We recently participated in the Bioluminescence Kayaking trip. We went back and forth over which tour company to choose. A Day Away Kayak Tours, which had many more reviews and seemed like a larger operation or Florida Adventurer Inc.which had less reviews. We called FA to get a bit more information; they were nice enough over the phone. They said we would probably be a fairly small group. This seemed like the way to go, some of us were not experienced kayakers and we had a child in our group. As soon as we arrived we were told not to expect much as far as visibility. Due to the water temp and recent hurricanes, also it's the very end of the season. This would have been great info. prior to booking and making payment.
One guy was in charge of having us sign waivers, he definitely looked and acted as if it was the end of the season, end of his shift and he was over the entire thing and ready to be home. The problem is, we had not started. The other employee was in charge of instructions, he was incredibly condescending and rude! If this had been the end of it I would not be writing this review. It went from bad to worse. There were about 15 people in the group. They lined us up gave everyone their equipment, including a glow necklace. I guess the reason for this was for their photo. They assigned every group numbers which I suspected was for safety reasons. Shortly after getting in the water they tell us to remove the
glow necklaces and sit on them & keep them out of sight. What complete stupidity!
I would have never bothered with this in the first place, if I knew it was just for their photo. One guy led the group and the lazy, tired one stayed at the back of the group.
We were prepared for one & half hour of kayaking with an experienced tour company.
I have kayaked many times and have never experienced anything like this. The majority of the time they spent moving us from one location to the next to see absolutely nothing. It was windy, very windy and choppy in the open water. You needed to be a pretty strong and experienced kayaker. Prior to entering the mangroves, the guy leading us tried to scare the group with the possible sighting of a manatee. Yes, a manatee. I am not sure if he was trying to be funny. Once we reached the only spot that you could clearly see the bioluminescence, the mangrove area, they crowded everyone together. Many inexperienced kayakers were basically playing bumper cars, one couple capsized.
To make matters worse the leader of the group came paddling back as fast as he could to show everyone this amazing glowing item in the water! It was the ridiculous
necklace, which he LEFT in the water. It did not surprise me, absolutely no respect for nature. Then it was time to hit the open waters and paddle back. By this time many of the kayakers were tired. We had been out for over an hour. Doesn't it make sense to do the most difficult paddling at the beginning? Isn't it important to know the conditions and the skill level of the group so you can adjust accordingly. They had no regard for the kayakers safety. We made a huge mistake choosing Florida Adventurer Inc.!!
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Sep 2019
Hello, and thank you for leaving this review. Reviews help us identify potential room for growth.
Unfortunately I am the owner and was also your rude , condescending guide for the evening, as you would put it.
1) All our seasons are clearly defined on the website, when they begin, end etc. So you chose to book a tour at the end of the season, your choice. You didn not call ahead, you booked online and arrived as asked. You were made aware as soon as you arrived what the conditions were. Conditions are completely out of our control.
2) The check in guide had 22 people to check in, so if he didn't have time to answer every single question for you, it's probably because he was busy with other guests. Again the owner was on site, so not sure what lazy sleepy employee you are referring to?
3) Your condescending guide needs to make sure everyone has understood the instructions as there are inexperienced paddlers, so the guides will be firm when delivering instruction. This experience can have dire consequences if instruction isn't followed. Especially in windy conditions.
3) After you were put in the water, we asked you to remove your necklace, so you could have more visibility since visibility was very dim. Your guide did you a favor, I wouldn't call that stupid. I would say "short sighted" may be a description for someone else,
It was not for the photo, had the visibility been normal you would have kept that necklace on the entire time, or you would have been brought back to shore and asked to leave for not following our safety protocols.
4) We move from location to location, because that is our tour. By definition a tour is " a journey for pleasure in which many places are visited". Maybe you should look into that. We thought you were an experienced traveller/paddler 🤷🏽♂️. You didn't see much because the visibility was dim. I personally know you saw the visibility, because I, the owner asked repeatedly if anyone didn't see the glow, so I could show you in case you couldn't see it, as it was dim. I don't remember you speaking out at that time🤷🏽♂️.
5) We don't try to scare anyone with manatee. We let people know there is a chance you could be completely knocked out of your kayaks by a manatee, this is a fact. Not a scare technique. Since we are an experienced Kayak tour company, we would be remiss not to warn of potential danger, in any environment we paddle into.
6) Yes we did have an over zealous young couple roll over, and they came up laughing uncontrollably. I didn't paddle over to show anything glowing, I paddled over to help them back into thier kayak. That's what guides do. It was at that time I saw the glowing necklace and radioed the guide in the back to grab it, so I could get back to the front of the group. Maybe you missed that too? 🤷🏽♂️
7) LOL, we did the hardest paddling into the oncoming current of the Haulover canal first. That was the hardest paddling we did. We had to paddle east down the canal, towards the mosquito lagoon, in the face of an easterly 10mph breeze. You had a hard time paddling back, because you already "knew how to paddle" and didn't want to participate in the orientation. I remember this night, and you very well.
While it is not often we have unhappy guests, such as yourself, it does happen. Most of the time it is from people who arrive with more "self taught" experience than the company they booked with, so they don't feel the need to participate in the orientations or pay attention to why we do certain things the way we do, such as the necklaces that night.
You actually belittled us for asking you to take the LIGHTS AWAY FROM YOUR neck (glowstick necklace) , to give you better visibility and a better overall experience. 🤔
I'll be candid for all who read /see this. If all of our reviews had an overture of disappointment, I would take this review to heart. Sincerely.
Since this is not the case, and we have an overwhelming catalogue of 5 ⭐ reviews on this platform, I can only say, I, the owner was there on site, and while the sequence of events does check out, the context in which you portray the story is not even close to accurate.
While everyone is entitled to thier views, I respect your review, but is a flat out fabrication of the evening. You can always tell if a company had a terrible night, because there will be other reviews from the same evening, or time frame, corroborating your depiction of the evening. We know this, because we send everyone a follow up email encouraging them to leave reviews. Just like the one that led you to leave a review here on Trip Advisor.
While I am disappointed you didn't enjoy yourself, there were 20+ others that did find enjoyment in our tour that evening. You can see their reviews right next to yours, with the same date lol, and they left 5 stars🤷🏽♂️
Again, had I not been on site, heads would roll if there were other reviews to corroborate your review. There arent/weren't any.
But I was on site. Thank goodness for that too, because a review like this, which is complete nonsense btw, would have probably cost someone there job.
Not cool