rjdiver
Contributor
There have been quite a few posts on the various forums raving about Ocean Frontiers. I have been looking to dive with them for a few years to see if they are up to level that people say. While I was staying at Morritt's last week, my night dive with Tortuga Divers was cancelled due to the weather. I decided to try a two tank morning diver at OF the next morning.
OF does offer a shuttle that will pick up divers at the MTC front door. Not as convenient as walking to the dock, it is a nice feature.
The dive briefing by Captain Dan was GREAT, especially with the map of the dive site drawn from memory. The dive site maps would be a great addition to TD. Captain Dan seem very enthusiastic about his diving.
Trying to compare TD and OF, I would say that I enjoyed the dive staff at TD better. Drew (Sailbum) is a pleasure to deal with while checking in. Allistar, Santi, Matt and Gary were great on the boat trips. On my OF dive, there were two other OF staff members who were on the boat, but I don't think that I heard either of them speak more than a few words. I keep hearing about how you don't have to mess with your gear once you get to the boat. In between dives, I was talking with some of the other divers. I assumed that my gear would have been changed to a new tank when we got to our 2nd site, but it had not. I don't mind changing my own gear, but the expectation level had been raised from other posts. I was asked on each of my TD dives if I would like for my tank to be changed.
When the first group got into the water, one of the divers lost some gear during entry, so they came back on the boat. Of the 3 OF staff members, nobody attempted to get the gear in 55 feet of water to save some dive time for the first dive. I did retrieve the gear, hoping that maybe one of the OF staff would dive with the diver for at least some bottom time. Didn't happen.
I was assigned as a dive buddy with one of the OF staff, but I had a hard time keeping up at the start of the dive. I would assume that the staff would be down there checking out to make sure that everyone was doing OK after entry. I ended up having to help one of the other staff members whose tank had slipped out of the bcd strap.
I had never hear a TD staff member make any bad comments about OF. I did hear some comments against TD on my OF dive.
I have heard that OF will allow you to have extended bottom time with computers. TD also did this on my dives on this trip. I don't recall that happening in the past, but I just go my computer this past summer.
I like the dive boats at TD better than OF, but that is my preference. I could dive off of either set of boats.
The biggest drawback I see agains TD is that they have raised the price back to $100 (it was $100 at the start of the year, but was moved to $85, I believe, for a short period). I thought that I had seen that OF was $85, but it is now $89. There is a 20% discount for Morritt's owners at TD and a 20% discount for any timeshare owner at OF. I was told that there is talk about having TD charge $90, while the rest of Red Sail would stay at $100.
Other than the current cost, I prefer TD over OF, but I wouldn't have any problem with diving with either operation.
Just my opinion!!!
Rob
OF does offer a shuttle that will pick up divers at the MTC front door. Not as convenient as walking to the dock, it is a nice feature.
The dive briefing by Captain Dan was GREAT, especially with the map of the dive site drawn from memory. The dive site maps would be a great addition to TD. Captain Dan seem very enthusiastic about his diving.
Trying to compare TD and OF, I would say that I enjoyed the dive staff at TD better. Drew (Sailbum) is a pleasure to deal with while checking in. Allistar, Santi, Matt and Gary were great on the boat trips. On my OF dive, there were two other OF staff members who were on the boat, but I don't think that I heard either of them speak more than a few words. I keep hearing about how you don't have to mess with your gear once you get to the boat. In between dives, I was talking with some of the other divers. I assumed that my gear would have been changed to a new tank when we got to our 2nd site, but it had not. I don't mind changing my own gear, but the expectation level had been raised from other posts. I was asked on each of my TD dives if I would like for my tank to be changed.
When the first group got into the water, one of the divers lost some gear during entry, so they came back on the boat. Of the 3 OF staff members, nobody attempted to get the gear in 55 feet of water to save some dive time for the first dive. I did retrieve the gear, hoping that maybe one of the OF staff would dive with the diver for at least some bottom time. Didn't happen.
I was assigned as a dive buddy with one of the OF staff, but I had a hard time keeping up at the start of the dive. I would assume that the staff would be down there checking out to make sure that everyone was doing OK after entry. I ended up having to help one of the other staff members whose tank had slipped out of the bcd strap.
I had never hear a TD staff member make any bad comments about OF. I did hear some comments against TD on my OF dive.
I have heard that OF will allow you to have extended bottom time with computers. TD also did this on my dives on this trip. I don't recall that happening in the past, but I just go my computer this past summer.
I like the dive boats at TD better than OF, but that is my preference. I could dive off of either set of boats.
The biggest drawback I see agains TD is that they have raised the price back to $100 (it was $100 at the start of the year, but was moved to $85, I believe, for a short period). I thought that I had seen that OF was $85, but it is now $89. There is a 20% discount for Morritt's owners at TD and a 20% discount for any timeshare owner at OF. I was told that there is talk about having TD charge $90, while the rest of Red Sail would stay at $100.
Other than the current cost, I prefer TD over OF, but I wouldn't have any problem with diving with either operation.
Just my opinion!!!
Rob