DiveMaven
Contributor
My DH and I just returned from a wonderful trip to S. Florida and Key Largo. We did 3 2-tank dives with Paradise Charters and had a wonderful time. I'd recommend them highly. Everyone at Paradise Charters were totally professional, and our DM's were the best! We saw so many sharks, various fishies, gorgeous coral formations, and too many lobsters to count. Unfortunately we were a little early for lobster season, so we had to leave them alone, but we got some good pictures of them.
On our first charter we had 3-4 foot seas and 3 people on our boat got sick. The second and third charters we had only 0-2 foot seas, and the visibility and diving were much better. I've read a few reviews of Paradise Charters and that they limit bottom time to 60 minutes regardless of how much air you have left in your tank. I routinely came up from my dives with between 900-1000 psi left in my tank, but definitely didn't feel like complaining about being under for 55 minutes at a time. My DH would be down to 500 psi at the end of 55 minutes, and since he's my buddy, I would have surfaced anyway.
As newbie divers, it was nice to have a DM leading the group so we could enjoy the scenery and not worry about navigation. It became quite clear during our 2nd charter that navigation in the Keys is pretty easy as we paid more attention to the boat and where we were going under water. Visibility was generally very good, not the 125+ feet of Maui, but at 60+ we really couldn't complain much!
Looking forward to diving on our Caribbean cruise in December now. :10:
On our first charter we had 3-4 foot seas and 3 people on our boat got sick. The second and third charters we had only 0-2 foot seas, and the visibility and diving were much better. I've read a few reviews of Paradise Charters and that they limit bottom time to 60 minutes regardless of how much air you have left in your tank. I routinely came up from my dives with between 900-1000 psi left in my tank, but definitely didn't feel like complaining about being under for 55 minutes at a time. My DH would be down to 500 psi at the end of 55 minutes, and since he's my buddy, I would have surfaced anyway.
As newbie divers, it was nice to have a DM leading the group so we could enjoy the scenery and not worry about navigation. It became quite clear during our 2nd charter that navigation in the Keys is pretty easy as we paid more attention to the boat and where we were going under water. Visibility was generally very good, not the 125+ feet of Maui, but at 60+ we really couldn't complain much!
Looking forward to diving on our Caribbean cruise in December now. :10: