Barnacle Bill's Wild Pony Boat Tours — Local services in Chincoteague

I'm deeply saddened by the fact that I'm unable to give Bill zero stars. It was everything you would expect from someone named "Barnacle Bill". First, getting onto the boat was incredibly difficult, with a 3 foot drop between the dock and quote on quote boat (I'd call it more of a rusty bucket of moldy carpet more than a boat but whatever). Bill did not know how to pull the boat close enough to the dock, so he ended up ramming the boat into the dock multiple times to the point where the dock shook a little bit, and my dad had to actually push the boat himself into the correct place. Then when we tried to get into the boat we received no help from Bill, not even a hand to assist you with your three foot jump. If you're interested in a shady, comfortable, beautiful tour of the water, this is not for you. Bill has only enough covering on the boat for him and has the finest chairs the dollar store has to offer out in the burning sun for his customers. We got burnt to a crisp even though Bill cheated us out of about half an hour of time (we left a little after 10 and came back around 11:20 when we were supposed to come back at 12). Before we left Bill didnt even remember to unhook the lines and we had to remind him he couldn't take the dock with him. That was lovely. But dont worry, "tips are humbly accepted!!!" If you're looking for a touch of skin cancer and to waste $50 per person, Barnacle...

My family is vacationing in Delaware and wanted to take a day trip to see the Chincoteague Ponies. There were many boat tours to choose from; I’m truly glad we chose this one! Barnacle Billy and Mom were fantastic guides. They took us on a wonderful tour around Chincoteague and Assateague that lasted a bit over the 2 hours stated (no complaints here!). The boat was very comfortable and had seating for only 18-20 people. The size of the group provided an opportunity to converse and ask questions which was great. Billy was very knowledgeable about the area’s past and present and his passion for sharing the history and culture of his hometown was evident. He took time to observe the many birds we saw. We were also lucky to see about 20 ponies (yay!) and Billy really made an effort to position the boat so that we could see them as well as possible. All in all it was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and I’d absolutely recommend you take Barnacle Bill’s tour yourself. If you have them, bring your binoculars; we did and they were much used. Billy went out of his way to enable us to see as much wildlife as we could, but the animals ARE wild, so of course between the terrain and the need to respect their space distance...

I took my 3 year old on the tour. It was very easy to book the tour and just paid Bill in cash when the tour was over. He knew so much about everything and pointed out everything to us. We were on the boat with one other family with two children. We saw a bald eagle, loons, oyster catchers, Oyster farms, wild ponies, various kinds of gulls and he knew a lot about all of it. He even spotted a gull with a mussel in it's beak and we watched it fly up, drop the shell, break it and enjoy a snack. He described everything in full before it happened. We were lucky and had great weather. Bill was great with kids. The only reason I give 4 stars might not even be specific to Bill's boat, it may be Virginia state law or lack of law, but as a former lifeguard I was surprised we didn't sign a waiver or have to wear life jackets. I can swim fine but my 3 year old is learning. The water was mostly calm except when other boats went by and we went over their wake. We had a great time, I was just worried about my 3 year old potentially falling off the boat. You never know. There was also no signage to find where his boat would be. The other boat tours had signs labeling where to wait. I'd recommend that and would be happy to...