drrich2
Contributor
Just got back last Saturday from a week stay at the Courtyard Marriott diving with Rainbow Reef Dive Center, which was well-regarded both here and on Trip Adviser.
1.) Diving with Rainbow Reef Dive Center: Here's a breakdown of how it works. $644.95 for 20 dives.
1.) Each boat trip does 2 dives. I think a trip is around $75 or so; there are package discounts; I did the best package rate, 10 boat trips (yeah, 20 dives), which made it $60/trip plus tax. I paid $644.95 at the end, for the diving (not counting tips).
2.) The boat goes out in the morning around 8 a.m.; you'll have booked in advance, but check in with them. The first dive may be a deep dive (e.g.: Spiegel Grove, Duane, Bibb), followed by a shallower reef dive. Figure on a 30 to 40 minute or so boat trip out to the first dive site, shorter to the second.
3.) A free dive guide is put in the water; 2 if it's a pretty big group. You don't have to follow the guide if you don't want. The Captain will likely tell you something like 'pool's open,' please be back in an hour.
4.) Boat should get back somewhere in the ballpark of noon; you'll likely get a 30-60 minute break till the afternoon boat goes out. If you stay at the Courtyard Marriott, that's time to hit your room and eat something there.
5.) The 2 afternoon dives will be relatively shallow reef dives. I'm talking mostly 20 - 40 feet deep.
6.) Viz. my week was around 30-50 feet. Not was good as Bonaire or Curacao. On the other hand, I saw goliath grouper on the Spiegel Grove and Duane, and both nurse sharks and reef sharks on the reefs, and I'd never seen either in Bonaire. I saw quite a few black grouper, 2 Nassau grouper, a bunch of large barracuda, several big green moray eels, and on some reef sites a whole lot of fish.
7.) Staff were fun, friendly, helpful (e.g.: often changed my gear over from one tank to the other after the first dive), safety conscious and the dive briefings were practical and helpful (from both Captain and the guides).
8.) When we did the wrecks, we giant strode in with a 'granny line' in one hand (a rope from the back of the boat around it to the mooring line out front), went around & went 'hand over hand' down the mooring line to the wreck; came up the same way. Ropes didn't have anything on them that stung me, but had plenty of barnacles; you might want a pair of gloves.
9.) You need AOW to do the deep wreck dives; couple of guys didn't get to do them. They were asked if they had log books showing recent deep dives, and they didn't. Not sure what might've been worked out if they had.
10.) Tanks were 80 cf aluminum. They had a pair of 3300 PSI 100 cf alu. tanks available by special request, and that's all I dove with all week. My fills per my Atomic Cobalt were around 2800 to over 3000 for the week, but my Oceanic VT3 tends to give PSI listings about 70 higher than my Cobalt.
11.) When you end a reef dive, you come up behind the boat & grab a rope, take off your fins, and pull yourself to the ladder. In this shallow top water layer, we encountered moon jellyfish; dinner plate-sized jellyfish with short tentacles that can sting painful. I'd use a fin in hand to shove them away from me. Seldom saw jellyfish down on the reef; mostly an issue getting out (and that's prob ably what stung me on the legs jumping in one dive, though it felt like sunburn and went away quickly).
To sum it up, loved my 20 dives out of Key Largo, loved Rainbow Reef Dive Center, and the free guide service was a real plus that not everybody offers. But call; they may be booked up when you go. Also, if you're a 'dive your tank' type who wants to dive well over an hour on a tank, this might not be your match.
The Florida Keys is a charter boat dives destination; not much shore diving if any from what I understand.
2.) The Hotel (Courtyard Marriot - Key Largo): It was okay; had a mini-fridge, 2 queen-sized beds, a t.v. I never turned on if memory serves, and the in-house 'Bistro' restaurant was billed as geared towards healthy food so I didn't eat there. There's a microwave downstairs off the lobby. Sometimes they put out free popcorn and/or cookies, and we grabbed up some of that. 3 Adults & 1 infant for the 7 days, non-Marina view (would've cost around $100 extra for that) - $858.41.
3.) Airfare & SUV Rental - 3 Adults (from Nashville, TN to Atlanta, GA, to Fort Lauderdale round trip) with 1 infant in lap so free, plus we checked her stroller & car seat for free anyway) on Delta, including an economy mid-size SUV rental: around $1,416.04 (via Orbitz).
4.) Upgraded to Buick Enclave SUV (for more luggage storage) - maybe $188.81? There either was or will be over $20 charge for optional use of their gadget that collects our toll road use info. without us having to pull over & pay at booths, and we'll be billed later for toll road use. Factor in a couple of tanks of gas. We relied on our State Farm insurance, and didn't buy any from them (Budget Car Rental, Fort Lauderdale Airport). Let's call this category $300, as an overestimate.
