Miami Boat Trip - An absolute amazing experience visiting Raccoon Island and snorkelling with our fab captain Monica! The best part of our boat trip was without doubt seeing the dolphins - just amazing. Our trip was made all the better as we were able to meet and feed the raccoons (don’t forget to take some nuts for them)Thanks again to our host and Captain Monica who made the trip so much fun. 5* TRIP

Amazing experience - Captain Monica and her little raccoon buddies were the highlight of our holiday. Would give 500 stars if we could. Amazing, thank you so so much!!

Monica our captain was... - Monica our captain was awesome, and I’d give her a 5 star review. The boat had a lot of wear and tear (large sections of the cushions with ripped areas, some covered in duck tap) and I wish they were more upfront about the actual cost of the tour. The advertised price doesn’t include the $50/hr captain fee and the $50/hr does not count as a tip. For the 2 hour tour you should expect to pay $500-600 depending on what you leave as a tip. Overall it was a great experience. They are very responsive to communication and the process was easy and the tour was really fun. Thanks Monica!!

Great captain! - Captain Daniel was fantastic! The walk from the parking lot to the boat took longer than expected and that time came off our actual boat time. That was disappointing. Also the area where we went snorkeling was beautiful but the water wasn’t very clear and there wasn’t much to see underwater.

Not professional - Sent my kids on this tour. Although they appeared to have fun the tour started late, there was confusion as to where it was, there was issues with waivers that they did not get to us as discussed, and the snorkeling was non existent as there was like two feet of water and no fish. Essentially this was a boat ride to see racoons and such. The captain asked us where to take them which was confusing since there should know what the trip is. And they hit me with a surprise $100 "captain fee" at the last minute which I hadn't seen advertised on top of it.

Nice way to see this part of Miami - This was unfortunately a sub optimal experience. Part of it was the weather which of course no fault of the tour company. But this did mean that we did not get to snorkel or swim because it was too cold, maybe the trip would have been better had we done that. The tour covered the Racoon Island (you have to hunt for the raccoons - it's not like there are many all waiting for you), the Bay Area, and the back gardens of many beautiful homes. It was nice to see this part of Miami from the water. The boat was just ok, and our captain was nice enough but I expected more professionalism. She was casual and hospitable. We cut the tour 2 hours short as it was cold and there was nothing else to do since we had seen the sights. The extra time was built in for snorkeling and swimming. Good to know that there is not much to see when you snorkel (according to our captain and also from what we could see in the water). It's pretty water but don't expect a good snorkeling experience.

Not a Tour!! - From the description, we were expecting an actual tour. With some history about the area and different things to look at. We didn't feel like we got anywhere close to a tour. Our captain showed us the island where Tom Brady and Jeff Bezos have houses. And she showed Dexter’s place (from the show) and that’s abt it. The description made it sound like we’d see all sorts of marine life. We didn’t see any! It was very disappointing. When we snorkled, all we saw was sand. Oh and exoskeletons of snakes and snake holes, which kind of creeped us out. So really what we got was a very expensive boat ride to the sandbar. Not worth it!! I would highly recommend just renting a boat to drive yourself where you want to go.

