05 Sep 2022
Not very impressed with this tour. It begins with guide emphasizing how important it is to leave early because there will be a lot of boats to see the whale sharks and you want to get there first or the sharks will dive back down and leave the area because it’s too crowded with boats. They split us into two groups. The other group heads out, and we find out two people are an entire hour late to the tour, so we are waiting for them to arrive before we can leave… so we left at 7:45. You were suppose to arrive to the tour at 6:30. I was shocked that we waited so long especially after the guide emphasizing how important it is to get there early, and there’s 6 other paying customers who were all there on time.
Two-ish hours later we arrive at location and all the sharks have dove back to the bottom and are no longer there. So we missed the sharks. we didn’t even see any sharks from a distance, or the boat, or anything.
After that we then go to this area to snorkel. The guide tells us the snorkeling isn’t very good and you can’t see anything. I get in anyways because otherwise you have to sit on the boat and wait in the sun.. He was right, you literally can’t see anything, the visibility is very cloudy so all you see is grey and some shapes.
When we get out he is like “yeah I told you guys it’s not good snorkeling”…. Then why are we even there?? Why waste our time going to that location for no reason? Can’t we just go back to the dock?
We then pull up at a beach with no shade or anything and get off the boat so they can make ceviche from the cooler. My boyfriend asked about the mango/avocado option it says for vegetarians, They did not have it so he didn’t get to eat anything at all. As soon as we get done eating we go back to the dock.
Basically just paid $400 for ceviche and a very long boat ride.
The guide told us that they have only not seen whale sharks 3 times this entire season (it’s towards the end of the season so that’s hundreds of trips). But when we didn’t see any he was not acting surprised or anything that we didn’t see them, just acted like everything was normal.. to me it seemed very common to not see sharks and I was disappointed as we paid a lot of money. Maybe if we were there on time we could have seen them.
I think they need to edit this page and add the actual likelyhood of seeing whale sharks to give you a better understanding so you aren’t disappointed.
Also leave on time and not wait for people showing up 1 hour or more late…… that was ridiculous, and disrespectful for everyone else who paid a lot of money and showed up on time. Especially for an activity that seems to be EXTREMELY dependent on arriving early.
The entire snorkel/beach part was a waste of time in my opinion. Especially when you didn’t even see sharks, you just want to get back.
Also disappointed that they didn’t provide the mango/avocado option for people who don’t do ceviche.