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Has anyone ever done the shoretrips fly and dive to ambergris caye?


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Oh, I might have to reconsider our 4X4 excursion in Belize!

 

On another note, I am no certified as of Sunday.

 

For our first OW dive, we dove in Weeki Wachee Springs right where the mermaids preform. We saw plenty of turtles, flounder, and 3 manatees. Weeki Wachee Springs Where you see the divers in the picture us the platform we used to do the skills.

 

Our second dive was completed at Rainbow River. Here is The Rainbow River Home Page We canoed upstream got out in a small lagoon and geared up. We completed two dives to get the skills completed. Our final dive was a 45 minute drift dive back to the main area. It was an awesome dive! I'm glad I did the drift too since we are diving Cozumel.

 

Congratulations on your certification!! That's so exciting. And, if you're just trying to make us jealous with all of this, you did a really good job of it :). You're so lucky to live there where you can go diving in places like that anytime you want.

 

I have a question for you though. As you've seen from many of my other posts, we are planning on doing some Crystal River/Weeki Wachee diving when we come down for our cruise in February. We've considered the drift diving at Rainbow River, but there is something that just sort of, maybe, scares us a little :o. Was it scary at all or was it really just an easy drift? I'm just sort of scared of it feeling like we're being swept away, out of control, and not being able to get my balance and rolling all over and not being able to grab on to anything when we're supposed to. Please be honest, does it feel out of contol at all? I'd really love to do it, but as of right now, I'm too chicken.

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Congratulations on your certification!! That's so exciting. And, if you're just trying to make us jealous with all of this, you did a really good job of it :). You're so lucky to live there where you can go diving in places like that anytime you want.

 

I have a question for you though. As you've seen from many of my other posts, we are planning on doing some Crystal River/Weeki Wachee diving when we come down for our cruise in February. We've considered the drift diving at Rainbow River, but there is something that just sort of, maybe, scares us a little :o. Was it scary at all or was it really just an easy drift? I'm just sort of scared of it feeling like we're being swept away, out of control, and not being able to get my balance and rolling all over and not being able to grab on to anything when we're supposed to. Please be honest, does it feel out of contol at all? I'd really love to do it, but as of right now, I'm too chicken.

 

The drift is not that strong. I didn't have a problem staying horizontal or anything. The shop I got certified through does group trips up to Rainbow River all the time-if you'd like to pm me I could give you their contact info and you could set up a guided dive if that would make you more comfortable. You don't have to grab onto anything- just kick over to the dock at the end. I didn't feel out of control at all.

 

The vis in Crystal River is not that great- I've heard. If you want to dive in the head spring of Weeki, you have to have a guide.

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Of course we're interested in hearing about your OW cert experience.

 

I have a brother and sister in law who live in Logansport, maybe we will visit them after all. Both my husband and I passed our written test with flying colors. Monday we dove in the homestead crater in Heber, UT. It is a natural hot pot that goes down 65 feet. The visibility was about 30 feet, the temp a toasty 93 degrees. The only wildlife is a bunch of other divers. They have lights, but as it got dark there weren't enough and the visibilty dropped. Tomorrow we will do our second dive and with anyluck we will be certified and ready to dive in Belize. I am looking forward to diving carribean waters where it is easy to read your gauges and see your buddy. I just have to get the hand signals down better. :p

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I have a brother and sister in law who live in Logansport, maybe we will visit them after all. Both my husband and I passed our written test with flying colors. Monday we dove in the homestead crater in Heber, UT. It is a natural hot pot that goes down 65 feet. The visibility was about 30 feet, the temp a toasty 93 degrees. The only wildlife is a bunch of other divers. They have lights, but as it got dark there weren't enough and the visibilty dropped. Tomorrow we will do our second dive and with anyluck we will be certified and ready to dive in Belize. I am looking forward to diving carribean waters where it is easy to read your gauges and see your buddy. I just have to get the hand signals down better. :p

 

Congratulations on passing everything so far, you'll feel great once you're certified. It gives you a huge sense of accomplishment :D.

