Florida fun!
For photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaffer42ca/
We were in Florida for a week and had an absolute blast! I have put excerpts from my trip report below - hope it isn't too long - but I also included the whole description of my Divequest experience (for anyone who is interested in scuba)
We had the Dining Plan at Disney, and stayed at the Pop Century resort. It was great! The pools were terrific and we made pretty much a habit of going to a park in the morning, coming back and having a dip in early afternoon, changing and going out again in the evening.
Disney is a great place for us, and we plan to return in 2010 or 2011 with a gathering of the clan!
Divequest - A to Zed.
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 Danny’s dive too, as he had a different dive master, but essentially the process was the same.
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 Danny’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. Danny’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. :O 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. 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. Danny 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!
And more...
Animal Kingdom, Spectromagic and Wishes at MK that evening.
We’d never been to Animal Kingdom and since Everest was waiting to be conquered, we obliged it. It was EMH and we took advantage - rode Everest first, then went on the Safari - saw a fantastic number of animals and had some luck with photos. The Pagani Forest trail was a lot of fun, we got excellent photos of the gorillas. Then on to Kali River Rapids - I got soaked! I ended up going into the washroom and wringing everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I was wearing out into the loo. I’d worn Crocs that day, thankfully. Took a couple hours to dry - though it was hot, it was humid!
We had a nice break back at the hotel and swam, then dressed and headed for Magic Kingdom. Pirates was the first stop - love the additions, did it twice as it was a walkon! Then Haunted Mansion, which was excellent. Spectro (which we’d never seen) and Wishes were our main aims, so we grabbed some dogs from Casey’s and staked out a spot where we could watch and video both.
Magic Kingdom for the day, Epcot in the afternoon and evening. DIVEQUEST!
We were at the park by 9:30 am or so, and made directly for Monsters Inc. - no line, and the show started about three minutes after we got there.
Out of the Monster World and directly into Stitch! I was waiting for the chili burp and breathed out…;). We took a ride on the Transit Authority, then wandered over towards Pecos Bill’s, taking in Philharmagic on the way. Visited the Pirates once more, dropped in on the Tikki Room, and headed out around three thirty.
Back to the room where I picked up my dive mask (with the prescription in it) and my swimsuit - I was doing Divequest! I’ll post that report separately with detail, but for general interest it was absolutely amazing and I will do it again as often as I can manage it.
Epcot all day and DH Divequest!
It was raining! Heavily at first, then more just a steady rain. Were we worried? We were not - we had ponchos, and so much of Epcot is inside, or at least undercover.
Hit the park about 9:30 am, and did Soarin’ twice in a row - no wait - top tier on the left side for the first ride, top in the middle for the second. Wow, this ride is so simple but so effective. We hadn’t ridden The Land for about fifteen years - still love the greenhouses and the Mickey pumpkins.
The rain mostly stopped, and the sun started coming out. We took our time strolling through the World Showcase, rode Maelstrom and saw the new Canada movie (speaking as a Canadian, it is MUCH better…) and did Mission Space Green Team. With DH diving today we didn’t want to chance the Orange Team just in case.
From Outer Space to Inner Space, and he had just as good a time on the dive as I did!
MGM and - yes - Epcot again. (?)
We were up and into the Tower of Terror within moments - again, a five minute wait - and afterwards my DH got me selected to participate in some of the street theater - I played the leading lady of a low budget silent picture starring Dusty Boots. I played the love interest - and boy, did I play the love interest. Including muttering petulantly “I can’t work like this” to the script girl, and preening in front of an imaginary mirror - well, I had an imaginary train to deal with, so…it was fun. It’s on video. And DH has said he’s going to burn a copy for all our friends. Heh.
We had a close encounter with Endor and the Death Star on Star Tours, then went back to the hotel for a swim. We dressed and got ready, got off at Epcot, and the skies opened. I mean REALLY opened. It was torrential. We stood under the shelter there for a few moments and then DH looked at me and said “Want to go back to the room?” Well, we watched the rain come down, and come down, and decided yes, a nice counter service back at Pop and a pleasant evening reviewing photos and video would be a good way to deal with it.
Seaworld and Epcot (again. Detecting a theme?)
Our friends in Buffalo had obtained Seaworld passes for us (thanks again!) and we used them today. It was wonderful seeing the two shows we made it to - the Dolphins, and of course the Shamu show.
We were fairly overheated from Seaworld (boy that park gets hot!) so we went back to the hotel around three and hopped in the pool - paddled around for an hour or so and brought our body temps down to something below the core of the sun. Epcot was EMH tonight! And we had reservations at 8:30 pm at Le Cellier!!!
We shopped around a bit again, and were seated about fifteen minutes after checking in. The reputation of this restaurant is well earned. The food was amazing. We waddled out as the folks who didn’t have wristbands were leaving, and sat watching the boats working on the lagoon to retrieve the globe and re-set stuff for the next night.
