Dolphin Snorkeling Cruise — Attraction in Gulfport

I had high hopes for this and unfortunately wish I had booked a different activity or a different company. I want to start off by saying I have been snorkeling in Florida 2 other times and both were extremely enjoyable. It's my favorite water activity. So not my first time but it was my sister's first time snorkeling. I found this company and called months in advance to make sure they were legit (they are) and ask questions about the booking process and what days they do the tours. The person I spoke to told me everyday unless it's during the slow season than it's just weekends. I completely understand that. He asked what day I would be booking and I said it would be a Wednesday he let me know that wasn't an issue. The site only lets you pay half of it and than you pay the remaining at the time of snorkeling. I booked it without an issue. The Monday before they call me and left a voicemail asking me to call back and immediately text me asking to call back. I step away from where I was at and call them back. He lets me know they are going to do routine maintenance on the boat and wanted to know how long we were there for to see if we could do a different day. I moved some activity around and made Friday morning available instead. Calling me 2 days before to change the date was red flag number one and I should have canceled then. The night before I get another call from them letting me know one of the boats was down in the everglades. I thought they were going to cancel or ask to reschedule but didn't. It was just a weird call. I felt like the universe was telling me to cancel. Day of the trip I followed their text directions to find them. The only details they really gave was a picture of some flags where the harbor entrance was. They didn't have signs up or anything on the boat. My sister and I looked lost and confused and that's how they found us. Getting on the boat and leaving the harbor was fine. They explain how you will see dolphins. We arrive at the island. You have to hold onto the side of the boat and carefully make your way to the front and down the ladder into the water. They do warn you that their mosquito. It's part of nature I understand that. They give a little history on the island and explain where to stay. I didn't even make it to the light house before I became a full buffet for the mosquitoes. That's not their fault just telling my experience so someone knows what to expect. So I made my way back to shore and didn't explore it anymore. You stay on the island about 50 minutes mine was mostly spent on the shore. Next they take you about a mile or two further up island for snorkeling. This is the disappointing part. The whole reason it was booked. The water was very dirty with extremely low visibility. I decided to get in. You can't see anything at all. I felt like I was swimming in a lake is the best way to discribe it. There was grass and pine needles everywhere. You shouldn't swim without coming into contact with them. I was hoping to see fish but you couldn't see anything more than a foot in front of you. So I ended up being right up next to the shore to look for shells since you can't see animals. You can stand up in the water but not allowed to go on that part of the shore because it is protected for wild life. We got back onto the boat and coming in we ended up seeing dolphins. You have to be at the back of the boat and with everyone crowding it is hard to get pictures or videos. The crew was nice and made some jokes. I just wish they would have picked a better location so you could actually see fish and...

🚨 BEWARE! If you have to cancel they don't give you the promised refund even if its well in advance.

The owner/captain (who ever answers and runs the text messaging) is so scatter brained, I am surprised he functions well enough to run this place. I did this tour years ago, other than a couple of drunk passengers, the snorkeling part was great. So I wanted to take my two 17 year olds.

We booked it for 2 days after we arrived in the area but we ended up having to delay our trip to Florida by 1 day. So I called to see if we could move the date to Friday May 9th instead of May 7th.

5/2: Owner picks up the phone, winded. Like he just ran a mile. He's explaining to me that hes fixing a boat or was fixing a boat or gassing up a boat and that their having boat problems.

He's asking me questions but then telling me there's nothing he could do at the moment but then asking me more questions and telling me again, he cant help. I said "I can call you back when you're not busy". Ok great, we hang up.

5/3: First call of the day (4 days before our reservation): Again, guy answers winded like he's running down a pier in a hurricane. Scatter brained, multitasking, who knows. He needs an assistant to answer phone calls. Anyway, I ask him if we could move our date from 5/7 to 5/9. He says no because there is already a private party that reserved the day. I said ok thanks, we hang up.

Second call (15 mins later), I tell him after thinking about it, we need to cancel our reservation as our trip was delayed a day and 5/7 no longer worked for us. Attached photo shows the confirmation email from when I booked, saying you have to cancel with at least 36 hour notice - this was 4 days notice.

Guy laughs and says "I hung up with you and called them and they said you could join them on 5/9". I'm sure he did that. He was so scattered when I called him 15 minutes prior, I doubt he was clear headed enough to give these people a quick buzz to kindly ask if 3 strangers could join their private party Friday. Not to mention, I didn't even mention cancelling on the previous call. It was basically "oh you cant move us, no problem, thanks anyway".

So I said thanks for doing that but you didn't tell me you were doing that and I didn't know it was an option. But I still need to cancel.

He laughs and hangs up on me. I knew this guy was going to give me a hard time with the refund so I sent a follow up email as soon as he hung up as well as texts so I had to proof.

If you can translate his final text to me enough to make sense of it, it sounds like hes trying to say that the times I had reserved were blocked off from anyone else booking. If hes referring to Friday 5/9, the date was blocked off from booking online anyway which is why I had to call to see if we could book it.

If he's referring to Wednesday 5/7...well there's two issues, first if he moved us to Friday like he says he did, then why would he still have our spots blocked off on Wednesday from anyone else being able to book? And second, I cancelled 4 days before the trip so he should have held up his end, cancelled and those 3 spots would have been available to someone else to book.

As of today 5/21 and after the texts confronting him multiple times, he still has not issued the refund.

Give your $$ to one of the many other places that offer these trips in the area. Ones that treat their clients and potential clients nicely, professionally and honor their policies. Not someone that plays games...

My family and I were so excited to participate in the dolphin snorkeling cruise to Egmont Key and spend some time snorkeling and exploring the island. We arrived at the marina, could not figure out where to go to get on the boat, finally called the captain and got everyone on the boat the captain was not friendly or pleasant, constant yelling at the first mate who seemed like it was his first day on the job. We spent about an hour getting to Egmont Key on a very rough ride on to be arms length from the island and have the captain turn the boat around with no explanation! My kids were devastating stating they thought we got to explore the island and not just look at it. After another 30 minute ride the captain finally stopped the boat in front of a very crowded island and said “you have two options, I can back the boat in and you can snorkel off the back of the boat and swim to the beach, it’s about 6 feet deep, or I can pull in and put a ladder down and you can walk on to the beach. Of course everyone on the boat including the elderly and children chose not to just jump off a boat in 6 foot deep water so we went with option 2. Then we were told the less with brought down onto the beach the better because we had to climb down a ladder. Now this was advertised as a bring a picnic lunch explore Egmont key, snorkeling trip so all passengers had bags and coolers. People were stuffing food in their faces on the boat before getting off, we were handed dirty snorkeling gear with zero instruction and left on a crowded island with no bathrooms, dirty snorkeling gear and no instructions except to be back before the boat left, which we weren’t given a time. This was such a bummer for my kids and I paid a lot of money for an absolute disappointment. Then before you leave the boat they come around with pouches encouraging you to give the suggested 20% gratuity. Absolutely ridiculous waste of time and money and our...