So we ended up not doing any diving in Ft Lauderdale, and focused on Key Largo. We went with Rainbow Reef initially, as their dive/stay packages had more options and better prices and they went to the same place. But we also planned two dives with Ocean Divers based on the suggestion here, as well as a recommendation from someone at a LDS.
TL;DR : Rainbow Reef = :cool2:, Ocean Divers = :shocked2: will never dive with them again and will recommend others not as well
Lesson learned: Always make it clear BEFORE THE BOAT LEAVES that my wife and I are a buddy team, we dive together, and we won't take a 3rd we don't already know.
We started with 3 dive trips with Rainbow Reef on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, doing a mix of wrecks (Spiegel Grove was amazing, and the Duane and Bibb were really cool too), reefs, and the statue. For some we went with a guide, for others we went on our own, it was nice having that option at no extra cost. We were going to do a night dive with them as well, but it got called, I think because of not enough people but it's possible it was because of conditions; I didn't ask.
Since the night dive was cancelled (It wasn't originally even scheduled, but they were going out for some instructor training or something) we went with our original plan of going to Ocean Divers for a drift dive and a night dive.
The drift dive was full of problems. Some of them are the sort of thing that can happen with dive plans. We have an underwater camera with no housing that can go to 40ft, and the dive was supposed to be along a reef, with shallower to one side and deeper to the other, at 35-55 feet. Well, the currents had shifted and instead of going across it, when we got down we kept getting deeper and deeper. So we tied the camera off at about 30ft down the float line and just went with the downward slope. Being AOW certified, the depth we ended up getting to (80+ft) wasn't a problem, except that the float they gave us didn't have the line to go past 70, so my wife (carrying the float with us) had to stay higher towards the end. We also lost our camera float (The boat spotted it and thought it might be a SMB so went around to pick it up), and a weight pocket (Fortunately at the very end of the dive), and our safety stop was in the middle of a swarm of moon jellies (Think Finding Nemo, though not quite that bad) which was both beautiful and mildly terrifying.
While not the plan, there was nothing we couldn't address there and continue the dive, albeit with some minor modifications.
Unfortunately, that's not all that went wrong. There were 6 people going out on that boat, which makes a nice set of 3 buddy teams. Except 3 of the people were part of a class (AOW I think), which left my wife, myself, and the 6th person. We weren't actually notified that was how we would be split until after the boat left (And weren't even told it was because the 3 were part of a class until after the first dive, but more on that later). But we figured we would make the best of it, since we were already underway. We went over what was happening with the 3rd, made sure we were on the same page as far as signals to use, and went over each others gear.
Then we got in the water. The current was decent, and we were going along, but the third was more focused on photography, he kept getting left behind. Also since we had to stay higher, initially because of our camera, and later because of the length of the float line, we were in more of the current (And the float of course was pulling some as well) than he was, hovering down at the bottom to get photographs. As a result, we had to spend a good portion of the dive swimming against the current just to keep the 3rds bubbles in sight, let alone him. And of course the extra swimming meant we were using up air faster so the dive was shorter than it would have been. Then when we determined it was time to start going up because we were getting low, it took us a couple minutes just to get his attention to let him know to surface with us.
My wife was the first back on the boat. I was second. As I was trying to get from the tag line to the ladder (The tag line was unhelpfully going out to the side, out of arms reach of the ladder) she talked to one of the Ocean Divers staff, basically saying she didn't feel safe diving with this person as a 3rd, and she was not going to do it again. (It was at this point we were told the other 3 were a class; before we had just been told it was because they were diving nitrox and the rest of us were diving air.) They said they would talk to him. After everyone was back on the boat, we headed to the 2nd dive site for a second drift on a different reef where the current wouldn't be sending us out into the deep. I don't recall exactly what transpired, but they did tell the other guy a few things, but he gave no indication he would actually significantly improve, and the dive staff said they couldn't do anything about it, that we had to dive with him. So my wife again reiterated that we didn't feel safe diving with him, and explained why. (That wasn't all he did; his tank wasn't locked down properly, which the staff should really have checked as he was getting in, and he was slow to follow instructions even from the Ocean Divers staff, among other things.) Their response was that it was to tell us it was rude to talk about people in front of them, and explain that they could not send out a solo diver. We weren't the ones who came without a dive buddy! Not our problem. Sucks that he wouldn't get to dive, but that was Ocean Divers who shouldn't have even accepted him.
Anyway long story a little less long, we sat out of the second dive since they wouldn't let just the two of us go (And so did he of course), and after some arguing we did manage to get a refund for the dive (They weren't going to because "we had the option to dive and didn't"). We would have been fine with that, but then as we were leaving, we were told that the third was a master scuba diver instructor, so he was far more qualified than us, as if that would make it better. IMO that should make it worse, not better, he should know better.
Long story short, if we go back to Key Largo, we'll definitely be going with Rainbow Reef over Ocean Divers, and in the future we will make it very clear before we even step on board that we do not dive with a third. The ONLY upsides to Ocean Divers I could see is that they won't call a dive for too few divers (as long as there are at least 2) and they could do nitrox 100s, which would have been nice to have at some of the wrecks, as well as having a regularly scheduled drift dive (but Rainbow Reef will occasionally do drift dives if the currents are there and there is enough demand for it on the boat).
