arkstorm
Contributor
This was a very last-minute trip. We booked on 5 days' notice.
The purpose of our trip was for my 15 y.o. daughter to complete her AOW cert.
We had four days to dive. Our intention was to dive double-dips morning and afternoon each day.
Our first choice for dive ops was Horizon Divers who we have dove with before. But given the short notice, they were not able to accommodate an AOW course, so we booked the course and diving with Rainbow Reef Divers.
Our overall experience with Rainbow Reef was positive but we quickly realized they're just not our style.
They are friendly and well-organized, but they are a LARGE operation.
When you arrive at their dockside facility, its like an airport terminal with iPad kiosks for waivers and multiple agents sitting at computer terminals to check in the hoards of divers which they accommodate. Their boats are large (Newton 46'), not packed to the gills, but still a lot of divers.
We learned, upon arrival, that all divers at Rainbow are required to dive with one of their guides. This didn't really apply to us because we just dove as a group of three being my daughter, her instructor and me. But if we were just fun diving, I would have been annoyed not being allowed to dive my own profile and being forced to dive with a guide and a large group of strange divers of various skill and expericne foisted upon me.
The people at Rainbow Reef were nice enough, though not particularly outgoing. It just felt like they had a spiel that they played through for the benefit of guests that they are unlikely to ever see again. They definitely didn't give off the vibe that they want to get to know you in any way.
My daughter's instructor was also very nice. We got the AOW dives out of the way by the morning of day two. We were then booked to dive with Rainbow on the afternoon of day two, and morning and afternoon double-dips on days three and four.
However, we decided to stop by Horizon Divers' office to see if they had any openings on days three and four, and to our delight, they were able to take us. So we cancelled our reservations at Rainbow and did our remaining dives with Horizon.
In contrast to Rainbow, Horizon Divers offers a guide only if you want one at an additional fee. We opted for self-led diving which is what I prefer.
Also in contrast, check-in for Horizon is done at their shop that is not located at their dockside facility. Check-in is a pen and paper affair that includes interaction with a very friendly staff member who is eager to get you checked in and on your way. We did that the evening prior to our first morning of diving with them.
Also, for what its worth, Horizon's check-in time at dockside is an hour later than Rainbow, and the additional hour of sleep was particularly welcomed by my teenage daughter.
People at Horizon are welcoming and friendly. They seem to have a desire to form a relationship with their guests. And it is apparent that many of their guests were South Florida locals and return guests.
Also, Horizon accommodates tech divers, Rainbow does not.
One factor in Rainbow's favor is that they do offer night dives, Horizon does not.
Okay, so the diving...
I believe that Key Largo may be the most underrated dive destination in the world. Hard stop.
We dove the Spiegel Grove six times. We dove the Benwood twice (once for a night dive).
Spiegel Grove is one of those dive sites that you can dive 100 times and not see the same thing twice. Simply amazing.
Current was hustling on a few of the Spiegel Grove dives which made the traverse from the stern of the dive boat to the descent (anchor) line a bit exciting.
Each dive on the SG offered large critters, small critters, sharks, pelagics, reef fish, colorful sponges, healthy corals, just perfect.
And that's all just on the outside aspects of the wreck. The inside swim-throughs make it like a giant zero-G 3D jungle Jim for adults.
This is truly a phenomenal dive site that compares well with the best all-time dives in my logbook.
The wreck of the Benwood is like a turtle magnet. We saw so many turtles that we just sort of stopped reacting to them by the end of the dive.
Also saw octopus out and about, eels, urchins, all the players you would expect on a great night dive.
We finished up the trip with two shallow water dives at the Christ Statue and Horseshoe were we saw a fully grown green moray completely exposed and laying perfectly still while tiny cleaner wrasse were tending to his hygienic needs. That was a truly unique experience as the eel was completely unfazed by our presence and let me shoot two minutes of video of him with my camera all but touching his snout.
We stayed at our favorite Hampton Inn which features complimentary breakfast buffet which is awesome. Who doesn't love a build-your-own Belgian waffle bar?
Our favorite places to eat dinner were the Fish House and the Lazy Lobster which is my new favorite restaurant (we ate there twice).
We flew in and out of FLL and rented a Jeep Gladiator which is the perfect dive-mobile.
Weather was the x-factor. We had almost daily strong rain storms and chopy sea state. Our afternoon dive boat on day-2 with Rainbow got turned back before arriving at the dive site due to lightning. It was the right call and I appreciated the committment to safety.
Choppy seas and heavy current factored in to reduced viz. We averaged maybe 40'-50' for the week.
However, despite the less than perfect weather, despite changing dive-ops at mid-trip, all-in-all, I would still give this dive trip an A rating.
As for the dive ops, I think Rainbow Reef Divers is a great choice for newer or less experienced divers as they provide guided dives on large comfortable boats. They seemed more geared towards the causal or "vacation diver" as opposed to the hardcore destination diver.
Horizon is defintely the operation for you if your primary reason for being in Key Largo is for the diving. They cater to rec divers as well as tec divers and let you do your own thing while offering as much or as little hand-holding as you please. They have smaller boats as well as a massive twin hull which makes for a very comfortable diving platform.
Overall we were pleased with both dive ops but prefer Horizon for our style of diving.
If you've never considered Key Largo as diving destination you should add it to your list.
We can't wait to get back there again.
