Lauderdale Adventures — Attraction in Fort Lauderdale

Our jet ski tour was over two months ago, but I’ve been thinking about our experience (and discussing it with my boys) all summer. I have decided to share our story in hopes that changes are made by the tour guide (and potentially all the tour guides in the region, since perhaps they take a similar path) as our tour was categorically unsafe and could have ended in death (not to be dramatic, just frank). Here is what happened. We tooled out very slowly through the intercostal waterway. This was beautiful but maybe a little boring because it was so slow. We were told that there was a place we could “go fast” when we got near the ocean, and we were excited for that. I drove (mom) with my two boys, age 7 and 13, on the back. The jet ski was large enough for all of us. The problem came when we hit the “fast” area, a boat thoroughfare that takes you out to the ocean. If I recall the speed limit was about 25 mph and our guide said to keep it at that. He also warned us “not to fall off” and he told us that we shouldn’t go near the edges because that was dangerous (blocked by cement walls, where we could get banged up/hit our head). He didn’t really tell us what to do if we fell in because he told us that we couldn’t fall in (but what if we did ?!) because huge yachts went well over the 25 mph speed limit and couldn’t see jet skis (and didn’t like them either) and would run us over. I’m going to be honest, I still carried on with the tour and didn’t realize the danger until after the fact, later that day. This has haunted me all summer. It was only my “daredevil” son, 7 year old Johnny, who realized it immediately. He began crying and screaming just after our “safety talk” as we drove through the boat “highway.” I’ve heard that often the riskiest people have the greatest safety barometer because they are constantly doing things that require personal risk assessment. What Johnny realized was that we could easily tip over! And while he could swim, he would never be able to swim strong enough to get away from these massive, fast moving boats. The waves were so high - giant! How would he swim anywhere, much less climb back on our jet ski?! As we drove through, I went fast, the speed limit, because I felt we’d tip over if we slowed too much (waves often came together making massive peaks that we had to “jump”). Even our guide said that he’d tipped over here before, so of course this was possible. If we had tipped, one of my kids -or myself- would likely not have been able to swim out of the path of a yacht in these huge waters on this narrow “road,” and could have been run over, drowned or otherwise killed. To be honest, perhaps several of the outfitters are taking guests to this place, I don’t know. Regardless, I strongly warn anyone (especially children, but also adults) to NOT go on this tour. (Note: The guide also said that on their open sea tours, sometimes guests get dangerously close to cruise ships, which would suck them under in a second.) Finally, I’ll say, if the company wants me to pull this review down, I’m happy to do so if they change their...

What a day!!! Our group got together for a boating day trip with Lauderdale Adventures and had such a great time! The only thing we had to do was show up and enjoy ourselves. They had coolers on board so we brought cans and didn’t have to fuss with lugging around a heavy cooler. There was plenty of room to sit in the sun and plenty of room under shade. We took a short cruise to a shallow area where we could swim and try out the stand up paddleboards. Some of us got right up on the boards and some needed more practice, lol. After a bit we cruised by the port and stopped at Whiskey Creek for more swimming and water activities. The small beach led to a restaurant that served food and drinks. After that we did a leisurely run up and down the New River and stopped at the Historic Downtowner for frozen Pina Coladas and Rumrunners. We finished the day off with another anchoring and a cruise up and down the intercostal. The captain couldn’t have offered a better experience to us and we all agreed that we’d do it again real soon! There’s no better day than a day on the water with Lauderdale...

We booked a captained boat rental for 6 people and were told to arrive at the pier at least 30 minutes early. We spent $57 and Ubered and waited at the pier, only to be contacted 20 minutes prior to our sailing time that the boat wasn’t starting and “we’re sorry about that”. I wasn’t offered anything until I asked if they were able to do anything for us, like perhaps a different boat, when I was told I’d be refunded and given a discount for a future sailing. Three days later, I had to call and request a refund because the company “forgot” to credit my card. Finally the refund email was issued, although it hasn’t yet shown on my statement.

I understand issues arise last minute, but I’d imagine that a reputable company would have ensured they had a working boat well in advance of the 30 minute window, the time they told us to be there. That, and offer a bit more considering we paid to Uber 45 minutes only to be told essentially “sorry, good luck”.

Discount on a future sailing or not, I won’t be using this...