Parrot Island Scuba Advntrs

I have been diving locally for over ten years. In that time, I have had the opportunity to dive on almost all of the local dive boats. I find Parrot Island to be my favorite. As with all established operators, Parrot Island has had their share of challenges. They did have a captain that I would call grumpy and was always on the phone and rushed divers. He no longer works there. As a matter of fact he works for one their competitors. The captain and crew are the "best" around and have been employed for a long while. There is always a familiar face on board, this makes me more comfortable to know the people that are taking care of me. I have all the confidence that, should I need help, there is a reliable person there to assist. They are highly qualified and experienced. To my knowledge they have the only perfect safety record in the area. I would highly recommend Parrot Island Scuba. Their reservation system on the website is also very useful. more

Nice boat, with lots of room. Captain and first mate were very helpfull. Divemaster seemed very grumpy on this day. Divemaster also suggested that i dive by myself with a dive flag since the other two groups on the boat were instructors with students. I was not comfortably diving alone even though it was only 25 feet of water. I was lucky that an instructor from another dive shop overheard us and invited me to tag along with him and his student. Diving was fun though. more

I'm comparing this company to Dixie Divers. Both companies run many trips in the same area and go to many of the same dive sights. They also look out for each other when one has boat problems, which adds extra safety to trip. In my opinion Parrot Island is the best of the two. They gave me better rental equipment and had everything ready by the boat. Dixie divers gave me gear which was worn out, made me load it into my car, drive over to their boat, where the parking situation was annoying and do a lot of carrying of my gear. Parrot Island was closer to the dive sight and took a lot less time while Dixie divers took a long time to load their boat up and depart. Dixie divers had to travel extra distance on the intercoastal. The intercoastal is pretty so this is good if you want a scenic boat ride, but bad if time is valuable. With my trips I ended up paying a little more for Parrot Island, but I think they are worth the extra few bucks. Dixie divers appeared to be focused on instruction, while Parrot Island appeared to be focused on the trips. I would recommend both charters, but my experience with Parrot Island was much better than the one with Dixie divers. Pros: Everything Cons: I really only have good things to say about them, but Dixie divers had better snacks. more