Dive Review of Blackbird Resort in
Belize/Turneffe Atoll, Lighthouse Ree

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Blackbird Resort: "Turneffe Atoll and Day trip to Lighthouse Reef", Dec, 2019, by S D Jackson, UT, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 11394 has 3 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Blackbird Resort (BBR) is sited on Blackbird Caye which is a small island that is part of Turneffe Atoll. It is under new ownership and management who is investing in nice new cabanas, equipment, etc. They have assembled a new impressive team related to the resort and boatdive crew, -all experienced, skilled, with a warm and friendly attitude. Bugs in this area can be a real problem, but were very mild during our visit. The cabanas are very comfortable with potable water, hot showers, and plenty of electrical outlets for camera gear, etc. The food was very good and plentiful. The bar and staff were a hoot, and the drinks were well crafted, affordable and had some kick to them. Now to why we came, the diving. Most of the diving around Turneffe is wall, semi-wall, or the top of the wall diving. BBR drift dives these sites and the crew manages this with ease. The boats are new(er), clean and comfortable with very good to excellent crews. I don't recognize the brand but have seen similar in other parts of Belize. Good sized, with a side giant stride entry with a return ladder. All of the dive sites with the exception of the day trip to the Blue Hole and Lighthouse reef are within 5-15 minutes from the resort. The resort includes three dives a day with their packages. Meet on the dock ready to dive at 8a, 11a, and 2:30p. Surface intervals are at the resort, including an longer one for the lunch hour. The dive routine is very nice and overall you could call it concierge diving, the dive and boat crew handles virtually every thing. We dived 23 dives. The tanks are new aluminum 80's. The nitrox for the week was at 32%. The diving is typical very good Caribbean diving. Lots of variety of coral and tall coral structure with white sand on top of the reef. They have recently had a bleaching incident which has hit their hard corals. It was sad to see and was a distraction for a couple of days on most every dive. During the trip we saw large eagle rays on most every dive. Sting rays and rough tail rays were common. XLarge white spotted file fish, hogfish, parrot fish were plentiful. All of the Caribbean tropicals, lobsters, eels, crabs were represented. The stars of the show were the spotted toad fish, burr fish, mating squid and many types of small crabs. We saw several nurse sharks around Turneffe, also. The day trip to the Blue Hole and Lighthouse Reef was easy and well thought out. We dived the the Blue Hole first, and after our safety stop dived Long Caye. We then visited Half Moon Caye and had a BBQ for lunch and finished our day diving their before heading back to BBR with a 4:30p arrival. The Blue Hole viz that day was poor but we did have a reasonably good dive to the stalactites, seeing a XL reef shark on our return to the boat. Our other two dives on LightHouse were exceptional, pristine coral reefs with plenty of wild life including the largest, inquisitive, 8'-10' grey reef sharks I have ever seen. Lighthouse Reef has some of the best diving in this hemisphere. Unfortunately, the two resorts there struggle and are poorly ran so BBR can be a good alternative. Overall we had a great trip. Blackbird Resort has came back strong with a great team of professionals. The overall experience and value was very good and enjoyable. We had a great trip.
Websites	Blackbird Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Costa Rica, Hawaii, Cozumel, Isla Mujures, Akumal, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Grand Cayman, BVI, Utila, Roatan, Belize, Glover's Atoll, Lighthouses Atoll, Turneffe Atoll, West Palm, Puerto Rico, St Martin, Florida, Hawaii, Saba, Statia, Bonaire, Grenada, Tobago, GBR, Coral Sea
Closest Airport	Belize City	Getting There	Houston or Miami to Belize City, boat transfer or small plane charter to Blackbird Caye
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	2
Water Visibility	70-150 Ft/ 21-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	60-65 minutes total time, stay in eye shot of DM
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	New large fresh water tub was provided. Crew was sensitive and careful with equipment. Charging was handled in own cabanas with plenty of 110v outlets and tables.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Blackbird Resort in Belize/Turneffe Atoll, Lighthouse Ree

Blackbird Resort: "Turneffe Atoll and Day trip to Lighthouse Reef", Dec, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Blackbird Resort in
Belize/Turneffe Atoll, Lighthouse Ree