scooterca42
09-23-2007, 05:30 PM
This was a mutual gift, each to the other, in celebration of our 21st wedding anniversary. We had heard of this tour and finally decided it would be perfect for us, so as soon as we firmed up our dates for the trip I got on the horn and booked us in – it was even before Free Dining came out while we were still in as room only!
I’ll insert bits from DH’s dive too, as he had a different dive master, but essentially the process was the same. And if anyone has questions, just IM me and I’ll try to answer them.
We met at 4:15 (for the 4:30 dive, there is also a 5:30 dive) at guest services outside the park where we answered questions about our bootie and wet suit sizes, and if we had our own masks, and passed over our C-cards. We entered backstage through the gate right there and walked over to the exterior door for Living Seas. The divemaster pointed out the filtration tanks and a couple of other buildings, and then we went inside and saw the photos of each of the years of interns. She told us a bit about that program too. Then off to the conservation map where we found out about where our money goes to – the cost of the tour goes to their conservation efforts. We went up some stairs to where a recovering manatee was situated, then across the floor and into the area where the dolphins are. We went into a room and signed the release, and DH’s group saw samples of the plastic that the wall is composed of and the material that makes up the ‘coral’. We saw a brief video that explained what we could expect, the fact that it was a no-touch dive was re-enforced, anyone without a buddy was buddied up, and then were shown to the locker room to change.
We met up again and walked through the main part of the Observation Deck in our wetsuits. DH’s dive master announced “Divers coming through!” but ours didn’t.
The tanks and fins (and masks for those who didn’t bring their own) were set up on the edge of the grating. There was a divemaster, a safety diver and a videographer. The dive master gave us the outline of what we were going to do – meet up at the orange ball, go down, meet up again, and then do a bit of a follow-the-leader and a tour before we buddied up and went our own ways.
They have anti-fog stuff there that works very well. The water was about 76 or so – quite pleasant. We did as directed, and after we each had a turn in the underwater bubble (no audio pickup in it, by the way) we were given the go-ahead to swim around. The videographer took shots of each of us with the family in the observation area – you can see clearly through the plastic – and then left the water to edit the video. There were three of us buddied and we went back and forth from the restaurant to the observation port, and spent quite a bit of time just kneeling and observing the sea life around us. I was maybe a yard from a sea turtle! He was just lying on the floor with his nose tucked under a bit of ‘coral’. Another was on the way up for air as I was submerging. Our dive master said that we had to land on white – any other colour was either a ‘coral’ mount or a shark. :oops: I was looking around and a ray swam over top of me.
The people in the restaurant were a blast. The children’s reaction was priceless, and generally boiled down to ‘wow’. I lost count of the numbers of species of fish I saw, and the three species of sharks that were there were most dis-interested in us!
It was a great dive and well worth what we paid. The equipment was in good repair and assembled, and there were clip-on weights at the ball if you were underweighted. The cutoff was 500 PSI but if you sucked air and had to surface and there was still more than five minutes left they’d swap out the tank for you. DH and I had each 1000 when the divemaster clicked the rocks to surface.
The video was very cool and makes a great souvenir. There was a T-shirt and a button each when we sat down to watch it and there are drinks available for the inevitable cotton-mouth.
It was terrific fun. We’d do it again, but not for some time – we’re saving for a trip to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef!
I’ll insert bits from DH’s dive too, as he had a different dive master, but essentially the process was the same. And if anyone has questions, just IM me and I’ll try to answer them.
We met at 4:15 (for the 4:30 dive, there is also a 5:30 dive) at guest services outside the park where we answered questions about our bootie and wet suit sizes, and if we had our own masks, and passed over our C-cards. We entered backstage through the gate right there and walked over to the exterior door for Living Seas. The divemaster pointed out the filtration tanks and a couple of other buildings, and then we went inside and saw the photos of each of the years of interns. She told us a bit about that program too. Then off to the conservation map where we found out about where our money goes to – the cost of the tour goes to their conservation efforts. We went up some stairs to where a recovering manatee was situated, then across the floor and into the area where the dolphins are. We went into a room and signed the release, and DH’s group saw samples of the plastic that the wall is composed of and the material that makes up the ‘coral’. We saw a brief video that explained what we could expect, the fact that it was a no-touch dive was re-enforced, anyone without a buddy was buddied up, and then were shown to the locker room to change.
We met up again and walked through the main part of the Observation Deck in our wetsuits. DH’s dive master announced “Divers coming through!” but ours didn’t.
The tanks and fins (and masks for those who didn’t bring their own) were set up on the edge of the grating. There was a divemaster, a safety diver and a videographer. The dive master gave us the outline of what we were going to do – meet up at the orange ball, go down, meet up again, and then do a bit of a follow-the-leader and a tour before we buddied up and went our own ways.
They have anti-fog stuff there that works very well. The water was about 76 or so – quite pleasant. We did as directed, and after we each had a turn in the underwater bubble (no audio pickup in it, by the way) we were given the go-ahead to swim around. The videographer took shots of each of us with the family in the observation area – you can see clearly through the plastic – and then left the water to edit the video. There were three of us buddied and we went back and forth from the restaurant to the observation port, and spent quite a bit of time just kneeling and observing the sea life around us. I was maybe a yard from a sea turtle! He was just lying on the floor with his nose tucked under a bit of ‘coral’. Another was on the way up for air as I was submerging. Our dive master said that we had to land on white – any other colour was either a ‘coral’ mount or a shark. :oops: I was looking around and a ray swam over top of me.
The people in the restaurant were a blast. The children’s reaction was priceless, and generally boiled down to ‘wow’. I lost count of the numbers of species of fish I saw, and the three species of sharks that were there were most dis-interested in us!
It was a great dive and well worth what we paid. The equipment was in good repair and assembled, and there were clip-on weights at the ball if you were underweighted. The cutoff was 500 PSI but if you sucked air and had to surface and there was still more than five minutes left they’d swap out the tank for you. DH and I had each 1000 when the divemaster clicked the rocks to surface.
The video was very cool and makes a great souvenir. There was a T-shirt and a button each when we sat down to watch it and there are drinks available for the inevitable cotton-mouth.
It was terrific fun. We’d do it again, but not for some time – we’re saving for a trip to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef!