Short summary: My wife and i did two Night Manta Ray Experiences in late January. Both of them were just amazing and beautiful. The crew is very helpful and knowledgeable. Parking isn't that bad. You generally park on the street directly outside the Sheraton Hotel. After you get fitted for goggles and a wet suit, you board a boat whose ride lasts no more than 3-5 minutes. During that time, a safety speech is given as well as Manta Ray protocol ( DON'T TOUCH THE MANTAS!). When you get to the manta site, everybody goes over the side and then grabs onto one of two rafts. The crew will pull the raft into position, and then hopefully, you get to watch Mother Nature do her thing. We can't wait to book with them again.
Important Caveat: Please remember, these are wild creatures and this is Mother Nature. Every experience will be different. Some night you might see a lot of mantas. They might do a lot of loops. Other times, you might not see many. Please understand it's Mother Nature. There is no secret formula to get these beautiful creatures to appear. Unless you're aqua-man, and can talk to the fish, please be understanding.
Details: We booked two tours. One at 6:30 and one at 8:00 (on a separate night). The timing didn't seem to matter as the 8:00 tour group went to a different spot than our 6:00 tour the previous night. Not sure if that's standard, or if it's up to the captain to decide based on where he saw/felt there were mantas spotted.
Parking is just outside the Sheraton Hotel on the street. Sea Quest is located right by the dock. It's basically impossible to miss as they're the only ones down there.
Once we arrived, we checked in at the desk, checked out the little gift shop, then got fitted for mask/snorkel, and a wet suit. If you brought your own gear, they'll give you some anti-fog solution to use. A special shout out goes to Sea Quest as they are the only people i have seen to ever offer goggles for people who need glasses. I thought that was a special touch.
You'll get broken out into two groups (one port side, one starboard side). If you booked as a family, don't worry, they'll keep you together.
We brought a very small back pack that contained our towels, and shirts to change into afterwards. Just before boarding, they'll take your sandals and store them too. You don't have to bring a full change of clothes as that didn't seem necessary and would take up space. Just a towel, maybe a shirt, and sandals is all you'll need. They'll store that in a dry space for you too.
Both are captained by the same guy (whose name i forget at the moment, Nick?). The crew (the ones that get in the water with you and help control/direct the raft) changed with both tours (although one lady, on our second tour, did remember us from the previous night.)
The boat ride is very smooth (he goes slow), and is very short (3-5 minutes). During the boat ride, the captain will introduce the crew and go over the safety speech, a brief history about the mantas, and most importantly, the rules once you get into the water (again, do NOT touch the mantas!)
The waters are generally very smooth. It was a little bit cold, (it was January after-all), but the wet suits helped. As my wife said, once she saw the mantas, she completely forgot about how cold the water was.
There will be other tour groups out there too. All the tour groups are friendly with each other, so there's no fighting or jockeying for position. In fact, they seemed to rotate in and out so each group can get a fair look.
However, the 8:00 tour, we seemingly were the only tour group out and that was our best showing. We saw three mantas, and they got sooo incredibly close. I think it was because we went to a different spot than the other tour groups. Not sure if that's done on purpose, or again, if it's up to the captains discretion. As mentioned earlier, there is no special formula for determining how, when, and if, the mantas will show up. I will say, our best showing was seemingly helped by the fact that we had two pregnant mothers-to-be on our tour. :)
Once time is up, you'll board the boat one by one. You'll be directed and helped by the crew, and it's done in an orderly fashion.
Finally, once back on shore, you'll remove the wet suit and return the goggles and snorkels. There's hot chocolate and some light snacks (chips, granola bars).
Overall, it was just amazing. The crew is awesome and amazing and we were treated to an amazing show by Mother Nature. We both highly recommend Sea Quest.