For anyone who bought a state park annual pass to dive...

[Dive-aholic]

See this thread: Unwarranted cost increase Florida springs.

State park annual passes will no longer cover diving fees. You will now be required to pay the diving fee to dive Blue Spring, Orange City, Troy Spring, Manatee Spring, St. Andrew's State Park, etc. For 15+ years there were no additional fees for annual pass holders when diving at these and other state parks. Now, someone has decided to change that.

I rarely visit the state parks other than to dive. And on the occasions I am in a state park and not diving, it's not enough times to justify the $129 family annual pass fee. I just bought another annual pass June 1 and will be demanding a refund if they don't grandfather it. If they refuse to refund my money, I'll be disputing the charge with my credit card company. I urge everyone who has an annual pass for the purposes of diving to do the same. The diving fee covers the park entrance fee so you have basically donated $129 or $65 to the state. Let's show the state how many divers use the state parks!

 

[Sandbar]

No surprise. The state came up almost $3bb short on the budget this year. They have to make cuts/earn revenue from somewhere.

 

[DixieDolphin]

Seriously pisses me off. It's bad enough that they raised the price this year.. and when I renewed, I specifically asked if it still covered dive fees with the price increase. The only reason I bought a state park pass was to use it for diving at Blue.

I'm going to be demanding a refund first thing Monday morning. What a waste.

 

[Wookie]

So... I completely understand being pissed off at buying something that you didn't really get, because they changed the rules after the race started. But, what good is getting a refund going to be? Won't you still have to pay an entrance fee and then a use fee for divers? Isn't the original intent to save money on entrance fees, and won't the annual pass still do that?

 

[Dive-aholic]

Please make sure you e-mail your concerns to the following list of people:

<Bonnie.Hazleton@dep.state.fl.us>, <Shawn.Hamilton@dep.state.fl.us>, <Russell.Simpson@dep.state.fl.us>, <Anna.Gibbs@dep.state.fl.us>, <Cristina.Llorens@dep.state.fl.us>, <Lisa.Kelley@dep.state.fl.us>, <Rhonda.Haag@dep.state.fl.us>

So... I completely understand being pissed off at buying something that you didn't really get, because they changed the rules after the race started. But, what good is getting a refund going to be? Won't you still have to pay an entrance fee and then a use fee for divers? Isn't the original intent to save money on entrance fees, and won't the annual pass still do that?

This is not the case. The few times I've gone diving in a state park without an annual pass all I paid was the diving fee. That covered the entrance fee. They did not charge both.

 

[DixieDolphin]

So... I completely understand being pissed off at buying something that you didn't really get, because they changed the rules after the race started. But, what good is getting a refund going to be? Won't you still have to pay an entrance fee and then a use fee for divers? Isn't the original intent to save money on entrance fees, and won't the annual pass still do that?

They don't charge both. In the time before I had a pass, if you're diving you ONLY pay the $15 diving fee.

And why should I keep something I'm not going to use otherwise? I don't visit the state parks otherwise enough to make an $60 pass worth my money. Hitting Wekiwa once or twice a year at $5 per visit doesn't make up the difference by a long shot.

 

[DixieDolphin]

As an update, I called Blue today to inquire about getting a refund. The lady sounded miffed that I wanted my money back, but said that I could get one if I physically went to the park with the pink slip they give you when you pay, the receipt for payment, and the actual pass.

It sucks that I'm going to have to haul all the way down there this weekend, but at least I'll get my $63.90 back.

 

[madeline]

How are they going to enforce it. ? We put our cards on the dash to show we paid our annual entrance fee. they will need to hire full time people at the parks to get their money every day one dives. ??? doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I got a call from the District 1 Park manager today in response to my e-mail. The 5 district managers had a conference call meeting this morning and have put this on hold. All parks are going back to their normal operation pre-memo. They will be having meetings concerning this issue. Apparently, this started in the Orlando district with a manager asking for a clarification and snowballed from there. The intent was not to start charging daily fees to annual pass holders for diving. In fact, some of the managers weren't even aware that there were any changes. The District 1 manager (the only park where diving is allowed that he oversees is Wakulla) told me his park is doing things as before. If you hold an annual pass, you don't have to pay the daily fee to dive Emerald. The other parks should be doing the same. He will be contacting me with further updates as they arise.