time doing so. Her only complaint for the snorkeling was that the divers boats had a three times a day schedule while the snorkel boat was limited to twice a day.
The accommodations were just as advertised. That is to say they were very nice. Very nice indeed. We had a cabin on the north shore of the key, with a private porch having 2 hammocks a couple of chairs and a table. The cabin had a chemical smell the first day but in talking to other guests it appeared that they had just sprayed for bugs a day before our arrival. No problem as we aired it out for a bit and the smell dissipated. Housekeeping was awesome throughout the rest of the trip also.
Bugs. There are no seeums. A good bug spray will keep them away but they are certainly present. The included excursion to Maya Key saw most everyone that participated come back with bite marks. The excursion was worth the bites but be warned and bring spray and use it.
The dives were (an overused adjective by now) awesome. I think I have been completely spoiled by having my first dive experience at this place. 15 minutes at the most on the drives out (except the excursion to Maya Key). Visibility at 80 feet minimum. Great equipment (I'm looking at buying a BCD of the same model they carried for rentals to replace my current BCD). The boats are well equipped and the boat captains and dive masters know their stuff. Awesome ( I said It would be overused) competence of the boat captain and the dive master. The one thing I could pick on was that I saw at one time 14 people assigned to a dive with a dive master during my experience. That seemed a bit much even to my novice experience. I would have thought that ratio would have been a bit lower at a high end resort from what I have previously heard.
The place is very, very, very time and schedule orientated. They have the dive schedule regimented and quite well worked out nicely. That said, there was a single public clock at the main dock. Newbies to diving (like us) are going to be a bit lost without a wristwatch (most folks rely on a cell phone for time now days).
The food was good, most all times was much better than good. It appeared that they tried to accommodate the US palate for many meals, but the offerings for seafood were well done and there were local dishes available if requested (but not on menu).
The trip was great. The accommodations and experience at the resort were great. The place is definitely geared to keeping you on the reservation. No problem there since they do accommodate whatever you need via charge back to the room for everything done at the resort. We did take a couple off resort trips utilizing a resort referred contact and they were great trips. One of the waiters actually does tourist island tours and that was a great undocumented thing we took advantage of (at extra cost out of pocket. Totally worth it)..
I didn't want to leave. My girlfriend didn't want to leave.
May I say again, AWESOME!
