Skydive Philadelphia

5 stars for the guy Matt who jumped with me and made the video of it which was super cool. Super nice guy, I felt safe with him the whole time and had such a blast. The only issue I had here was the guy at the front desk. he’s a prick and made me question the quality of the place in the beginning. Prick at front desk gets 2.5 stars. Their calling system is horrible too and goes to a general call center. We didn’t actually know if we were jumping or not (weather) and decided to drive 1.5 hours anyway until we heard otherwise. We were 15 min away until they called us back and said we were good to go. Would have had a different review if we couldn’t jump that day and we had to turn around though.

These individuals were incredibly rude and unprofessional on the phone and in person. They behaved as if there time was more valuable than that of the clients and they did not have the patience to answer questions or be available to help. I would highly recommend using another skydiving site.

I am leaving a 1 star review to get attention to the crappy RushCube Company that handles reservations.
I called the phone number on the skydive philadelphia website. You don’t actually people to people at Skydive Philadelphia. Your call is routed to georgia, to a place called RushCube. They answer the phone as skydive philadelphia, but they are just a booking agency. They also add 50% to your price of extras. The standard handicam video costs 120 dollars. At the drop zone, the video price is 75 dollars. WTF right?
They called it a promotional price. What a ripoff.
The tandem jump was 217, the discounted promotional overpriced handicam video was 100.
The go big was an extra 15 dollars.
That being said, the people at the perkasie airport were very nice, albeit totally swampped with people.
If you have questions, you better hope you get a nice person, or a lul in the jumps.
I did have fun, But once I found out I was cheated with the reservations, I’m dissapointed. It has left a sour taste with my experiance.

My friends and I purchased a Groupon for a tandem dive at Skydive Philadelphia. The initial scheduling was a bit wonky; my friend had called in to schedule our jump but was often put on hold and disconnected. We finally were able to arrange a date and time after a few more calls were put in.
The jump itself was by far the most terrifying and exhilarating thing that I have ever done in my life. I would give this portion of the experience a straight 5 stars. My instructor Chris was a super chill & scruffy Australian man who made me feel comfortable despite the fact that I was freaking out about jumping out of a perfectly functional aircraft. The free fall was crazy and the parachuting was awesome even though my stomach almost couldn’t bear Chris swirling us around in the air. Pro-​tip: Prepare for some crazy intense cotton mouth when your parachute goes off and you’re done screaming your head off. It doesn’t make for good photos :-P.
Unfortunately, aside from the jump itself, I wasn’t a huge fan of the in-​person customer service during the check-​in process. The girl at check-​in wasn’t terribly clear in answering our questions regarding ordering jump photos but they have a flyer downstairs that states the prices. I’ll save you some time — essentially you are 3 options.
1) GoPro (handheld by instructor) Video Footage $ 75
2) GoPro (handheld by instructor) Photography $ 75
3) Separate Diver Video Footage $ 100+
I wasn’t quite sure if the check-​in girl was intentionally trying to upsell us the #3 $ 100+ option or not but she kept stating that they didn’t have enough staff to shoot the handheld GoPro footage but then when we were handing in our paperwork downstairs, the other rep told us that there wasn’t going to much of a difference in wait time for any of the 3 options. Needless to say, the staff needs to work on coordinating their communication with customers. Also while handing in our paperwork, I was somewhat irked by their constant push for us to do the «Go Big» for an extra $ 15 option. The Go Big is where you jump at a higher elevation and have a longer free fall time — my one friend decided to go for it but myself and my other friend opted to stick with the 9000 feet drop. It was just somewhat annoying that even after telling them we were fine with our package, they kept pushing the GoBig over and over.
In any case, we spent a total of 2 hours at Skydive Philadelphia… I spent most of it as a nervous wreck but hopping out of that plane and into the clouds was definitely one of the most awesome things I’ve ever experienced!

