Dive Review of Fort Young Dive/Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort in
Dominica/Roseau

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Fort Young Dive/Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort: "A Fun Time, but Not My Cup of Tea", Feb, 2024, by Ryan M Neely, MN, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 13025 has 1 Helpful vote.
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
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	What this trip helped us discover was that we aren't very fond of boat diving or diving with large groups. That kind of diving is serviceable if you're in a pinch or you need someone else to take the reins of planning your trip, but it just wasn't for us. Here's the good: The Fort Young Hotel itself is amazing. The hotel staff was courteous and helpful. Almost too helpful for a pathological self-reliant individual such as myself. The hotel was clean. Also good, the staff of the dive operation. They were super friendly and excited, despite being overworked (and likely underpaid). The not for us part: Dominica isn't a place where you want to get a rental car unless you're familiar with driving on crowded hairpin turns on the left side of the road. As such, we were pretty well stranded at the resort . . . which isn't the best for awake-time activities. They have a pool. That's nice. We could walk the streets of Roseau, which was . . . okay. Roseau, however, is one of the ports for the cruise ship, and the pier for that port is directly in front of Fort Young Hotel. This means three things: First, the streets of Roseau are crowded with tourists and hucksters almost daily. That's fine, if you're the kind of traveler who enjoys the crowds and the souvenirs. We are not. Second, it means that almost daily there is a massive cruise ship in front of the hotel blocking your view of the ocean. Third, there is a moratorium on shore diving while there is a cruise ship docked, which means if you want to shore dive here, it's likely going to be a night dive. We did extensive research ahead of the trip to determine how we were going to afford eating. Our package indicated that breakfast would be included and that there were two restaurant options at the hotel. One was for more formal dining and the other was not (i.e., it appeared to be cheaper). As it turned out, at the time of our visit, the hotel only had a single kitchen. The formal dining restaurant was only available for dinner and the cheaper option was only available for lunch . . . and breakfast and dinner were all buffet style with an almost identical menu from one day to the next. (That was challenging for those of us on restrictive diets, but you do the best you can and enjoy what is offered.) Honestly, we received better food from the room service menu. Most of the rest of our group ended up eating at a handful of the local restaurants, however when we did this, we ended up paying almost three times as much as we would have had we stayed in the room and ordered room service. (I guess it's about the experience rather than the food.) The island itself is pretty amazing. I'd almost consider returning just to visit all the natural beauty of the island topside. There's hiking and waterfalls and jungles and mountains and volcanic activity all over the place. That can make getting from place to place challenging, but if you're up for a good hike, it's a great place to visit. As for the diving, it was okay. As I mentioned before, this trip helped us to discover that we aren't really interested in large group diving. Here are the things to note: The dive staff are amazing. They really know the area, so as guides they were a terrific source of local knowledge and wisdom about each dive site we visited. The dive shop has two brand new boats which are very spacious and can accommodate a decent-sized group. The crew kept us primarily in the Soufriere-Scott's Head Marine Reserve. The waters here were fairly calm, but this marine reserve is only so large, so we ended up visiting a couple of dive sites multiple times. That was just fine with me. I like visiting the same site over and over again. Especially when we're diving from a boat with several divers of varying abilities. This gives me an opportunity to look for things I may have missed the first time around while the guides whizzed us through the site just to keep everyone moving and buoyant. There were a couple of times when I was disappointed to see the dive guides not paying as close of attention to their surroundings as I would expect a dive leader to do. Several times, one of the guides inadvertently kicked and broke some soft coral with a fin, and more than once used a pointer or his hands to poke at or pick up the wildlife. This isn't the end of the world, it's just something I haven't seen before (especially when diving within a Marine Conservation Area). Admittedly, I did not ask if we could dive our own profile (rather than following the guide). As I stated earlier, we were with a group from a local dive shop, and it felt wrong somehow to further isolate myself from the group (a whole part of coming on a trip with a group is an attempt to meet other divers and, perhaps, make new friends), I'm already introverted enough, I felt like I shouldn't be broadcasting my misanthropy so directly. So, we followed along with the group. This mostly led to dives that moved