Captain Dan & Tanner at Manta Adventures truly went out of their way to ensure we had a great manta ray night snorkeling experience off Kona, Hawaii. Luckily, this tour starts much earlier that all the other manta ray snorkel tours so they get out to Garden Eel Cove off the airport first to get the prime mooring buoy. We had plenty of time to get in a leisurely snorkel during daylight, and enjoy fresh pineapple during the manta safety story while gearing up in the provided long-sleeve wetsuits. The crew were very attentive and knowledgeable with a definite safety focus to make everyone feel very comfortable. For the tour guests who were prone to sea sickness, the crew came prepared with plenty of local preventive remedies (various forms of ginger as I recall).
The approach of Manta Adventures is clearly different than the chaos we observed with the late arriving snorkel boats that were scrambling to find mooring buoys in the dark or just dropping people in the water with the motors running. Since it does take a while after the underwater lights go on for the manta rays to appear, you really want to be the last in the water. Since many of the other manta ray tours were on tight schedules or didn't have a mooring buoy, their guests were dropped in the water early and were exposed to the boats motoring around. We saw a multi-engine boat backing up into the cove about 10 feet away from a large group of snorkelers to drop off it's 20 snorkelers. It was truly chaos and made us appreciate the safety approach of Manta Adventures.
While we waited in the warm evening air onboard to wait for the mantas to appear under the combined boat and paddleboard underwater lighting systems, other tour company guests were already in the cold water waiting for 20 minutes. Once the mantas started arriving, we calmly entered the water. Even so, it still took another 20-30 minutes in the water until the manta rays started regularly coming by and then to perform their barrel-rolls. By the time the manta rays started their dance, many of the other tour companies had already collected their guests and departed in order to stay on schedule for the next night snorkel trip. The Manta Adventures staff was very patient and encouraging to wait out the manta rays until they started their feeding dance. Even so, I'd estimate that half of our group of snorkelers got cold within 15-20 minutes and got out of the water before the full show got going. We were in the cool water for about 45-50 minutes overall I'm guessing, but so worth it! Overall, we probably saw a half-dozen different manta rays ranging from 5-10 feet across. During the barrel-roll feeding frenzing, they would come right up to our chests before a looping dive back down to the 20 foot deep bottom.
Reluctantly, we said goodbye to the still feeding mantas and got back on the boat to be greeted by the crew offering hot showers to warm our chilled bodies. We were the first snorkel boat to arrive at the cove, and now, looking around, we were the last snorkel boat to leave. After stripping out of the wetsuit, the crew offered us big warm cookies which were greatly appreciated during the quick ride back into harbor.
I'd highly recommended Manta Ray Adventures for the best manta ray night snorkel tour in the Kona area.
Réponse de l'hôte
Sep 2021
Aloha,
Thank you for choosing Manta Adventures and taking the time to review your trip. Thank you for such kind words and acknowledgement for the work we do. Safety is one of first priorities as well as a comfortable trip for everyone. It sounds like the crew did a good job of ensuring both those things and we appreciate you noticing. The mantas can take a little while to do their barrel rolls but I'm happy to hear you stuck it out and got a good show. Please don't hesitate to call next time you're in town. We'd love to take you on your next adventure!
Mahalo,
Manta Adventures