From start to finish, River Ventures did a great job organizing and communicating what to expect. Overall, an excellent experience. The main office is nice with bathrooms, changing areas and a cute gift shop. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming. There’s a short video and explanation of appropriate manatee behavior and then you’re off in vans to the docks for your tour. We were so fortunate to have Laura and Casey as our guides who were both fantastic! They were fun and knowledgeable and really made the tour special. It’s important to understand that these are wild animals, the tour is an opportunity to see them in areas they frequent, but there’s no guarantee you will see manatees, see them up close or interact with them. We were really fortunate that we had a cold snap the night before and a few in the preceding weeks, and there were a ton of manatees in both of the spots we stopped at. We saw babies with their mothers, and several swam right up to us while we were in the water. They are calm and gentle creatures and it was a great day. We also saw a ton of fish and other wildlife. The VIP tour included warm drinks, beer, wine, soda and snacks which was nice. They also had a small heater on the boat! Laura took awesome pictures and videos which we chose to purchase after the tour, but they were not pushy about it at all. All in all, would highly recommend River Ventures. Just be sure to research manatees and understand going in that you’re paying for the expertise, time and boat and hopefully the manatees are around!