Islamorada Dive Operators Recommendations

[cruzbound]

Hi all,

We will be taking a long weekend in the Islamorada are in October and will be doing a few days of diving. I am trying to decide between two dive operators - they each have pros and cons. We are considering Key Dives or Dive Islamorada. Key Dives lets you have about an hour dive each time and Dive Islamorada only lets you have a 45 minute dive. Dive Islamorada provide free nitrox (with a 3-day dive package, which we will be doing) but Key Dives does not provide Nitrox for free (they charge $10 per tank - so this would be an additional $60 per person for the 3-day package - 6 dives). Both operators charge the same amount for the 3-day dive package.

So with that said, who would you use? Does anyone have any recommendations regarding either operator? I tried to book SeaMonkeys but they do not have any morning dives available for the Saturday and Sunday and we want morning dives for those two days because they are deeper dives.

Thanks,
cruzbound

 

[reefman]

here's my take. if indeed dive Islamorada limits bottom time to 45 minutes per cylinder , there are alone in the upper keys dive community with this policy. 60 minutes is the standard. that equates to 90 minutes less time underwater on a 3 day package, significant in my eyes(damn, that's a two tank dive trip with them!). also key dives provides a free dive guide if your so inclined. consider asking key dives, maybe they're cut you a deal on the nitrox. also they are next door to one of my favorite restaurants; LAZY DAYS! BTW, last I heard, sea monkeys doesn't offer nitrox,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,




reefman
key largo

 

[uncfnp]

Did my first ocean dives with Key Dives so had nothing to compare then to at that time but we were very pleased and would certainly dive with them again if the opportunity presented. Ask for Alligator Reef.

 

[drrich2]

If I understand correctly, you propose to do 2 dives/day, in the Florida Keys, not over an hour each.

What advantage do you expect to get from nitrox?

Just curious.

Richard.

 

[uncfnp]

If I understand correctly, you propose to do 2 dives/day, in the Florida Keys, not over an hour each. What advantage do you expect to get from nitrox? Just curious. Richard.

Even more to the point is that Islamorada dives tend to be shallow. I don't think I went deeper than 50 feet on any of my dives there. So even though I am a huge fan of nitrox, if I had to pay extra, I'd just dive air.

 

[luscioman]

Is it safe to assume that you are going to be doing shallow reef dives? If yes than the longer time would be better. I don't think nitrox would be a big deal. The only wreck I assume they might do would be the Eagle. In that case having nitrox would be good and you will not be more than 45 mins on the dive. In that case you could pay the extra $10 just for that dive to use nitrox.

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Not too far from there is Conch Republic Divers. I always recommend them.

 

[cruzbound]

Hi all,

Thanks for the help. I know for me, Nitrox helps me not be so tired after continuous days of diving. We went to Hawaii and dove for 6 days with just air (we were not nitrox certified then) and I would be out like a light by about 9 PM but then we used nitrox on our trip to Bonaire this past spring and I was able to live up the night life until 10:30 PM. So that is the main reason I would consider nitrox in FL.

Here are a couple of more differences in the companies - Key Dives goes to the Eagle on Saturday mornings and we do not want to do that dive (already have done it) so this means we would have to do a Friday and Saturday afternoon dive with them and then a Sunday morning dive. The afternoon dive are like 25-30 ft, while the morning dives are 50-80 feet. We prefer deeper dives but will only get one day of deeper dives with Key Dives. Oh, I did reach out to them about the other company offering nitrox but they said no they would not give free nitrox. With Islamorada Dive we can do the Friday afternoon dive and then a Saturday and Sunday morning dive, so we get two days of deeper dives. We don't want to schedule a Friday morning dive with whoever we decide to go with because we arrive into Ft. Lauderdale kind of late on Thursday night and want to get a good night's sleep.

So with that said, are the deeper dives better in Islamorada or the shallower dives?

I am considering these two companies because they provide guide dives in the water and many of the other companies do not do that at no cost. If there are others that do, let me know who and I can check them out.

Thanks!