Blue Planet Goldfish Bowl

Has anyone here dived at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port?

I was thinking of booking a visit for our club over the winter. I was
wondering if people thought it was good value - I've looked at all the info,
and at £75 for 30 minutes diving, I'm hoping it's pretty impressive. I don't
want a club full of people thinking they've been cheated, well, at least not
on the first trip I organise!

Any opinions?


Jeff.

Don't imagine swimming free in the aquarium, It's more like a walk with the
sharks. You don't wear fins and have to strap on a ton of lead so that you
walk about on the bottom in single file behind a guide. I had a better time
watching from the plastic tunnel.

If you are used to diving in tropical seas there is a good cinema at Ellesmere
Port where you may be entertained by a good film while the others go for a
paddle with the fish.

The film will be much better value!

On Mon, 6 Sep 2004 17:29:14 +0100, "Jeff Sheard" <jeff@razorworks.com>
wrote:

>Has anyone here dived at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port?
>
>I was thinking of booking a visit for our club over the winter. I was
>wondering if people thought it was good value - I've looked at all the info,
>and at £75 for 30 minutes diving, I'm hoping it's pretty impressive. I don't
>want a club full of people thinking they've been cheated, well, at least not
>on the first trip I organise!
>

I organized UKRS #35 there, so yes a spuple of us have done it before.
I had one person drop out as £50 (the cost then) was deemed to be
expensive for a 30 minute guided tour. I thought it was at the top end
of okay, it is only a do once experience. At £75 per person I would
probably give it a miss, that's the cost of a weekend's boat charter
on most UKRS trips.

Any others that went have any thoughts?

BTW if you do go make sure you take your C Card, they are pretty anal
about it. A certain UKRS person was told that anyone can buy an
inspiration from any shop, it doesn't prove you are qualified to AOW
standard!

HTH

Danny
The box said windows 98 or better, so I installed Linux

Header is false, correct is Danny at danshome dot org

On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 18:42:04 +0100, Danny Burchett <me@privacy.net>
wrote:

>
>BTW if you do go make sure you take your C Card, they are pretty anal
>about it. A certain UKRS person was told that anyone can buy an
>inspiration from any shop, it doesn't prove you are qualified to AOW
>standard!
>

We got round it by going onto the PADI website and finding my Rescue
diver cert.

But at least I don't break lifts......

Pete S.

On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 18:42:04 +0100, Danny Burchett <me@privacy.net>
wrote:

<Snip>

>BTW if you do go make sure you take your C Card, they are pretty anal
>about it. A certain UKRS person was told that anyone can buy an
>inspiration from any shop, it doesn't prove you are qualified to AOW
>standard!

Neither does the C-Card

Laz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A foolproof method for sculpting an Elephant:
First, get a huge block of marble. Then, chip away
everything that doesn't look like an Elephant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Change "nospam" to "ntlworld" to reply.

Pete S. <Pete S.> wrote:

> Don't forget to take your cert cards with you.

And a drysuit. I dived Brighton SeaLife Center in a wetsuit and it
was darn cold (no it was by a VERY special arrangement). I'm
pleased I've done it but I wouldn't bother again. Rather like the
SETT on scuba.

nigelH

"Nigel Hewitt" <news@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.co.uk> wrote in news:chie7c$q4h
$1@sparta.btinternet.com:

> Pete S. <Pete S.> wrote:
>
>> Don't forget to take your cert cards with you.
>
> And a drysuit. I dived Brighton SeaLife Center in a wetsuit and it
> was darn cold (no it was by a VERY special arrangement). I'm
> pleased I've done it but I wouldn't bother again. Rather like the
> SETT on scuba.
>
> nigelH
>
>
>

I work at the aquarium (IT Manager) and have been in about 4 times and
enjoyed it every time. Don't know why you would need a drysuit unless you
are a nesh southerner though - the water temperature is around 20-24C year
round, and most people, including all of the staff divers, wear wetsuits.
If you wear a shortie, you will end up with a free leg wax, as many of the
fish are cleaner fish

Our other aquarium, Deep Sea World near Edinburgh, definitely is dry-suit
weather - the water is pumped in directly from the River Forth, and so is
as cold as coastal diving in the area. The Sand Tigers don't seem to mind
it though.

--
================================
Chris Quinn

On 06 Sep 2004, you wrote in uk.rec.scuba:

> Has anyone here dived at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port?
>
> I was thinking of booking a visit for our club over the winter. I was
> wondering if people thought it was good value - I've looked at all the
> info, and at £75 for 30 minutes diving, I'm hoping it's pretty
> impressive. I don't want a club full of people thinking they've been
> cheated, well, at least not on the first trip I organise!
>
> Any opinions?
>
>
> Jeff.
>
>

There have been articles in both Diver and Sport Diver magazines recently -
you may be able to get hold of them. The articles were specifically about
the PADI Shark Speciality course, one by Mark Evans of Sport Diver, the
other by Chris Boardman of Diver. They both seemed impressed by the dive
as well as the course and there are some stupendous photos of the
experience (I must confess that I took the photos in both articles, no
matter what the credits say - I work at Blue Planet as the IT manager, but
unselfishly volunteered to get my camera wet when the opportunity arose)

There are photos of our sharks at
http://www.blueplanetaquarium.com/NewBP/Downloads.html


--
================================
Chris Quinn

On 7 Sep 2004 10:30:59 GMT, Chris Quinn
<chris.quinn@nospam.zoom.co.uk> wrote:

>
>There have been articles in both Diver and Sport Diver magazines recently -
>you may be able to get hold of them. The articles were specifically about
>the PADI Shark Speciality course, one by Mark Evans of Sport Diver, the
>other by Chris Boardman of Diver. They both seemed impressed by the dive
>as well as the course and there are some stupendous photos of the
>experience (I must confess that I took the photos in both articles, no
>matter what the credits say - I work at Blue Planet as the IT manager, but
>unselfishly volunteered to get my camera wet when the opportunity arose)
>

But I bet you didn't have to pay an extra £10 to take the camera in.
We did.

Pete S.

"Jeff Sheard" <jeff@razorworks.com> wrote in message news:<chi38r$d1q$1$830fa17d@news.demon.co.uk>...
> Has anyone here dived at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port?
>
> I was thinking of booking a visit for our club over the winter. I was
> wondering if people thought it was good value - I've looked at all the info,
> and at £75 for 30 minutes diving, I'm hoping it's pretty impressive. I don't
> want a club full of people thinking they've been cheated, well, at least not
> on the first trip I organise!
>
> Any opinions?
>
>
> Jeff.

I dived one in South Africa. I recall it was quite expesive but not
how much. Something like £30 (compared to £10 for a sea dive). We
got to swim around free and it was only me and the guide. I thought
it was really cool.