Dive Review of Sea Dwellers/Holiday Inn in
The Continental USA/Key Largo

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Sea Dwellers/Holiday Inn: "Key Largo better than nothing with others having restrictions/closures", Aug, 2020, by Ronald Bailey, VA, US ( Contributor 18 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 11488.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	With all of the Covid restrictions in most countries, I decided to try the Keys as to offset any travel problems. So my grandson and I drove to Key Largo getting there just as the hurricane was going north of Miami and causing no concerns except for some slight residue winds the first day of diving. After that winds were mostly calm or light. At the Holiday inn there were not many guests for most of the week, but our last full day there guests were checking in constantly. Potential covid infections did not seem to have much of a bearing on people going to the Keys. There was no included breakfast as part of the hotel stay. But they would fix breakfast for an extra cost. We went out to eat and had to look around to find reasonably priced food in Key Largo. Waffle House was like all Waffle House's, burger places were the same as usual and Dennys was also reasonably priced. But other places could be costly depending on what you were prepared to spend. We liked Key Bites restaurant as a good option for dinner. Now for the diving. Dive boat is located right at the Holiday Inn, so no problem easily walking to it. With a 50% capacity restriction, no overcrowding. A couple of the captains were overly paranoid about wearing a mask to the point of taking it off as you walked to the rear of the boat to enter, and when coming up, putting on mask as soon as you sat down at the tank holders. Most people wanted to breathe normally. But other captains were way more reasonable given the fact of no crowds and being out in the open ocean with slight breezes. Most divers appreciated that. Now the "bad". With a time given to be back on board, most dive times lasted about 45-50 minutes given the "commands" to enter the water as soon possible after the boat tied up at the dive bouys. By he time most divers got in the water, there was not really an hour to dive. Then for the second dive, the boat usually moved only a short distance and it was time to dive again without little to no time between dives. When I questioned that, I was told with shallow dive depths, and that they had to be back in time for the afternoon dives, time between dives was not a real option. I felt rushed and I know some others felt the same way. They could remedy that by leaving 30 minutes earlier and moving the afternoon dives 30 minutes back. With a long way to travel (driving) and a lot of money per dives, seems like the customer was mostly on time restrictions so that their schedule could be meet. Some of the corals were okay but some spots were barren. Did see lots of nurse sharks. The Banewood wreck was good especially since grandson dove his first wreck. Overall for experienced divers, the Caribbean is much better.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Roatan, Florida Keys and springs, Saba, Fiji, Palau, Hawaii, Turk and Caicos, Caymans, St. Kitts, St. Croix, Curacaqo, Dominican Republic
Closest Airport	N/A	Getting There	Drove from Virginia.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	85-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	70-80 Ft/ 21-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Given specific time to exit the water even though diving was shallow and returning with less than an hours dive and 1200-1800 psi in the tank.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Cameras handed to divers when entering the water and handed back out when exiting the water.

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Dive Review of Sea Dwellers/Holiday Inn in The Continental USA/Key Largo

Sea Dwellers/Holiday Inn: "Key Largo better than nothing with others having restrictions/closures", Aug, 2020,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Sea Dwellers/Holiday Inn in
The Continental USA/Key Largo