 

Believe me, the France Park quarry in Logansport is nothing compared to what you just described about the crater in Utah, but it's the best we have here in good 'ole Indiana :o. It has some really huge paddlefish in it that I haven't been able to see yet, but everyone else says how cool they are. And if you happen to be visiting your brother and sister-in-law anyway, it's always nice to have a chance to dive together with friends and family. The quarry in Illinois (Haigh) is toted as the "Caribbean of the Midwest". It's cute the way they have tiki huts and palm trees around and the theme is pink flamingos with buildings painted pink and purple like you would see in the Caribbean. But, right now, it's still pretty much just a 53 degree pond :eek: out in the middle of miles and miles of cornfields. It's just nothing compared to what we're going to see in the Caribbean. We're going to be so spoiled when we get back from the cruise, I don't know how we'll ever be able to dive these quarries again.

 

One thing about hand signals that I've learned is to make sure that you and your buddy have a couple that you both agree on as part of your dive plan. One day when we were diving, I got so tired that I couldn't move my legs and they started cramping up. Then it sort of started to hurt when I was taking breaths. I was trying to let my husband know, but I couldn't get the message across. So once we surfaced, the first thing we did is make up a couple of hand signals to notify each other if we needed to rest or were having any distress. We constantly use the OK signal to ask each other if we're Ok and then asnwer back that we are OK. I have a lot of trouble with equalizing my ears, so we do a lot of pointing to our ears and asking if it's "OK?" Obviously, it's good to know the universal signs also so if you're diving with a different buddy or an instructor or divemaster on a tour, you can communicate with them too.

 

Let us know how everything turns out. Good Luck!!

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scuba214 - what ship were you on, and how long were your dives? We're contemplating the same excursion in December!

 

txsmiles, We were on the Valor. Our bottom time was 45 min. on both dives. We dove at Aldo's Anchor, depth 70 ft. and Creeko cut, depth 40ft.

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Congratulations on passing everything so far, you'll feel great once you're certified. It gives you a huge sense of accomplishment :D.

 

Believe me, the France Park quarry in Logansport is nothing compared to what you just described about the crater in Utah, but it's the best we have here in good 'ole Indiana :o. It has some really huge paddlefish in it that I haven't been able to see yet, but everyone else says how cool they are. And if you happen to be visiting your brother and sister-in-law anyway, it's always nice to have a chance to dive together with friends and family. The quarry in Illinois (Haigh) is toted as the "Caribbean of the Midwest". It's cute the way they have tiki huts and palm trees around and the theme is pink flamingos with buildings painted pink and purple like you would see in the Caribbean. But, right now, it's still pretty much just a 53 degree pond :eek: out in the middle of miles and miles of cornfields. It's just nothing compared to what we're going to see in the Caribbean. We're going to be so spoiled when we get back from the cruise, I don't know how we'll ever be able to dive these quarries again.

 

One thing about hand signals that I've learned is to make sure that you and your buddy have a couple that you both agree on as part of your dive plan. One day when we were diving, I got so tired that I couldn't move my legs and they started cramping up. Then it sort of started to hurt when I was taking breaths. I was trying to let my husband know, but I couldn't get the message across. So once we surfaced, the first thing we did is make up a couple of hand signals to notify each other if we needed to rest or were having any distress. We constantly use the OK signal to ask each other if we're Ok and then asnwer back that we are OK. I have a lot of trouble with equalizing my ears, so we do a lot of pointing to our ears and asking if it's "OK?" Obviously, it's good to know the universal signs also so if you're diving with a different buddy or an instructor or divemaster on a tour, you can communicate with them too.

 

Let us know how everything turns out. Good Luck!!

 

My dive instructor gave me my c card under water at the safety stop of the last dive. I was sooo excited a blew my o ring when I got out, oh well it shouldn't happen again. My husband and I will always dive together and we both agree that we need our own set of hand signals. I will let you all know how the dive and fly turns out in Belize.:D

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My dive instructor gave me my c card under water at the safety stop of the last dive. I was sooo excited a blew my o ring when I got out, oh well it shouldn't happen again. My husband and I will always dive together and we both agree that we need our own set of hand signals. I will let you all know how the dive and fly turns out in Belize.:D

 

Congratulations!! That's very cool. You guys have a blast in Belize. Dive Safe!!

