Let me start off by saying I was threatened to lose my partial refund if I left an honest review by the owner of this company. Be careful, as I chose this particular activity based on high reviews as I believe he probably has done the same with others who perhaps wanted to leave an honest yet less than perfect review.
We paid for dolphins and shelling and got neither. I understand we cannot be guaranteed a dolphin experience. The most important part was for my kids to be able to collect some sea shells as we usually vacation in our timeshare on the Atlantic side and they have never been to a beach with sea shells. However, on the particular day of our tour, the water was too rough. Our guide, who I believe was very newly hired, offered us a stop on the inside of the island where water was calmer although he did not think there were shells. He called the owner and told us we would get 50% refund if we returned without that stop since he was still out the time to and from and the boat gas money. I agreed and we returned, in fact, going fullest speed allowed through more populated dolphin area. I was told I would be called by the owner to work out a refund or reschedule. I did not receive a call, and since we were only there the weekend, I waited until the afternoon of the next day to reach out. We were not able to rebook due to our schedule and he offered much less than the 50% refund. I told him we would have stopped at the alternative location if I knew the refund was going to be so low to get the best out of our lost dollars. He became irritated and eventually told me I would get no refund if I was going to blast him on a review and offered me the 50% refund if I agreed never to leave a review. See his documentation of this agreement below. He wrote this on 7/7/23 and as of 8/20/23, I have not received any refund. NO REFUND AT ALL. I have tried to contact TripAdvisor and Viator as well and after multiple phone calls, I did not receive any response.
"Phone call 7/7@1324. Customer agrees on %50 refund of our payout via viator. We tried to rebook trip for no cost at better times for optimal water conditions, which was not agreeable per customer. Any party associated with the customer is to not leave a review in exchange for the %50 refund. Customer completed 2/3rds of tour and was unsatisfied due to sea breeze and waves preventing safe anchorage at shell key. Please process partial refund via api connection."