Mom and me underwater at Discovery Cove Orlando. Yes mom even has her glasses on!
You know how sometimes you see stuff online and think “wow I would LOVE to do that” but it turns out it’s only in some foreign country? The SeaVenture at Seaworld was one of those things. I couldn’t BELIEVE it was somewhere I could easily get to! Just a quick flight to Orlando and I was there!
SeaVenture is designed for you to be able to walk on the bottom of the Grand Reef at Discovery Cove. It’s a chance for you to walk IN the world of their fish as authentically as you can. As someone who is kind of claustrophobic I have never really had the desire to SCUBA but was hoping I would be okay with this!
The helmets are designed such that a constant flow of fresh air is circulating within the bubble created by slowly lowering them down from the surface. There is a long “tail” that you can easily see going to the top of the water. The water is also not very deep (maybe 20 feet) so there is plenty of light flowing in if you get nervous in smaller spaces like I do.
It all sounded easy enough and it was – you just step onto a ladder and they lower the helmet onto your head. I wasn’t wearing a tight fitting mask, snorkel, or hooked up to any other breathing tube, but somehow I could just breathe normally! As soon as I realized I wasn’t going to freak out I got SUPER excited about what was in store for me.
As soon as you reach the bottom you become aware of everything around you- fish, rays and tons of other things I couldn’t identify. The fish are so used to people they just swim by like they are investigating you. If you look in the upper right hand corner of that picture you can see the hose going up to the top of the water! And yes, that is my hand on the right side reaching out to touch fish!
Now besides “breath normal” the other rule you hear often is “stay in line.” Here is one of our guides jumping down off a rock to tell my mom to get back in line after she accidentally stepped out of order (watch the video below to see it in action).
We discovered another reason for that as well. I had a GoPro with me and at the beginning mom and I were together. The girl behind me also had a GoPro. She cut in front of me about halfway through and ended up next to my mom. Because they thought they were together they filmed a TON of my mom on that girl’s camera. She has TONS of pictures of my mom holding sea creatures underwater. 🙂
But trust me- there is PLENTY to see.
Who doesn’t want an underwater selfie?!
As of right now the pricing starts at $49 per person depending on how popular the time of year is. We paid $59 for a Monday in May and the weather was just beautiful.
