40th Anniversary Celebration
In 2026, Manta Ray Bay Resort and Yap Divers celebrate a milestone forty years in the making. What began as a small, harbor-side dive center founded by a young Peace Corps volunteer has grown into one of the world’s longest-running, family-owned dive resorts. To mark this anniversary, we invite divers, underwater photographers, adventurers, and longtime friends of Yap to join us for a year filled with special offerings, island experiences, and a weeklong celebration honoring four decades of diving with purpose, passion, and family stewardship.
Whether you have visited us many times or are discovering Yap for the first time, 2026 is the perfect year to experience everything that makes Manta Ray Bay Resort unique – our manta-filled channels, our warm island hospitality, our commitment to Yapese culture, and the diver-focused approach that has guided us from the beginning.
40th Anniversary Special Available All Year
14 nights for the Price of 10 Nights!
Book our 10-night / 8-day dive package and receive 4 extra nights free.
Guests enjoy a full 14-night stay at the price of 10 nights and 8 days of three-tank diving included.
This year-long offer gives guests the time they need to slow down, dive deeper, explore Yap’s culture, relax at the resort, and see the island the way Bill has always wanted visitors to experience it.
Added 40th-Year Bonuses
- Complimentary 1/2-Day Island Land Tour
- Complimentary Sunset Drive with fresh coconut cocktails
- Valid for all room categories
- Available for travel January 1 – December 31, 2026
- Exclusion: MantaFest 2026 (August 22 – September 6, 2026)
40th Year Anniversary Rates
The following rates are valid for the period: January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026
| STANDARD | 10 nights + 4 FREE Nights, 8 dive days (24 dives) |
|---|---|
| Per Diver | $2,639 |
| Non Diver** w/diver | $659 |
| OCEAN VIEW | |
| Per Diver | $2,809 |
| Non Diver** w/diver | $859 |
| DELUXE OCEAN VIEW | |
| Per Diver | $3,289 |
| Non Diver** w/diver | $1,059 |
These Special Hotel/Dive Packages include Room, 10% Government RoomTax, Diving, Nitrox, Morning wake-up call with coffee/tea delivered to the guests’ room, Breakfast, Packed Lunch on dive, days served on the boat, WiFi, Late Check-Out* & Airport Transfers.
40th Anniversary Celebration Week
July 19th – 26th, 2026
Join us in Yap for a week of festivities honoring four decades of diving, culture, and community.
“Come Dive with Me!” — Bill Acker
Celebration Week Highlights
- Daily Diving & Island Tours
- Afternoon and Evening Refreshments after Diving
- Special Performances of Traditional Yapese Dance
- Signature Dinner & Anniversary Banquet Night
- Beach BBQ Celebration
- Opportunities for cultural immersion throughout the week
A Forty-Year Legacy, Built by Divers for Divers
For four decades, Manta Ray Bay Resort and Yap Divers have stood among the world’s longest-running, family-operated dive centers and resorts. Founded in 1986 by Bill Acker and still guided by the Acker family today, the resort joins a select group of pioneering, privately run dive operations whose histories stretch back into the 1960s and 1970s, including Small Hope Bay Lodge in the Bahamas, Anthony’s Key Resort in Roatán, Blue Lagoon in Chuuk, and Fish ’n Fins in Palau. These longstanding operations helped define modern dive tourism, each shaped by a founder’s vision and a lifetime of stewardship.
Manta Ray Bay Resort is proudly part of this lineage – a rare example of a diver-built, diver-run resort that has remained true to its purpose for forty years.
Our Origin Story (short version)
Manta Ray Bay Resort began with a young Peace Corps volunteer who never left. When Bill Acker first arrived in Yap in the late 1970s, he spent his volunteer years exploring the island’s reefs, forging friendships with local families, and absorbing a culture that spoke to him more deeply than any place he had ever known. After completing his service, Bill chose to stay in Yap and set out to build a life shaped around diving and the sea.
With a marketing background and an unwavering love of diving, he founded Yap Divers in 1986, operating from a small harbor-side location and offering guided dives into Yap’s manta-filled channels. Soon after, he built the adjoining Manta Ray Bay Hotel — purpose-designed “for divers, by divers” — creating one of the Pacific’s first integrated, family-run dive resorts.
Nearly forty years later, the Acker family continues to operate the resort with the same spirit that first brought Bill to Yap: a commitment to the island, its people, and the extraordinary marine world that surrounds it.