<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Alison:
Hi! We will be going to HWV too and all this talk about seeing turtles in the ocean lagoon is getting us all excited. My 6 and 8 year old love turtles! 
A question -
how far out can a 6-8 year old child venture out in the ocean lagoon w/o the water going over his/her head? My kids are decent swimmers but have never snorkled. </font>
When we first went to the ocean lagoon, a sea turtle was swimming around 5 feet from the edge of the sand. This was probably 3 feet deep? The Pupster was all excited and we followed the turtle in the water for maybe a good 10 minutes. The turtles are pretty tame too and did not get spooked by all the people swimming in the water and getting all excited when they see a turtle. One time I was swimming with one turtle and had shadowed it across the whole lagoon when it disappeared under the snack house near the dolphin lagoon. As I turned around to swim back, there was another sea turtle swimming up to me!
We bought one of those disposable underwater flash cameras and have a couple of pretty good pictures of me and the Mrs. swimming with the turtles.
The ocean lagoon is pretty shallow in most areas. In some of the areas an average 6-8 year old can walk from one side to the other. If they are decent swimmers, they will have pretty much full reign of the lagoon since there are now waves or swells. If they have never snorkled, this would be the perfect place for them to learn. You can also rent snorkling boards. These looks sort of like boogie boards, but with a clear window in them to see into the water. I saw a fair number of people using these in the ocean lagoon.