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My dive instructor gave me my c card under water at the safety stop of the last dive. I was sooo excited a blew my o ring when I got out, oh well it shouldn't happen again. My husband and I will always dive together and we both agree that we need our own set of hand signals. I will let you all know how the dive and fly turns out in Belize.:D

 

Congratulations!

 

I just signed up for AOW today. It starts in Mid-Nov.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Okay so this past week I did the shoretrips fly and dive in Belize. It was an adventure that I will talk about for a long time to come. However, if you scare easily then this may not be the right excursion for you. The flight over to San Pedro is amazing and fun, but I have to admit I was more than a little nervous. On San Pedro island the only paved road is the runway. The dive shop is literally just to the right of the airport and down an alley. This being my only my second dive trip in the carribean I don't have a lot to compare it to. We got our equipment and headed out. Both of our dive we dove with a total of 6 people and the dive master. It was only a five minute boat ride to the dive sites and we saw multiple nurse sharks at each site. The fish and coral were beautiful as well. We did not dive with wetsuits and were very comfortable. The dive master stayed close by and gave us a great deal of freedom to explore. They fed the nurse sharks on the second dive and so we were able to pet them as they swam by. The dive master also played with a resident moray eel that was beautiful. We ate authentic belizian meal on the beach a vendor sold from her bike and it was super tasty although normally I never eat off of the ship because I am so paranoid about getting sick. We were delayed flying home by a half hour and I was glad we still had an hour before the last tender. On the flight back they flew low and we were able to see pods of dolphins and rays from above. I would definitely reccommend this excursion unless you don't do 3rd world airports and experience anxiety attacks easily. We were the only divers at both sites although there were plenty of other divers in the area. The flight, transportation and equipment was all included so it is a very good value. I was really glad we did this excursion as opposed to the ship dive since there were 5 ships in port that day. I hope this is helpful.:p

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Stupid question....

 

The "fly" part? I presume you never really get any major altitude? I remember in scuba-school they beat it into our heads about no-fly time.

 

Is this a little propeller thing that never really gets above 10K feet or something?

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Stupid question....

 

The "fly" part? I presume you never really get any major altitude? I remember in scuba-school they beat it into our heads about no-fly time.

 

Is this a little propeller thing that never really gets above 10K feet or something?

 

You are correct it is a small propeller plane, the first one we took was an 8 seater and the second a little larger with the capacity for 15. Almost everyone on the flight had been diving so he kept the altitude below a 1000 feet. They are used to doing these flights for divers.

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Isn't that plane ride a hoot? :) On our flight over (we did a land vacation) as we rattled down the runway, this red light kept flashing on the dash and an alarm was blaring as we took off. Tried not to pay attention. :eek: But it was cool - I even got to sit up next to the pilot.

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Okay so this past week I did the shoretrips fly and dive in Belize. It was an adventure that I will talk about for a long time to come. However, if you scare easily then this may not be the right excursion for you. The flight over to San Pedro is amazing and fun, but I have to admit I was more than a little nervous. On San Pedro island the only paved road is the runway. The dive shop is literally just to the right of the airport and down an alley. This being my only my second dive trip in the carribean I don't have a lot to compare it to. We got our equipment and headed out. Both of our dive we dove with a total of 6 people and the dive master. It was only a five minute boat ride to the dive sites and we saw multiple nurse sharks at each site. The fish and coral were beautiful as well. We did not dive with wetsuits and were very comfortable. The dive master stayed close by and gave us a great deal of freedom to explore. They fed the nurse sharks on the second dive and so we were able to pet them as they swam by. The dive master also played with a resident moray eel that was beautiful. We ate authentic belizian meal on the beach a vendor sold from her bike and it was super tasty although normally I never eat off of the ship because I am so paranoid about getting sick. We were delayed flying home by a half hour and I was glad we still had an hour before the last tender. On the flight back they flew low and we were able to see pods of dolphins and rays from above. I would definitely reccommend this excursion unless you don't do 3rd world airports and experience anxiety attacks easily. We were the only divers at both sites although there were plenty of other divers in the area. The flight, transportation and equipment was all included so it is a very good value. I was really glad we did this excursion as opposed to the ship dive since there were 5 ships in port that day. I hope this is helpful.:p

