Getting harder to impress some kids!

If you have ever been to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon you most likely saw the Shark Reef area. At Shark Reef you can snorkel thru a small lagoon filled with real sharks, rays and large fish.

I do live locally and my wife and I have passes to all of Orlando’s theme parks for my 5 year old daughter and 9 year old son. Both of my children have grown up going to the theme parks on a regular basis. When my son was younger almost daily my wife would take him to Sea World to feed the dolphins and sting rays. Being native Floridians my children spend most of their lives outdoors on the lakes and beaches of Florida and have a love for nature. One challenge for kids growing up in Orlando is that it takes quite a bit to really impress them. After years in theme parks, seeing all the Disney Channel television stars live in person and hearing nightly the Disney fireworks going to Typhoon Lagoon again, before going back to school, is well “just another day in the park” for the kids.

To my surprise, at Shark Reef in Typhoon Lagoon, you have the ability to put on scuba diving gear and swim for 30 minutes in the shark reef for an extra $20. My son was also permitted to use the scuba gear even at 9 years old. I have been a certified recreational scuba diver for years and Florida offers lots of chances to dive, but my son is still too young for any open water certification. My son has been snorkeling countless times in Florida, the Caribbean and even Sea World’s Discovery Cove, what he has never been able to do is breath under water.

The excitement in his eyes as the Shark Reef instructor placed air tank and scuba gear on him was awesome! I need to point out that at Typhoon Lagoons Shark Reef you are not permitted to dive underwater with the scuba gear, but rather swim at the surface. No matter if you are still using the scuba gear and to my 9 year old son it was very cool to breathe under water.

He was nervous at first but once he realized that he could breath with his head underwater he was off looking for sharks. He did not need to look very far since the lagoon is filled with sharks, rays and several different species of beautiful fish, most larger than anything he has ever caught on a fishing pole.

The lagoon is very chilly, at around 68 degrees Fahrenheit per our instructor, and the sharks are very well fed. The cooler water temperature, we were told, helped keep the sharks active. I do know the colder water kept me more active staying warm. The 30 minutes was plenty of time in the water and there is no where in the world I can think of where my son would see so many sharks, rays and fish together other than in a giant Disney World fish tank. If you are coming to Disney and have a child that is looking for a little more excitement than a roller coaster and loves watching shark week on the Discovery Channel check out Shark Reef and throw them to the sharks! It’s safe after all it’s Disney.

Provided by Florida Spirit Vacation Homes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Great Kids Activities in Orlando, FL, Walt Disney World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.