Dive Review of Rainbow Reef Dive Center in
The Continental USA/Key Largo

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Rainbow Reef Dive Center: "In general a good operator with fine divemasters", Jun, 2024, by Samuel B Johnson, NC, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 13000 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Over the space of six days, I did 10 dives with Rainbow Reef Divers, 4 two tank afternoon dives and 2 one tank night dives, all at moorings. I was scheduled to do more, but two days of diving were canceled due to weather. One day the seas were fairly rough, and they gave scheduled divers the choice of opting out at no cost; I went out, and the seas were indeed rough, so I concluded that they only canceled for weather when they really had to. All the dive sites were about a half hour from shore. They offer two tank afternoon dives every day and one tank night dives on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was very positively impressed with all of their boat crews and dive masters. Everyone was helpful, friendly and clearly completely competent. I was particularly pleased with the way they handle solo divers. Since they put a divemaster in the water with every group of divers, they simply ask the solo divers to be sure that the divemaster knows that they are solo and not to go off alone or be otherwise irresponsible. The dive masters do their best to point out interesting things, but the sad fact is that the reef ecosystem in the Keys is so damaged that there is very little to see. I dove the Benwood wreck four times, which was frustrating, especially since it's not that interesting a wreck. It was badly broken up by being used as a bombing practice target before it was then sunk to protect navigation, so very little is intact on the bottom. Over the several days of diving I saw the usual reef fish, including more porkfish and more hogfish than I'm used to seeing. There was hardly any macro life, and the state of the corals is simply disastrous. I did see a number of southern sting rays and a few turtles. I don't expect to return to Key Largo, but if I do, I would certainly use Rainbow Reef Divers again. There was one negative. When the dive operation made a mistake, the office associate, Didier, got huffy and defensive and implied that the mistake had to be mine. As best as I can reconstruct it, this is what happened. I originally booked 5 days of diving with them. Those days were going so well, that I booked three additional days. When the five days were completed, I got an e-mail invoice, so I paid that. Then, when I showed up for the first of the additional days, they said there were no bookings. It seems that, when I paid for the first set of days, someone or some computer, "closed my account," and that erased the additional bookings. Luckily, at the last minute there was still room on the boats, so I was able to do the diving I had scheduled. All's well that ends well, but I was irritated by the way they repeatedly claimed that I couldn't have made the reservations, since they weren't in their computer.
Websites	Rainbow Reef Dive Center
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Almost all of my diving has been in the Caribbean and Florida. I've dived a half dozen times in California, and once each in North Carolina and the Mediterranean. Caribbean diving includes Dominica, Roatan, Utila, Curacao, Bonaire, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Saba, Cozumel and Grand Turk
Closest Airport	Miami?	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy, surge
Water Temp	84-84°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	10-40 Ft/ 3-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Solo divers had to stay with the divemaster.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Rainbow Reef Dive Center in The Continental USA/Key Largo

Rainbow Reef Dive Center: "In general a good operator with fine divemasters", Jun, 2024,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Rainbow Reef Dive Center in
The Continental USA/Key Largo