faster than I would have liked. It also led to us covering quite a bit more ground than I would have liked. We did go through a swim-through once. That was neat. There were also several dive sites where it felt as though the current might end up putting us into a drift dive. This also helped me realize that I'm not the biggest fan of currents. It's a challenge to fight against the current, and I don't want to drift. I want to stop and inspect the small things. I want to look at the nuance of the ecosystem directly before me. Drift diving seems a bit like riding in a car and staring out at the forest around you, instead of walking through it and taking your time to look at the texture and patterns of the tree bark and the leaves and that small little worm inching its way across a leaf stem. If you're into that kind of diving, this would be a great place. My wife and I stayed on the island for ten days (the rest of the group was there for seven), and that may have been the best decision we had made for the entire trip. It was the turnover day, when all the other tourists were being shuttled back to the airport for their flights home (and no cruise ship was scheduled to be docked at the port) that we were able to finally take advantage of some shore diving, which was amazing. Look, there isn't really a coral reef in front of the hotel. It's mostly a sand bottom with a handful of rocks here and there, but if you get out far enough, there are a handful of corals where you can find some amazing life lurking in the cracks and crevasses. While we did have some descent wildlife encounters while on the boat (we saw a couple of seahorses and an octopus running across a coral head and several morays free-swimming from one coral to another), it felt like we had better wildlife encounters on the shore dives. Octopuses, lobsters, chain morays, etc. This was the best part of the trip for us. What else can I say? One of the other things I wish I had known before I left home: Tipping. Why is tipping a thing? Even in the U.S., can't we just pay people what they are worth and put tipping to bed. Here's what I learned about tipping at the few places we ate on the island. The gratuity goes to the kitchen staff who prepared the food, not to the wait staff. This may have been why the wait staff seemed so sparse or less active than wait staff we'd have in the U.S. The hotel did have an extensive network of tour guides available to help schedule topside excursions. The topside excursions were quite fun. Just be prepared for these tour guides to just be "bros." Honestly, if you live in the U.S., you might not expect just a random guy in a car to show up at your hotel to take you on a tour of the waterfalls and other hiking trails in the area, but that's how it works here. It you're not prepared for the "guy-with-a-car" vibe, it could be a bit off-putting. "Wait, this is just a guy? We're going to get into his car . . . and he's going to drive us places and tell us things and show is sights?" "Yes, that is correct. He's just a guy with a car." And it's all good. Every tour guide "bro" we interacted with was friendly and knowledgeable and hand all kinds of information about the history of the island. Overall, I had a better time topside than in the water on this trip, but that's me personally. Some people like that style of diving, and this would make a great trip.
Websites	Fort Young Dive Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Vancouver Island, Northern Minnesota, Bonaire
Closest Airport	Douglas-Charles Airport, Marigot	Getting There	I think that some of our group were able to book flights from Florida straight to Dominica. The rest of us, however, ended up with a layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico before continuing on to Dominica. The shuttle from the airport to the resort took just over an hour (despite it only being thirty miles) thanks to the beautiful mountains of the island.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	79-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	100-300 Ft/ 30-91 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	There weren't many restrictions enforced here. I guess I didn't ask if I could dive my own profile. I was with a group and it felt as though the group was meant to stick together.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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
UW Photo Comments	I don't have a huge rig. I currently shoot with a SeaLife Micro 3.0 and two Sea Dragon 2500 video lights (though I prefer stills). This was a good size for diving from the boat. It also was easy to tuck away when there was very little to see or photograph. What I like about it best, is its ability to get into some of those smaller spaces. Still, there wasn't a ton to photograph. The shore diving from the hotel offers some sunken artifacts that can make for some nice visuals, and if you make the time to photograph some of the smaller stuff, I think you could have a good time.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Fort Young Dive/Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort in Dominica/Roseau

Fort Young Dive/Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort: "A Fun Time, but Not My Cup of Tea", Feb, 2024,

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 Fort Young Dive/Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort in
Dominica/Roseau