What a setting: flat calm, incredible visibility, jewfish, sharks, huge yellowtail, green sea turtles, eagle rays and much, much more (over 75 species, 60,000 inhabitants). This happens everyday at The Living Seas Pavilion at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center. It is called DIVEQUEST . Disney has created a 6 MILLION gallon aquarium. Here they house an artificial coral reef with not so artificial marine life. The result is magnificent. It would take you multiple dives in some of the most famous diving areas of the world to see what you can in just one dive here. Now we might point out that although Disney can control the reef structure, the visibility, the temperatures, and such, they can not control or train the fish inside it! It lends itself to an unpredictable and exciting dive. You are accompanied by Divemasters at all times so safety is of little issue.

Better yet, is who can see you. Who you ask? Why that would be EVERYONE visiting the Living Seas Pavilion at the time of your dive. Guests are able to view the aquarium (and you in it) through the four story windows around the aquarium. In addition, in typical Disney style entertainment, there is a clear window into the aquarium at the restaurant "Windows of the Living Seas" for you to perform for the diners seated there. So go get Mom and Dad, Gram and Gramp, and the kids to watch, make faces, and take pictures of you as you take the plunge into the Living Seas.

Most of the aquarium dwellers are passive -- if not friendly. A spotted eagle ray glided to within inches of my mask, its stinger sweeping close by but never touching me. Orson the jewfish made a slightly irritated bass drumming noise deep in his cavernous throat as I hovered opposite him, then he lazily drifted away. Three large brown sharks passed close beside our group as we lay motionless on our stomachs in a section of the tank known as Shark Alley. The sharks barely favored us with a glance. Porkfish, redfish, cobia and groupers trailed us as we explored their home.

DiveQuest guests are not permitted access to manatees or dolphins. The marine mammals are kept in separate tanks where they are fed and trained by researchers. The dolphins' pen is isolated from the main aquarium by metal bars. We were allowed to hover a short distance outside the bars so the dolphins could peer at us and make clicking noises.

The dolphins weren't the only mammals watching us. Customers seated at the windows of the Living Seas restaurant and visitors touring the aquarium waved to us. One diner raised his bottle of beer in salute. Divers Daniel Mortimer and Heather Maxwell of Castleton, Vt., located their parents at the aquarium windows. The couple clowned as their parents laughed and snapped photos. Diver Curtis Youde of Daytona Beach said afterward he felt like a Disney character on parade.

After about 45 minutes, our divemaster signaled for us to ascend. I was ready. Accustomed to diving in warm South Florida waters in a full wetsuit, my lips were blue and my teeth chattered from wearing a shorty in the tank's 72-degree water.

The divemasters helped us off with our gear and escorted us to the men's and women's locker rooms for hot showers with towels, soap, shampoo and hair dryers provided.

Facts about the living seas

The Living Seas was constructed over a period of 22 months. It is 185,000 square feet of space under one roof. To create the ocean environment, 2,000 cubic yards of concrete and 900 tons of reinforcing steel were used. The walls of the aquarium are 3 feet thick. The "ocean" is 27 feet deep and is 203 feet in diameter. Liquid nitrogen was used to cool the poured concrete. Once inch of The Living Seas depth equals 17,000 gallon of water. The Life Support system prcesses water faster than the City of Orlando: 35,000 gallons a minute, with the entire 6 million gallons filtered in approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. The rest of the building took 8,000 cubic yards of concrete and 850 tons of structural steel to build. Guests wind though a wave-like path past model, pictures, and artifacts which depict the history of ocean diving.

The coral was created from man-made materials to simulate a live Caribbean coral reef.

Sixty-one acrylic windows allow guests to look out on the "ocean". The 8ft by 24ft acrylic panels in the observation module weigh 9,000 pounds each. They are the largest single casting of acrylic ever attempted. The use of acrylic ensures crystal-clear optical characteristics.