Diver Ed's Dive-In Theater
4 reviews for Diver Ed's Dive-In Theater
4 reviews in English
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Review from Mark W.
9/24/2011 1 Check-in Here
Diver Ed may just be the best activity for kids on Mount Desert Island if not all of Maine. Five stars are too few. The embarkation point is at the College of the Atlantic where you board the Starfish Enterprise - shouldn't that be the Sea Star Enterprise, Driver Ed. Captain Evil, Diver Ed's wife, pilots the boat with two deck hands, Silent something and Pink Berry and two giant black Newfoundlands (dogs). The deck hands may be their kids in disguise. Diver Ed and Captain Evil entertain the kids onboard with Looney Tune style antics. Evil is semi-serious and I'm not sure why she is evil and Ed is manic. One of the dogs demonstrates how to use the life preservers. Diver Ed greets everyone on the boat after launch. Everyone gets duct tape name tags and repeat sailors get a different color sharpie. Ed and Evil demonstrate the equipment including the dry suite, which always seems to over inflate. In the water, Diver Ed and Mini Ed film the deep and collect sea creatures for show and share. Every voyage has brought several new underwater adventures. Diver Ed provides status updates and Mini Ed always seems to get in trouble. I know what you're thinking, but this seems to be the lackluster oversight from his dive buddy rather than Captain Evil's doing. Nope, still not sure why she's evil. Mini Ed likes to play with lobsters and examine ominous holes. Evil provides narration to the undersea adventures. After surfacing, Diver Ed places all of the specimens in tanks and delivers a science lesson complete with sea stars piled onto of heads, squirting sea cucumbers, and snippy lobsters. All claws get rubber bands and everyone crowds around the touch tanks. At the end, you can be the proud owner of your very own Mini Ed or a DVD of past adventures. We got the DVD, and watched it, reminiscing about the fun we have every summer.
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Review from Sheri J.
Stamford, CT
8/22/2011
Diver Ed's Dive In Theater was awesome! Diver Ed was hysterical and "Captain Evil" (sweet, not evil at all!) was witty and educational too. The tour was a blast and it was one of the major highlights of our trip through the Maine coast. Great for families -my 9 & 11 year old kids loved it, and my husband and I had a great time too!
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Review from Matthew B.
Williamstown, MA
7/18/2009 5 photos
We went out on Diver Ed's Dive-In Theater this morning on the 9:30 AM 2 hour cruise. Parking was easy and we were met by Edna, aka 'Captain Evil' who escorted us down the pier where we boarded their brand new boat, the 'Starfish Enterprise'. Upon boarding the boat we were promptly greeted and sniffed by two very large friendly Newfoundland dogs, Leviathan and Halo.
It should be noted that for reasons that mostly still escape us our 6 year old son had gotten into a rotten mood from the short trip from parking lot to the boat. We were warmly greeted regardless and Ed didn't semed to phased by having a kid rolling is eyes, whining, and complaining about having to be there at all.
Our friends who had joined us on the cruise had their 5 year old son with them and he asked Ed how he got back to the surface when he was done. Ed, without missing a beat said 'Oh I just fart in my suit and it fills up wiht gas and I float to the surface'. Our grumpy 6 year old cracked his first smile then but quickly tried to hide it. However Ed's constant personable banter and jokes kept coming at every turn and seemed to wear his grumpy resistance, until upon hearing that he could help push Ed into the water for his dive, any pretense of being too grumpy to participate for the entire cruise was dropped and he was now 'all in'.
Before diving Ed introduced us to Mini-Ed #101, a playmobile figure diver who accompanies Ed on his dives to help provide some scale to the video images we'll be seeing and to also provide some up close personal interaction with the creatures he'd be encountering. We were informed there were indeed 100 previous 'Mini-Ed's' who, through these repeated direct interactions with sea creatures had suffered injuries requiring their retirement.
Ed donned his dry diving suit & diving gear and proceded to the back of the boat where all kids who were interested were able to help push him backwards into the water. Once he dove underneath he turned on the video camera system he had with him and we all watched on the big screen what he saw and found.
As Ed roved the ocean bottom in search of lifeforms Captain Evil narrated what we were seeing and explained in detail about all we got to see in great detail on the video screen including plankton, kelp, sand dollars, barnacles, green crabs, rock crabs, welks, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, a flounder, starfish (now officially referred to as 'Sea Stars' since they aren't technically a fish), a lobster and more.
As we had been warned, Mini-Ed had some close encounters with the crabs, including a short 'battle' where the crab, wih Mini-Ed in it's claws performed what could best be described as professional wrestling moves slamming Mini-Ed against the front of camera etc. All the creatures that were caught were put in a small mesh bag. After about a 20 minute dive Ed returned to the surface with the bag.
The bag full of creatures was then brought on board and placed in some clear plastic boxes with salt water as any kids interested were invited to sit up front. Ed then took different creatures out and showed up close to the kids in the front, often encouraging them to kiss, touch and ask questions about different creatures.
Ed explained everything with a great combination of science fact and perfectly kid-level anthropomorphized humor, for example explaining how starfish eat their prey by extending their stomach in their prey by grabbing one of the kids in the front row as the role of the clam as he played the hungry starfish grabbing them tightly and then pulling them close to eat. The kids near the front got a close, sometimes wet, interaction as creatures were lifted to their surprised faces still dripping, wiggling and in the case of the Sea Cucumber squirting in all directions as Ed explained about them.
Once done with the narration the plastic boxes were moved closer and everyone was encouraged to play in the touch tanks. Both Mini-Ed #101 and #100 joined us for this interaction. Ed kept lifting up sea cucumbers who promptly drained water on nearby kids and invited people to kiss it. He also put the, now rubber banded, lobster on surprised kids heads and (after asking permission) even helped give our son a mohawk while moonsnail slime, natures 'gel' I guess.
Just before we left a local lobster boat (the Outcast) pulled up a trap nearby which contained a 'Lump Fish' so they swang over and passed this on so we could see it and learn about this too.
We had a great time, the kids loved it, even our grumpy 6 year old left with a big smile on his face. The new boat is great and Ed & Edna we're loads of fun to watch, listen to and interact with. This isn't some pre-packaged touristy nature cruise, this is a really smart and funny duo doing what they love to do, sharing what they know and spreading an infectious love of science, curiousity and love of nature and our undersea world. Anyone visiting the Bar Harbor area with kids should check this out. -
Review from Jennifer V.
Pacifica, CA
10/15/2010
If you are going to Bar Harbor, Maine, you HAVE to visit Diver's Ed. This was one of the most memorable parts of our vacation this summer. The kids had a great time, and although they were unsure about holding the ocean creatures at the start of our trip, by the end, they were having a great time picking up things and touching them all. The boat ride was great, and the presentation was quite memorable. If we return to Maine, we will definately take this excursion again!