TL;DR : Rainbow Reef = :cool2:, Ocean Divers = :shocked2: will never dive with them again and will recommend others not as well
Lesson learned: Always make it clear BEFORE THE BOAT LEAVES that my wife and I are a buddy team, we dive together, and we won't take a 3rd we don't already know.
We started with 3 dive trips with Rainbow Reef on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, doing a mix of wrecks (Spiegel Grove was amazing, and the Duane and Bibb were really cool too), reefs, and the statue. For some we went with a guide, for others we went on our own, it was nice having that option at no extra cost. We were going to do a night dive with them as well, but it got called, I think because of not enough people but it's possible it was because of conditions; I didn't ask.
Since the night dive was cancelled (It wasn't originally even scheduled, but they were going out for some instructor training or something) we went with our original plan of going to Ocean Divers for a drift dive and a night dive.
The drift dive was full of problems. Some of them are the sort of thing that can happen with dive plans. We have an underwater camera with no housing that can go to 40ft, and the dive was supposed to be along a reef, with shallower to one side and deeper to the other, at 35-55 feet. Well, the currents had shifted and instead of going across it, when we got down we kept getting deeper and deeper. So we tied the camera off at about 30ft down the float line and just went with the downward slope. Being AOW certified, the depth we ended up getting to (80+ft) wasn't a problem, except that the float they gave us didn't have the line to go past 70, so my wife (carrying the float with us) had to stay higher towards the end. We also lost our camera float (The boat spotted it and thought it might be a SMB so went around to pick it up), and a weight pocket (Fortunately at the very end of the dive), and our safety stop was in the middle of a swarm of moon jellies (Think Finding Nemo, though not quite that bad) which was both beautiful and mildly terrifying.
While not the plan, there was nothing we couldn't address there and continue the dive, albeit with some minor modifications.
Unfortunately, that's not all that went wrong. There were 6 people going out on that boat, which makes a nice set of 3 buddy teams. Except 3 of the people were part of a class (AOW I think), which left my wife, myself, and the 6th person. We weren't actually notified that was how we would be split until after the boat left (And weren't even told it was because the 3 were part of a class until after the first dive, but more on that later). But we figured we would make the best of it, since we were already underway. We went over what was happening with the 3rd, made sure we were on the same page as far as signals to use, and went over each others gear.
Then we got in the water. The current was decent, and we were going along, but the third was more focused on photography, he kept getting left behind. Also since we had to stay higher, initially because of our camera, and later because of the length of the float line, we were in more of the current (And the float of course was pulling some as well) than he was, hovering down at the bottom to get photographs. As a result, we had to spend a good portion of the dive swimming against the current just to keep the 3rds bubbles in sight, let alone him. And of course the extra swimming meant we were using up air faster so the dive was shorter than it would have been. Then when we determined it was time to start going up because we were getting low, it took us a couple minutes just to get his attention to let him know to surface with us.
My wife was the first back on the boat. I was second. As I was trying to get from the tag line to the ladder (The tag line was unhelpfully going out to the side, out of arms reach of the ladder) she talked to one of the Ocean Divers staff, basically saying she didn't feel safe diving with this person as a 3rd, and she was not going to do it again. (It was at this point we were told the other 3 were a class; before we had just been told it was because they were diving nitrox and the rest of us were diving air.) They said they would talk to him. After everyone was back on the boat, we headed to the 2nd dive site for a second drift on a different reef where the current wouldn't be sending us out into the deep. I don't recall exactly what transpired, but they did tell the other guy a few things, but he gave no indication he would actually significantly improve, and the dive staff said they couldn't do anything about it, that we had to dive with him. So my wife again reiterated that we didn't feel safe diving with him, and explained why. (That wasn't all he did; his tank wasn't locked down properly, which the staff should really have checked as he was getting in, and he was slow to follow instructions even from the Ocean Divers staff, among other things.) Their response was that it was to tell us it was rude to talk about people in front of them, and explain that they could not send out a solo diver. We weren't the ones who came without a dive buddy! Not our problem. Sucks that he wouldn't get to dive, but that was Ocean Divers who shouldn't have even accepted him.
Anyway long story a little less long, we sat out of the second dive since they wouldn't let just the two of us go (And so did he of course), and after some arguing we did manage to get a refund for the dive (They weren't going to because "we had the option to dive and didn't"). We would have been fine with that, but then as we were leaving, we were told that the third was a master scuba diver instructor, so he was far more qualified than us, as if that would make it better. IMO that should make it worse, not better, he should know better.
Long story short, if we go back to Key Largo, we'll definitely be going with Rainbow Reef over Ocean Divers, and in the future we will make it very clear before we even step on board that we do not dive with a third. The ONLY upsides to Ocean Divers I could see is that they won't call a dive for too few divers (as long as there are at least 2) and they could do nitrox 100s, which would have been nice to have at some of the wrecks, as well as having a regularly scheduled drift dive (but Rainbow Reef will occasionally do drift dives if the currents are there and there is enough demand for it on the boat).
