Upachaya vs. Maya Key HELP!

Hello all, my family and I will be traveling on the Valor at the beginning of May and we are trying to book our excursions. I have read a lot on this board about both Maya Key and Upachaya and am having a difficult time deciding which would be best for us. I am traveling in a group of 5 adults (19,23,25,50 and 55). We are from Florida and love to go snorkeling on our boat during the weekend. Which of these two sites provides the best snorkeling option? They are both the same price so we really are just looking for the best overall experience. Thank you so much!!!

We are also in Roatan in early May (Celebrity Solstice) and I have the exact situation - trying to decide between the Upachaya Snorkel and Maya Key; while I don't know the best answer (nor have I made up my mind yet) I did find a lot of information/reviews on both options at tripadvisor.com.

If anyone has any advice for either miamilovers or myself, please let us know!

It may be hard to find someone on this board who has snorkeled both sites. I posted a review for Upachaya on Trip Advisor dot com. Search for Roatan and then under Things to do you should find my review. There may be reviews for your other location as well. The snorkeling at Roatan is amazing!

I think you'll have a better snorkeling experience at Upachaya over Maya Key. It's more isolated (MK is right by the port in Coxen Hole,albeit on an islet) and nearer the barrier reefs. A bit of a bumpy ride to get there at times, versus MK's short ferry ride, but well worth it for thescenery and the snorkeling.

We've only been to Roatan once and that was in early March. We went out with Upachaya based on reviews here and on Trip Advisor. We had a complete blast.

Upachaya's boat holds 8-10 adults and the day that we went, we were the only boat on our reef. Our PADI divemaster Al was fabulous. He took time to show us a poisonous Lion Fish and an octopus...he even dove deep to take close up pics for us. He made sure our group stayed together when we crossed some strong currents and even helped someone who was getting tired.

We were in a morning group and between snorkel sites, we had some really good food that Barb made for us, as well as some local beer.

There were 6 other people from our ship on tour. At the time we went, Mahogany Bay port was making it hard for independent operators by making them do pick ups outside of the main gate (drop offs are inside). It was a short walk to the vans, but all the operators seemed to cooperate to point us in the right direction. As you'll read on the Upachaya thread, it's a difficult decision about how long to wait for a no-show...we waited for about 30 minutes for a no-show from our ship.

The only downside is that we only had one day to snorkel in Roatan. Would love to go back. I'm sure that Al has many more underwater life to share.

If you're interested, you can see our pics from our Upachaya excursion at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierham/sets/72157623490706879/show/