Day trips from Orlando for visiting diver

[reefseal]

I will be in Orlando during NH Winter break (Week of Feb 23rd) with Family unit pumping vast amounts of $$ to Disney Corp. I managed to pursuade wife to excuse myself one day to get a dive in at one of your nearby springs. I found one Orlando area outfit ( Kissimmee Dive Center ) that offers to out of town visiting divers a day trip to Ginnie Springs. They are quoting $200 for: Transportation, gear rental, park admission, guide to Blue Grotto. If want to add 2nd dive to do Devils den, an additional $45. Seems ok but was wondering if any of you know of any local dive shops that offer something similar..

If anyone is interested in going that week, and willing to drive me from Orlando/Kissimmee area, I'll be most greatful. (pay gas, lunch.. AND be guide to diving New England if ever visit Boston Area) Would be very interested in trying both Blue Grotto/Devils Den.

send me a PM if interested..

 

[simbrooks]

I think those trips are essentially babying you along. I have talked with the guy at KPD about their arranged group trips and he said that they also offer essentially what you describe. It depends what you are after really. I would imagine that you could probably be ok to dive any of those sites (not cave diving) with a buddy. If you want to stick with the family unit you can dive epcot's living sea - dive quest, its about $120 inc all gear and if you do the 5.30 dive (they ask you to arrive about 3.30) then you get an hour for that in a big fish tank.

As for options from Orlando, you can go to the coast, it will take about 2.5-3 hours to get to somewhere like Jupiter to dive, or another half hour on top as you go down the coast to west palm or again to ft lauderdale - a day trip is a reasonably long drive to those places. For inland/springs diving, you can dive devils or blue grotto or ginnie springs or paradise springs for $27/day entrance, add on rental (if you dont bring your gear) that is offered at a variety of LDS's (i can think of 10 off the top of my head in Orlando, inc KPD). So as you can see they charge a pretty mark up for the service of baby-sitting you and offering transport/rentals too. It depends what you want to afford. They can probably rent you the gear for about $50 per day (guesstimate). If you go to www.cavediving.com that will give you a map of the springs area, its about 1.5 hours to Ocala from Disney and another 30-40 mins to Gainesville, probably another 30 to High Springs (Ginnie Springs), which are all popular haunts. You could always do the manatee thing with your family and shoot off a dive there - many threads on that, would be about $30 for the snorkelling trip or $50 w/dive in somewhere like king springs (right by manatee sanctuary you snorkel).

So for options, you can do it yourself and you could get in a day of diving somewhere around $100 for rentals plus two of those commercial dive sites (devils and blue grotto are really close to each other, paradise is just about 20 miles down the road and ginnie has two sites) or even a state park or two for $5 each entrance. You would need to organize a buddy for all of those though. I know i will be busy both the weekends before and after either out of town or diving (wpb).

Hope that gives you a starter to ask on from.

 

[iflyprops]

I have been primarily diving out of Orlando since august. Jupiter/West Palm Beach are worth the 2.5hr drive. But if you are interested in something a little closer Blue Springs state park is just off of I-4....just beware of the most evil park rangers you will ever come across. I firmly believe that it is the penal colony for rangers...Its fun though...not a great spring unless your cavern certified though. Blue Grotto is about two blocks away from Devils Den, it would make a nice two dive day...btw devils den is up to $27 bucks now....

Have fun!

 

[simbrooks]

I wont say that the dives on the east coast of FL arent fun, but at 2.5 hours each way, that can make a long day, i prefer to split it over a weekend/two day trip with dives each day to make the most of the time and mileage!

 

[Scubakevdm]

If you end up heading to the coast to dive, which by the way, I strongly recommend doing, I'll dive with you and show you around the reefs if you come on a weekday. Here's where I work: WWW.Splashdowndivers.com.

 

[vettenorlando]

Check out DiveQuest at Disney, if you are already there you will already have the admission paid... so the dive is only $120, I haven't dont it personally but everyone I talk to say its top notch... You are treated really well, get to see some behind the scenes stuff and its very classy from what I hear. Also if you are looking for another tour guide give ExtaSea Dive center a call... Don is great, and I am sure they can do something similar and competitive to KPD...

 

[H2Andy]

They are quoting $200 for: Transportation, gear rental, park admission, guide to Blue Grotto. If want to add 2nd dive to do Devils den, an additional $45.

car rental for a day $40
gas: $20.00
admission to Blue Grotto: $30 (well, $27.00)
rental gear: say $30?

that's $120.00.

they are charging you almost double.

Not a good deal. BUT you do need a buddy
to dive both the Grotto and the Den (the Den is fanatical about it),
so you are paying $80.00 to let someone take you there and to provide
a buddy, so it might not be such a bad deal.

Admission to Devil's Den is $30.00 (well, $28.00) by the way.

You can get more info. on these two places from my site, along with
contact info. if you want it.

I would say your best bet is to drive to Palm Beach and try a couple of
ocean dives. Just awesome.

 

[H2Andy]

...just beware of the most evil park rangers you will ever come across. I firmly believe that it is the penal colony for rangers...

yeah, he's not kidding either. i am still smarting from my $125.00 ticket
all those years ago (ok ok... so i wasn't cavern certified then and carried
a light with me... big deal...)

 

[reefseal]

I thought about doing on my own (renting car, gear, paying admission..) but wasn't sure about park policies of diving solo. I figured there would be many people there that I could take a chance and find someone going in that I can go down with. (What we do frequently here in New England)

If found someone willing to go with me, would make it worth their while and still be ahead than paying LDS which BTW wants to charge me $245 to do both Blue Grotto and Devils Den.. I'm ok paying for it if it's the only way I can get to dive the springs..

BTW.. I wanted to add that I'm already doing Disney Divequest.. That was a no brainer..

 

[dutchfin]

If you were to drive up to Blue Grotto-Devils Den, I could be your dive buddy. I'm only 25 min. away. You would want to do Blue Grotto first as it is the deepest, @ 100'. The Den is @ 55' right now.