Wow, what a trip. If you want any info on Disney, I highly recommend a website called www.intercot.com - I used it to plan most of this trip and it went - well - swimmingly. ;)
We were in Florida for a week and had an absolute blast! I have put excerpts from my trip report below - hope it isn't too long - but I also included the whole description of my Divequest experience (for anyone who is interested in scuba)
We had the Dining Plan at Disney, and stayed at the Pop Century resort. It was great! The pools were terrific and we made pretty much a habit of going to a park in the morning, coming back and having a dip in early afternoon, changing and going out again in the evening.
Disney is a great place for us, and we plan to return in 2010 or 2011 with a gathering of the clan!
Divequest - A to Zed.
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 Danny’s dive too, as he had a different dive master, but essentially the process was the same.
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 Danny’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. Danny’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. :O 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. 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. Danny 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!
And more...
Animal Kingdom, Spectromagic and Wishes at MK that evening.
We’d never been to Animal Kingdom and since Everest was waiting to be conquered, we obliged it. It was EMH and we took advantage - rode Everest first, then went on the Safari - saw a fantastic number of animals and had some luck with photos. The Pagani Forest trail was a lot of fun, we got excellent photos of the gorillas. Then on to Kali River Rapids - I got soaked! I ended up going into the washroom and wringing everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I was wearing out into the loo. I’d worn Crocs that day, thankfully. Took a couple hours to dry - though it was hot, it was humid!
We had a nice break back at the hotel and swam, then dressed and headed for Magic Kingdom. Pirates was the first stop - love the additions, did it twice as it was a walkon! Then Haunted Mansion, which was excellent. Spectro (which we’d never seen) and Wishes were our main aims, so we grabbed some dogs from Casey’s and staked out a spot where we could watch and video both.
Magic Kingdom for the day, Epcot in the afternoon and evening. DIVEQUEST!
We were at the park by 9:30 am or so, and made directly for Monsters Inc. - no line, and the show started about three minutes after we got there.
Out of the Monster World and directly into Stitch! I was waiting for the chili burp and breathed out…;). We took a ride on the Transit Authority, then wandered over towards Pecos Bill’s, taking in Philharmagic on the way. Visited the Pirates once more, dropped in on the Tikki Room, and headed out around three thirty.
Back to the room where I picked up my dive mask (with the prescription in it) and my swimsuit - I was doing Divequest! I’ll post that report separately with detail, but for general interest it was absolutely amazing and I will do it again as often as I can manage it.
Epcot all day and DH Divequest!
It was raining! Heavily at first, then more just a steady rain. Were we worried? We were not - we had ponchos, and so much of Epcot is inside, or at least undercover.
Hit the park about 9:30 am, and did Soarin’ twice in a row - no wait - top tier on the left side for the first ride, top in the middle for the second. Wow, this ride is so simple but so effective. We hadn’t ridden The Land for about fifteen years - still love the greenhouses and the Mickey pumpkins.
The rain mostly stopped, and the sun started coming out. We took our time strolling through the World Showcase, rode Maelstrom and saw the new Canada movie (speaking as a Canadian, it is MUCH better…) and did Mission Space Green Team. With DH diving today we didn’t want to chance the Orange Team just in case.
From Outer Space to Inner Space, and he had just as good a time on the dive as I did!
MGM and - yes - Epcot again. (?)
We were up and into the Tower of Terror within moments - again, a five minute wait - and afterwards my DH got me selected to participate in some of the street theater - I played the leading lady of a low budget silent picture starring Dusty Boots. I played the love interest - and boy, did I play the love interest. Including muttering petulantly “I can’t work like this” to the script girl, and preening in front of an imaginary mirror - well, I had an imaginary train to deal with, so…it was fun. It’s on video. And DH has said he’s going to burn a copy for all our friends. Heh.
We had a close encounter with Endor and the Death Star on Star Tours, then went back to the hotel for a swim. We dressed and got ready, got off at Epcot, and the skies opened. I mean REALLY opened. It was torrential. We stood under the shelter there for a few moments and then DH looked at me and said “Want to go back to the room?” Well, we watched the rain come down, and come down, and decided yes, a nice counter service back at Pop and a pleasant evening reviewing photos and video would be a good way to deal with it.
Seaworld and Epcot (again. Detecting a theme?)
Our friends in Buffalo had obtained Seaworld passes for us (thanks again!) and we used them today. It was wonderful seeing the two shows we made it to - the Dolphins, and of course the Shamu show.
We were fairly overheated from Seaworld (boy that park gets hot!) so we went back to the hotel around three and hopped in the pool - paddled around for an hour or so and brought our body temps down to something below the core of the sun. Epcot was EMH tonight! And we had reservations at 8:30 pm at Le Cellier!!!
We shopped around a bit again, and were seated about fifteen minutes after checking in. The reputation of this restaurant is well earned. The food was amazing. We waddled out as the folks who didn’t have wristbands were leaving, and sat watching the boats working on the lagoon to retrieve the globe and re-set stuff for the next night.
Wow, what a trip. If you want any info on Disney, I highly recommend a website called www.intercot.com - I used it to plan most of this trip and it went - well - swimmingly. ;)