Epcot DiveQuest

Epcot DiveQuest provides a rare opportunity for scuba-certified guests to become honorary cast members while experiencing a diversity of marine wildlife that would require multiple ocean dives to replicate. My husband and I participated in DiveQuest on our recent trip to Walt Disney World in June 2009.

As instructed, we reported to Guest Relations area outside of Epcot 15 minutes prior to our scheduled dive time. Our group leader, Jim, took everyone's certification cards and asked for our t-shirt and shoe sizes. Then he led us on a backstage tour of The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

First, we saw some of the water filtration infrastructure and Disney's marine research labs, learned how they feed the various animals and learned about the efforts of the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. Next, we went behind-the-scenes at the manatee exhibit and learned that manatees' only natural enemy is man – most manatees are injured by boats or other man-made objects. Jim led us through the "onstage" portion of the manatee exhibit and the dolphin exhibit.

We returned backstage and went into a lounge area where we signed the requisite waivers and watched a short video about the experience we were about to have. Everyone was excited, and we then headed for the locker rooms. Each diver was assigned a locker with a dry towel and Scubapro wet suit and booties ready and waiting inside. Once everyone had gotten on their swimsuits, wet suits and booties, Jim led us to a door with a sign that read, "Door leads onstage/Do not leave open." He reminded us that we were honorary cast members for the day and that we should smile and be friendly to the other guests. It's hard to miss a large group of people in wet suits, and as soon as we walked out the door, the cameras started flashing. My husband commented that he felt like we should be walking in slow motion like the scene in "Armageddon" where the astronauts leave mission control to board their rocket!

After the photo opportunity, we were led up a spiraling staircase to the spot where we would dive. All of our diving gear was assembled and ready to go. The Scubapro buoyancy control devices are weight-integrated and, just as Jim had correctly guessed everyone's wet suit size, the dive masters had correctly weighted everyone's gear. I guess that's part of the magic of Disney!

We stepped on to a ledge just above the observation deck in the same order as our gear was set up. We donned our fins and gear, made a short surface swim to a buoy, and then descended. There were three dive masters in the water with us, plus the videographer. Our primary dive master led us on a short guided tour of the aquarium, which gave the videographer some good shots of everyone in the group. Before the dive, they had told us that if we had family on the observation deck, we should go find them at the conclusion of the guided tour and wait for the videographer to come film us. My husband easily spotted our two children and my parents, and the dive master flagged down the videographer, who got a shot of all of us together, then zoomed in on our family through the aquarium glass.

After that, we were free to explore all the aquarium had to offer. Two sand tiger sharks patrol the waters, but didn't seem to notice us. The two huge green sea turtles were happy to swim right above, underneath, or next to us. There is a no-touch policy on the dive, otherwise it would have been tempting to grab on to their shells and take a ride like Marlin and Dory did with Crush in "Finding Nemo"! Hundreds of fish were swimming about, some in large schools and others in smaller groups, along with two gigantic grouper. Spotted eagle rays and cow-nosed rays glided gracefully around us. Because there is no sunlight in the aquarium, the coral is not real. But in true Disney form, it looks so real that the fish have been known to lay their eggs in it.