Disney DiveQuest

What would be your reaction if somebody said to you, "Hey, let's go for a dive in my pool!". Probably wouldn't be to interested, right? But what if they said, "Hey, let's go for a dive in my 6,000,000 gallon pool and see marine life from just about every ocean in the world". Now that would start you suiting up!

At first glance, swimming in an aquarium doesn't sound exciting but where except at the Living Seas Pavillion at Epcot Center can you dive where the conditions are flat calm seas, 74 degree water and 200 feet (to the other side of the tank)visibility? If you are planning a trip to Orlando, you really should consider this dive! Although rather pricy ($140 at this writing), all the money goes to the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund. So you can dive and feel good about doing it, too! Make your reservations well in advance by calling Disney Behind the Scenes Tours at 407-WDW-TOUR. I called in December for my April dive.

The entire program lasts about 3 hours with 45 minutes being devoted to actual underwater activities. There are 2 dive times: 4:30PM and 5:30PM. I suggest signing up for the 4:30PM time because after the end of you visit, you will be released back out into the park so you want to have time to enjoy the fireworks show. Meet outside Epcot Guest Relations window outside of the park to the right of the turnstiles. You do not need to pay to get in the park, but if you want to spend the day there and then do the dive, you will have to pay park admission. Your guide will come and meet you and have you fill out all the necessary paperwork, check the C-Cards (the one you packed before you left home, remember?), and take your sizes. Then your taken "backstage" to begin your dive.

We walked behind the pavillion passed the huge storage tanks where the water for the aquarium is filtered and maintained. Interesting to note, that if the "giant golf ball" in the middle of the park were completely filled with water and then dumped into the aquarium, the level of the aquarium would still be down by about 10 feet!

We went upstairs and were briefed on our dive plan and explained in general how the afternoon would work. After seeing a brief introductory video we headed off to the locker room to change. Each diver had a bag of stuff (booties, wetsuit, towels, fins, mask, etc) waiting for us. Then it's downstairs into the main observation area with the guide calling out "Divers coming through!"

The top of the tank is impressive. We met our dive master who gave a review of all the saftey equipment and procedures available to us "just in case". After completing the suitup, we surface swam out to a big red ball float. A dive master and videographer came along with our group. Once we made the float, we pulled the dump valves and began the dive.

After touching down on the bottom, we started to tour the aquarium. We swam to a diving bell where we could go in, stand up, and with the video camera whirling, do something to "remember the moment". Of course, I yelled the famous "I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD". While I was waiting for my turn, I was visited by little black fish that would nip at your skin. Good thing they told us about them during the briefing or I would have thought that the Disney sharks had come by! Then, over to an area where there are artifacts from an old spanish ship wreck. It was fun tossing the cannonballs around! We swam around in formation to get a feel for the tank before we were able to go off and explore with our assigned buddy.

I had a ball swimming over to the restaurant, then over to the upper and lower observation decks and interacting with all the guests, swimming through the artificial coral, and mingling with all the sealife. The coral in the tank is made from dental plastic that gives the formations such a life like appearance and texture that fish will lay their eggs in it. I had brief encounters with the sharks in the tanks. They weren't too interested in me, though. The dive master we had was great. We had alot of freedom to swim about. I have heard from some people that they had a DM who was very strict regarding buddying-up, surfaced with 1000 lbs of air, etc. I guess it just all depends on who you get.

Before we knew it, we heard the distinct wrap of metal against air tank which was our signal to surface and end what had been a truly memorable dive. After we exited the aquarium, we went down through the observation deck to the locker room and a quick shower and change. Soap & shampoo was provided by dispensers; not individual bottles (I had heard that leftovers were donated to a local women's shelter but no leftovers with dispensers). We then went back to the briefing room to view our dive video and get our logbooks verified. The video was available at the gift shop for $35 and was my only souvenir of my Florida vacation. If you are a certified diver, this is a unique chance not to pass up.

Here are some pictures that Scott took from the observation deck with my Cannon AE-1 during my dive. The quality is not that great because the flash was off and he was shooting through 8 inches of plexiglass. I hope to pick off some frames from the video and add them at a later date.

Images from Disney's DiveQuest at the Living Seas:

(Click on a picture for a better view)