Closest Spring to dive from Orlando Florida

[homerdoc]

Random - picking my daughter up early next Saturday to take her to Disney in Orlando (shes at a conference, I'm driving down) - but we cant check in to the hotel until 3. So I will need to kill some time.

Is there a dive closer than the ones around Gainesville (its about 2 hrs away) - Devils Den, BG, Ginnie etc. Can do that but not sure I want to invest four hours driving there and back.

We will have all our own gear.

Thanks

Homerdoc

PS doing the Epcot dive - will post a trip report on that.

 

[spatty99]

Blue Spring is the closest. Not much to see, small 60 foot deep large elevator sized shaft, then 1/4 mile ish drift dive in 5-10 feet.

Alexander Springs probably next closest. The prettiest spring in the area, 25 foot deep bowl, but not much else.

In both cases, in the summer you have to get there crazy early (I think the line forms way before the gates open) to get in the park, they usually reach capacity well before noon. I did both shortly before school summer break, and wait was up to an hour when arriving 9/10ish.

 

[homerdoc]

oh sigh...thanks for the update - we may just go kill time at a mall

 

[Johnoly]

we may just go kill time at a mall

Mall ? If that's the case then probably the largest mall in O-town would be the Florida Mall at the intersection of Orange Blossom Trail (OBT) and Sand Lake Road. But ALSO right at that intersection and just 1 block to the south on OBT are 2 good dive shops.

1st one you'll see is Scuba Quest - Smaller shop but all top of the line brands and if you want to see the new & unique Atomic T3 regulator($2500), they have it.

2nd one on the same side of the street and just 1 car entrance down to the south is Diver's Direct. They are large chain dive store and lots of inventory plus,,often some great prices on their private label brands.

You could kill 2-3 hrs between both stores and then head directly across the street to the HUGE Florida Mall with a good food court also.

Enjoy my town > Orlando !!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Mall ? If that's the case then probably the largest mall in O-town would be the Florida Mall at the intersection of Orange Blossom Trail (OBT) and Sand Lake Road. But ALSO right at that intersection and just 1 block to the south on OBT are 2 good dive shops.

1st one you'll see is Scuba Quest - Smaller shop but all top of the line brands and if you want to see the new & unique Atomic T3 regulator($2500), they have it.

2nd one on the same side of the street and just 1 car entrance down to the south is Diver's Direct. They are large chain dive store and lots of inventory plus,,often some great prices on their private label brands.

You could kill 2-3 hrs between both stores and then head directly across the street to the HUGE Florida Mall with a good food court also.

Enjoy my town > Orlando !!

@Johnoly ... My wife and I just spent the last week vacationing in your town. There is a nice resort we like to stay at that is on the small-side (for a Marriott) with only 80-some units, a really nice pool and is close to many very good restaurants. When we want to get away for some easy R&R without needing to fly or pay coastal prices, we often head to Orlando. We even got to see two separate firework displays from our condo on Sat and Tue nights. We've both been crazy busy and it was a very welcome 7-days with absolutely no responsibilities! We focused on enjoying some good ethnic food this trip including Ethiopian, Turkish, Brazilian, Indian, French and Italian. It was a great week!

 

[Johnoly]

We focused on enjoying some good ethnic food this trip including Ethiopian, Turkish, Brazilian, Indian, French and Italian. It was a great week!

O-town has a great mixture of different foods. But I'm still never going to eat " Ox Tail ",,lol !!

 

[MrVegas]

What about Paradise Springs near Ocala?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

What about Paradise Springs near Ocala?

That is even further than Blue Springs. Paradise Springs is roughly 1.5 hrs from Orlando, depending on where exactly in Orlando you are starting from.

All of the best diving springs (Blue Grotto, Devil's Den, Paradise Spring) are northwest of Orlando and are a good 1.5-2 hr drive roughly. Easy to make a day of it but a bit too far to do in an afternoon. You can hit both Devil's Den and Blue Grotto on the same trip as both are in Williston, but that would take up the better part of a day. I've done that before when visiting Orlando, but it definitely requires an entire day. You can be back in Orlando for dinner, but not much sooner.

 

[pickens_46929]

Mills 50 area is kind of interesting. Some good places to eat & drink. Kitchy stores. That kind of thing,

Same with Winter Park area. Leu Gardens is also near by and was nice.

 

[homerdoc]

Mall ? If that's the case then probably the largest mall in O-town would be the Florida Mall at the intersection of Orange Blossom Trail (OBT) and Sand Lake Road. But ALSO right at that intersection and just 1 block to the south on OBT are 2 good dive shops.

1st one you'll see is Scuba Quest - Smaller shop but all top of the line brands and if you want to see the new & unique Atomic T3 regulator($2500), they have it.

2nd one on the same side of the street and just 1 car entrance down to the south is Diver's Direct. They are large chain dive store and lots of inventory plus,,often some great prices on their private label brands.

You could kill 2-3 hrs between both stores and then head directly across the street to the HUGE Florida Mall with a good food court also.

Enjoy my town > Orlando !!

Johnoly - Great advice

We stopped by Scuba Quest - they were way cool people. If I lived in Orlando, I would use them as my dive shop. There was a lady there that was so nice - I told her we were just killing time and one of the message boards told me they had some of the new exciting regulators so she showed my daughter and I the new atomics. I couldn't find anything to buy but my daughter found a random mermaid ring (she loves it) so we got that. Great store.

I never understood the excitement about the Atomic regulators - but she went through it all - showed us two one was 2500 one was 2700 - the 2700 one apparently was put on a breathing machine for 3 months - it was really cool looking.

Anyway - thanks for the advice - killed 30 minutes there - killed 2 hours at the mall and bam - it was check in time