Diving EPCOT Living Seas

[Vtdiver2]

DiveQuest seems quite unimpressive to me. I guess if you are a totally new diver, and don't live in south florida (or anywhere else good for that matter) it may be cool.

I HATE diving without my own gear, you can't use your own camera, they limit you to under an hour of dive time (i'd still have 1 1/2 hours left on my tank at that point), and it's $140 for a single, less than an hour dive. I'd rather spend that on 2 - 3 boat trips, 4 - 6 dives on amazing wrecks off florida's coast, lobstering, spearing, etc. If you are a complete noobie, it would be fun for sure... any seasoned diver will probably not be so impressed.

Well, that's one way of looking at it, and I respect that.
My way of looking at it, and I'll be doing it when we go to Disney, is for $150, I can share my love of diving, and the wonders I normally see on my dive trips, with my fiance and family who are non-divers. When I come home from these dive trips with hundreds of pictures and video, they think they are cool, but "just don't get it" as pictures just don't do the experiences I have justice.
When we saw this advertised on a show on the Travel channel one night, everyone in the family said I had to do this so they could watch me diving. To me, $150 will be a small price to pay for the memories it'll bring.
Just my 2psi,
C-Dawg

 

[asxinu]

The only Mickey I noticed was in the rocks, and that wasn't really that hidden.

I swam by it multiple times and my wife had to point it out to me from the other side of the glass. I guess I was too close to notice it.

 

[CaptainMarvel]

Just to add my two cents... I dove Living Seas last December and really enjoyed it. Aside from the cool experience of diving with the sand tiger sharks, goliath groupers, and other cool life, the biggest highlight was getting to interact with my 5-year-old son at the observation windows. Seeing the excitement on his face was worth the price. As others have already mentioned, it's worth doing for the memories it creates for the family. Seasoned or not, I recommend doing it at least once.

Capt Grumby - I did my dive on Dec 6 as well. I was in the 4:30 group. Which one were you in?

 

[RedWingDiver]

I swam by it multiple times and my wife had to point it out to me from the other side of the glass. I guess I was too close to notice it.

After the story about the kid who descended and landed on the back of the sand tiger shark, I made sure to look down, which is why I saw it. Otherwise, I probably would have missed it as well.

 

[FSUgly]

Will be doing it again (3rd time) in a week and a half.....It's my way of starting the off the new dive year.

 

[bogrady]

We'll be celebrating 1 year of certification with our second DiveQuest on Monday. One year ago our first post cert dive was DiveQuest. It is a very unique and enjoyable dive. For those who have not tried it - you can't underestimate how much fun it is to interact with the kids at the glass.

 

[Capt Grumby]

Capt Marvel,
I was in the 5:30 group. I was actually standing with your group just prior to you guys going in the gate, but decided to wait the extra hour. The wife and kids were already in the park and they were expecting me on the late dive.

That extra hour gave me plenty of time to have a quality conversation with "Kojak, the Epcot bicycle cop". He was actually a very funny guy with numerous horror stories about the things people try to sneak into the dive.

 

[Debay777]

well, share them with us. what sort of crazy stuff do people try to bring?

 

[ohmdiver]

Did the Epcot dive on Feb. 14th.

I have spent $100, ( + an air fill) brought my own gear to dive in what amounts to a giant toilet bowl with 1 Calif. Sealion. It was great.

To spend $140 and have all the equipment provided, get a tee shirt +$35 for an awsome video of my daughter in the tank, was beyond words. $140 isn't steep when you consider that it is thier gear. What do you pay when you rent a full set up?

It was completely worth it and I want to do it again...

 

[Capt Grumby]

well, share them with us. what sort of crazy stuff do people try to bring?

Well, he said that the most common items were dive CPU's and cameras. He also talked about the guys that bring their knives and "the one gentleman that tried to bring in a speargun". I am still unsure if that was a joke or not, since he said it with a completely straight face. He also told us about the "underwater geo-cachers" that try to sneak in odd "miscelaneous items" to hide in the coral. (I guess that would be similar to graffitti artists "tagging" a wall, or a dog marking his territory.)
At any rate, he told us that those were some of the reasons that Disney has such strict rules about "foreign objects" in the tank, and why they have a cop that actually checks your bags before you go in the back area.
All this time, I had assumed that the ONLY reason for the rule was to avoid getting "little Nemo" sick! Who knew??