Epcot Seas Aqua Tour
It has been a little over two weeks since my Disney World adventure and I think I am finally starting to lose the magic high. Even though I feel completely absorbed back into the real world, there is one thing that I have been thinking about non stop… and that is the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour.
As a birthday present a couple months ago my boyfriend made reservations for the two of us to participate in the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour while we were in Disney. The tour consists of a snorkel adventure in a 5.7 million gallon manmade saltwater ocean. I have been snorkeling twice before in the actual ocean so I was curious how snorkeling in an massive aquarium would compare. The days leading up, between moments screaming on roller coasters, I was full of nervous excitement. In the ocean when you snorkel you see some coral, an occasion tropical fish and rarely something intense or large. In the aquarium, you know exactly what you are going to see… which included sea turtles, sharks, and all sorts of rays! Sea turtles are my FAVORITE animal so I was obviously really excited to see them! On the complete opposite side, the animal I am most scared of is sharks. This is where the nervous excitement came from! #YaySeaTurtles #OMGSharks
The tour was at 12:30pm so we had the entire morning to enjoy in Epcot before the tour. At noon my boyfriend and I devoured lunch with anticipation and then went to guest services which is where you meet up with the group and tour guide. Our group consisted of 12 people all ages and sizes (so don't let your age or size stop you from trying this experience). We met our tour guide who was a perfect mix of sarcastic, knowledgable and hilarious… a fantastic representation of Disney. Once we were all checked in and the ground-rules were laid out (essentially no photos allowed), the tour guide proceeded to give us a behind-the-scenes tour of Epcot. This included seeing the massive infrastructures that filter and maintain the fishy habitats. We also got to see where the fish-food was prepared and the feeding schedule for all of the different aquatic animals. Next we got to see the behind the scenes manatee and dolphin tanks where they hang out when they are not in the large aquarium set up. This was great to see since we were not going to get to see the dolphins or manatees in our snorkeling aquarium. It was such a fun behind the scenes tour! Last but not least we had an educational sit-down which explained how the snorkeling experience would work and you had a sign a liability contract (the boring but important stuff).
Then came the good stuff. We were each given a wetsuit and water-shoes and were escorted to our gender's respective locker rooms. The locker room was fully equipped with showers (body wash, shampoo and conditioner), hair dryers and even a bathing suit drying machine so you wouldn't have to carry a wet suit around all day! The tour guide also had hair elastics for people that may have forgot some! Disney truly thinks of everything! We all got suited up and then met up again as a group. This part is what our guide referred to as "The Walk of Fame." We basically marched through the busy aquarium with hundreds of people who stare at you because you look super important in a wetsuit. If you ask me... it's more like a "Walk of Shame" since those wetsuits are not at all forgiving on your body image! Once the walk was complete we went to a different behind the scenes station, which is where we would be doing the snorkeling! There is this little dock you stand on in the middle of a massive room and you are surrounded on all sides by the aquarium!
So this tour is referred to as snorkeling, but really it is like scuba diving on the top of the water. You don't have a normal snorkel, instead you have a scuba-unit, which you breath in and is connected to a tank, which you wear on the back of a life vest. The tour guide took a picture of us all suited up, knees deep in the water, and then the experience began! I picked up breathing with the scuba unit instantly, whereas my boyfriend took a little longer to adjust. Once he had the hang of it we started to explore the aquarium. The rays have zero fear of the humans in the tank and they come right up to you! You could easily reach out and touch them (if you were allowed to)! The sharks stayed at the bottom of the tank which I was thankful for but they were completely amazing to see!
I have two favorite moments during the adventure:
There you have it! The Epcot Seas Aqua Tour! I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
So pressing questions:
How much does this wonderful experience cost?
Answer: 150$ per person. For the price, we completely believe we got our moneys worth. I would of definitely paid more for it (even though technically I didn't pay anything for it this time… thanks babe!)
How long does the experience last?
Answer: The behind the scenes tour, education and snorkeling together was about 3 hours. The snorkeling alone was just about 30 minutes. That seems like a short time but you really get to see everything in that time frame!
If you have any more questions, please leave a comment! I promise to answer them all!
