Ok.... since several folks are going on future trips, I'll outline what all we went through. HOPEFULLY this is helpfull. It's a little long, but I wanted to give those going on future trips all the info that you might want to know.
Pre Dive Meeting:
For the dive, you exit EPCOT and meet at Guest Relations outside the gate. (not to be consfused with Guest Relations inside the park). To find this area, go out the ticket gate and hang a left. Guest relations is to the far left of all the ticket booths. There is a window there if you have questions, but they just pointed us to the benches and said the dive staff would be here soon. Right on time they show up and check us all in. They call you by name and want your C-Card right then. They will keep it and give it back to you after the dive. Here they size you up for your wetsuit and ask your shoe size and t-shirt size (you get a t-shirt as part of the dive fee).
Pre Dive Tour:
We then went in through the gate and we paused at the dumpster trash compactor. The guide joked that if we got bent on the dive that this was their re-compression chamber. As we entered the building they pointed out the aquarium mixing tanks and filter/pumps equipment across the parking lot. We then went inside and they showed us a map that had project areas they were working on.....
We then went upstairs to a briefing room where we watched a short briefing video and filled out the liability release forms..... then on to the locker room.
Locker Room:
They had seperate mens and womens locker rooms. Inside was a locker with our names on it. Inside the locker was a shorty wetsuit, a pair of low-rise booties and a clean towel. THe locker room had changing stalls with showers in them for you to change into your wetsuit and then store your personal items in the locker. You then gave the key to the dive staff for safe keeping. After the dive you could take a shower and change. The showers had shampoo and body wash in them and the sink area had hair dryers. (I know someone will want to know this). They give you a bag to put your swimsuit in (after the dive), but I reccomend bringing a ziplock to put it in if you're going to put it in your backpack, etc.
Going to the Dive Deck:
After you change, you then walk from "backstage" through the main viewing floor of the aquarium. You get a few strange looks from folks as you walk through the main tourist areas to the tank. All the little kids think it's cool as they see you in your wetsuits. You then go up to the top of the aquarium and find your dive gear already assembled.
Dive Gear and Dive Deck:
The Dive Gear was if I remember correctly Scuba Pro BC's. Weight integrated. They already had the weights in the BC. I was a little overweighted but not too bad. The regulators were Atomic. I think they were B2's. The only other notable items about the gear was that they didn't have octopuses or depth gauges. They didn't even mention this or make any safety briefing about it, which I found odd.... but the max depth was 25', so in the unlikely event you had an equipment problem, you could easily reach the surface. not sure why they didn't have depth gauges, but like I said, it was only 25' deep. The dive masters (3 in water including the camera guy). all had octo's I noticed. (actually attached to a small pony I think mounted on their main tank.)
The tanks were all AL80's and AL63's. For the most part a few of the smaller body divers had AL63's and so did the female divers. I noticed that one of the diver masters was diving steel tanks though. but that wasn't an option for us. They stated if you were an air hog and ran low on air and that there was at least 5 minutes left in the dive, they would change out your tank for a new one for you to continue your dive.
Masks were ScubaPro masks or Atomics masks. Fins were Atomic split fins. No snorkels, but we didn't need them. wetsuits were 2.5mm Scubapro shorites, rear zip.
You are allowed to bring your own mask and a dive watch. I though they would make you dip it in something to santitize it, but I never saw them do that with anyone. All other gear you must their gear.
Dive Conditions:
The water temp was 78f. It was a little chilly getting in with a shortie, but fine after a minute. I didn't get cold during the dive. vis was pretty unlimited as the waster was crystal clear. I personally thought the lighting was a little dim in the aquarium, but was told it was that way to help keep down algae.
Aquarium info:
The Aquarium is 25' deep as noted before. It holds 6 million gallons according to what they told us. it was about 200' across. they have walkways that run in the center of the aqarium so it divides it up. they also have a "dolphin area" that is fenced off. we were told several times to keep at least 10' away from that area. The viewing areas have two floors to see into the aquarium. most of the viewing was from the second floor as the viewing area on the first floor windows have been painted black and turned into part of the "Nemo Ride". The other viewing area was on the other side of the aquarium and was in the restaurant there. so you dove by where people were eating dinner. The water is circulated and refreshed I think they said every 3 hours.
In the Aquarium:
The "big fish" of the aquarium were the sharks and the rays and the turtle. There were 6 sharks in the aquarium I was told. I know that I found at least 4 seperate ones. but not sure if I saw all six or maybe a just four that I saw multiple times. There were also several sting rays. I noticed that they didn't have barbs.... I asked about them later and was told they were removed for safety purposes of the divers/swimmers.