My friends and I went skydiving for the first time yesterday! The jump was amazing. We were lucky that the weather was great and the entire thing took about 2 hours, from arriving, waiting, and jumping. My instructor was cheerful, encouraging, and triple checked all of our straps. I felt safe (well, as safe as you can while jumping out of a plane!), and it was an amazing feeling of intense adrenaline and then peaceful gliding. I’m so glad that I did it.
I was not impressed with my experience with Skydiving Philadelphia itself, though. It took my friend a few days to make a reservation because their phone system is designed poorly. They make you wait for 10 minutes and then allow you to leave a voice mail. As far as we know, no one actually answers the phone. If that’s the case, then it should go straight to voicemail instead of forcing people to wait. My friend wasn’t given a direct line to call back either, so she played phone tag with them for a while, having to wait on hold for 10 minutes each time.
When we arrived to check in for the jump, we went upstairs to a large room that had a table for check ins on one side and a skydiving class on the other. The woman checking us seemed a little disorganized. There was a safety (?) video that we were supposed to watch, but there was no system in place to make sure that we actually saw it. Even so, with the class going on right beside us, it was hard to hear it anyway. There are two options for pictures and video: one where your instructor uses a Go Pro on their wrist with pictures or video for $ 75 and another where another diver jumps with you and your instructor to film you for over $ 100. She pushed for the more expensive option because they had limited staff who could do the less expensive option, so we would have to wait longer for a jump. She made it sound like it’d be a huge pain.
When we went downstairs where we could actually purchase pictures or video options, a different person told us that there wasn’t a huge difference in wait time for getting pictures with the Go Pro, but we couldn’t go on the same plane because there weren’t enough instructors for that.
I also opted to jump from a higher elevation and increase my free fall time ($ 15 extra), so we’d have to be on separate planes anyway. That said, when my friends went on their jump, they jumped first at the lower elevation, while the plane continued flying higher for everyone else who wanted the longer jump. We clearly could have gone on the same plane.
Skydiving itself was a great experience. However, if I were to go again or suggest a place for a friend, I wouldn’t recommend Skydive Philadelphia. We had no issues using our Groupons, but it did take us a few days to get through their phone system. The staff had conflicting information, and told us we had to be on separate planes for reasons that sounded legitimate but turned out not to matter.

Wanted to provide an update for the actual skydive experience. We arrived on a Sunday morning at our scheduled time and within 2 hours all of us had our first skydive under our belts. The tandem skydive instructors are enthusiastic and make you feel at ease during your dive. I’d definitely do this again.

DO NOT BOOK WITH SKYDIVE PHILADELPHIA!
I bought my first living social deal for Skydive Philadelphia last year for my husband’s thirtieth birthday on May 23. Scheduling is extremely difficult as they try to say you cannot book for a certain time or day until you tell them you will just call back. Some how, they magically get you booked then. It ended up being cancelled the day of due to weather. When they cancelled, I let them know that we would not be able to make another trip out before the voucher expired and they said it would not be a problem since the initial jump was scheduled during the validity period. We rescheduled for August 9. It was a beautiful, perfect day. We got a call to cancel due to weather and we knew this was not right. We pushed back for a couple hours until they finally agreed that we could dive. When we arrived, we were the only people there and the weather was perfect. This is when we realized the staff just wanted to leave for a wedding. The jump went great. The customer service was horrible though as they tried canceling because they wanted to go home. I decided to give them another try in spite of the terrible customer service since the dive went well. I bought another living social deal for my husband’s birthday. We booked it for May 22. It was cancelled again due to weather. I went through the same spiel about not being able to make it out before the voucher expired and, again, they said this would not be a problem. I called to check when I needed to reschedule by right after the voucher expired and they told me that the promotional value had expired and I could reschedule but I would have to pay the difference. I explained how this was unacceptable, I did the same thing last year, and I had already explained that I would not make it during the valid period. I explained that I had scheduled during the voucher’s validity period and they had to cancel so the expiration date was not relevant. I ended up speaking with the manager who was extremely rude. I explained to him and he just kept saying that the voucher had expired. I detailed our experience from the prior year and all of the details of this booking and he continued to be rude and repeat himself that the voucher was expired. We went around in circles with him repeating himself and getting more rude as time went on. He said he was just abiding by living socials terms and conditions and I disagreed. He said to try to get a refund from them. He and unprofessional and rude. He even hung up on me. I called living social immediately and explained the situation to them. The gentleman I spoke to was surprised they would not reschedule and called them immediately. He got back on the phone with me and issued my refund.
DO NOT USE SKYDIVE PHILADELPHIA! Their customer service is horrific and they try to cancel on jumpable days.

Worst experience EVER!!! If I could give zero stars, I would. I am incredibly disappointed in the customer service.
I made a reservation through the website, but they told on jump day that they have some problem with the flight. I asked refund since the issue is with them. But they rescheduled the jump around 6 – 7 times whenever the weather isn’t good. I think they might be running a scam.
This was terrible service, and wasted several days. The manager is extremely unprofessional guy and these guys are not good to do business with.
Don’t do business here.

