Dive Quest Question

[boilerbabe]

Everyone on the board that knows us, knows we're scuba nuts!!! We have to do Dive Quest at least once per visit! On our last visit they said they were going to start getting rid of the bags they were giving in place of the t-shirts and go back to t-shirts since everyone liked those better! Does anyone know if they did indeed switch back to t-shirts yet? Has anyone done the dive recently or any of you CM's know? Thanks much!!!

[Sharonofwindham]

Everyone on the board that knows us, knows we're scuba nuts!!! We have to do Dive Quest at least once per visit! On our last visit they said they were going to start getting rid of the bags they were giving in place of the t-shirts and go back to t-shirts since everyone liked those better! Does anyone know if they did indeed switch back to t-shirts yet? Has anyone done the dive recently or any of you CM's know? Thanks much!!!

I would love to get into scuba diving. We have some great courses in my area. Would love to take one, get certified & comfortable in my ability, and do Dive Quest next time I visit. Always wanted to do DQ

[Amy]

Everyone on the board that knows us, knows we're scuba nuts!!! We have to do Dive Quest at least once per visit! On our last visit they said they were going to start getting rid of the bags they were giving in place of the t-shirts and go back to t-shirts since everyone liked those better! Does anyone know if they did indeed switch back to t-shirts yet? Has anyone done the dive recently or any of you CM's know? Thanks much!!!

I would love to get into scuba diving. We have some great courses in my area. Would love to take one, get certified & comfortable in my ability, and do Dive Quest next time I visit. Always wanted to do DQ

Me too! But the classes are so expensive
Don't know about the DQ bag vs. t-shirt question b-babe. Maybe one of the people heading to WDW soon, like mindflipper, could ask for you?

[boilerbabe]

Yes, hopefully someone can ask for me?!?! Please?!

I highly recommend scuba diving to anyone that has ever had the interest to try it! It is completely amazing! It can be a pricey hobby, but once you get certified, it never expires. Granted, if you are out of the water for an extended period of time, you would need a refresher course. But, more than likely, you'll become an addict, like us, and never stop!

Dive Quest is a blast, it does not get old!

[Alacrity]

DQ is really neat and it's good fun to be part of the show! The folks in the observation area seem to enjoy seeing and interacting the divers.

And yeah, getting certified can be a bit pricey. The gear is not inexpensive either but if you buy quality stuff and take care of it, it lasts a good long time. I still have my original gear in working order from when I was certified in 1988. Still usable though, perhaps, not so stylish! And the certification lasts a lifetime.

You might also look into online options to get you certification. I'm familiar with the way PADI does it (PADI is one of the certifying agencies and I'm and instructor with them) and you'll still pick a local dive shop to work with. It can be more or less expensive, depends on the shop, so it's something to consider. Very often, though, it's the same price but more convenient.

Not the best pic but here's me doing DiveQuest:

[boilerbabe]

All good points alacrity! There are also other diving agencies out there too, our dive shop now uses SSI, and I believe Disney is affiliated with NAUI. They have a different style of doing things. But in the end, it gets you in the water! I would highly recommend your own gear, yes, it's in investment, but like alacrity pointed out, it will last a lifetime if you have it serviced. Your local dive shop should be able to get you into the right gear!

Here's a shot of me doing DQ in 2012, the rare occaison I was able to score a long suit b/c I freeze!!!!

[boilerbabe]

Has anyone ever done the dive at the Tampa aquarium?! We're thinking of trying to tack this on to our trip, prior to Disney! Alacrity?

[yodiwan1]

if you drive a few ours south, there are tons of Scuba boats here in south Fl!!!

[boilerbabe]

We love to dive in Key Largo, the shark dive looked cool, so we were thinking of tacking it on to the beginning of our trip, just as an overnight! This would require us to bring no dive gear. Just wondered if anyone had done it!

[boilerbabe]

I've often wondered when Mickey scuba dives in the Seas, anytime I've asked a CM at Dive Quest, they won't give me a direct answer. So, I did some serching and this is what I found on a website called "Chip and Company"

■It is actually a NAUI specialty called “Character Diving” that teaches this skill to character performers. There are only a handful of instructors that teach this, and they are all in the Orlando area… and the only place to teach this is WDW. The performers must be current Mickey Mouse performers and scuba certified before applying for this.
■There is no set schedule for him to dive. He is either diving once a month to keep his certification or he will dive for a (very expensive) special event in the VIP room for the seas.

I would imagine this would take some practice, diving in a character suit! I was also pleased to see that Mickey uses the same gear as I do...Scubapro!

Hopefully one of these visits we will be fortunate enough to see the Mouse getting some down time!

[Wizzard419]

I am kind of surprised they would pay for one of the plush stuffers to learn how to dive as opposed to using one of the pros to do it since there is so much risk involved with such a dive.

[Boilerdude]

I was surprised to hear that too. Would think it would be easier to teach one of the instructors to be a character then the other way around. Well, Mickey has 7 safety divers but with any dive there is always risk. In Mickey's case it's minimized a lot. And if there is a problem, Mickey is in 25 feet of water, just blow and go. (Which means, exhale out and go to the top).

[boilerbabe]

The person they train to dive as Mickey has to be a certified diver and also play Mickey in the one of the parks. So, the person already knows how to dive. It's just like a super cool "specialty" to learn to dive as the head cheese!!!

[Wizzard419]

Ah, so they would then theoretically not have to pay as much since the person was a diver already. I imagine they also pay the divers more per hour than the characters (even the diving one) since they would rather not use one of the pros.

[Amy]

I've often wondered when Mickey scuba dives in the Seas, anytime I've asked a CM at Dive Quest, they won't give me a direct answer. So, I did some serching and this is what I found on a website called "Chip and Company"

■It is actually a NAUI specialty called “Character Diving” that teaches this skill to character performers. There are only a handful of instructors that teach this, and they are all in the Orlando area… and the only place to teach this is WDW. The performers must be current Mickey Mouse performers and scuba certified before applying for this.
■There is no set schedule for him to dive. He is either diving once a month to keep his certification or he will dive for a (very expensive) special event in the VIP room for the seas.

I would imagine this would take some practice, diving in a character suit! I was also pleased to see that Mickey uses the same gear as I do...Scubapro!

Hopefully one of these visits we will be fortunate enough to see the Mouse getting some down time!

Interesting! Although it sounds like it is very rare to actually see Mickey taking a dive then...or maybe that should be performing a dive??