FL Orlando, dive trip boat, bring small kids, how anyone ?

We goto FL Orlando start of January,
we are both certified divers, AOW,
we are looking for a way to go diving for a day or two,
Reef, Wreak, Fish, Lake, Ocean, Boat, whatever, it is easy to make us happy.

But we got small kids ! Two of them, they are 4½ and 6½ years old,
and offcurse I do understand it is not the best thing to bring them on a real dive boat,
but we got no other options, at least if we both want to go diving on the same day on the same boat.
Any ideas to solve this ?
Do you know any extreamly child friendly boat and crew ?
or the option: Wife stay at hotel with kids, while I dive, the other way arround the next day ?
we did this last time, and it is not cool.

we stay in central Orlando, so there is alot of driving to the cool sites, we know that,
so maybe it is fine to goto a little bit less cool place closer located, like a lake or cave,
to save transport time since I know this tend to drive the kids a bit nuts.

we also need some equipment, since it is too big and heawy to bring all of our own
We are from Europe
our kids understand English quite well.

You could sell the kids for scientific experiments. Just kidding, I would look into a local day care facility. I'm sure you are not the first to want to do what you are talking about. I believe that the facilities in FL need to be state registered and another angle would be to talk to the staff at the hotel and get their recommendations for care of kids. Good luck and enjoy FL. I believe the dive shops will rent all the gear you need. You also could dive the aquarium at Disney but, it is pricey.

I doubt you will get past "Hey we have a couple small children do you mind..." Really. Stop and think about what you are asking, and does it make sense? Who is going to watch your children when you dive? I sure would not leave my small child alone with most of the charter boat captains in Florida! (LOL just kidding!)

Do you know where you want to dive specifically as yet?
Jupiter, Fort Lauderdale, or even the Keys?
This will help us to determine what help/advice to offer.
If you are not exactly sure where you want to dive at that time in January as yet, I would start discussing options.
As an example:
Jupiter and Palm Beach is the closest destination for Ocean diving to Orlando.
There are several professionally run "day-care" operations there that could help.
Really the same goes in the Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach area.
As far as the Keys go, A day camp guided snorkle camp option for the little ones is certainly available.
Keep in mind that our water is pretty chilly then as far as South Florida kids are concerned, but as you are [-]Dutch,[/-] err...Danes your kids can probably swim with icebergs and polar bears and not be bothered.

Chug
Been there, done that.

thanks alot for your input, we are Danish (not the ones you eat)
I dont really like the idea to put them in a day care, hey they are on vacation too,
we tried to bring them on dive boats in Egypt a few times, it was do able simply becouse the boat was very big
and staff was used to it, and they got plenty of space inside where they could play with the staff, the 35 mins we where not arround,
so they barely noted we went diving, so that was ok,
it is someting similar we are looking for..

or maybe a lake or shore, with a good playground really near ?
but then we still need at least one more helper,
I am sure there must be many others with kids, why dont we arrange a dive day with kids,
and take turns looking after all the kids ?

the kind of diving you do at Epcot, will you call it diving ?
I call it waste of money, but maybe it is just me..

Epcot is a novel experience, but it certainly is not my idea of diving in Florida.
Would I like to do it sometime...Yes.
Is it high on my list of must do experiences....nope.
You can reasonably expect 45 minute to 1 hour dive times down here.
Are you and your wife Nitrox certified?
This opens up more options and more variety of dives.
I also did a quick search for a "Danish-American Club" in the south Florida area and landed on this group.
Friends of Denmark
There is a real chance that there are other groups hearabouts and they can probably if well organized come up with some suggestions and probably want to meet you.
I am unsure that you are coming to the USA to hang around with a bunch of people from Denmark.
Probably not.

Chug
I typically go to other places to meet people unlike myself.

Sounds like you need a sitter to play with the kids at a pool, park, or the beach while you are diving. Not sure what is available in the area like that, but I could see them having fun in Jupiter somewhere like Dubois Park, Riverbend Park, Carlin Park, etc.

Have you tried contacting an LDS (Scuba Works or Jupiter Dive Center perhaps) to see if they could help arranging something like that?

On another note, I spent 6 months living in Denmark (about 20 years ago), what a lovely place!

Yes it's a waste at Disney and it's not just you. I found it hard to justify the price and have never done it. I would try cruising the internet and contact every OP in the area. Hey you never know.

If you stay at one of the Disney resorts, usually there are childcare options. In fact, probably any of the Orlando resorts could recommend a childcare provider. I don't think the dive boats would have as much experience with little kids. Some boats would let you bring non divers along for a fee. You'd want a bigger boat too, unless you want to charter your own boat. Then they probably would care so much about whether you have kids or not. But usually they don't have kid-size life jackets.

If you come to the Atlantic side in January you have a good chance of rough seas and coldish weather. Not a good combination for kids on a boat.

If you want to come to S. Florida, I know a lovely lady who will take care of your kids for the day. She has a home child care business in Boca Raton. She used to teach at the preschool my daughter went to. I also have a 7yo, but I'm not sure I'd take her on a dive boat in Jan. Maybe if my husband could go, we could rent a boat(we used to have a boat, and he did the boating - sample boat rates - The Fleet + Rates | Boat Rental), then we could do 2 up 2 down and the kids could play in the boat. But that does depend on when you come. If you want to beach dive, we could meet up in Lauderdale by the Sea, and you can leave the kids on the beach, my daughter will probably enjoy playing with them. There's scuba shop right around the corner. If the seas are rough there's also Blue Heron Bridge, the entrance is from a park, although since I haven't been there yet so I don't know how kid friendly the park really is.

You could go on a manatee swim down the Crystal river, the whole family could do that. They're almost always in the river in January.

As others have mentioned, you might want to check into a land based child care while you're enjoying diving. That will hopefully put your mind at ease.

I suspect the dive boats here a much smaller than Egypt (with smaller staff). Most dive ops run with a captain and one or two dive masters. None are trained in child care nor is it their priority. Any diver related issue/emergency will likely leave the kids unattended. Also, the Atlantic will probably be a bit rough in January. Lots of opportunity for big, heavy things to fall all over the place.

Cloudswinger had a good recommendation for swimming with the manatees in Crystal River.

Another option is The Florida Aquarium in Tampa (about an hour west of Orlando). They have a 'Swim with the Fishes' program that your older child could participate in. The Florida Aquarium - Tampa Bay

Good luck and enjoy your stay.