Hello Zeke, Wanted to welcome you to Scubaboard and also to give you and others like you a bit of information about PADI Instructor internships.
The most important piece of advice I can give you is be sure the company offering the internship is actually certified and authorized to do so.
Obviously, we'd love you to come to Aquanauts, but many people have had successful and enjoyable internships at Mermaid's. Both of our centers are PADI 5-Star Instructor Development Centers (with Mermaid's carrying the CDC designation.) ONLY 5-Star IDCs and CDCs are authorized to sell and perform instructor training and internships.
Neptunes is not one of these centers. They are not a 5-Star IDC or even a PADI 5-Star Dive Center. They are a PADI Dive Center and thus cannot train you themselves to the instructor level.
You do your courses up to divemaster with Neptunes. They then send you to another dive center in another city to complete your training.
5-Star IDCs and CDCs such as Aquanauts and Mermaid's have spent a great deal of time, money and effort investing in facilities, instructors and training to earn their 5-Star ratings. If all dive centers were the same, PADI would not have 3 different ratings for its centers (Dive Center, 5-Star Center and 5-Star IDC.)
Bottom line: Be sure you choose a facility where you do ALL of your training in the same place with the same instructors and facilities and be sure that center is an IDC or CDC.
As for whether you choose us or Mermaid's? That's of course up to you to decide. I will say that while our programs appear similar at first glance, there are a number of things that make Aquanauts unique.
1) We are the only instructor training center in central Thailand with two PADI Course Directors in-house, working the shop teaching courses every day.
2) Our entire program is built around Personalized Training with very small class sizes, limits on overall enrollment and individual instruction for all interns at no extra charge.
3) We are as much as $1,100 less expensive than Mermaid's.
4) Only guarantee in writing that you will pass the PADI instructor Exam or we pay for another exam ($500)
4) We own and operate a full-time diving jobs placement service called Jobs4Divers.com which offers exclusive access to the most advanced diving jobs website on the Internet and it is backed by a full-time staff of employment counselors who work with you face-to-face to find you a job where ever in the world you want to work.
5) We are the only program to offer you a choice of three different packages of bonus courses for early enrollment.
6) We are the only program that offers you a choice of equipment packages from Mares, Scubapro or Aqualung.
7) Only we offer free telephone support from North America, the UK and Australia.
There's actually much more you can read about us on our website at the link below. Feel free to write or call with any questions.
- click 
