I was down in the keys in early April and just want to give a quick review of Rainbow Reef. I'm a relatively inexperienced diver with about 20 dives under my belt. RR is a great operation for newbies like me. I dove 6 times (over 3 days) with them. RR provides a dive guide (I believe at no extra cost). I was lucky enough to get Jesus (no not that one, it's pronounced Hey-soos) as my guide on all 6 dives. Navigation is not my stong point so its great to have someone lead you back to the boat when you're under 1000 psi. Also, Jesus was amazing at finding small camouflaged fish (he found a scorpionfish which took me about a minute of intense staring to realize there was anything there). Also, I had a problem with my tank strap and one of the deck mates (sorry, can't remember his name) was happy to fix it for me. All in all it was a great experience and I would definitely dive with them again.
Rainbow Reef Dive Shop Review
- Thread starter azim31
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I've always been please with Rainbow Reef. Jesus is a great guide. He can spot a cleaner shrimp on a reef at 100 yds. 
Also, if you and your buddy want to do your own thing, they are ok with that as well. You don't have to follow the guide.
Also, if you and your buddy want to do your own thing, they are ok with that as well. You don't have to follow the guide.
fishdelasol
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That is great news to hear! My husband and I are new divers. We were actually looking at the RR dive op for a weekend getaway. Thanks for posting.
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Good to hear. Thanks for posting the review. I have not dove with them in quite a while. We used to use them for students a lot, and I used to crew for them from time to time.
RedWingDiver
Contributor
Thanks for the post from here as well. I've always been curious about those guys, but yours is the first review I've seen about them, especially from another "under 20" diver!
seansrs36
Contributor
I went diving with then the April 11th and 12th. I did like the fact that they provide a guide. I do not know the dive areas. Many of the operation never provide you a guide. Jesus is a good guy and when I return to the Keys I will use them again.
VTSnorkeler
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I went with RR and had Jesus as a guide also a few weeks ago. He was great. We found a huge green moray sitting on the sand at 5 caves. It was my first, and he was spectacular so I decided to take him home to VT with me.
Our second day we went out with Sea Dwellers since RR was not going shallow. They were great also. We did 2 tanks on Molasses reef and got up close with eagle rays, nurse sharks, turtles, and a 400lb goliath grouper. For my 2nd real OW experience since getting certified in the carib, this was hard to beat. Can't wait to go back next year
Our second day we went out with Sea Dwellers since RR was not going shallow. They were great also. We did 2 tanks on Molasses reef and got up close with eagle rays, nurse sharks, turtles, and a 400lb goliath grouper. For my 2nd real OW experience since getting certified in the carib, this was hard to beat. Can't wait to go back next year
I completed my Divemaster course with them last week and did a lot of diving whit Jesus and Brad, the Rainbow Reef is a great operation that caters to divers and the staff are extremely customer foused. There are free guides and the boat mate generally dont get paid but live on Tips - most of the assistants are Interns where they get their certification with all course fees waived - quid pro quo.
I will be going back later this year for my Instructors IDSC course and looking forward to it.
I will be going back later this year for my Instructors IDSC course and looking forward to it.
pamawi
Contributor
I just got back from the Keys and was very happy with Rainbow Reef also. I chose them because they put a guide in the water at no extra charge, publish a schedule, have a shallow and deep boat and because of the convenience to my hotel (Holiday Inn) and several others. I had wonderful dives Monday. The water was warm (no wetsuit needed) and shallow (20-40ft), the vis was great and the seas were calm. Saw 6 spotted eagle rays swimming in formation, nurse shark swimming along the reef (not just lying on the bottom), reef shark, big green moray eel, lots of big groupers, trumpetfish, honeycomb cowfish and lots of colorful tropical fish and healthy coral. We saw lots of stuff on the dives Tuesday but a tropical weather system had the water stirred up. The waves were rough but the current and surge were really tough. It didn't get better the rest of the week so we drove on to Key West and did the sunset party at Mallory Square and left a day early to do the Everglades on the way home. I buddied up with Suzette (on Scubaboard) who is a local always looking for dive buddy and her husband Alan is a DM at RR and local musician. She even offered to take me kayaking through the mangroves, which I wish I had taken her up on, but I was concerned about the rough water and current.
The folks at Rainbow Reef were very friendly and made me feel very welcome. They put the tanks on the boat and change out the tanks between dives and remove the bc's from the tanks after the dives (unless you want to that yourself). You can stick with the guide or do your own thing. When the first person runs low on air, the guide circles back to the boat so the people low on air can go on up, but the others can stay down as long as they want. I've heard people say that RR runs a cattle boat. I suppose it can get more crowded on a weekend, but we only had 6 on a boat that is built for about 24 on Monday and 12 on Tuesday afternoon. The Tuesday morning boat didn't make, but they arranged for us to go out with nearby Horizon Divers instead. I decided to wait until the afternoon boat. They didn't even take my money for the first dive. They said just wait to see how much I dove that week and I could pay them at the end of the week. If I had done 3 days or 5 days of diving, there would have been additional discounts. You can dive with their other boats in Islamadora as part of a multiday package. The hotels do give coupon books with a 10% discount for Rainbow reef along with several other businesses at that marina.
The folks at Rainbow Reef were very friendly and made me feel very welcome. They put the tanks on the boat and change out the tanks between dives and remove the bc's from the tanks after the dives (unless you want to that yourself). You can stick with the guide or do your own thing. When the first person runs low on air, the guide circles back to the boat so the people low on air can go on up, but the others can stay down as long as they want. I've heard people say that RR runs a cattle boat. I suppose it can get more crowded on a weekend, but we only had 6 on a boat that is built for about 24 on Monday and 12 on Tuesday afternoon. The Tuesday morning boat didn't make, but they arranged for us to go out with nearby Horizon Divers instead. I decided to wait until the afternoon boat. They didn't even take my money for the first dive. They said just wait to see how much I dove that week and I could pay them at the end of the week. If I had done 3 days or 5 days of diving, there would have been additional discounts. You can dive with their other boats in Islamadora as part of a multiday package. The hotels do give coupon books with a 10% discount for Rainbow reef along with several other businesses at that marina.
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