 

Laura,

 

Thank you so much for the review. We've really been anxious for you to get back and tell us what you thought about everything. We were going to book the excursion but thought we should wait to see what you had to say. I swear, I think I started having an anxiety attack just reading your review :o. I have a lot of trouble flying on jets, so I've been really nervous about this flight. But it also sounds so great that I don't want the fear to stop me. I was really scared about diving and it took a lot of work to get me through that fear but I did it and now diving is one of the very best parts of my life. I just love the parts of your review about petting the nurse sharks and seeing the pods of dolphins and rays on the flight back. The whole thing sounds so great. We're going to make our reservations right now.

 

If you don't mind, I do have some questions for you. First, about how deep were the dives? Secondly, can you tell us a little bit about San Pedro (did you have much time to sightsee or shop during your SI or after the dives?). Finally, we will be on the Carnival Legend and our time in port will be from 7:00 a.m -4:00 p.m. (Belize time). We're trying to decide whether to schedule the 7:45 a.m. tour which would get us back to the pier at 1:20 or the 8:45 a.m. tour which would get us back to the pier at 2:20. On the one hand, the 7:45 time seems like we might have trouble getting there by that time even if we do push our way onto the first tender :D. But on the other hand, the tour that gets back to pier at 2:20 seems like it could be cutting things close if we have any delays. Just a half hour delay would get us back to the pier around 3:00 and we would still need to tender out to the ship and I'm thinking we would have to be on the ship by 3:30 if we depart at 4:00. So, if you could give us your opinion on which time to schedule or just tell us about your timing (your times in port and which time did you schedule for your excursion), it would really be appreciated.

 

Once again, thank you so much for your review. It really made us eager to go. My husband's only question was "Can we go NOW?". Happy Thanksgiving!!

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I have a lot of trouble flying on jets, so I've been really nervous about this flight. But it also sounds so great that I don't want the fear to stop me.

 

Michele, I am the world's worst flier - need my Xanax and a class of wine just to get on the plane. :rolleyes: But for some reason, taking these little puddle jumpers was a piece of cake. Just seemed more like an amusement ride, if that makes any sense. You fly so low, you can see everything, so I think that the beautiful scenery and different blues of the water takes your mind off the flying. Go for it! :)

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Laura,

 

Thank you so much for the review. We've really been anxious for you to get back and tell us what you thought about everything. We were going to book the excursion but thought we should wait to see what you had to say. I swear, I think I started having an anxiety attack just reading your review :o. I have a lot of trouble flying on jets, so I've been really nervous about this flight. But it also sounds so great that I don't want the fear to stop me. I was really scared about diving and it took a lot of work to get me through that fear but I did it and now diving is one of the very best parts of my life. I just love the parts of your review about petting the nurse sharks and seeing the pods of dolphins and rays on the flight back. The whole thing sounds so great. We're going to make our reservations right now.

 

If you don't mind, I do have some questions for you. First, about how deep were the dives? Secondly, can you tell us a little bit about San Pedro (did you have much time to sightsee or shop during your SI or after the dives?). Finally, we will be on the Carnival Legend and our time in port will be from 7:00 a.m -4:00 p.m. (Belize time). We're trying to decide whether to schedule the 7:45 a.m. tour which would get us back to the pier at 1:20 or the 8:45 a.m. tour which would get us back to the pier at 2:20. On the one hand, the 7:45 time seems like we might have trouble getting there by that time even if we do push our way onto the first tender :D. But on the other hand, the tour that gets back to pier at 2:20 seems like it could be cutting things close if we have any delays. Just a half hour delay would get us back to the pier around 3:00 and we would still need to tender out to the ship and I'm thinking we would have to be on the ship by 3:30 if we depart at 4:00. So, if you could give us your opinion on which time to schedule or just tell us about your timing (your times in port and which time did you schedule for your excursion), it would really be appreciated.

