Starfish Marathon Snorkeling Tours — Attraction in Marathon

The snorkeling at Sombrero key was fantastic and our crew was excellent! I tipped them appropriately well, however many of my fellow customers disappointingly did not. Please take an additional 10% to 20% of your booking cost in cash to tip your crew if they deserve it. This review is only 3/5 due to the company policies you should be aware of before booking. I will make my observations clear:

1. The boat does not provide free refreshments or snacks, which is fine, they do (on website) indicate they sell soda and beer on the boat. However what they don't tell you is that they charge $2 per bottle of water. This is ridiculous given this tour is already $25 more than their competition. Once you're out there its not like you have options. This gripe is more about the principle and lack of transparency.

2. The morning trip I booked was cancelled due to lack of customers. They called me the day before to inform me and to offer to book me on the afternoon trip, which I accepted. I had to cancel another snorkel trip to Looe Key with a competitor in order to make this one. That was bothersome but necessary as Sombrero Key is reportedly the snorkeling crown jewel of the Keys. It didn't disappoint. What did disappoint was the afternoon trip was packed, making me suspicious that they frequently cancel morning trips to "bait-and-switch" you to the afternoon trip. If you book the morning trips, ask them how many more passengers they need to confirm the trip. This will give you a better idea of the likelihood of them canceling your trip.

3. They won't let you snorkel at the Sombrero Key Lighthouse, something they don't tell you until you are at the reef. The Captain stated that it was full of sharp metal, poisonous fish, and nothing to see but dead coral. There are dozens of great youtube videos of snorkelers seeing amazing things at the lighthouse very recently, so there is a credibility gap here. Once again, this would have been a deciding factor in choosing this company and would have been important to post on their website or when booking.

4. This business is very highly recommended on Trip Advisor, and I have not yet tried out their competition around Marathon. That said I have taken many snorkeling tours in Key West, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, etc. The Starfish facilities are comparatively run-down. They are also more expensive than their competitors. This was part of my decision to choose them, as you generally get what you pay for. This does not appear to be the case in this instance.

In conclusion, would I use Starfish again? Yes, however only after trying some of their larger, more-efficiently run...

Pretty ridiculous experience all around. I will start by saying, my family business is a 90' tourist fishing boat in NJ. We've been in the business almost 100 years. My husband is a captain on my family's vessel. My brother has been a commercial scallop boat captain since he was 19. And my step dad has been the captain of another 125' tourist fishing boat for the last 40+ years. To say we know the tourist boating industry is an understatement. We booked Starfish for a snorkeling excursion and there were about 30 other passengers onboard, including children and some older folks. Captain Stetson operated the vessel recklessly. The Seas were a bit choppy, and the boat is not necessarily one that handles great in the ocean, but it could have been manageable. Instead he continued to stuff the bow into the head sea. Huge waves kept washing over us and all of our belongings. My husband, step dad and I held onto each other to try to avoid being injured, but eventually Capt went full speed into a huge wave that launched my husband and I off the bench and onto the deck. Capt slowed down and did not come to check on my husband or I. The impact from slamming onto the deck made it impossible for me to get up off of the deck. A couple days later, I have a lot of soreness and bruising still. Once we got to the snorkle location, Capt actually tried to defend his actions and said he wasn't going more than 4 knots. Completely ridiculous, he was easily going 12+ knots. They're very lucky it wasn't one of the older passengers that got thrown like that. In a tourist boating business like this, it's extremely important that safety is #1. We understand that you can't cancel trips due to choppy conditions, but there is a way to captain a vessel that keeps everyone safer than that. Many people were sea sick but you can't cancel trips for that reason either. Meggy the mate was nice and did check on me later in the trip. She earns starfish the extra star. My phone was ok but my other electronics were ruined from being completely soaked. Do not expect that your towels and belongings will keep dry. Starfish... Have more respect for your passengers and do...

Captain is burnt out on tourist and it shows . One guy had his shoes stolen when we got back to the dock and the helper dumped everyone's shoes in a pile on the dock . I caught someone holding one of my husband's shoes . The ride was nice and the spot we went to was perfect . Boat was nice. I felt that the captain needs some time off . He was busy making fun of me and disrespecting a man that could not the supplied mask to seal. Just told the guy he had a dented forehead and just walked off . Rude son of a gun. Then blamed the shoe stealing on him after the man was gone . The captain said at the beginning no diving from the boat but he dove in to get a swim and to encourage a shark to go back to the front of the boat claiming to be doing a hull check . They claimed that anyone could get on and off of the boat as much as needed . One older lady was struggling to get up the ladder and I had to help her and other back on the boat . The helper kept putting up the masks and snorkels while people were resting and the customers had to go through findind and setting up their gear over and over . Boat or dock needs a locker set up for shoes . And needs fin and mask holders for the customers while resting on site . The captain cost 3 stars and the un-guarded shoe pile was a joke cost 1 more star . They should have at least have bought the guy a pair of flip flops . I can't imagine having to leave paradise shoeless. The guy was leaving to go back to Italy right after the snorkeling tour . The helper was very pushy for tips claiming that was the only income he was getting for working on the boat . He kept telling a story of how a customer the day before gave him 4 quarters and how he told the customer to just keep it . My regret is not going with one of the other tours that showed up at...