在Hawaii 体验Submarine活动(二)

黄安年文  黄安年的博客/2011年12月11日(美东时间)发布

来夏威夷旅游,体验潜水艇活动是个很有意义的活动。下面的照片（一）26张,（二）19张,是Z博士2008年7月13日在夏威夷体验潜水艇活动时拍摄的。

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About Atlantis Adventures

Hilton Pier and The Discovery Shuttle Boat

Photo by John Fischer

When totally out of the blue, I was asked if I wanted to go on an Atlantis Submarine Tour on Oahu, I jumped at the opportunity. For years I have seen the Atlantis shuttle boat, The Discovery, coming and going from the Hilton Pier at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Every day I see Atlantis trolleys ferrying passengers from Waikiki Hotels for a submarine tour. They always seem crowded, especially with Japanese tourists. Many mornings I see their support boats towing their submarines from Honolulu out to their diving location. Many evenings near sunset I see the same boats towing the submarines back for nightly maintenance and battery charging.

Aside from those observations, however, I really knew very little about the actual Atlantis experience, so I was excited to see what this was all about. I knew that Atlantis had submarines on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, but I didn't know that they actually own 13 submarines at 9 separate submarine sites around the world, including such locations as Aruba, Barbados, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Guam and St. Thomas. I never realized that they also own the Navatek I that sails from the Aloha Tower Marketplace for dinner and whale watch cruises. I didn't know that they manage the popular Sea Life Park on Oahu's southeastern shore.

In Hawaii alone, Atlantis Adventures entertains approximately 680,000 guests annually. To date over 4 million guests have experienced an Atlantis Adventure.

Since I was staying nearby the Hilton Hawaiian Village, I didn't need a trolley to take me to the resort for my submarine cruise. It was an easy walk down the beach walk past Fort DeRussy Park and the Hale Koa Hotel. My cruise was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. but I was advised to arrive about a half hour early for check-in and boarding on the Atlantis shuttle boat, The Discovery. After I picked up my ticket at the Atlantis ticket booth located at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower, I proceeded to walk the short distance to the pier where I took a seat in the shaded seating area until it was time to board the boat.

The majority of the guests for this tour were Japanese, but all announcements were made in both English and Japanese, so language was no problem. Soon we were allowed to board the boat where we all were asked to take seats for a brief introduction and safety video as required by the Coast Guard. Once again, everything was presented in both English and Japanese so that everyone was able to understand what was being said.

Soon, the boat left the pier and we were free to wander up on deck if we wished. We were told that the trip to the submarines would take about 20 minutes. It was actually a really fun trip since we were able to get some great views of the Waikiki shoreline with its many hotels and of the numerous surfers in the ocean. The surfers at Waikiki swim so far out to catch that special wave. I'd be exhausted just swimming out!

Before I realized it, we had reached the first submarine. Atlantis actually operates three submarines on Oahu, and most days two of them are being used, a 48-passenger submarine and the 64-passenger Atlantis XIV which is the largest passenger submarine in the world.

Guests are given color-coded tickets which tell you which submarine you are to go on. The passenger transfer operation is very efficient. Guests from the previous tour disembark each submarine and the new passengers then proceed to board the submarine.

My ticket was for the 48-passenger submarine, so I had to wait until the boarding was completed for the Atlantis XIV. The Discovery them made the quick trip over to the smaller submarine which had just surfaced. My Atlantis submarine adventure was about to begin.

I was the first one to board the submarine. I climbed down the 7-step ladder and was fortunate to be directed to a seat right down by the submarine's captain and co-pilot/narrator. The seating is a bit tight, but each passenger gets a view port. Headsets are provided for those requiring narration in another language. Our co-pilot was doing an English narration, so I didn't need a headset. My fellow Japanese guests did. I presume that the live narration on the Atlantis XIV was in Japanese since all of the guests on that submarine appeared to be Japanese visitors.

Once we were all seated, the hatch was closed, the submarine was pressurized and the air-conditioning turned on. We soon began our quick trip to the dive site. The Waikiki dive site appears from the literature I've seen to be the most interesting of their Hawaii dive sites. The dive takes you past numerous coral formations, six concrete "pyramid" structures, four Japanese-designed artificial reefs, the remains of two sunken airliners and the remains of two shipwrecks, the U.S. Navy tanker ship Y0-257 and the Korean fishing boat, San Pedro.

The sunken airliners were disappointing in that little actually remains of these planes following Hurricane Iniki in 1992. The shipwrecks, however, are the real highlight of the trip. Not only did we get to see lots of colorful fish but also Hawaiian green sea turtles and even a shark swimming right past our view ports.

What you see out the view port is probably not exactly what you might expect. Colors at these depths of 80-110 feet are very distorted by the way the water effects the sunlight that filters down to that depth. Everything appears to be a shade of blue or green except some of the fish that pass right by the view port.

Taking photos is a real challenge unless you do some homework beforehand in what settings to use on your camera. I didn't do my homework, but, luckily, I learned that the digital photos I took are easily "fixed" with most photo software to provide a more accurate version of what you see.

I use JASC Paint Shop Pro Photo Album 5 and a mere click on "Quick Fix" really makes a difference as you can see from the "before" and "after" shots above. I was interested to see that the video I took with my new Canon ZR200 Digital Video Camcorder turned out much better than still pictures and required no adjustment.

If I had to do it all over again, I would just take video and then grab some snapshots from that using a program like Windows Movie Maker 2.0 that comes with most new PCs with Windows XP.

The actual submarine tour lasts about 45-minutes. The time goes by very quickly - believe me. Before you realize it, the submarine surfaces and you disembark past a new group of guests awaiting their Atlantis adventure.

The trip back to the Hilton Pier takes about 20 minutes and you get to re-experience those great views that you had while you cruised to the submarine just a little over an hour before.

The Atlantis Submarine Tour is definitely a worthwhile experience. A really nice part is that it is very convenient, especially if you're within walking distance of the Hilton Pier. It does not require a full day or even a half-day like many other activities. If you schedule you tour early in the morning or late in the afternoon, you have most of the day left to do other things or just relax on the beach at Waikiki.

Japanese visitors take most of the tours in the morning. Those in the afternoon are more frequented by English speaking guests. Prices vary depending in which submarine you wish to dive. The newer Atlantis XIV has larger view ports and more comfortable seating.

Discounts from the book rate are widely available in many of the free publications you'll find around Waikiki. You can pre-book on the Atlantis Adventures website and receive a 10% discount. Combined adventures with a Navatek I cruise. The best place to check for current pricing and combination tours is the Atlantis Adventure website

http://gohawaii.about.com/od/oahuactivities/ss/atlantis_sub_6.htm