Marinarium Snorkeling Cruise — Attraction in Higüey

The worst snorkeling experience. We did a morning snorkeling cruise to their Marinarium. Idk how this is "sold" because I didn't book it. Here was the reality. I didn't know if about the animal portion so I didn't look in the approximately 6 ft pits (maybe 4 of them?) & 2 stray dogs (1 pregnant). There were A LOT of little children and some older adults-including my parents, about 80. (They advertise all ages) We didn't know when we were to be in the boat & it was a sudden NOW. They gave us a mask & snorkel & a foam belt for floatation, no fins for anyone. The boat was nice & well kept. They had drinks & snacks available. No complaints there. Lots of jabbering on a mic & loud music. Getting to the Marinarium, they offered you to hang on to the rope or swim around the boat to get to the snorkel area. I did the rope with my dad. That was a distance. I'm in average shape. The little kids struggled as the current was strong. You climb over a gate they push down (hard for elderly & Littles in a mask). Idk what each corral type thing had, but in the first one, I saw one nurse shark & one ray as they swam away. The employee said they scatter when people come. We went past the big group of struggling parents with crying kids so they wouldn't scare everything away. I guess that's when they got the Ray out to take pics & threw out bread to attract fish. The rays tail was cut. We went to the next corral (there was NO instructions & we assumed everyone would swim to the other fenced areas. I saw nothing but a few stray fish. The corrals have holes in the plastic fence . It's just a sand bottom & fish don't like open water. There was a tall dock so after a lot of swimming in strong current, we took a break. We could see some rays down below (no sharks or fish) but people on another trip had to swim to chase them. We did see some fish outside of the corral from the deck. The group never came & there was no communication how long we had. We saw them loading up. By that point my dad was struggling to swim but we swam through 2 corral sections. No one came to see where we were or if help was needed, but the boat waited with my family on board. We had one last corral to swim through & we saw the guide. I said he needs help to the boat. He just waved to come in. They were pulling the rope in. I said he needs the rope. We couldn't use it. He asked them to loosen his foam belt float thing a little (not a life jacket). The guy didn't understand but said no. My dad couldn't make it to the boat w/o help. We kept asking. He didn't understand us. He eventually helped pull him in as I swam (hard!) behind & the guide didn't check on me either. The group & I didn't see another 4-5 sections of this place. The rest of the cruise was nothing to see but open sea & shoreline of trees. Snacks were little sandwiches, pineapple, coconut, 2 cookies & drinks too. We stopped in water about 4ft deep that was murky- not in the turquoise waters. More drinks in the water, but I think they were mostly alcoholic. There were many other boats around us in the battle of the speakers. The highlight was being with my family & meeting other people. Not snorkeling. I do not recommend this company to anyone. I've snorkeled many times before & always find sealife & the guides have good communication & concern for safety. If I had small children I would ask for a refund. Oh the photos they take were available for $40 for all. I waited in line & finally paid before I had to rush off because the bus was going to leave. No time given...

Beware! Not as advertised. They tell you its an excursion to go see the stingray's/sharks, do snorkeling and a swim in a natural pool. 4 hrs in total or less. **The snorkeling is to go in the ocean enclosure to go see the sharks/stingrays and that's it. You won't snorkel anywhere else. When they bring you to the enclosure they ask that good swimmers jump off on the left and beginners on the right. The people on the right have a rope they can pull themselves on. What they don't tell you is that the ocean can be rough and it is NOT AT ALL like swimming in a lake. I'm a good swimmer in a lake, but the ocean is much stronger and to be honest, I thought I was going to drown. My family members helped me and NO ONE from the crew, even asked or came to see if I was ok. My husband went to them and told them how ashamed they should be. Without my family, I would have surely drowned. I swallowed so much water, it was crazy. Only after we got back to the boat did they say that the ocean was rough today. HELLO. why didn't you say that before. I would have made an educated decision before jumping off the boat.

We were told the boat was a catamaran, but it isn't really. I was expecting the netting. NOPE. Was also told that it was equipped with glass bottom. Couldn't see anything nor did any member talk about it. -The natural pool is actually a sand bar in the ocean near the shoreline that is approx. 5 ft deep were all the boats end up. From the start to the finish, you don't really go far and are always close to the shoreline. I was expecting to be out more in the ocean. The snacks, were less than ok, in my opinion. Little sandwiches with one slice of meat and 1 thin slice of cheese in it and for dessert, pineapple slices, coconut slices and 2 cookies that are smaller than Oreo's. Prices vary alot $125 USD per person at the hotel, $115 from the flight rep and online even cheaper. Watch out too as alot of fake website of all sorts. I feel like it was a rip off to be honest, as it was not as advertised. Last but not least, when they pick you up from the hotel, they pick up everyone that chose an excursion (reef, party boat (happy hour) and the snorkeling package). Those that chose the happy hour excursion drink like no tomorrow and are pissed drunk by the end and for the return to the hotel. Strong suggestion to the owners of this business is to send the happy hour folks in one bus by themselves. Some bought rum, beer, etc and were drinking like crazy and not long after we left for our return to the hotel, a fist fight broke out in our bus in the group that took the happy hour. Kids and families from the other tours got scared. Kids crying and one even threw up from all the stress. Shame on the tourists that couldn't handle the drinking, but this company also filled them with alcohol all afternoon, so should manage the overdrinking separately. We saw other excursion companies when we were on the water, which appeared to me more what I was expecting, so do your homework to have a...

The ride to the snorkeling site takes probably 8 mins to get there.... yet we sat on the boat a ways from the site for OVER an hour while the "entertainer" asked where people were from; explained the excursion in English and then in Spanish; had a pre-recorded marine life audio info tape play, one by one introduced EACH member of the crew by name, where they were from, to their own music as they danced up to the front to take a bow or wave. Then each crew member ran around the bottom and the top of the boat high fiving each guest. While I absolutely support the need to knows I was SO disappointed about how much time we WASTED doing this when we could have been in the water which is what we paid for.

When we FINALLY got into the water they told everyone they could go to one side of the boat for the advanced snorkelers so see the beautiful underwater life below us… it was sea grass… seriously?! The non-advanced group went straight into the cage where the stingrays and nurse sharks were so we bailed and headed that way. As we started heading that way another couple were just making their way into the water as the last to get into the water. They had NO FINS because there were not enough fins for everyone! Snorkeling mask or not, swimming without fins is significantly different than swimming with. The gentleman of the couple quickly became exhausted and started to have a panic attack. The crew member by the cage continued to try moving us along and telling us we had to keep going without any regard for what was CLEARLY going on! Thankfully we are dive masters and are familiar with taking out tours and dealing with this type of scenario and could help manage the situation. This was the top 5 worst cases we’ve ever seen in someone panicking in the water during a tour and I would confidently state that had we not been there he very well may have drowned due to the lack of help he was getting elsewhere. The crew member at the cage just kept telling us to keep moving until we finally told him to back off because it was a safety concern. We ended up giving our fins to him to get him back to the boat and as soon as we did that everyone was being sent back to the boat…. So much for that….

We got back on the boat and headed to the sandbar where we were one of the very first boats to arrive. After being moored for probably 15 mins or so other boats were slowly coming in. They kept brining out rum drinks which were no good. We kept asking for beer but they were only bringing out a few at a time so we gave up and kept going back to the boat to get our own from the bartender. Before we knew it we were asked to return to the boat and head back.

Never again would I ever waste my money on this and I would absolutely encourage anyone else to pass on this. Safety should be the number one concern for both the sea life AND your guests. The next concern should be utilizing your time better so people who just dropped $100 + a piece get his/her...