Strange Experience - I will do my very best to provide a comprehensive and unbiased review. Overall, I had a pleasant experience working with this company, however, I did not enjoy my experience with our boat captain, Michelle. I would not book with her again - but unfortunately you do not get to choose your captain when you sign up for this tour. An area for improvement would be the option to choose your captain based on ratings and review from prior attendees. What you should know: Do not schedule a 2:00pm tour time. . If you want to see sea creatures and feed animals, you need to arrive during their feeding time (early morning or sunset hours). Call your captain immediately when you arrive - do not look for them first. You will waste time walking around when you could be on the boat. Bring small pieces of ‘junk food’ for the raccoons, high value items that are stinky, like chips, beef jerky, and cookies, not bananas or fruit. And arrive with it, there isn’t a place to purchase food at the dock. Don’t book a tour on a Saturday in February: everywhere you visit in the bay is overcrowded with party boats, including the island and sandbar. Add 30+ mins to your GPS route to account for unforeseen traffic leaving downtown Miami, if you are new to this city. The blue route in Google maps is telling a lie. It should be yellow. Red flags: - An hour before our tour, our captain texted me saying we could pick up raccoon snacks at the gas station on the corner near the dock. There was no gas station on the corner. (But I overlooked this detail at the time, wondering if I missed it while driving) - Our captain told us to meet at Dock 3. We met promptly at 2:00pm on Dock 3, after confirming our location with nearby local boat owners. The captain was at Dock 1 (we’d walked past her while she was talking to a different group and neither of us recognized each other). - The captain called me and said she was wearing a hat and a white golf shirt, so I could find her. Her name was Michelle. She said she’d stay on the phone until I got there. I walked down the dock the opposite direction I came from and a woman waved at me wearing a long-sleeve blue tech shirt with no hat on. As I approached she hung up her phone. She told me she was Michelle, confirmed my real name correctly (“Are you …..?), and asked if I was there for the tour. I was very close to not getting on the boat with her due to her inconsistent self-description, but her phone voice matched up and I’d literally seen her hang up the phone as I was on the other line. - Once everyone was on the boat and it pulled away from the dock, Michelle commented how surprised she was for it being so busy on a Friday. After she said this 4 times and nobody responded to her, I finally said, “Today is Saturday.” She looked at me as though she heard me, but instead of responding, ignored my comment, looked away, and continued muttering (out loud) about the water being so busy with boats for a Friday afternoon. - Right before we got off the boat, Michelle told us she was a certified Coast Guard and that she was legit because she passed their drug test every week, which was a requirement of Coast Guards driving a boat. Then she said, we aren’t allowed to have marijuana on the boat because it’s also illegal in Florida. Her disclosing these two facts so plainly and out of context may not have been quite as weird if everything else she had told us made sense. But something was definitely off - why didn’t we get the experience we were sold, and why did our captain make incorrect observations about reality? Immediately I had this icky feeling in my stomach, as I pulled out my wallet to give her the $100 cash payment + $20 cash tip, requested by the boat company. Positive experiences: We went as a bachelorette group (5 people), and the bride was happy the whole time. She really was only interested in taking pictures on the boat and didn’t want to get in the water, and accomplishing that mission was a success. - Michelle took lots of group pictures for the bride to post on her Instagram. - We brought alcohol but we didn’t drink any of it or even eat the food we brought because we were so ‘busy’ posing for pictures. The silver lining is our bellies stayed trim, all the bridesmaids were sober, and nobody got seasick on the boat. - All of the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves and thanked our captain her help taking photos, and were very positive about the whole thing, even among disappointments with other bridesmaids about a lack of wildlife experience we had been expecting. The girls even offered our captain, Michelle, a chocolate chip muffin when we got off the boat. -Viator itself was very communicative regarding our reservation and the text messages from this company were prompt, respectful, and detailed. The text message updates and response to my questions from the Viator communications team (or boating company) were very helpful and led to a successful tour arrival. Negative experiences: - We didn’t see any fish while snorkeling - We didn’t feed any raccoons (we only saw 2 raccoons after wandering around the island, and they weren’t interested in our bananas and pears so they continued foraging far from us. They didn’t even come up to us - I threw some fruit to them from far away and they just walked by. We had very few ‘junk food’ items, and didn’t think to bring them onto the island