Gina’s Johnny's Boats — Local services in Lajas

We are only in Puerto Rico for 4 full days. Our first two days are at Combate in Cabo Rojo then Luquillo the last two days. So we had a tight itinerary to see things. We had initially planned to book a bio bay tour with Parguera Water Sports Adventures because of the raving reviews but decided to go here instead because a very helpful employee at our hotel gave a personal recommendation to call Nancy at Johnny’s Boats. Boy was that a terrible recommendation. We called at lunchtime and spoke with Nancy directly. She said she was almost full but could fit us in at 8:45pm or 9:15pm. We chose 9:15pm and she told us to be there by 8:45pm ready to swim. $50 per person CASH ONLY no kayaking, just a boat ride and 30 min swim. We planned our whole day around being able to arrive in La Parguera by 8:45. We arrived at 8:30 and walked to Johnnys but didn’t see anyone. Johnny finally came out and looked surprised to see us. We told him we were there for the 9:15 tour. He said no that boat was the last tour while pointing out to the water. I thought maybe he didn’t understand us because he didn’t speak fluent English but we explained again that we had spoken with Nancy who fit us in for the 9:15 tour that was almost full. He just kept saying no last boat. He finally called Nancy who confirmed to him that she didn’t have any more tours for the night. Johnny just kept saying sorry and shrugging his shoulders. We walked off pissed that we wasted our time and our last night to book a bio bay tour in La Parguera. We called Nancy as we were walking back to the car to find out what the deal was. She said she cancelled because she didn’t have enough people. Funny, how it went from “almost full” to not enough people that you cancelled. Hmm. Then she didn’t even have the decency to call us to say that she cancelled it so that we could’ve booked with another company! She kept calling my friend Mami and Beautiful in a very degrading way while speaking to her. We were so glad we hadn’t paid her yet but this ruined the main reason we even stayed on the west side...

You get what you pay. For $10 it's decent enough and a cool experience by itself, and an easy way to do it, BUT it's really, really rushed, the only reason being - to put as many people through a conveyor belt of trips as possible. 2-3 boats go out at a time, arrive at the location, hear a disinterested monotone description of the phenomena, a staff swimmer takes to the water for a couple of minutes between the boats for people to view, then everyone who wants to (a small minority of people on our night) get the chance to jump in the water and swim for about 2 minutes, until everyone is persistently and annoyingly summoned back on boats to return to the pier. It would've been so enjoyable to be able to swim just a bit farther, enjoy the bioluminescence for a few minutes longer and in more solitude - but no, you can't. (You have to find someone to rent you a kayak and paddle on your own, or take a different boat tour to do so.) Also, as other reviewers noted, they take you to mangroves along the shore WEST of the pier, while the main bioluminescent bay is actually in the opposite direction (and marked on Google maps). I can only assume that the one they go to is actually less bright or impressive. You don't need to get tickets or even arrive far in advance - they appear in the booth on the promenade at 6 and will continue selling tickets into the evening as long as there are more people signing up for tours, sometimes ending early, sometimes as late as 11pm, on some peak...

It was a total scam!!! At first, we had the impression that the lady at the counter was honest because she told us, "They went to check and if they can't see anything, then I'll give you the money back" So when the captain came back she told the whole group, "Ok people, so only 30 to 35% is visible so it's up to you to come, but we have to hurry because the more the moon comes up the less there is to see" So all of us were l8ke well we waited so long for this and 30% is something, we all decide to go. But there was nothing visible. The person in charge to dive in was there for a while and nothing was there to see. The capital said, "I told her." My husband and I were really disappointed, and I told him at least we got to see a beautiful moon for $40. As soon as we got back, we noticed more people making line, waiting for the boat, so we decided to tell the lady in charge. We let her know that there was nothing visible. She got upset started telling us "I told you there was only about 35%" She thought we wanted our money back, well that would have been nice, but we were mostly thinking about all those people that were in line to go, but she didn't care, all she cares is about is the money. In the group that we went there, we were easily around 40 at $20 each. So save your money, don't spend it with this company, besides the glass boat they claim it only has like to windows one on each side and you have to take turnss to take a look, because no one else is allowed to go in...