Ronnie,
I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your trip with us. I would like to address your concerns and provide a bit of context.
-The trip you were on had a total of 31 passengers. 15 snorkelers and 16 divers. That ratio does not seem to support your statement that the boat was clearly for scuba divers not snorkelers.
-The ocean conditions were 2 foot rolling seas with occasional 3 foot waves on the reef. Those conditions are well within the range that every single snorkeling operation in the state of Florida will operate in and take snorkeleres out in. The two sites visited: Banana Patch and Christ of the Abyss Statue are located approximately 6 miles offshore, at which distance, land is still very clearly visible.
-Any boat anchored or moored in water that is not flat calm will experience rocking back and forth. 2 - 3 foot seas do not produce violent rocking.
- 2 - 3 foot rolling seas are definitely potentially dangerous if you do not possess basic conditioning and swimming skills. The liability waiver that every single passenger signs, including you and your spouse, before stepping on the boat states: "always dive/snorkel within my training, certification, experience, comfort and ability", as well as, "I understand that scuba/snorkeling is a physically strenuous activity and that I will be exerting myself during this diving/snorkeling excursion". If the water appeared very rough and dangerous to you, I wonder why you still decided to enter it.
- You are correct, 3 snorkelers did get sick. This is spring break in a very popular tourist destination. We have many visitors that are do not spend time on boats and get seasick. A total of 3 passengers getting sick out of 31 on board is a phenomenal indicator of how manageable the seas actually were. On rough water days, #1, we do not take snorkelers out at all, and #2 if more than 1/2 of the guests on board are ill, we know that it's rough.
- The trip you were on departed the dock at 123pm and returned to the dock at 544pm. That is 4 hours and 21 minutes. I am not attempting to be pedantic, I am attempting to be very accurate since several of your statements about us have been somewhat sensationalized. The site you booked on stated the tour duration as APPROXIMATELY 3.5 hours, you got an extra 51 minutes of a trip for no additional charge. You asked in the shop during check in what time the trip would return and you were told that we are typically back on the dock by 5 - 530pm depending on how far out we had to go to find good conditions. We took the trip 7 minutes further away than usual to find those good conditions so it took an extra 14 minutes to get out there and get back.
- If you were sick the whole evening and the next day, it sounds like you had an issue going on that was not caused by your trip with us as seasickness typically ceases almost immediately after returning to land.
We genuinely are sorry that you did not enjoy your trip with us as we want everyone who comes out to have a phenomenal time AND we know that we can't please everyone in spite of our absolute best efforts. Some people will find reasons to be unhappy or unpleasant no matter what we do for them and we choose to spend our energy and focus on the guests who want to allow us to please them. We wish you and your husband all the best and will absolutely understand why you will choose a different operator the next time you visit the Keys!