 

Once again, thank you so much for your review. It really made us eager to go. My husband's only question was "Can we go NOW?". Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

I would recommend that you take the 7:45 am tour. The 8:45 tour doesn't exist according to the tour company which is what we were scheduled for. On our first dive there was someone on it from a carnival ship (doing his second dive) and he said he didn't have a problem getting the first tender. Also like you mentioned sometimes there can be delays and so you want to leave yourself enough time.

 

We did not take time to explore San Pedro since we bought lunch right on the beach, but you have a good hour for lunch so if you wanted to walk around you could.

 

Our first dive we went down to 50 feet and the second we were told not to go below 70 although in some parts you could have gone deeper. Each dive was about 50 minutes. They made sure we didn't go down with less than 3200 psi of air.

 

We rented an underwater digital camera for $40 and they burn the pictures onto a cd for you. We split the cost. I also had an underwater disposable camera I had paid $10 for and I just got my pictures back they are poor in comparision to the underwater camera we rented. We were even able to take some video with the underwater digital camera. A little tip we learned after looking at our pictures, you need to be close in order for the flash to work and you need to hold your breath when taking the picutures otherwise you can see the faces since the bubbles obscure. Have a great time. I wish I could go back tomorrow.:D

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Michele, I am the world's worst flier - need my Xanax and a class of wine just to get on the plane. :rolleyes: But for some reason, taking these little puddle jumpers was a piece of cake. Just seemed more like an amusement ride, if that makes any sense. You fly so low, you can see everything, so I think that the beautiful scenery and different blues of the water takes your mind off the flying. Go for it! :)

 

Beautiful!! I love amusement parks. I'm telling you, I'll be scared to death, but I'll do it. I'm really just giddy about the whole thing. It sounds so great. Actually, I do understand what you're saying because I kind of experienced that with the diving. I was so scared when we were doing the pool dives, but when I got into the open water and started seeing everything, all of my fears just faded away. Thank you for the encouragement. We're gonna do it. I swear :cool:.

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I would recommend that you take the 7:45 am tour. The 8:45 tour doesn't exist according to the tour company which is what we were scheduled for. On our first dive there was someone on it from a carnival ship (doing his second dive) and he said he didn't have a problem getting the first tender. Also like you mentioned sometimes there can be delays and so you want to leave yourself enough time.

 

We did not take time to explore San Pedro since we bought lunch right on the beach, but you have a good hour for lunch so if you wanted to walk around you could.

 

Our first dive we went down to 50 feet and the second we were told not to go below 70 although in some parts you could have gone deeper. Each dive was about 50 minutes. They made sure we didn't go down with less than 3200 psi of air.

 

We rented an underwater digital camera for $40 and they burn the pictures onto a cd for you. We split the cost. I also had an underwater disposable camera I had paid $10 for and I just got my pictures back they are poor in comparision to the underwater camera we rented. We were even able to take some video with the underwater digital camera. A little tip we learned after looking at our pictures, you need to be close in order for the flash to work and you need to hold your breath when taking the picutures otherwise you can see the faces since the bubbles obscure. Have a great time. I wish I could go back tomorrow.:D

 

Thank you. We'll schedule the 7:45. I won't have any trouble being a little pushy to get the first tender :o. We're really just so excited about doing this. The only problem is that we have to wait until February. That will be the toughest part. It's only been about a month since we've been diving, but we both miss it so much. The depth of the dives sounds perfect because even though we have our Advanced Open Water certification, we just don't have much experience with deep dives. I'll tell you, everything about this excursion just sounds so perfect. I'd take the excursion if it was just a flight to San Pedro. And of course, I'd also take the excursion if it was just the diving. So, it's like a 2 for 1. We'll let everyone know how we did when we get back. Thanks again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

CaribQween,

Hello, my wife and I have got this tour booked with www.ecotoursbelize.com We will be on the Legend Jan 10-17. We've decided just to snorkel on Ambergris and dive at the Roatan stop. We wanted more time on Ambergris to rent a golf cart and tootle around.