Sea animals love! <3 WC
As a birthday present a couple months ago my boyfriend made reservations for the two of us to participate in the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour while we were in Disney. The tour consists of a snorkel adventure in a 5.7 million gallon manmade saltwater ocean. I have been snorkeling twice before in the actual ocean so I was curious how snorkeling in an massive aquarium would compare. The days leading up, between moments screaming on roller coasters, I was full of nervous excitement. In the ocean when you snorkel you see some coral, an occasion tropical fish and rarely something intense or large. In the aquarium, you know exactly what you are going to see… which included sea turtles, sharks, and all sorts of rays! Sea turtles are my FAVORITE animal so I was obviously really excited to see them! On the complete opposite side, the animal I am most scared of is sharks. This is where the nervous excitement came from! #YaySeaTurtles #OMGSharks
The tour was at 12:30pm so we had the entire morning to enjoy in Epcot before the tour. At noon my boyfriend and I devoured lunch with anticipation and then went to guest services which is where you meet up with the group and tour guide. Our group consisted of 12 people all ages and sizes (so don't let your age or size stop you from trying this experience). We met our tour guide who was a perfect mix of sarcastic, knowledgable and hilarious… a fantastic representation of Disney. Once we were all checked in and the ground-rules were laid out (essentially no photos allowed), the tour guide proceeded to give us a behind-the-scenes tour of Epcot. This included seeing the massive infrastructures that filter and maintain the fishy habitats. We also got to see where the fish-food was prepared and the feeding schedule for all of the different aquatic animals. Next we got to see the behind the scenes manatee and dolphin tanks where they hang out when they are not in the large aquarium set up. This was great to see since we were not going to get to see the dolphins or manatees in our snorkeling aquarium. It was such a fun behind the scenes tour! Last but not least we had an educational sit-down which explained how the snorkeling experience would work and you had a sign a liability contract (the boring but important stuff).
Then came the good stuff. We were each given a wetsuit and water-shoes and were escorted to our gender's respective locker rooms. The locker room was fully equipped with showers (body wash, shampoo and conditioner), hair dryers and even a bathing suit drying machine so you wouldn't have to carry a wet suit around all day! The tour guide also had hair elastics for people that may have forgot some! Disney truly thinks of everything! We all got suited up and then met up again as a group. This part is what our guide referred to as "The Walk of Fame." We basically marched through the busy aquarium with hundreds of people who stare at you because you look super important in a wetsuit. If you ask me... it's more like a "Walk of Shame" since those wetsuits are not at all forgiving on your body image! Once the walk was complete we went to a different behind the scenes station, which is where we would be doing the snorkeling! There is this little dock you stand on in the middle of a massive room and you are surrounded on all sides by the aquarium!
So this tour is referred to as snorkeling, but really it is like scuba diving on the top of the water. You don't have a normal snorkel, instead you have a scuba-unit, which you breath in and is connected to a tank, which you wear on the back of a life vest. The tour guide took a picture of us all suited up, knees deep in the water, and then the experience began! I picked up breathing with the scuba unit instantly, whereas my boyfriend took a little longer to adjust. Once he had the hang of it we started to explore the aquarium. The rays have zero fear of the humans in the tank and they come right up to you! You could easily reach out and touch them (if you were allowed to)! The sharks stayed at the bottom of the tank which I was thankful for but they were completely amazing to see!
I have two favorite moments during the adventure:
- Obviously the first one was the sea turtles. There was this beautiful moment where two massive sea turtles came right up to my boyfriend and I. We actually had to swim backwards a little so we didn't accidentally touch them (it's a federal offense to touch a sea turtle since they are endangered). They were swimming toward each other like they were going to have a kiss but then one of the turtles sort of slapped the other! It was hard not to laugh with the snorkel gear in your mouth! Such a magical moment turned funny. You never know what you are going to see!
- Now you have to remember that we are in an aquarium. So obviously you are swimming around and people can see you through the large windows. This brings me to my second favorite thing, which was waving to the little kids through the windows! You can swim right up, catch a little kids eye and wave. It completely makes their day! I spent a decent amount of time in the tank doing that, because how could you not!?
There you have it! The Epcot Seas Aqua Tour! I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
So pressing questions:
How much does this wonderful experience cost?
Answer: 150$ per person. For the price, we completely believe we got our moneys worth. I would of definitely paid more for it (even though technically I didn't pay anything for it this time… thanks babe!)
How long does the experience last?
Answer: The behind the scenes tour, education and snorkeling together was about 3 hours. The snorkeling alone was just about 30 minutes. That seems like a short time but you really get to see everything in that time frame!
If you have any more questions, please leave a comment! I promise to answer them all!
Sea animals love! <3 WC
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