Sorry to say, our experience with Ocean Encounters was not good. My husband and I were rescheduled, then put on a second boat (not the Kanoa II) with a family that included a bunch of un-restricted rowdy teens and tweens. Basically, after arriving at the site, we were instructed to hang on to one of two paddle boards outfitted with a pvc pipe frame and two lights (though there are holes for 3) and then dragged away from our boat in the dark, armed with one flimsy pool noodle. The guy next to my hb wore flippers and continually knocked the noodle out from under his legs. The kids across from us squirmed and hollered the entire time, making the frame even more difficult to keep stable and did very little to invite manta rays to come close. So, we were probably the last boat to arrive at the site with the darkest, sketchiest raft. We saw exactly two mantas from afar and a whole lot of squirming legs and feet. The crew (one of which had very strong BO) were friendly enough, offering water and packaged snacks, and working hard to drag our sorry rafts closer to the action. They could have done a better job helping people into position once we were in the water, giving us better security in the dark water (as opposed to just yelling "everyone alright?!"). Life vests or float belts would have gone a long way toward making the experience not so harrowing. My husband honestly felt like he was enacting the door scene in Titanic. I wasn't sure he was going to forgive me for booking this! The teens should have been directed to shut up and be still. I can't guarantee we would have seen more manta action, but it would have been a little less infuriating...It did seem like the front raft saw more than we did. I'm honestly a bit heartbroken because I looked forward to this "must do" activity for more than a year of quarantine and lockdown. Other travelers continually rave about their experience, while we couldn't wait to get off that boat away from waft of armpit and snack-hoarding brats. Go with a different outfit and research the type of raft offered. Our excursion felt like a makeshift operation improvised on the fly.