A guide is free but you are supposed to let them know when you make the reservation whether you want to use the free guide. They do this so they know in advance how many divers plan on diving with the guide and can then plan on having enough guides on any given trip
When I dove with them, the guide wasn't optional. That is, unless you went on their smaller boat that runs more advanced dives.
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
I've done the Marriott/Rainbow Reef combo several times. I've had both good and bad experiences. Usually they'll get you to the dive site and give you an hour in the water with a guide and a handful of your closest acquaintances. Boat rides are generally short in the keys, so start getting your gear ready before the boat leaves the dock.
When RR is good, they're good. When they aren't they're really bad.
The bad: (2012) I was on one of their boats when the captain ran it aground trying to cut out of a channel in order to save time. I guess the tide was lower than he thought and we got stuck. One of the other divers (didn't know him) hit his collarbone on a railing. Looked broke to me but I'm no doctor. RR had sea-tow take us divers back to shore since they couldn't pull the boat out of the seagrass. The sherriff boat showed up, presumably to give the cap'n a ticket for driving on the seagrass. It was a great story, and they did give us a refund for the non-dive. I dunno what became of the guy who got injured. I don't know this to be true, but I would assume that captain got fired. Who knows though. The guy wasn't drunk or anything. I'm willing to overlook it and have used them since this incident without problem.
Also, they refused to fill my tanks with nitrox claiming they would only fill their own tanks. I had to go down the road for nitrox fills. I've since had others on SB tell me that they now do fill nitrox.
The good: It's SUPER nice to get off the boat and be right that at your hotel! I've never stayed/dove anywhere closer including resorts in Mexico and Honduras. The convenience can't be overstated. Also, I like Marriott hotels - whenever I travel I try to use their brands. Rooms and beds are always comfortable. This particular hotel lacks a restaurant. That's kind of a bummer.
If you've got a car, they have a parking garage! That's not super common in FL and it's nice to get into a car that's not 200 degrees.
There is LOTS of staff since this operation does a lot of DM/Instructor training. They've got oodles of young divemaster candidates that will schlep your gear on/off the boat and generally do all stuff you don't want to do. I bring heavy steel tanks with me and always enjoy it when they haul the tanks for me. I'm guessing you won't since you're coming from way up north.
My experience with their captains and divemasters has all been positive save that moment a captain had bad judgement that I described above.
Big comfortable boats well configured for diving and diving only.
I've done 3 trips with them, two week long and one 3day weekend. On all the occasions I went, the boats were not jam packed. That could very well have changed since everyone is flocking to Florida right now due to international travel restrictions.
Worthy of note. They have their rules and are sticklers. If you forget your c-card, you aren't going to talk them into taking you out. If you don't have AOW, they aren't going to take you to a site that's deeper than 60' unless you pay them for an AOW card. If you don't book in advance, the boats do fill up regularly and I saw them turning people away every single time I was there... and that was before the post-covid rush.
Also, I read that they recently bought another dive operation in the area. If you book with them and are staying at the Marriott, make sure you tell them that you want to be on the boats that dock at the hotel. From what I've read there are some other boats they now own that aren't quite as conveniently located.
Another dive operation I've enjoyed in the area is Florida Keys Dive Center aka Flakey's. Their boat was pretty much identical to the big Rainbow Reef boats. Not right at a hotel unfortunately.
Something to note about the keys. Cabs can be difficult to find, especially at night. I've never been able to find an uber driver down there but I haven't been to the keys since 2019. If you're planning to be out past 8pm, you may really want to rent a vehicle. My dive group had to rent a limo once because we went to a restaurant for drinks and didn't leave till 10. We couldn't get any cab companies to send a car out. Split a limo we found in the phone book, which was fun but expensive.
Also, it's very humid down here. You might enjoy your room a little more if you bring a chemical dehumidifier such as damp-rid. I'm a fan of these things for traveling. I use an electric dehumidifier at home.