First of all, the staff was very friendly. Christie did the paperwork and Michael did the tour. Both were very friendly and knowledgeable.
The boats…average at best. The boats are small, cramped, and underpowered. They ride ok, but if you are a regular boater and have your own boat, you will be disappointed.
The tour…single file and all stay together. I get it, you don’t want people venturing all over but when you are driving across the flats and everyone has to stay in line and all follow at the same speed, what the heck. We drove through a few mangroves then went to a beach area with trash and an old base from a fish cooker laying on the bank. We beached there and Michael said we could snorkel along the mangroves if we wanted. Didn’t look like a completely safe place to just head out and snorkel here. We decided to stay and swim, but that wasn’t good either. Once you went out past knee deep water and put your you feet down, it became a deep muddy bottom. Once you stirred up the bottom walking in it, the smell was so bad of rotten seaweed (as our tour guide said), you couldn’t swim there. We requested to go to a sandbar instead and he politely took us to one. It was ok as there was nobody else around. If you have ever been to the sandbar at Islamorada, this was no comparison as Islamorada is spectacular. The drive back was nothing more than a ride back across the flats. We even made 2 ridiculous giant circles in the boats on the way back to take up a little time so we didn’t get back to early. Again, Michael was great, but if it was me, I would pick a tour where you ride on a boat with a guide and you can sit back, have a few drinks, and enjoy.