Share Your AKR Story: Bruce Allan Wilson

We’re happy to have another addition to our ongoing blog series, Share Your AKR Story! This month, we’re featuring Bruce Allan Wilson’s first and second visits to our gorgeous resort. He went from being a cruise ship passenger enjoying a shore excursion with us to booking a full stay at our resort the very next year! Thank you, Bruce, for sharing your story with us. We hope to see you again!

Anthony’s Key Resort – May 2018

I was first introduced to AKR when taking an excursion from a cruise ship which made a stop on Roatan.  My wife and I, celebrating our 25th anniversary in October 2017, both took the shore excursions to AKR; she tried diving for the first time as a Discover Scuba guest, and I made a couple of dives with the more advanced divers there that day.  The diving was great. I was very impressed with the health and extent of the reef, and of the fish life. Leticia really enjoyed her diving as well, although a bit overwhelmed taking her first dive to 40 feet of depth.

It wasn’t difficult, I must say, for my wife to convince me to return to AKR, and Roatan, the following spring.  On this trip, I asked George Chow (my buddy of 20+ years) if he’d like to go (this question was a “no-brainer”). We both showed up on Roatan in May of 2018.  We had booked a hillside standard, which was very comfortable and accommodating. It was actually rather cool with the fans and open louvers under the forest canopy at that time of year.  The facilities at AKR were exceptional. The food was excellent, and the Frangipani happy hour seemed not to be guided by anyone’s clock.

We made all three scheduled dives every day, throughout the week.  I seriously enjoyed the variations and difference in coral on the south side of the island; experienced on the day that we sailed around the west end.  The wrecks were added adventure, as were the night dives; there wasn’t a single dive during the week that I would not have made again. Our boat captain and dive master were very experienced and well trained, and this added to the ease and enjoyment of making our dives.  The other guests that were assigned to our boat were all well match in experience and interests. It was really an exceptional week of diving.

The turtles on the reefs off AKR are remarkably healthy animals.  We saw several throughout the week. On the occasion of the attached turtle-diver photo, George was observing (as were others and myself), a young loggerhead that was napping on the coral. She (I believe it was a “she”), decided to swim away, and in doing so, began swimming upward, and straight toward me!  Not really intimidating, but loggerheads have quite a powerful beak on them; I wasn’t interested in learning really how powerful it could be. At the moment the turtle came close enough, I kicked and turned out of her way. George had his GoPro on her the whole time. When we returned to the cabin following the dive, we were able to extract from his video the single image; with a few lighting adjustments, we ended up with a pretty cool picture.

Best of all, we are returning for another week of diving this coming month (May 2019).  I am certain it will be as excellent and remarkable as the times before. If there is an interest in further imagery from the trip in 2018, check out YouTube — look for “Roatan Scuba May 2018 AKR.”

Dive well,

Bruce Allan Wilson

If you would like to visit Anthony’s Key Resort and see what the fuss is about, book your stay today!