Cheers,
Arkstorm
The purpose of our trip was for my 15 y.o. daughter to complete her AOW cert.
We had four days to dive. Our intention was to dive double-dips morning and afternoon each day.
Our first choice for dive ops was Horizon Divers who we have dove with before. But given the short notice, they were not able to accommodate an AOW course, so we booked the course and diving with Rainbow Reef Divers.
Our overall experience with Rainbow Reef was positive but we quickly realized they're just not our style.
They are friendly and well-organized, but they are a LARGE operation.
When you arrive at their dockside facility, its like an airport terminal with iPad kiosks for waivers and multiple agents sitting at computer terminals to check in the hoards of divers which they accommodate. Their boats are large (Newton 46'), not packed to the gills, but still a lot of divers.
We learned, upon arrival, that all divers at Rainbow are required to dive with one of their guides. This didn't really apply to us because we just dove as a group of three being my daughter, her instructor and me. But if we were just fun diving, I would have been annoyed not being allowed to dive my own profile and being forced to dive with a guide and a large group of strange divers of various skill and expericne foisted upon me.
The people at Rainbow Reef were nice enough, though not particularly outgoing. It just felt like they had a spiel that they played through for the benefit of guests that they are unlikely to ever see again. They definitely didn't give off the vibe that they want to get to know you in any way.
My daughter's instructor was also very nice. We got the AOW dives out of the way by the morning of day two. We were then booked to dive with Rainbow on the afternoon of day two, and morning and afternoon double-dips on days three and four.
However, we decided to stop by Horizon Divers' office to see if they had any openings on days three and four, and to our delight, they were able to take us. So we cancelled our reservations at Rainbow and did our remaining dives with Horizon.
In contrast to Rainbow, Horizon Divers offers a guide only if you want one at an additional fee. We opted for self-led diving which is what I prefer.
Also in contrast, check-in for Horizon is done at their shop that is not located at their dockside facility. Check-in is a pen and paper affair that includes interaction with a very friendly staff member who is eager to get you checked in and on your way. We did that the evening prior to our first morning of diving with them.
Also, for what its worth, Horizon's check-in time at dockside is an hour later than Rainbow, and the additional hour of sleep was particularly welcomed by my teenage daughter.
People at Horizon are welcoming and friendly. They seem to have a desire to form a relationship with their guests. And it is apparent that many of their guests were South Florida locals and return guests.
Also, Horizon accommodates tech divers, Rainbow does not.
One factor in Rainbow's favor is that they do offer night dives, Horizon does not.
Okay, so the diving...
I believe that Key Largo may be the most underrated dive destination in the world. Hard stop.
We dove the Spiegel Grove six times. We dove the Benwood twice (once for a night dive).
Spiegel Grove is one of those dive sites that you can dive 100 times and not see the same thing twice. Simply amazing.
Current was hustling on a few of the Spiegel Grove dives which made the traverse from the stern of the dive boat to the descent (anchor) line a bit exciting.
Each dive on the SG offered large critters, small critters, sharks, pelagics, reef fish, colorful sponges, healthy corals, just perfect.
And that's all just on the outside aspects of the wreck. The inside swim-throughs make it like a giant zero-G 3D jungle Jim for adults.
This is truly a phenomenal dive site that compares well with the best all-time dives in my logbook.
The wreck of the Benwood is like a turtle magnet. We saw so many turtles that we just sort of stopped reacting to them by the end of the dive.
Also saw octopus out and about, eels, urchins, all the players you would expect on a great night dive.
We finished up the trip with two shallow water dives at the Christ Statue and Horseshoe were we saw a fully grown green moray completely exposed and laying perfectly still while tiny cleaner wrasse were tending to his hygienic needs. That was a truly unique experience as the eel was completely unfazed by our presence and let me shoot two minutes of video of him with my camera all but touching his snout.
We stayed at our favorite Hampton Inn which features complimentary breakfast buffet which is awesome. Who doesn't love a build-your-own Belgian waffle bar?
Our favorite places to eat dinner were the Fish House and the Lazy Lobster which is my new favorite restaurant (we ate there twice).
We flew in and out of FLL and rented a Jeep Gladiator which is the perfect dive-mobile.
Weather was the x-factor. We had almost daily strong rain storms and chopy sea state. Our afternoon dive boat on day-2 with Rainbow got turned back before arriving at the dive site due to lightning. It was the right call and I appreciated the committment to safety.
Choppy seas and heavy current factored in to reduced viz. We averaged maybe 40'-50' for the week.
However, despite the less than perfect weather, despite changing dive-ops at mid-trip, all-in-all, I would still give this dive trip an A rating.
As for the dive ops, I think Rainbow Reef Divers is a great choice for newer or less experienced divers as they provide guided dives on large comfortable boats. They seemed more geared towards the causal or "vacation diver" as opposed to the hardcore destination diver.
Horizon is defintely the operation for you if your primary reason for being in Key Largo is for the diving. They cater to rec divers as well as tec divers and let you do your own thing while offering as much or as little hand-holding as you please. They have smaller boats as well as a massive twin hull which makes for a very comfortable diving platform.
Overall we were pleased with both dive ops but prefer Horizon for our style of diving.
If you've never considered Key Largo as diving destination you should add it to your list.
We can't wait to get back there again.
Cheers,
Arkstorm
