Dive Review of Scuba Emporium in
The Continental USA/Ft. Lauderdale, FL

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Scuba Emporium, May, 2007, by T Griffin, MD, USA . Report 3561.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We booked with Scuba Emporium for 5 dives weeks before the trip, and also confirmed the dive time of 10am a few days before the dive, since it differed from their brochure. But when we arrived at the pier - no boat. It left at 8am. The dive shop is not located at the pier so we called the dive shop. Sorry, we were misinformed about the time. Great, now what to do, since the afternoon dive was already full. Finally, they called back and said they could squeeze us on with a large group (23 people) on the 1pm boat. We decided that was OK, at this point we just wanted to get wet. We arrived shortly before 1pm and waited. The large group was a class of students that had just certified that morning. The dive operation had many mis-communications – the wetsuits hadn’t arrived for the new divers, and there wasn’t enough weights or weight belts on board. Straightening this up took more than one trip back to the shop. We finally left the dock at 2:30! We were looking for a specific wreck dive spot, since our group were all experience divers were allowed to suit up and be the first in the water. The DM just needed to jump in and connect the boat to the mooring. He dove several times – we waited geared up, hot in our wetsuits, for 30 minutes. He still couldn’t find the mooring. Finally, we asked him to bag this site and find us another. We just wanted to dive, and all these new divers were getting motion sickness from the boat just floating about in the water. We moved to another site nearby, where the DM immediately found the mooring. It was now 4pm. The five of us jumped in and toured the dive site. I never even got the name for this small boat wreck. The vis was bad, and there were not a great variety of fish. We did a 40 minute dive down to 75 feet, and then were working our way up to the safety stop when we realized that the other divers were still just entering the water. Which meant that we had to wait for the other divers, and it was 6pm before we left the dive site. There was supposed to be a second dive, but everyone agreed to cancel and just get back to shore – where we arrived at 7pm. Our simple 2 tank dive that should have taken less than 4 hours turned out to be 6 hours and only one dive. The captain gave no apologies. The DM did everything he could, but he was helpless for the mismanagement of the trip. The dive shop did give us a discount in the end, charging us only $25 per person, but I still think that was too much for the hassles we experienced.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Greater Caribbean, Mexico, Australia, NC
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	surge
Water Temp	78-0°F / 26--18°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Scuba Emporium in The Continental USA/Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Scuba Emporium, May, 2007,

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 Scuba Emporium in
The Continental USA/Ft. Lauderdale, FL