Divemaster Scuba Trip to Florida - Report
Well we went off and did it and had a simply fantastic time. The two highlights of the trip were snorkelling with the manatee and the airboat ride in the Everglades. The timings were just about perfect and the driving very easy. Including the fuel, tolls, local taxes, meals, diving, trips, hotels, flights and car hire the cost was about £4,000 for the two of us. OK, we did stay mostly at the Holiday Inns and the Hilton in Key Largo (but they did have offers on), treated ourselves to a posh car (Chrysler 300) and a couple of moderately expensive meals, but even so, a budget of £1,500 per person all in would be the expectation at today’s (June 2008) prices.
Getting around was very easy, apart from the Americans overtake on all sides, drive on the wrong side of the road and the toll system takes some getting used to. We took our own Tom-Tom GPS with US maps loaded and all the various locations were found without too much effort.
Our biggest surprise was the complete lack of customer service, or perhaps our expectations were a little high having being spoilt by Egypt and European trips.
This started at arrivals in Orlando. It was a bit disconcerting when everyone on the flight was fingerprinted and photographed through immigration (standard procedure apparently) but once through customs it was chaos with 400+ people looking for holiday and airline representatives who were nowhere to be seen. Having been sent to the wrong place twice, we eventually ended up at the car hire desk. Filled in the forms, followed the directions to the key booth, was handed the keys to the car, told what bay it was in and to come back with a form if there was any damage. No checking the car with you, no going over the controls, just charged extra for a full tank of petrol (at almost twice the going rate) and told to bring it back empty.
20 minutes sorting out how to open the boot, turn the lights and wipers on (it was night and there was a thunderstorm when we arrived), looking for the foot operated handbrake and we were on our way.
Most of the driving involves toll roads. This is not expensive, $1 here and there, 75 cents, but it is a good idea to have change as $100 bills are sometimes not accepted. We found out later that you can by a pass for a day or a week to cover all the tolls and on reflection this may have been the best option. Some of the toll road exits are “no cash” so you can’t get off the toll road as the “no cash” seems to refer to the toll pass and the exit does not have a credit card option (not that we could find anyway)… once on the exit ramp you are stuffed. $100 fine no less…. Opps.
Fortunately we had some dollars with us for the first few days obtained at Manchester Airport for 1.9 to the £. We didn’t have time to change money at Orlando airport, but tried several banks en-route, none of which carried any foreign exchange. We ended up changing £500 at West Palm Beach airport for which we got $780 (1.56 - ouch). So much for the strong pound!! The diving was interesting, particularly the caverns. We tried two sites, The Blue Grotto and the Devil’s Den. We had expected to organise this through the local Dive Centre, perhaps a group trip; but having turned up we were given a couple of cylinders, some weights… and a map.
Arriving at the dive sites, you signed a liability release, one showed us a safety video, paid your entrance fees ($40 each Blue Grotto, $35 each Devil’s Den)… then off you go. Neither of the dive sites were visible from the comfort of the site offices, no safety cover, just get on with it. There is very little to see at the Blue Grotto, just a deep hole (30 metres), round the back of some rocks and back again, but the Devil’s Den is very pretty and different. If you like lots of swim-throughs and dark holes you could spend a whole day here… Miriam almost did.
We also did the Crystal River Drift dive. Again following the map (with cylinders and weights in the boot) from the dive centre we arrived to be greeted by a small boat being told to only take on board our diving gear and nothing else. All became clear as they took us 30 minutes up stream, dropped us off the boat and left. The dive plan was simple, drift down the river until you get to the original start point and get out. The start and finish location was the KP Hole Country park so you had to be careful of all the boats on the river.
