Booked 2 intro dives with Divers Den. Safety briefing was adequate for me as I am a strong swimmer and have done intro dives before, but I felt like it wouldn't have been enough if I didn't have experience. (I will say, in previous intro dives, there's been a pool practice portion so we get us to the equipment in a controlled environment, and you obviously can't do this on a boat but it was very helpful at the time and I can't imagine diving for the first time without that). Both intro dives were only about 30 min regardless of oxygen levels. For all intro dives, you have to hold the guides arms the entire time, and they took 4 divers per guide, so with two people on each arm, we were slow moving and always kicking each other. In previous intro dives, I have been 2 people/per guide and we were to stay within arms length of the guide, so we weren't literally piled on top of each other the way we were with divers den. (I heard a lot of the companies in this area make intro divers dive this way and my guess is this is some kind of attempt at reef protection but if they would've taught us how/allowed us to use the buoyancy thing we could've avoided hitting the reef ourselves). The first dive left me very disappointed because we spent like 15 min doing skills practice, (which I understand for safety reasons, it was just a bummer that it took up so much of the time), and the second half of the dive was spent on the photo shoot. They took awesome photos as you can see, but I was very bummed when after taking photos they took us up to the surface and put us back on the boat (also you had to pay an extra $50 for your photo package). If I hadn't booked the second dive, I would've been pissed that that was all I got. The second dive was better in that we got to spend it actually exploring the reef, but it was still 4 divers holding onto one guide, constantly kicking and running into each other, and moving at a snail pace. The guides and crew themselves were very nice and knowledgeable but I don't like the way this company makes people dive. If you're gonna make us hold the instructors arm the whole time, at least have a small enough group/enough guides that there's only one diver on each arm.

Did the 4 day open water certification in Cairns. This was such a fun and challenging experience. I felt safe and supported at all times and enjoyed every minute. The reef was the perfect place to be certified. Ana was sensational! She was informative, fun, skilled and encouraging. I would recommend taking the tread water and 200m swim requirements very seriously, as you definitely need this as a minimum in the ocean.

I was recommended Divers Den to do my intro dive by someone at my hotel and he was right! This is such a great company with wonderful people. They made my first time diving feel fun and easy and my two dive instructors were really caring and easy to follow underwater. This will not be the last time I dive. Thank you to the staff for making it such a wonderful first time! The reefs we went to were also fantastic with so much marine life to see! From sharks to turtles to giant fish! The longer you stay in the water the more sea creatures come lurking around the corner. They give you plenty of time diving and snorkeling with a great buffet of food in between. Definitely recommend Divers Den for this tour and others they offer!

The best crew ever! We booked a 2D1N diving tour at great barrier bay with divers dan, we felt really taken good care of, and had so much fun underwater. We had 6 dives in total, including 1 night dive. So many sharks and cute little things that I can't name, and we saw one gigantic sea turtle - longer than my arms combined - during the night dive. The food was delicious, shout out to the chef🫡 We had a wonderful trip, thank you very much. Special thanks to our diving instructor Natalie, Aden, Lisa, Chinami, Roig for taking care of us during the guided tours 💙

I recently completed my Divemaster certification here, and I cannot say enough good things about my instructors Mar and Simon. The rest of the crew/staff is nice enough, but these two really made the experience special. Mar is an amazing teacher, and a wonderful mentor for divers looking to enter the industry as professionals. She went above and beyond teaching the materials of the course, and exemplifies what a true dive professional and instructor should be. Her passion for diving is clear, and she imparts that passion to her students through her teaching and role-modeling in the classroom and underwater. Shes incredibly friendly, and makes the course really fun to be a part of. Simon is incredible as well, you can really feel that he wants you to succeed, and cares about his students a lot. He is extremely attentive in his approach, and makes sure that you not only learn what is required, but that you have a amazing and fun time in the process. I am so grateful to have taken the course with him. I would 10/10 would recommend taking any certification level courses with either of these experienced divers as your instructor, I feel very lucky to have had them teach me.