My skydiving experience was fantastic. What happened after, not so much. To be clear, the instructor and the videographer were very nice and made the experience (my first) very comfortable. A day after the jump (Sunday), my friend who went with me received his pictures and video by email. I received only a video, and it was the wrong one. It was somebody else’s jump. I called to follow up and they said their editor isn’t in today so I would have to call back Tuesday (It was Memorial Day Weekend). I called back Tuesday, but they said the editor isn’t in and to call back Wednesday. I called back Wednesday and they said my video didn’t come out. The man’s explanation was «Sometimes our equipment fails». That’s really good to know from a company that does skydiving. They offered me a refund for the video package and they offered to send me the photographs as well. Really, what they should have offered was a free jump so I could get a video (but I wouldn’t have trusted their equipment to do another jump there anyway). He said I wouldn’t be getting the pictures that day because they still have to process them and that takes time. I followed up again Thursday and he said that I would have them by the weekend because they mixed up my pictures with someone else’s but he couldn’t guarantee that. When I told him that it was an inconvenience for me to keep following up, he said «We didn’t tell you to follow up this many times.» At which point I hung up on him.
2 Things here:
1) If they mixed my photographs up with someone else’s and they can’t find them, how do they know they came out?
2) Contrary to what the «gentleman» said, I was told to follow up that many times. Every time I called I was told to call back.
I am planning on jumping again, many times. But, needless to say, I will NEVER use Skydiving Philadelphia again. I wish I had gotten the name of the person who I spoke with on the phone, but he was very rude, like he was doing me a favor, even though they are the ones who messed up. Terrible customer service, terrible organization, and, apparently, terrible equipment.

Like others here there is nothing good to say about trying to schedule jumps with SkyDive Philadelphia with a GroupOn. I have sky dived before and the experience was great. During the summer and fall I tried 6 times to schedule a jump and here is what happened. 1 time the weather was bad. Rainy. 2 other times the weather was very nice. Partly cloudy skies with a light breeze. They said they were not jumping because of poor weather. 1 time the day of the jump they called and said the plane was in for scheduled maintenance. How would they not know that before scheduling the jumps? 2 other times they said they had no times for 3 – 4 weeks.
So now I am stuck with two expired GroupOns that only have their dollar value. I would never buy one from there again. If you want to jump, SkyDive Jersey is what I have used before and would recommend if you aren’t too far.

If I could give zero stars, I would. I am incredibly disappointed in the customer service. My boyfriend spent $ 300 on groupons for us to do this and I broke my wrist making it necessary to postpone. We scheduled within the timeframe of the groupon and due to weather, they cancelled our reservation which is fine. However, they can’t get us in before the groupon expires and refuse to honor the groupon past the end date. I’ve used groupons many times and have never encountered this. I’m so disappointed in this experience and consider this extremely bad business. Very much hoping that groupon will refund our money so that we can go anywhere but here to try out something I’ve always wanted to do.

Worst experience of my life! Bought the voucher on Groupon for tandem jumping. First, their customer service is horrible. They make you wait at least half hour to schedule an appointment. I bought a $ 99 worth package for Video and Pictures. Second, me and my diver jumped last from the plane and landed first on the ground. Apparently, the guy taking my video forgets that we are landing and shoots the video from so far off that I can’t see myself landing in the video. Third, video came out good but all my pictures had big black dot/​smudge in the middle, when I called them to fix the issue they didn’t respond for two weeks. When I asked to talk to person in charge they said he is not available. Later, a guy calls me and tells me he can’t do anything about the pictures which surprised me cause pictures were taken off from same video they shot. He also tells me there are good 20+ pictures (from 200+ pictures) where black smudge isn’t noticeable. Touché! If you decide to go here, hope this doesn’t happen to you.
Overall this company is a complete ripoff, not worth a single star. I am never suggesting this place to anyone.

Worst experience EVER!!! Started off by having to refill out all the wavers because they needed to be dated the date of the jump but where never told that… There are ALOT of wavers. Then we needed to get a doctors note but where never told that on the website. Also they don’t have a fax for the note to be sent to. Then the doctor faxed (to a phone) the note on a prescription pad but that was not good enough. 2 faxes later things for straightened out but even then they where unwilling to comp is anything or even say sorry about the experience.

