Sea Aqua Tour

[SPUNKYSHADOE]

my first post!!I would love to do this tour BUT I can not swim!!!My husband can not swim either and gets embarrassed easily.Please explain the tour to me.Never been in a wet suit or every did anything like this.Any and all advise is soooo appreciated.

 

[SPUNKYSHADOE]

anyone?

 

[maroo]

Eeek.

I am so sorry your first post was not even answered.

to the DIS!

I don't have the answer to your question - but I wanted to welcome you!

 

[YourEveryDayAdam]

Here is a copy of my review of the Living Seas Aqua Tour. You won't need to know how to swim. This is Scuba Assisted Snorkel. You'll be wearing a life vest the entire time in the tank. You just use your flippers to go forward and your hands to steer.

Day 4:

What an AWESOME day! I woke up around 10:30 am. Slept in because of the late night at House of Blues. Earlier in the week, I decided to do the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour. Got to the tour at 12:30. W-O-W. This was AWESOME! Spent about the 1st half hour going over some basic trivia of the aquarium... For example, did you know that the Dolphins used to be a part of the general population and not segregated in the tank? They had to separate them because the dolphins would use the other inhabitants of the tank as toys. For example, they would throw the sting rays out of the water passing them back-and-forth like a Frisbee.

Another 30 minutes to go over the safety video, do's and dont's, and the whole "if you die you agree to not sue Disney" disclaimer. Another 30 minutes to change in to the wet suits, get to the aquarium, and get the equipment on. This was a scuba-assisted-snorkel setup. Basically, a wetsuit, mask, fins, tanks. But instead of a weight-belt so you can go underwater, you get a life jacket to keep you at the surface. This lets you swim without Scuba certification. If you get Scuba certified, they give you the full scuba setup and let you go underwater.

Once we got all setup, we had about 45 minutes to swim around. Wow. Oh. Wow. All of the fish, rays, and turtles come right up to you. You can watch all the tank workers do their work. I got to wave at people on the other side of the glass. Overall: AWESOME!

After the swim, got showered, changed and then we got a photo of us in our wet suits, a t-shirt, and a special pin for doing the tour. The total cost of the tour, with the DVC discount, was $119. Worth every single penny.

Just a word of warning: You have to walk through the public areas of the aquarium. In your wetsuit. Your skin-tight wetsuit. Twice. It certainly made me a little self-conscious.

 

[ElementCamper]

Welcome to the DIS!
I had to reply to this post, as a former SCUBA instructor, I would have reservations about your attending this tour.

If you are not comfortable in the water (placing your head in the water, breathing off a snorkel or surface supplied air (which is what this tour consists of)), I would not be comfortable recommending you take this tour. You will be in water over your head and will not be able to stand up if panicked.

I would contact the tour phone line and ask if you can discuss this with someone that conducts the Aqua Seas Tour to see if they can accomodate or recommend this tour for you.

Might be a good opportunity to take swimming lessons. I did not know how to swim until I was 26 years old, now am a retired SCUBA instructor.

 

[SPUNKYSHADOE]

Does most people doing the tour already know how to breathe with a snorkel?Is everyone actually swimming and I will look out of place?Any and all advise is truely appreciated.

 

[ElementCamper]

I would contact the tour phone line and ask if you can discuss this with someone that conducts the Aqua Seas Tour to see if they can accomodate or recommend this tour for you.

You will actually be swimming, the water is over your head. Although you will have a flotation device on, you will need to be comfortable with using a breathing device. Prior experience with at least a snorkel would be recommended.

I would want to be sure I would not be turned away for not being able to swim, this needs to be verified with Disney.

 

[PPET]

I've done this with my family. None of us had ever used a regulator, but we had snorkeled before. When you step off of the little landing where you get in the tank, you are in deep water. It would be very easy to panic if you are not used to the water and swimming. There are instructors there to assist you. I would recommend getting in a shallow pool with a mask and snorkel before trying this. With all this said my family still talks about this and it was in 2005.

 

[SPUNKYSHADOE]

ok-I will save this tour for another time.What about the dolphin one?I know you dont swim but do you really[Bget lots of quality time with the dolphin?For us,it is alot of money.[/B]

 

[ElementCamper]

The dolphin tour may be more appropriate from what I've heard about it. You do get up close with the dolphins. Perhaps someone can post that has taken this and advise you.

I'm glad you made the decision to skip the aqua tour until you can swim, I was really getting concerned for you.

 

[Jeanieblue114]

Just a suggestion for a trial.

If you go to typhoon lagoon, they have a shark reef that you snorkle in. It is included in the cost of admission. They also give you free equipment of a vest, mask, snorkle to use. It is about a 5 minute float across the tank from one side to the other with a few lifeguards in the water with you.
There are tons of fishies and sharks and it is a lot of fun. It would give you a quick and safe way to find out how comfortable you are with the mask and snorkle.
And, if you aren't comfortable testing it out when you first get into the testing area of the tank, you can just get right back out and go sit on the beach and enjoy the sun!

 

[SPUNKYSHADOE]

oh thanks!thats good to know!And camper,thank you.