Thanks so much for all the info provided in this thread. I'd already booked the trip before reading all of this but this helps confirm what I researched on my own. We decided to go through ecotours because of the price and they hand walk you from the pier to the cab, flight over and all the way back.

Looks like we're on the Legend a few weeks before you. We fly over on Mayan Air and I think shoretrips uses Tropic Air. Anyways when we get back I'll post our experience on the trip and flight over.

Michael.........

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we stayed a week on san pedro and loved it, the plane ride, awesome view, the whole island, very laidback and friendly. we did quite a bit of snorkeling at the ho chan reserve, beautiful. held nurse sharks. went out to some of the smaller islands and out to the blue hole:eek: wow! we snorkeled around the edge as the divers went down. for this dive though i noticed they required a certain # of dives under your belt beforehand. on the way back we saw perhaps 50+ dolphins jumping, so the boat stopped and we quietly got in the water. must have been 300+ under the water, simply amazing!!!love this area.

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CaribQween,

Hello, my wife and I have got this tour booked with www.ecotoursbelize.com We will be on the Legend Jan 10-17. We've decided just to snorkel on Ambergris and dive at the Roatan stop. We wanted more time on Ambergris to rent a golf cart and tootle around.

Thanks so much for all the info provided in this thread. I'd already booked the trip before reading all of this but this helps confirm what I researched on my own. We decided to go through ecotours because of the price and they hand walk you from the pier to the cab, flight over and all the way back.

Looks like we're on the Legend a few weeks before you. We fly over on Mayan Air and I think shoretrips uses Tropic Air. Anyways when we get back I'll post our experience on the trip and flight over.

Michael.........

 

Hi there. That sounds like a really fun day also. San Pedro seems like a really cool town and it's one of the very reasons we decided to do this tour (well, besides the cool flight and the really great diving). I remember reading about people renting the golf carts. I'm glad this thread helped confirm the research you had already done. These boards are great for that. I was really excited when I saw the original poster putting questions out there about the same excursion we were planning. And it was even better when she got back and gave us her review. Please do give us a review when you get back. Let us know what you think about the Legend too. This will be our first Carnival cruise and we just happened to pick the Legend because we wanted a ship where the aft wrap-arounds were suites. Now we hear really wonderful things about it and it is really a lot of people's favorite carnival ship. Don't wear out the crew before we get there ;).

 

We're really new to diving so we're actually diving 3 out of 4 ports (Grand Cayman, Belize, Roatan). We've only been diving in local quarries so far, so we're really psyched to dive the Caribbean. In Roatan, we're doing the Carnival dive excursion because it is through Anthony's Key Resort and they don't book independently if you're on a ship. We've heard really great things about Anthony's Key Resort. The dive shop we use here in Indy recommended them (as well as Coco View). They use them for group dive trips. We haven't even been there yet and we're considering a week long vacation on Roatan staying at Anthony's Key Resort. Their website shows bungalows on stilts out over the water. You get the one that is your room, and then another one that is covered but open around the sides which has a hammock and bench swing. It's just so cool, the thought of hanging out and drinking foo-foo drinks while swinging in the hammock looking out over the beautiful water, and then of course spending your days boat diving and shore diving and when you're not doing that, just checking out the island.

 

We're going to go to Tampa a few days pre-cruise and we're going to go up to Crystal River and do the Manatee snorkel and cavern dive combo there. We met some people at the dive shop that have done the Manatee snorkel and they say it is the most awesome thing swimming with them and petting them and giving them a big 'ole belly rub. We can't wait.

 

You guys have a wonderful, safe trip!! It will be here before you know it. And, of course, Happy Holidays.

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