Wife and I are getting OW cert in Curacao next month. Planning next trip for AOW cert in Ft Lauderdale over Thanksgiving. After spending 2 months lurking on Scubaboard.com, I see 2 of the popular resorts/dive outfits in Key Largo are Amoray and Marriott with Rainbow Reef. Cost are similar, anyone have comments on the experience with these 2 outfits? Being new, I like the idea of having a DM/Guide (for extra fee) with Amoray
Rainbow Reef seems to be a well oiled machine. Can any of the more experienced divers give me some advice thinking back when you were brand new and which one of these outfits you would recommend?
Thanks!
Side note, will not have car so dive operation on site is key
Just got back from diving with Rainbow Reef this week. Pretty much what everybody else has said is true. Here are some of my observations
They have 3 sites:
1) Retail shop and training pool at 100800 Overseas Highway - About 1 mile from Courtyard Marriott and Holiday Inn. Have to drive there. Everyday after the diving, each diver can spin the wheel in the shop and win discounts and free stuff e.g. 20% off dive computer, 30% off wetsuit, free nitrox fills, free nitrox course, free dive trip, etc..
2) Dive Center at 100 Ocean Drive. The Odyssey, Legend, etc. docked here. Rental gear is here. - Across the parking lot from the Courtyard Marriott and 10 mins walk from the Holiday Inn.
3) Dive Center at 522 Caribbean Drive. The Serenity, Santana, etc docked here. Rental gear is here. Sharkey's is in the same building as the office. I believe the night dives on Tue, Thur and Sat leave from this location. - About 15 mins walk from the Holiday Inn, 20 mins from Courtyard Marriott.
The RRDC hotel package offers significant discounted hotel rates. We paid $150/night instead of $300. The hotels are comfortable, but a little worn out. They also conducts some pool training at the Holiday Inn and Courtyard Marriott.
There are a lot of restaurants within walking distance. Skippers, Sharkey's, Wendy's, Subway, Subzero Ice Cream, Eco Eats, Thai & Sushi restaurant. You can also walk to Diver's Direct and Walgreens.
RRDC is a huge dive operation with 8 boats and large staff. I think they are one of the biggest PADI IDCs in the world. AFAIK they are fully open with no Covid restrictions on number of divers on boats. We booked dives in advance. The most popular dives e.g. Spiegel Grove, were sold out, but there was always some last minute availability to shallow reefs on some boats. All rental gear has to be picked up before every boat trip and returned after every boat trip so you don't have to carry it around. They rent mostly Aqualung and Seac and it's in pretty good condition. Almost all the BCs are weight integrated. Signing in before a trip can be busy. Show up 30 mins early to avoid the line. Signing the waiver on the glitchy iPad on the first day is a pain. Luckily you only have to do it once. Afternoon trips sometimes leave late if the morning boats return late. It's cattle boat diving. Arriving at the dive site is a bit like rush hour. Each boat has guides at no extra cost (you should tip the guides) so divers can choose to follow a guide. It's relaxing to just follow a guide who will find cool animals for you, but it can be hard to see the cleaner shrimp surrounded by 7 divers with poor buoyancy. A private guide can be requested in advance for just yourself: $50, then +$25 for each additional diver in your group. TBH it's worth it. I saw a lot more wildlife diving with a private guide or in a small group class. The marine head on the dive boats were not useable because the county suspended sewage pump out services. There is freshwater shower on every boat. There was no camera dunk tank. Everybody throws all their salty gear on the camera table. There's no cookies or bottled water. Iced tap water in a cooler. They try to run everything on a schedule like clockwork. The boat captains limit each dive to about 1 hr. Some of the dive sites on 2 tankers are 5 mins apart. The staff were excellent and friendly to a person. Everybody is enthusiastic and helpful. The instructors were great. A lot of them are young, working their way up through the ranks. The dive guides are all instructors who are not teaching that day. . With an operation this size there are some problems. Mostly with the reservation and invoicing systems. But problems were easily resolved once I brought them up. The other guests were a lot of fun too. There were student divers, experienced rec divers, tech divers, instructors on vacation etc. etc.. With so many different divers, you're bound to get along with a few.
I'd recommend RRDC because it's easy. I can pick up the phone and set it all up. With so many boats and a great cancellation policy it's very flexible in case of last minute changes.