First of all, everything you’re reading here is right, this trip was absolutely amazing for us and I scored lots of Cool Mom points for booking it. Captain Jack and Aaron the guide are genial, accommodating hosts, ready with the jokes, snacks, Manta Ray fun facts and stories. They clearly care deeply about the ocean, the rays, your safety, and the quality of your experience.
As a mom who arranges all family trips, here’s some reality check notes for other moms trying to decide if this is right for your family. I booked this early in our week in Kona, in case we did not see rays and needed to schedule another trip out. We didn’t need it, though, we saw 7 rays! And they came up repeatedly, passing within inches of our bodies. My 12 year old daughter and I nearly hyperventilated from wonder/fear/amazement. That said, I think 12 is probably the bare minimum age I would consider for this activity, and that only with some experience snorkeling and good swimming skills.
There’s a fair amount of instruction to follow, and as a mom, I was very grateful I only had one kid to look after and that she is very good about following instruction, a very strong swimmer, and not fearful. It is one thing to snorkel in shallow water during the day, another to don snorkel gear and climb off the back of the boat at night, jumping into dark water and swimming 20-30 feet to an LED lit surfboard. There were a couple of adults on the tour who had never snorkeled before, who demonstrated that it is doable, and certainly Aaron had lots of tricks and methods for helping them, but this is definitely an Adventure in the dark ocean.
So for your own enjoyment, if yours are the kind of kids that need lots of encouragement, not strong swimmers, not much confidence in the water, leave them at home with someone else. All that said, if you have teens who are Way Too Cool for typical vacation activities, book this and they won’t stop talking about it. Just be prepared with a Scopalamine patch or some other method for dealing with motion sickness, and don’t plan dinner before. The ocean wasn’t exactly peaceful and calm the night we went out, and if you’re lucky, you will be spending a lot of time staring down into the depths, hanging on to the surfboard going one way, the waves going the other. And for heavens sake, please don’t let this be your first time snorkeling, that’s trial by fire. Quinn’s Almost By the Sea is open until 11pm, and was perfect for after-Adventure dinner.
Allow some extra time to get there and bring a flashlight (or phone!) as it’s not as obvious how to get from the parking area to where the boat is docked at night. I’m sure it’s super easy and obvious to follow the directions given during the day, but there’s very little safety lighting there at night and it took us 10-15 minutes to navigate the 2 or 300 yards from parking to check-in because it was so freaking dark.