Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Dive Quest Epcot

by grandmaR

If you are a certified diver, you can dive into the Living Seas tank (a misnomer as while the fish are alive, all the coral is fake) at Epcot.

There are two dives with 8 divers each - one meets at 4:30 pm and the other meets at 5:30 pm. After the 5:30 dive, the Epcot Divers feed the fish.

After an eight-minute introductory video, divers are shown to locker rooms to change into bathing suits and shortly wetsuits, and then to the dive deck above the aquarium. Dive gear is set up on the edge of the dive deck and ready to be strapped on. The group of eight divers is divided into two groups of four, given a predive briefing and a divemaster to follow into the aquarium for a half-hour dive. After the dive, the group returns to the locker rooms for a hot shower, and then to watch a video of the dive, which may be purchased for $35. The entire program takes about two-and-a-half hours

I was sorry that I did this without any of my family there (I did it in the evening of my conference before they got there). It would have been nice to have someone to wave to in the restaurant that surrounds the tank and have pictures taken with. It was $140 each and all the equipment you use is provided, although I think they allowed me to use my own mask with prescription diopters in it.

I did this. In addition to being surprised that the coral was fake (I expected something like the coral reef tank at the Smithsonian), I was *really* surprised at how COLD the water was. You really had to have a wet suit to be comfortable. They supply the wet suits too. I had to have help getting into mine as the large sizes fastened in the back.

No photography other than the official photography is allowed, so no one will have any photos other than those unless they have someone who will take a photo of them from the restaurant. There are some copyrighted photos on the website

DISNEY

by grandmaR

Orlando is the location that most folks think of when they think DISNEY. But actually WDW is located here in Lake Buena Vista. I've moved my Disney tips to Disneyworld-Orlando except for the hotel tip which is actually in the correct location here.

Up to May of 2000, I had not been to DisneyWorld. My husband and I and our two (at that time) daughters went to Disney Land in about 1964. My mom and dad went to DisneyWorld before he died in 1973 and really enjoyed the monorail and Epcot center. My son and DIL took their 2 year old son courtesy of Make-a-Wish before he died. My daughter who lived in Miami had been many times. But I had not been - and quite frankly it wasn't on my wish list of destinations.

But I had a professional meeting (for industrial hygienists) scheduled in Orlando just before my mom had scheduled her reunion. So I drove my daughter's car up from Miami, and actually stayed IN Orlando and went to this meeting. It was the last meeting I attended because I've now retired.

My mom had a family reunion at DisneyWorld in May 2000 just before she turned 91 years old. She had myself and my sister and our husbands, and 6 out of 7 grandchildren and their husbands, and 9 out of 11 great grandchildren (one was working and couldn't come and one had died). We all stayed at DisneyWorld.

We did the Breakfast with Mickey, and a dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (see Disneyworld-Orlando).

Not everyone is thrilled with Disney.

Other than the Dive Quest at Epcot which I did before the rest of them got there, I did go to one of the water parks by myself, to Epcot with my son's family, and I took one of my grandsons to the Magic Kingdom early one morning before it got too hot. I also went to Animal Kingdom the afternoon before the Rainforest Cafe dinner and went on the Safari ride - at least that had real animals.

DISNEY WORLD

by KarenandCory

"Disney"

Disney World is actually located in Lake Buena Vista, not Orlando.
Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, MGM are 3 must-do's !
I'm going to put my Disney World information on my Orlando page as that is where most people associate with Disney.

Family Vacation in Disney World

by fairy_dust

A long long time ago, when I was 10 years old, my parents decided to take me and my sister to Disney World for March break. We stayed at a big fancy resort, saw the typical tourist traps of Disney World, and enjoyed the warm weather. Since it was over a decade ago, anything I write about this place is seriously dated, and only from the perspective of a 10-year old.