Not counting food of non-diving activities, total trip cost (rounding for easier math): $650 + $860 + $1,400 + $300 = $3,210. Factor in varied tips, for diving, shuttle drivers/luggage handling/carts at airports, etc..., and let's call it an even $3,500. For 3 adults & a baby to spend a week in Key Largo, with 1 of the adults getting in 10 boat trips/20 dives. Not counting food or non-dive activities.
I tried pricing that against a trip to Bonaire, and came out closer to $6,000 (if we flew to Miami, then used Insel, and stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment at Buddy Dive).
5.) For the Non-Diver:
For the non-diver, not familiar with the southern Florida area, and wife and even more so mother-in-law prone to sea sickness, and an everglades boat tour wasn't advised for an infant due to noise, and the baby was too small for a dolphin encounter trip, so the options chosen where: They drove to Key West to the farthest southern U.S. point (mother-in-law wanted to), visited a bird observatory, toured the Everglades Alligator Farm, went out on the glass-bottomed boat to see Molasses Reef out of John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park, and my off-gassing day 3 of us went to Jungle Island in Miami (around 1 hour, 40 minute drive each way, Miami traffic kind of 'speed up/slow down, fairly close' and aggravating (we live in KY, and don't have to put up with that all the time; some of you wouldn't notice it).
Wife was annoyed that there wasn't general public access to stereotypical gently sloping sandy beach. Most places it's more marina-style; you walk to the water's edge, and there's a steep vertical rocky drop-off of a few feet to the water.
Richard.
---------- Post added October 3rd, 2013 at 01:44 AM ----------
I'm posting some more shots I took on the trip.
There were a lot of big barracuda.
I'm told this is a ridge-back stingray.
We saw some green sea turtles, and I particularly liked this hawksbill sea turtle.
I'd never seen a shark on a scuba dive before this trip, so the nurse sharks were neat to see.
I really enjoyed the reef sharks. I'm not sure of just what species. Some of these are more than one shot of the same animal. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 'Auto Levels' enhancement to try to improve the shots on the reef shark shots, & later realized I had Elements set to Auto Level all the shots when I multi-processed them to reduce resoltion; that's why the 1'rst 2 reef shark shots are now psychedelic looking.
I know my review was long-winded, but I hope to offer the kind of help to other divers that I needed planning this trip and found much of here. For a given potential dive destination, I like to know travel costs, lodging & diving costs, the 'work flow' of the dive day, whether I can get in more than 2 dives per day, a good place to stay, what he diving is like, etc...
Richard.
1.) Diving with Rainbow Reef Dive Center: Here's a breakdown of how it works. $644.95 for 20 dives.
1.) Each boat trip does 2 dives. I think a trip is around $75 or so; there are package discounts; I did the best package rate, 10 boat trips (yeah, 20 dives), which made it $60/trip plus tax. I paid $644.95 at the end, for the diving (not counting tips).
2.) The boat goes out in the morning around 8 a.m.; you'll have booked in advance, but check in with them. The first dive may be a deep dive (e.g.: Spiegel Grove, Duane, Bibb), followed by a shallower reef dive. Figure on a 30 to 40 minute or so boat trip out to the first dive site, shorter to the second.
3.) A free dive guide is put in the water; 2 if it's a pretty big group. You don't have to follow the guide if you don't want. The Captain will likely tell you something like 'pool's open,' please be back in an hour.
4.) Boat should get back somewhere in the ballpark of noon; you'll likely get a 30-60 minute break till the afternoon boat goes out. If you stay at the Courtyard Marriott, that's time to hit your room and eat something there.
5.) The 2 afternoon dives will be relatively shallow reef dives. I'm talking mostly 20 - 40 feet deep.
6.) Viz. my week was around 30-50 feet. Not was good as Bonaire or Curacao. On the other hand, I saw goliath grouper on the Spiegel Grove and Duane, and both nurse sharks and reef sharks on the reefs, and I'd never seen either in Bonaire. I saw quite a few black grouper, 2 Nassau grouper, a bunch of large barracuda, several big green moray eels, and on some reef sites a whole lot of fish.
7.) Staff were fun, friendly, helpful (e.g.: often changed my gear over from one tank to the other after the first dive), safety conscious and the dive briefings were practical and helpful (from both Captain and the guides).
8.) When we did the wrecks, we giant strode in with a 'granny line' in one hand (a rope from the back of the boat around it to the mooring line out front), went around & went 'hand over hand' down the mooring line to the wreck; came up the same way. Ropes didn't have anything on them that stung me, but had plenty of barnacles; you might want a pair of gloves.
9.) You need AOW to do the deep wreck dives; couple of guys didn't get to do them. They were asked if they had log books showing recent deep dives, and they didn't. Not sure what might've been worked out if they had.
