Bradenton Beach Marina — Attraction in Brandenton Beach

My family(about 20 of us, including my elderly grandparents, my 9 month old daughter, and 3 other small children) had a horrible experience on the dolphin sunset tour. The first hour was great, but when we went to go watch the sunset out in the gulf everything went wrong. John D was our captain, and we hit the bridge head on and then hit an additional 2 times trying to get out. John claimed that he’d lost control of the steering because a cable snapped, but it appeared that it was an issue that he knew about previously. We were thrown forward, some of us falling on the floor. The captain and the mate were completely silent, didn’t tell anyone what was going on and didn’t help anyone put life jackets on. They didn’t call the coast guard or alert anyone that we had wrecked. John proceeded to tell us that we’d watch the sunset from where we were. At this point, several people are having panic attacks and bawling. We had no idea if we were going to sink or not. My husband had to go ask him to take us back to shore. He took us back without an escort. He didn’t ask if anyone was okay, but did say sorry when we unloaded the boat. We got a refund, but it seemed like John was trying to sweep the incident under the rug. We called the coast guard to alert them about the accident and to make sure someone checked the bridge. They promptly started an investigation and said they had investigated John before. We talked to one of the owners, and he said that John has been fired. However the more we learn, the less convinced we are that this is an isolated incident. Be wary when booking! I don’t want anything to happen to any...

Super let down. We went out with Roger for the 2 hour, afternoon dolphin tour. Within a few minutes of taking off, we found dolphins! However, he only stayed here for 5-10 minutes and then left them. The next 1 hour and 50 minutes, we saw nothing and honestly, Roger didn’t share any helpful information about the dolphins at all, unless asked. Even then, it was some quick answer and a joke and that was it.

We saw a bunch of abandoned boats and an old fishing village, and some people partying on the shore…extremely boring.

By the time we circled back around to where we originally had seen the dolphins, we asked if we could go back to see if they were still there - he said there was no time left for that.

The ride was extremely boring and not worth the money at all. We felt really bad that we put our small kids through that in the awful Florida heat.

We were super bummed out - especially that there’s an obligatory tip you must give when leaving. We really felt ripped off. My husband reached out to the company for a discount after the fact, and they ignored him. Would never recommend this to anyone. Perhaps it was just who we got for a tour guide.

You're better off paying nothing and looking for...

We rented a pontoon boat for 4hrs. Boat rental itself was easy, boat was clean and relatively new, staff friendly and helpful in general. The big "but" was: Towards the end of the rental, about 3/4 of an hour, the motor stalled whenever we tried to go above 1,500rpm, so veryyy slow speed. I strongly believe this was a clogged fuel filter since it started first after 2hrs but only if you would speed up, then it became gradually worse. We were able to limb back and due to that we were some 10min late. I was asking for kind of a compensation for this inconvenience like a rebate for the next rental or so. This was declined and the comment was: You should have called immediately when that happened but we will not be charged for the late return which is what they can offer.. Since we already rented out there before we thought they are a little more customer-focussed . So we really consider another rental company for the next time there. Without this hassle I would have given a 5 star rating, given that they are not the cheapest boat rantal place around and my credo is: You get what you pay for. But this didn´t pay out this...