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Hmmmm... missed this thread the first time around. Hope you're having fun.
One of these days I'm going to come down and dive it. Since I'm a volunteer diver at the National Aquarium, we have reciprocal diving programs with lots of other aquariums (epcot being one of them). A couple people from my team have been down there and can't speak highly enough about the people and the program. Good to hear you are a part of it.
Chris
oh, i'd love to see malinowski in a jacket! mwah hah hah!
'sometimes I think Michael Jackson might have been right....' Lynne
Come to the National Aquarium In Baltimore every other Wednesday. I'll be there in a jacket BC... It's uglyOriginally Posted by marci
oh, i'd love to see malinowski in a jacket! mwah hah hah!Although, I am trimmed out pretty darned well, so that whole "you can't trim out in a jacket BC" is bunk.
I'm working on having Chuck (the dive safety officer) let me bring my own BPW setup. He is not opposed dramatically to it, but he requires records of servicing for CYA. Since I do all my own servicing, I have to get someone to "write off" on it.
Chuck is a great guy, so he is not being a hard-*** about it. He is just doing what he needs to. I will be diving my own stuff (BPW at least) when I get off my lazy butt and get someone to sign off on the singles wing in my closet.
Chris
I had the opportunity to do the DiveQuest dive recently. Overall it was pretty cool. The diameter of the aquarium is actually larger than that of Spaceship Earth (Epcot's giant "golf ball"). There are two levels of main viewing windows from the center (the dive entrance is actually through the center of the upper viewing area, up a spiral staircase). There are also windows on the lower level from the Coral Reef restaurant. What I didn't know until the dive is that there is some sort of a VIP-only room above the restaurant with its own set of viewing windows, there is even a plexiglass Kawai piano in there. Must be for weddings or some such.
Marcie, we dove with Scubapro jacket BCs with integrated weight pockets that I thought were massively overweighted. The fins were Atomics splitfins, and the regulators were the Atomics with standard hose routing but no octos. They even had us kneeling on the bottom !!! which was made of some sort of crushed shells that was a part of the giant filtration system that extended to tanks and a building outside the aquarium. The water was 78°F which I thought was a tad cold in the supplied 3mm shortie but I guess the fish like it that way. They shot the little video of you doing a "swimthrough", then popping up inside the diving bell (my first experience inside a pressurized air environment, everything sounded very strange in a metallic echo-y sort of way).
Would do it again? Yes, but only because my 5-year old daughter was sick that night and wasn't able to see me underwater (rescheduling is not an option). But IMO worth doing once, if only for the chance see behind the Disney curtain and get a brief walkthrough of the backarea of the aquarium.
I'm going to contact my local aquarium to find out what volunteering opportunities they have and what the requirements are.
"No single raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood." - Anonymous
chris, i'll be in baltimore this weekend, but since that isn't a wednesday i guess i'll miss the show. darnit.
john, yeah, the 'diving in equipment that isn't mine' is the holdup for me for dive quest. maybe i'll get over it sometime - i kinda hope so - but i won't be kneeling on the bottom for *anyone*. period.
for the 'behind the curtains' thing, the 'keys to the kingdom' tour at disneyworld was fabulous. i'd heartily recommend it, even if it is on dry land.
'sometimes I think Michael Jackson might have been right....' Lynne
Want to dive on 18th or tailgate for skins gaime on 19th? Let me know.
Chris
I have some questions regarding Divequest, and I think you may have been my tourguide on New Years Eve. Please reply.
NitroWill hasn't signed into the Matrix since July. :(
Rob Neto
Chipola Divers - Recreational, Technical, and Cave Diving Instruction & Mentorship
"Survival depends on being able to suppress anxiety and replace it with calm, clear, quick and correct reasoning..." -Sheck Exley
Thanks....I'm trying to find out how to apply for a position with the living seas aquarium. IT'S AMAZING!
I believe this woman runs the animal care portion of the program.Thanks....I'm trying to find out how to apply for a position with the living seas aquarium. IT'S AMAZING!
Michelle Matuszewski-May
Animal Programs Manager
Michelle.Matuszewski@Disney.com
EPCOT/Living Seas Animal Care
Walt Disney World
2020 North Avenue of the Stars
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830-1000 USA
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