Saltwater Safari Company — Hotel in Seward

AKA, Saltwater Snafu I feel this fishing outfit is not a great fit If you are a woman fishing solo or a family with kiddos. In short, these guys are a bunch of good old boys, who looked at me a bit disdainfully when we showed up, the head (toilet room) was a mess, and it was ok for men to smoke smelly cigars on the boat.

Full review: There were 12 people fishing and one deckhand beside the captain who was busy with operations most of the time. I’m not sure of the standard, but I’ve been on other fishing adventures and this boat was smaller and felt crowded.

Things were disorganized onboard. For starters, I don’t expect a fancy head on a fishing boat, but it should at least be clean. This head was not. No soap, just hand sanitizer, which was on the floor (rolling around in you can imagine what). There was no running water in the sink and when I asked the captain, he said someone must have left the water running and the tank now empty. 🤔 At one point the anchor got all tangled and wouldn’t come up. We had to wait around for another vessel to come to us for assistance.

It was not an easy-going atmosphere. The two employees were not very friendly and more importantly were not very helpful to our kids, 13 and 16 years old and who had never fished for bottom dwellers. There was a group of about six men on our boat and not only did they take over and monopolize the back of the boat but they set the tone for the vibe. The captain had no authority. A few of them pulled out cigars at one point and began smoking! The captain did nothing about it until I asked. It took over 10 minutes for him (to work up the courage??) to get them to put the cigars out. It turned out one of the men in the large group was high school buddies with the deckhand, so they were busy reminiscing and his group (those who monopolized the back area) were treated attentively by the deck hand, while the rest of us practically had to beg for more bait when needed.

This fishing trip was slated for combo fishing but the captain couldn’t find the halibut. We were lucky my family caught one. The captain was stressed out trying to find the halibut and the men started complaining. I know it can happen and why it’s called fishing, but when we got back to the docks and the deck hand was cleaning the rest of the fish, we did see plenty of halibut from other vessels. So they were out there...

The overall experience bothered me enough that I decided to call the owner to share our experience, The only thing he responded to with concern was the fact that someone was smoking a cigar on his boat. Not the fact that nobody was helping out my kids, the toilet was a mess, there was no running water, we weren’t given any time in the back of the boat, etc. When I mentioned I wasn’t happy to have paid $425 per person and I have had such a poor experience, his immediate response was, “So this is about the money?? You can forget about getting a penny back."

By our experience and the reaction of the owner, the mentality of this outfit is clear: make money and don’t worry - they’re just tourists, they’ll go back home. If he really cared about giving good value he would want to hear my feedback. When a customer has such a poor experience, you generally want to try and make up for that as a matter of pride in your business, having some integrity, and a genuine desire for customer satisfaction. This company doesn’t seem to care about any of that. I am happy there are other choices because when we do return to Alaska, and we will go back, as our son is a fishing fanatic, we will be hiring a...

If I could give 0/5 I would. We are well into spring and the beginning of fishing season! I would whole heartedly recommend ANY OTHER charter business/ lodge then Salt Water Safari. Their rooms are okay, but you are not given the choice to have any way to refrigerate food (they don’t offer food of any kind on the boats if you choose to go fishing, nor any breakfast or coffee in the main office if your just staying at the lodge). I also witnessed an elderly man and his wife be very rudely asked to leave and then removed from the main office because they were asking too many questions about the boats they have available and the front office people “didn’t have time to waste on twenty questions”. The owners of the business seem to be Alisa and Bob. According to the staff, Bob is the Owner and operator of the lodge and the vessel named the Legend and Alisa runs the office. I have witnessed their turned up nosed towards employees and their potential customers. After witnessing the horrific treatment of staff and guests, I made the choice to see how far their carelessness went. I sat on the park benches outside the front side of the lodge (it’s in a gravel picnic area/ garden area right outside all the lodge room doors) and it was extremely disappointing to see what I did. Their laundry/ supply facilities are located in the closets in the hall way separating the first few rooms and the last few rooms on the bottom floor and it looks to be the same arrangement on the top floor. Not only do they throw the laundry on the wood deck the lodge sits on but I witnessed them and their staff throwing CLEAN OUT OF THE DRYER linens into a fish cart off their back deck. I also over heard a tallish older woman with brown/ blonde hair telling the cleaners that the comforters do not get washed because “the water damages them” and that the “fuzzy blankets only get thrown into the washers if they look dirty”.For the amount they charge, both for charters and lodging, I would expect a much higher respect for people as well as cleanliness in their lodge. I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t want to sleep in a place that gives me a blanket covered in god knows how many peoples dead skin cells and who treats people the way they all doOh and the last thought on this? Anyone who visits Seward on the summer months knows how much of an irritation parking is. Salt Water Safari doesn’t even have parking on sight. You have to drive over a block and walk back to the lodge. (If you choose to just go fishing? You have to pay for parking in the harbor lots.) Just an FYI for your future...

Disappointing from the very start. First we were called and told the charter boat has a blown head gasket and our outing was canceled. We tied for the next day to book a charter with someone else with no success. We were finally told that the boat was repaired and we were able to go out as originally planned. The day of our charter we got on the boat and captain Bob on the Renegade started us out to our fishing spot but before we got there he turned around in rough water (4’ foot swells). This was not his original destination when we left the dock but changed his mind when we were half way to our originally planned location this caused a 45 minute delay to the fishing hole. When we finally anchored there were 40 boats where we stopped (I counted them). We ended up catching two tiny halibut with 9 people on the boat, less than 10lbs each. We were on site for approximately 3 hours and were offered to return to the dock for a half day rate, which we collectively decided to do. There was no offer to go after salmon or other species of fish. No effort to go to another location to fish for halibut. Captain Bob acted like he didn’t want to be there. He was not at all engaging with us which we would of overlooked if we were catching fish. We still tipped them like we caught fish but really disappointing overall. The half day trip cost over two thousand dollars not counting tip for two halibut that amounted to less than ten lbs of meat. Very, very disappointing. Addition: Captain Bob did call me and explain things to me from his point of view. I know it’s not easy to call someone who isn’t happy with the way he did his job so I appreciate that. He was able to clarify his reasoning for how things evolved on our way out which made sense. I know that there are no guarantees when it comes to fishing and after talking to Captain Bob I am satisfied he did his best. I wish things could have went better for our group and I am disappointed in our result but hope that next time...