for the raccoons, they were all on the boat parked a few yards away.) - We didn’t get any pictures with raccoons. - We didn’t get any sort of real tour about the history of the island, Miami, get to visit famous house etc. We didn’t learn anything educational (3 teachers were on the boat) and we did not take back “memorable” pieces of information to share with our students or to help grow our in our knowledge of the environment’s flora, fauna, conservation efforts, geology, and appreciation of the culture. Michelle told us how vicious the raccoons were to each other (like 2 rival gangs) how sharp their nails were and that they would climb up our legs to get our food, so we had to be careful not to get hurt. This was our educational component. Michelle told us she got married young and then decided she was done being married. And hey, it’s Miami so she’s living her best life. The bride said maybe she would have many stories to share with us, but Michelle was quiet the whole boat ride. - We weren’t shown any pictures and names of tropical fish to keep an eye out for while snorkeling. It was literally 1 person driving a boat around for 2 hours, someone’s uncle with a boating license could have done the same thing. I guess that was the vibe - nothing special. Just the basic bus-driver treatment: tell me where you want to go. - The snorkel gear was minimal (just a few snorkel masks and 1 adult life vest for 5 people). When I visited Biscayne National Park three years ago, they gave us snorkel masks, flippers, anti-fog mask spray, and life vests. I saw a diverse group of fish in many parts of the water in Biscayne National Park. I recommend going there for snorkeling, not here. This location should not advertise snorkeling because there is literally nothing to see in the water except cloudy water and some seaweed. Michelle told us all the fish were by the dock, but that’s where the sharks were, so she decided not to take is there (after we were far from the dock with no time left to see more fish). I would have loved to see the sharks (assuming they were nurse sharks), as well as local fish. - We did not see any dolphins. Again, false advertising. Yes maybe they only come out when they feel like it, and yes we booked a 2pm Saturday boat ride on an overcrowded bay, so anyone reading, please keep in mind, dolphins are a rare sighting for a weekend afternoon where party yahts surround everything. - Multiple times Michelle complained or made passive aggressive comments about her 4:00 tour that she couldn’t be late for, before, during, and at the end of our 2-hr experience. This would happen when the bride asked Michelle to take photos of our group, or when the bride asked to visit the sandbar, pretty much anytime the bride made a request, Michelle threw in some attitude. It felt unprofessional for Michelle to bring up her concerns about timing in a negative way. It would have been more helpful for Michelle to provide a time estimation and offer a few suggestions. For example: you all have 10 minutes left of the tour, would you like option A or B next? While on the boat I tried to manage everyone’s needs and expectations, and felt responsible for Michelle’s annoyance at the bride, which made for an awkward experience between me and the boat captian. When I was getting out of the water with another bridesmaid, the bride suddenly decided to take photo of us climbing into the boat, and asked her other bridesmaids to get in the photo with us. As soon as this happened, Michelle said to everyone, “I wish you started this 10 minutes ago. I can’t be late for my 4:00 tour.” - Michelle told us she had cold water bottles and ice on board but never pulled it out and offered them to us. -We experienced technical difficulties getting the Bluetooth speaker to work. I think one of the girls must have helped Michelle with it because eventually it started playing the music from the bridesmaid’s phone.

false advertising. will not work with you. - we booked a couple days before Christmas. we drove down from Orlando and didn't realize the high winds hitting Miami. when I suddenly realized that the winds may impede our trip, I was about 5 mins late for the 24 hr cancelation window. they wouldn't work with me. so we went on the trip with rains hitting half the time, did not see dolphins, did not snorkle. but fed the raccoons for $450 and returned half an hour early due to the weather. the captain was really cool but this booking agency is all about the money and not the experience. it really is false advertising, no dolphins. snorkeling. they knew this. but will send u out into the rain nonetheless.. book with local captains that may actually care about the experience

Complete Rip Off. Do NOT waste your money - This was completely false advertising. We paid $750 ($550 to Viator then another $200 as the "Captain's fee" and all we did was ride around. There was no visits to islands, there was no "nature immersion" as advertised, and there was no marine life where we were taken to snorkle. Most times if snorkeling is advertised, they at least take you where you might see fish. This was a complete waste of money. The captain was texting while driving the boat, talking on the phone at other times, and gave minimal information about sites we were supposed to see. I will never use Viator again and truly feel like this was such a rip off that it's criminal level.