First, our tour guides, Clayton and Cory Rose were excellent. Informed, friendly, kind, understanding, knowledgeable, and they both so clearly love what they do. Clayton was the sweep, making sure nobody was left behind. Cory Rose was our guide, and she was excellent in every way. We had a group of 12, 3 couples and one family, so 6 tandem kayaks. We did bump into each other a little here and there but really that's the nature of kayaking in some of the narrower canals with a group of people who don't really know how to kayak (us included).
First we went down the canal a short ways to where the manatees hang out, and got to see their curious noses come up towards us and get used to seeing the ripples in the water. It was really only a hint of what was to come. From there we went through some narrower canals and learned about the mangroves and the birds and enjoyed the purely Florida nature.
Next we went across to bird island where we watched a spectacular sunset and saw so very many birds flying in towards the island. It was phenomenal to see them and hear them in their own little world.
Our guide got a helluva manatee car wash, meaning he came upon a sleeping manatee near bird island and accidentally woke him up. The manatee responded by splashing his tail 5 or 6 times around his kayak, soaking him. Our guide sat there calmly and waited for the manatee to swim away. I've never seen a manatee move so fast, and now have so much respect for the gentle giants. Our group was all in awe.
From there we went around the island and very slowly made our way back to the launch site, and this is where we saw the bioluminescence. The video on their site is pretty accurate for how it looks, once your eyes adjust. When the guides first started pointing it out we thought this was a joke, it was so faint, but as the night got darker and the water turned black, it felt like we had superpowers. We put our hands in the water next to the kayak as we were going along and it literally looks like your hand is glowing, like you are radioactive. But the absolute coolest part of the bioluminescence kayaking was when there was a group of fish that started jumping out of the water. They glowed when they leaped, they glowed under the water and disappeared into the black water. That kind of natural phenomenon is not one a theme park can recreate, the fish just don't jump on command. They were wild, the water was wild, the glowing plankton was wild, and we were so lucky to have gotten to experience it all. Also, the beautiful night sky with the milky way and so many stars were visible too, it was an experience I'll probably remember for the rest of my life. Thanks guys!