10.) Tanks were 80 cf aluminum. They had a pair of 3300 PSI 100 cf alu. tanks available by special request, and that's all I dove with all week. My fills per my Atomic Cobalt were around 2800 to over 3000 for the week, but my Oceanic VT3 tends to give PSI listings about 70 higher than my Cobalt.
11.) When you end a reef dive, you come up behind the boat & grab a rope, take off your fins, and pull yourself to the ladder. In this shallow top water layer, we encountered moon jellyfish; dinner plate-sized jellyfish with short tentacles that can sting painful. I'd use a fin in hand to shove them away from me. Seldom saw jellyfish down on the reef; mostly an issue getting out (and that's prob ably what stung me on the legs jumping in one dive, though it felt like sunburn and went away quickly).
To sum it up, loved my 20 dives out of Key Largo, loved Rainbow Reef Dive Center, and the free guide service was a real plus that not everybody offers. But call; they may be booked up when you go. Also, if you're a 'dive your tank' type who wants to dive well over an hour on a tank, this might not be your match.
The Florida Keys is a charter boat dives destination; not much shore diving if any from what I understand.
2.) The Hotel (Courtyard Marriot - Key Largo): It was okay; had a mini-fridge, 2 queen-sized beds, a t.v. I never turned on if memory serves, and the in-house 'Bistro' restaurant was billed as geared towards healthy food so I didn't eat there. There's a microwave downstairs off the lobby. Sometimes they put out free popcorn and/or cookies, and we grabbed up some of that. 3 Adults & 1 infant for the 7 days, non-Marina view (would've cost around $100 extra for that) - $858.41.
3.) Airfare & SUV Rental - 3 Adults (from Nashville, TN to Atlanta, GA, to Fort Lauderdale round trip) with 1 infant in lap so free, plus we checked her stroller & car seat for free anyway) on Delta, including an economy mid-size SUV rental: around $1,416.04 (via Orbitz).
4.) Upgraded to Buick Enclave SUV (for more luggage storage) - maybe $188.81? There either was or will be over $20 charge for optional use of their gadget that collects our toll road use info. without us having to pull over & pay at booths, and we'll be billed later for toll road use. Factor in a couple of tanks of gas. We relied on our State Farm insurance, and didn't buy any from them (Budget Car Rental, Fort Lauderdale Airport). Let's call this category $300, as an overestimate.
Not counting food of non-diving activities, total trip cost (rounding for easier math): $650 + $860 + $1,400 + $300 = $3,210. Factor in varied tips, for diving, shuttle drivers/luggage handling/carts at airports, etc..., and let's call it an even $3,500. For 3 adults & a baby to spend a week in Key Largo, with 1 of the adults getting in 10 boat trips/20 dives. Not counting food or non-dive activities.
I tried pricing that against a trip to Bonaire, and came out closer to $6,000 (if we flew to Miami, then used Insel, and stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment at Buddy Dive).
5.) For the Non-Diver:
For the non-diver, not familiar with the southern Florida area, and wife and even more so mother-in-law prone to sea sickness, and an everglades boat tour wasn't advised for an infant due to noise, and the baby was too small for a dolphin encounter trip, so the options chosen where: They drove to Key West to the farthest southern U.S. point (mother-in-law wanted to), visited a bird observatory, toured the Everglades Alligator Farm, went out on the glass-bottomed boat to see Molasses Reef out of John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park, and my off-gassing day 3 of us went to Jungle Island in Miami (around 1 hour, 40 minute drive each way, Miami traffic kind of 'speed up/slow down, fairly close' and aggravating (we live in KY, and don't have to put up with that all the time; some of you wouldn't notice it).
Wife was annoyed that there wasn't general public access to stereotypical gently sloping sandy beach. Most places it's more marina-style; you walk to the water's edge, and there's a steep vertical rocky drop-off of a few feet to the water.
Richard.
---------- Post added October 3rd, 2013 at 01:44 AM ----------
I'm posting some more shots I took on the trip.
There were a lot of big barracuda.
I'm told this is a ridge-back stingray.
We saw some green sea turtles, and I particularly liked this hawksbill sea turtle.
I'd never seen a shark on a scuba dive before this trip, so the nurse sharks were neat to see.
I really enjoyed the reef sharks. I'm not sure of just what species. Some of these are more than one shot of the same animal. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 'Auto Levels' enhancement to try to improve the shots on the reef shark shots, & later realized I had Elements set to Auto Level all the shots when I multi-processed them to reduce resoltion; that's why the 1'rst 2 reef shark shots are now psychedelic looking.
I know my review was long-winded, but I hope to offer the kind of help to other divers that I needed planning this trip and found much of here. For a given potential dive destination, I like to know travel costs, lodging & diving costs, the 'work flow' of the dive day, whether I can get in more than 2 dives per day, a good place to stay, what he diving is like, etc...
Richard.
