I brought my daughter and her three friends to parasail on my birthday, I had made reservations months earlier and was so excited to take pictures of them. Instructions said to arrive 30 minutes early and we were right on schedule. The woman working the counter calls us when we were 40 minutes out asking when we were going to get there, which I found odd since we weren’t late, but coming in right on time. We parked and the girls signed their waivers. I brought a big camera to take pics of the girls and when I asked to ride along the same counter woman immediately and very bluntly quipped, “The boat is full.” and they all left ahead of schedule.
There’s no beach, only a shaded bench area to wait that had other people in it, counter woman does not suggest what I am to do now that I’m waiting there. I determine my options for 1.5 hours was to squeeze on that bench with the others (but it looked full), sit in a blazing hot van, drive around for a while, or as I decided to do, sit on a hot metal dock while I waited. My daughter text me right after they left and said there would have been plenty of room on the boat for me, and two people from the other party didn’t parasail either and were just watching. I was so bummed and felt put-off by how the woman at the counter tried to rush us there early and then dismissed me so quickly to go along, and then without any suggestion as to what to do otherwise. Then when I found out there was extra room on the boat and others went along that didn’t parasail, I couldn’t help but feel very put-off. My dream of coming all the way to Hilton Head to watch and take photos of my girls was unceremoniously squashed.
The girls said the boat operators were good, explained the process clearly, and did fine. I can’t review beyond that because I couldn’t be there to observe.
Response from Host
Feb 2022
Thank you for parasailing with Island Head. We are happy that the girls had a great time, and we do sell observer seats at the time of booking (the only company on the island to do so) to make sure our guest can guarantee a seat on the boat. The boat was full of 12 passengers. This is the max we can take based on US Coast Guard inspections. I apologize if there was any attitude put your way, as that is unacceptable for how we conduct business.