All kinds of different fishes in the aquarium. Too many to mention, but basically all the tropical fish that were of decent size.
there was also a HUGE turtle. it seemed to get in our 'groups' way a couple times when we were on the 'initial tour'. It also snapped/bit one of the divers fins on the dive.
The reefs were all mand made fiberglass, but looked pretty darn real. It is the original reef installed 20 years ago when the aquarium opened but they've had to fix places over the years and re-paint a few spots. it's all mounted on steel beams that you can see if you look at it close up. still looks pretty good. the 'sea floor' is all small shells. I'm guessing this is to they can vaccum and filter out the shells from being sucked up and just suck up the dirt/fish-poop.
The Dive:
For the dive, we got in the water and did a surface swim over to a float with a "down line". There were I think 12 divers in our group, so it was a little crowded a few times when we were all together. The Dive Master said we would follow her over, go down, do a check, then follow her on a guided part of the dive. Then we would come back to the down line and we could then split up in buddy pairs.
So we did all that, when down, she did the OK check with all of us and swam us over to a "diving bell". We then waited and went in one by one and they video taped us. we removed our mask and reg and waved for all 12 of us to do this.... we then swam through some coral arches and zig zagged back in a mass crowd to the up/down line. With the 12 divers, plus the dive masters all together, it felt like an "Aquarium cattle dive". But later we realized they were just doing the swim thoughs to get the camera shots for the videos as the camera diver rushed ahead of us each time (which explained us zig-zagging so he could get ahead of us). After we got back to the line, we broke up and did our own thing.
For those who had family/friends in the viewing area, the video camera guy did a quick video of you and your family together.
we then swam the aquarium. People watched you like you were rock stars... waving and trying to get your attention from the viewing areas. It was fun to interact with the kids and it made their day to have any of the divers come over to them. It was a lot of fun to interact with them.
I followed around the turtle and a couple of the sharks while on the dive and noticed they seemed to circle in the same exact pattern each time. I thought that was interesting.
the end of the dive was signaled by the dive master pounding two rocks together at that up line at 40 minutes into the dive. we all met there and ascended back up. no safety stop at 20' as the aquarium was only 25' deep. I was back on deck with between 2000 and 2100psi left in my tank, so I hated having to get out "so early" with so much air left in my tank.
Post Dive Tour:
After the dive, as we got out they handed us all a clean towel. We then proceeded in wetsuit to the area behind the aquarium to where they had a couple holding tanks. One had a couple dolphins asleep in it that they seperated out during parts of the day to keep them from getting agressive with the other dolphins we were told. They also had all kinds of PVC pipes in different shapes hanging on the wall. They used these to train the dolphins to reconize a shape with a certain sound or word.
From there we proceeded to a back area tank where they had a couple Manatee's. These were bought rescued animals that had been rehabilitated and would be returned to the wild soon in the upcoming months.
As a note they talked about the shark feedings. A group comes in a 3am and feeds the sharks in the middle of the night. They told us that they wore all black and fed them from the surface with the lights off so they couldn't be seen. They didn't want the sharks to associate the food with people was the reason for the dark clothes and no lighting. So the sharks could never see how they were being fed. The different types of sharks are trained to come to an audible sound to a certain planform area to be fed each time...
After that, back to the locker rooms to change.
Dive Review:
After changing, we went back into the briefing room and picked up our C-cards, filled our a review form, and got a t-shirt. They also let us look at the video on DVD. (I'm guessing it was 20 minutes long.) I think my above post reflects what it was about pretty decently, so no sense in re-stating it. They were $35 each. You could buy them right there for exact change cash or in the gif shop afterwards using credit card.
After that, we were "turned loose" into the aquarium and into the park. So if you hadn't paid the ticket to get into Epcot, you now had free roam of the park. THe only thing was that you didn't have any "official ticket" that you could use for FastPass, but by that time of day I'd say that most rides FastPass would be long gone anyway. Regardless, you still had time to grab something to eat and get a spot to watch the 9pm fireworks display that they do every night.
Overall the whole process took about 2.5 hours, although their website says it will take 3 hours from start to finish.
Dive Staff:
I'll say the dive staff was fun and helpfull. The had two seperate groups for above water and in water. They made sure the whole process went smoothly. the only thing I could note was that we really weren't given any safety briefing on the dive deck by the "underwater dive master group" on what to do in the event of any emergency and the fact that we didn't have any octos. I just found that to be a little odd, but oh well.
Summary:
Lots of fun and I would reccomend it to anyone to do. It also gives your non-diving family members a chance to see you dive, which might be hard in other dive locations.