The boat diving at West Palm Beach and Key Largo was very similar. At West Palm Beach we turned up at the dive centre, paid our money ($150 each for 4 dives) was given a map to find the boat and told to be there at 8:30am. There were 12 divers on a very cramped dive boat. After a bit of a dive briefing and a guide in the water to follow if you wished we were told to restrict our diving so that we could enter the water again after a 40 minute surface interval. The boat needed to be back to take out the afternoon divers. There was no dive log, time in, out, air…. but they did do a head count. We booked both the morning and afternoon dives finishing at about 5:30pm. Everyone was more or less thrown off the boat as the staff wanted to go home, so we dropped by the dive centre, and it was closed.
Key Largo was more or less the same, fill in the forms, take the money, here’s a map, be at the boat tomorrow morning. Once again 12 divers on a very cramped dive boat, but no dive guide this time. The briefing was a classic… “This is Banana Reef, called that because it is Banana shaped. It may go this way, or it may go that way I’m not quite sure but you will find out under the water. Please don’t be longer than an hour and come back with at least 500psi. If you get lost just pop up and find the boat.”
The second day was a bit less crowded, but as like the first, no dive log, time in, out or air. We took our weights back to the Dive Centre being told to just drop them in the corner whilst the assistant was putting dive kit away almost without looking up. We hung around for a while hoping to chat with someone about further diving in the area, but got fed up waiting and left.
From what we could gather this is very much the style of the Dive Centres in Florida. They offer “two tank” diving meaning two dives in the morning (or afternoon). Get out there, get it done, get back again – and get as many on the boat as it will allow. We had hoped to discuss the proposed trip in January, but none of the owners seemed to want to know.
As reasonably experienced divers, none of this fazed us much. We just got on with it and had some very “nice” dives. The weather was fantastic, but I couldn’t help longing for the pampering of the Egyptian dive boats or the lazy lunches between dives in Malta. At both Dive Centres in Florida we e-mailed ahead and asked them to show us their best diving over two days. It was a good experience but the sea life and corals were nothing compared with the Red Sea.
Snorkelling with the manatee was simply awesome. The guide Ron from Bird’s Underwater Dive Centre was absolutely brilliant and this is one we would wholeheartedly recommend. The airboat ride through the Everglades seeing alligators and turtles was also spectacular. Key West is fascinating, very lively and well worth a visit.
Would I recommend the trip to others? Yes but with reservations.
It will cost more than you think, be prepared to be self sufficient and just get on with it, there would be very little help for the novice or nervous diver. You almost get the impression that after signing the waivers, any further help or advice might be seen as providing assistance for which they could be sued, so they don’t.
As far as a group trip is concerned, I would certainly change the itinerary a bit, add an extra day at the Crystal River area, give West Palm Beach a complete miss (gets blown out a lot in the winter - apparently), and add the extra days at Key West or Key Largo plus one maybe at Marathon Key. There are three main reasons why I would reconsider organising a group trip.
Firstly from the www site we were quoted £399 for the return flights, for 10 or more on a group booking this goes up to £440 per person. The reason given being that if you book singularly you have to pay all up front, but booking as a group you only pay a deposit with the balance due 8 weeks before departure, plus we could name change. Ok, but having applied for a confirmed price since April neither Virgin Atlantic or the Airline Network have been prepared to e-mail or confirm the quote in writing.
Secondly with my money for next year I would rather go to the Maldives or have 3 trips to Sharm or Malta, but then again I have already done Florida.
Thirdly, I like to be looked after and pampered on my holidays, collected from the hotels, a nice coffee and a bit of sunbathing or lunch between dives, a few beers afterwards with the lads, not a DIY kit. This goes with expectations and my hunch is that the US dive operations have a very large indigenous diving population for which the quick two tank morning arrangement is quite acceptable, plus labour rates must be much higher which precludes the more relaxed attitude of the Red Sea and other locations.
My thinking for the club trips next year is back to Egypt in Jan/Feb and perhaps the Maldives or Thailand for September…. I’ll be getting some prices. If you still fancy Florida, you are better off booking this individually, let me know and I will help in any way I can.
Mike
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