A 1 hour trip to the reef, barely 1 hour snorkeling (rather less) and an hour back to the harbor. We had a sunny but a bit windy day. Approx. 40 snorkeling ppl on the boat and thus also a mass event. So far so ok. The reef however was not worth the stay: a few feather corals, some smaller fishes and during the snorkeling 2 or 3 parrotfishes. Not more than that. It was clear to see that this reef is more or less dead. Also the reef was small where they let us swim. 40 ppl gathering around each other, stumbling into one another. And shortly after arrival another catamaran with around 40 ppl arrived. So: the only option was to get out of the water and lay into the sun. Also a bit strange was, that it seemed as if somehow the crew tried to fill the over 21years up afterwards with beer to maybe forget that the snorkeling was all but nice. Surely not a trip I can recommend.
Response from Host
Apr 2019
Our business is greatly influenced by the weather. Yes this past weekend was very windy such that we informed each guest upon check in and again during captains speech that conditions were not great. Guests were given the option of rescheduling or cancelling without penalty. When the wind blows hard from the South we are not able to go to the barrier Coral Reef. Instead we went to Cottrell Key in the Gulf. It has patch coral and requires a snorkeling a bit further from the boat. If as you said you were only looking around the boat bumping into other people then you did not follow the instructions provided by the mate. Iām sorry that guests experience did not meet his expectations. I donāt like getting reviewed on the weather especially when we were upfront about the conditions and gave them other options. Also 40 guests on a vessel licensed for 125 persons is not a mass event.