Okay, I totally understand the bad reviews but I think there needs to be some explanation. I purchased the whole skydiving package with my best friend two summers ago while they were having a special deal (a tandem jump, photos, and a professional video all for $ 275). After purchasing the package and setting the date of our jump I assumed that it would be that easy — show up on the day we scheduled and jump. When we got there the sky was beautiful, blue, and clear, but it was too windy and they had a hold going. We waited around for 5 hours and never got to jump. We had to schedule jumps 8 more times and wait around all day every time before we finally got to actually skydive (a full year after we had originally bought the package). I think a bunch of the people who have written reviews on here had a similar experience and that’s why the reviews are so bad.
What needs to be understood is that skydiving is all about risk, but it’s measured risk. The pros that work here aren’t going to put their lives in any extra danger and I’m so glad they weren’t willing to put mine in any extra danger either! Yes, it’s frustrating to know that scheduling a jump doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get to do it that day but that’s just the reality of the situation.
When I finally did jump last August I had a better experience than I ever could have imagined. I might be an adrenaline junky, but ironically enough I’m also kind of a chicken. I got the best pro (I feel so bad that I forgot his name but I remember he was Australian!) and while he was suiting me up he was joking around with me and making me feel right at ease. I was telling him how I wanted to be the first one out of the plane in passing so he made sure we were the last to board (which means we were the first to jump) and made it happen! On the ride up my best friend and I were both basically saying «what have we done?!» Because the door to the plane, which I was right next to, is basically just covered with this clear sheet of plastic that slides up and down so I could see the ground shrinking below us the whole way up. But my instructor never even let me feel scared and he and my videographer just kept joking around with me the whole time.
[As a side note, when you do a tandem jump you’re gonna have to sit in your instructors lap on the plane so he can buckle and strap you in and then for the rest of the ride he’ll basically be straddling you. I’m not a shy person so I was totally cool with it, but be forewarned that you’re gonna get real cozy with the pro you’re jumping with.]
When we reached our jumping elevation he stood me up walked me to the door, and before I even realized what was happening we were hurtling through the air! My best friend and I both decided to «go big» (you pay an extra $ 10 bucks cash the day of the jump and get extra free fall time) and it was so worth it. Once the parachute opened it was so quite and peaceful and my pro was pointing all kinds of stuff out to me! It was a clear day so we could see both the Philly and New York skylines! He even let me steer the parachute and taught me how to do these crazy spins that were honestly scarier than the free fall! He kept joking with me the whole way down making it such a fun and carefree experience.
Needless to say I was on an adrenaline high the rest of the day and if I ever save up enough money I will definitely be skydiving again!!!

The manager was a total jerk, and I think they might be running a scam.
I made a reservation through Groupon, but was told upon arrival that I couldn’t jump until Aaron, the manager, had received his payment from Groupon. There were several other people there at the same time with the same problem. Nevertheless, he made us ALL pay out of pocket, and at a rate inflated above the Groupon cost. Again, everyone there had gone through the proper channels. This place is a scam.
This was terrible service, and wasted several hours of everyone’s day. Extremely unprofessional guy; steer clear of these guys they are not good to do business with.
If you have used Groupon to schedule with these guys, call them and they will cancel your deal.
Don’t do business here.

First time reviewer here; my experience was so negative that I signed up for an account to share. The tl;dr version: terrible customer service.
A group of 20ish of us bought dives for last fall. We live about an hour and a half away from the center, and, after reading advice from various sites, scheduled our jump very early. Upon arrival, we filled out paperwork and watched the video. Several hours later, we were informed we wouldn’t be able to jump due to weather. This happened a second time, in the spring. The third time we drove out, were were able to jump — however, despite having 10:00am appointments on a Wednesday, we didn’t jump until about 1pm.
I want to be very clear here: I completely understand and endorse the safety precautions this facility takes, especially with regards to weather; obviously that comes first. That being said, there is a customer service component to this experience, and the customer interactions here were horrible; the way they kept us up-​to-​date about possible delays was deplorable. The individual at the front desk (receptionist? manager?) was frequently brusque, rude, and uninformative regarding what we were supposed to be doing or when we would be jumping. It seemed to us that he purposely obfuscated key information («Our team is taking a lunch break,» «there is a chance you won’t jump due to weather, and we’ll know more in an hour,» «you may be waiting up to three hours for your jump — you may want to bring a lunch or reading material.»).
After the first time this happened, we asked if we could call ahead the night before or the morning of to confirm weather would be fine. The individual at the other end of the line refused to make a positive or negative prediction around the weather; I respect not wanting to make a predictive statement in case of error, but with a disclaimer, we would have really appreciated an expert’s advice. It would have saved us close to 14 hours of scheduling, driving, and waiting around.
I understand that, in a customer service role, sometimes you need to deliver bad information. Doing it with grace and tact is an essential skill, and that’s not something this facility can claim to have.
I bought photos as well; the disk they sent me had a single still shot from the ride up in the airplane.
I’ve skydived with other facilities and had incredible experiences. If this is your first (or second, or third, or whatever) jump, I do not recommend starting here. Working with this team has been nothing short of a disappointing and infuriating experience.
[Again, I want to emphasize this is *not* about weather. This is about bad customer service.]

