Crystal River Manatee Tour — Local services in Homosassa Springs

My wife and I did the dry tour on 5/30. Unfortunately, only 4 of the 6 seats of the boat were shaded and we both ended up with pretty decent sunburns. Another couple saw that we were starting to burn and offered to switch with us to go into the shaded seats towards the last 15 minutes of the tour, which had already been extended by 15 minutes because of some scheduling issues.

We basically ended up sitting in the direct sunlight for nearly two hours straight. I don’t know why we couldn’t have sat in those seats to begin with since we were the first to arrive by at least 30 minutes. We were sat in the front to “balance the boat”, but I don’t know why it would have been okay to switch later on. The tour guide should have had everyone rotating every 20 minutes or so to help prevent this from happening.

The seats we were given were not part of the boat. They were lawn chairs that were brought on board to accommodate more people. Parking is $5.00, which isn’t bad, and the entire operation is “cash-only”.

Our captain, Carlos, was great with the information and took us to several spots and we saw several manatees, birds, fish, and other wildlife. He piloted the boat with obvious ease and expertise between other boats and tons of kayaks that were on the water this busy Memorial Day weekend. If it weren’t for the lack of shade for all passengers, this would easily be a 5-star review.

If you are booking the dry tour, make sure you ask if there is covered seating for everyone on the boat and if not, find out if you can be sure that you will be placed in the shaded areas. The captain mentioned that there were something like 28 or 38 other companies operating tours out there. We saw several of those others going, and they all appeared to have fully-shaded groups. That tells me that there are other options when looking for a tour and you might want to consider one of those instead. I know the competition is probably pretty fierce and with that in mind, you have to consider your guest’s comfort when trying to remain...

Mostly a good experience. Everyone who worked there was friendly and informative. Signed up for an 11:00-2:00 trip, and told that we would be in the water for about 2 hrs. Our tour left late at 11:30. When we finally got out into Kings Bay and got in the water, we spent about 45 minutes looking for manatees but didn't see any. We knew there was no guarantee that we would. They told us that several tours the day before hadn't seen any. So the captain had us get back in the boat and go to another location. After we got into the water there, we could see that there were several manatees nearby and began to swim toward that area. A few minutes later, the captain told us to get back in the boat. When I asked why we were leaving already he said that it took half an hour to get back, which actually wasn't correct. We were back and done by 1:30. So our total tour lasted 2 hours, not 3, with only 1 hr in the water. The really disappointing thing was that when we finally found manatees we only spent about 5 minutes with them. Some people in our group didn't even have time to see them. Apparently the crew was trying to get back on schedule, but after a four hour drive and $200 we would have liked to have had the full time...

HOLY (YOU CANT USE THIS WORD BECAUSE BLA BLA BLA) GUYS!!!!!! A MANATEE NIBBLED ON MY TOES.

seriously go do this, buy from the gift shop to help support them. you can't touch the manatees but they can touch you. evidently manatees do what they want and ain't no government going to stop them. saw some babies nursing, got to belly bounce with one (he approached me, I did nothing wrong, I just gave in and bashed bellies with him when he rolled up on me).

you don't have to be a good swimmer or a swimmer at all. the salt water plus the wet suits makes you pretty buoyant. flippers and kicking arent allowed, just hand paddling. the kicking scares manatees. also, most places are pretty shallow, so, you know, stand up if you need to.

best part is when I autistically wandered away from the group a manatee went with me, I guess to keep and eye on me and keep me safe, and he decided to nibble my toes. I feel like we made a real connection there. we're forever manatee brothers.

please go do this and support these...