Planning my first dive vacation

[mer-maiden]

OK, so the weekend after memorial day my boyfriend and I will be finishing up our open water dives and become fully certified. Two weeks after that we are heading to Florida.We really want this to be our FIRST dive vacation. I've heard good things from the local dive shop about Ginnie Springs and we're considering a one night stay there. We also found out that Epcot has a program where you can dive the Living Seas tanks. Does anyone here have any experiance in either of these places or can anyone else maybe recommend something better?

 

[DiveMaven]

Sounds like you aren't going anywhere near South Florida, but if you do, keep going and head down to the Keys. Great diving! Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale are also good places and a little more north than the Keys.

 

[mer-maiden]

We had originally planned on going to the keys but money issues didnt let us make reservations in time. Does anyone know if reservations are a necessity that late in June or would we be able to find a nice place to stay if we just drove down.

 

[Rookie_J]

We had originally planned on going to the keys but money issues didnt let us make reservations in time. Does anyone know if reservations are a necessity that late in June or would we be able to find a nice place to stay if we just drove down.

we were in pensacola this past winter, they were directly hit by the hurricane, so hotel rooms were tough to find, the further east you went (dustin, panama city beach) seemed to be ok.

jump over to the Florida Conch Divers, under the Regional travel and dive clubs portion of Scubaboard, they'll probably be able to give a hand on where to go. may also meet some people from the board to dive with (great folks).

Good Luck

 

[boulderjohn]

We had originally planned on going to the keys but money issues didnt let us make reservations in time. Does anyone know if reservations are a necessity that late in June or would we be able to find a nice place to stay if we just drove down.

I think you can find a place then, but I would scout things put aheard of time. You can go over to the Conch Divers site as mentioned earleir, or you can just Google for dive operators in Florida. You will find several that are on the premises of motels of varying quality.

 

[cal2632]

We also found out that Epcot has a program where you can dive the Living Seas tanks. Does anyone here have any experiance in either of these places or can anyone else maybe recommend something better?

Did the Epcot DiveQuest in February. Had a wonderful face to face encounter with a large, inquisitive turtle. Certainly a dive suitable for newbies - they do everything but breathe for you.

 

[SubMariner]

OK, so the weekend after memorial day my boyfriend and I will be finishing up our open water dives and become fully certified. Two weeks after that we are heading to Florida.We really want this to be our FIRST dive vacation. I've heard good things from the local dive shop about Ginnie Springs and we're considering a one night stay there. We also found out that Epcot has a program where you can dive the Living Seas tanks. Does anyone here have any experiance in either of these places or can anyone else maybe recommend something better?

Epcot is a blast, but it's not cheap. If memory serves, it's about $125 per person. And you are not allowed to use any of your own gear except your mask.

Ginnie is... well... Ginnie. You will need at least 5mm to stay warm there, though: the water is only about 68F all year round.

As for dive operators in FL, I second the motion that you look over in the Conch forum. The locals will know!

 

[herman]

I have to agree. Ginnie is OK for a mid winter, tired of being dry dive but for your first dives, if you can possibly do it, go on to the Keys. Ginnie is interesting the first time but it can't hold a candle to the reefs off the Keys. I suspect you should be able to find some place to stay in the mid Keys.
Here is a small place I have stayed a couple of times. It's not fancy but an interesting place. http://www.sunsetcovebeachresort.com/

 

[Chris Hipp]

Isnt the divequest only 30 minutes long??? Is the $125 on top of the regular park admission? I would like to do it sometime but that is a little steep for me.

 

[Cen_Fla_Keith]

Disney's DiveQuest is absolutely, positively worth doing... Disney doesn't do things halfway, and DiveQuest is no exception. Pricey, but spectacular!

We're off to Ginney this very weekend (hopefully it's the blast that everyone has said it is!)