It’s a once in a lifetime type of experience.
My friends and I arrived around 9:30 and it took about an hour to finish the legislation paperwork and wait for our turn.
I especially felt safe having my tandem jump with Matt Decesare. He was so cheerful and encouraging me the whole time we were on the plane. Matt was knowledgable, so I had a very enjoyable jump. The free fall was scary as heck but an awesome experience. Once the parachute popped out, I had a chance to enjoy the view. SIMPLY GORGEOUS!!! Love the view.
I would suggest Skydive Philadelphia to my friends and definitely go for another time once I regain my gut.

Poor service.

I can’t understand why people on here can’t understand that the jump is contingent upon the weather. They are very careful and focused on safety, which I completely appreciate. One of their guys were telling me that he went out on a cloudy (not dark clouds, just a lot of them) day. He went through a massive cloud and when he came out the other side (since he couldn’t see), he had gotten too near his height to pull the parachute. That kind of stuff makes me happy that Skydive Philadelphia considers among other things.
Anyway, onto the experience. I’ve had to go back 4 times to get a jump, but it was so worth it. My instructor knew I was nervous and actually joked/​made fun of me the whole way up, which was so helpful and relaxing. The flight up was just a bunch of us joking around and laughing. When they opened the door after the green light went off, I didn’t even have time to think. It was step up to the line, knees bent, arms crossed and go (about 10 seconds). We spun in the air and had an awesome fall. After the parachute was pulled he did some intense turns (for a first timer).
I was very happy with my experience here and bought a returners package of $ 129 (including the extra 25 seconds of free fall) with $ 25 down that day.
These people are so nice and friendly. I will return.
Oh, another thing, if you book for a weekend, try and schedule early. They can get a little backlogged (usually caused, depending on the weather). My jump was at 9 am.

While I’m not a fan of skydiving, we all got to do it once in our lifetime right?
My friends and I bought a groupon for skydiving and had to make reservations. Even though we had to reschedule another date due to weather (it was raining like crazy on the day of, and I really don’t need millions of tiny bullets piercing through me when I free fall). So after 2 months, my friends and I finally returned and it felt like ultimatum.
We were told to arrive at 9am because of the paper work and «training» session we need to take that can be around 2 hours long. We walked up to the second floor and started filling out the paper work, while filling it out there was a video playing in the background about the experiences of past jumpers. Once the paperwork was done (took less than 30 minutes) we were told to head on downstairs to get our weights recorded so they can find the right person for you to tandem with (basically they need to know the weight to balance it out when you’re in mid air). After that, outside we go and waited for our jumping «partner.»
My guy was named Chris, really cute accent. He got me strapped into my suit and told me we will be the second group that’s going to jump. Truth be told, I’m nervous as heck, I didn’t really want to jump but my friends bought the groupon without my knowledge — what a surprise! Chris tries to ease my nervousness and made small talk with me (which I really do appreciate).
The take off, I admit, was scary. It was a small plane and when we were about 12,000 feet in the air, Chris said we were ready to jump. I went first out of all the people on the plane. Insanely scared and freaked out (good thing I didn’t show much emotions) we jumped. Holy… it was actually quite an amazing feeling. We soared through the air and landed safely. Chris was really professional and catered to me, I like the scenic route and he even showed me a rainbow that reflected off of the clouds from our parachute.
Would I do this again? Probably not but I wouldn’t technically say no. It was indeed the craziest thing I’ve done and I don’t regret it at all.