Dolphin Shelling Snorkeling Cruise In Tampa

Super fun activity. Kevin helped find sand dollars and my daughter loved every minute. Would definitely do it again.

We had a great time on this excursion. We had fun on Shell Key, we went for a walk on the beach, went swimming and snorkeling, found some amazing shells and sand dollars and saw some dolphins from the boat.

One of a kind experience on our boat trip to Shell Key! Troy was so friendly, knowledgeable and fun as our captain. We had an amazing encounter with dolphin jumping in our wake and spotted many more on our relaxing cruise the to the island. Shell Island was beautiful with many shells, hence the name and refreshing, clear, emerald water we would definitely do it again! The kids said it was their favorite part of the trip.

It was a great experience. I highly recommend doing it. Perfect day for it and the captain was great!

Little confusion when trying to locate our actual boat. That could be better, but the actual tour was spot on. Our guide 'Kevin' put the effort into making the trip just what we expected. We all appreciated that. Oh... be sure to have the waivers completed before trip time.

Captain Troy made this the best experience possible! Gorgeous sunset views, dolphin sightings, and so many cool shells. Captain Troy pointed out all of the cool historic spots, the best photo ops, and made the trip so much fun! This tour is a must-do in St Pete

My wife and I took this cruise as a part of our honeymoon. We did the 3 hour dolphin cruise with snorkeling on the sunset ride (started 5:30 and ended 8:30). In total we paid about $200 when including the cost to park next to the pier. Our tour guide was Troy, and he was immensely knowledgeable. He took us out to Shell Key first where we snorkeled, and then took us the “long way” back through the canals and houses where we were able to see 4 dolphins in total. We ended the trip with watching the sunset and getting incredible pictures. My wife and I agree that this has been the highlight of our honeymoon. Troy was the best guide with being personable, understanding how to captain a boat, and finding the dolphins for us when other boats just drove by without seeing. The trip was worth every penny, and we’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do a dolphin cruise.

It should be more clear that you board the boat right at Sculley's boardwalk. We found the right spot after walking around for awhile. Once on the boat it was awesome! We saw dolphins, went snorkeling and walked Shell Beach. Our captain, Kevin, was so nice and helpful. Highly recommend.

The boat ride was very pleasant. We saw many dolphins and caught a glimpse of a manatee. Shell Key was beautiful.

Me and my family had an awesome day with Troy!! We got to see probably 20 to 30 dolphins!! We followed the same groups for about 2 hours!! And we got to see babies and big ones,jump out of the water and play!! Phenomenal experience,we highly recommend this tour,and the captain,Troy Smith. We were all Smiths just cruising around in the same boat!! With that many Smiths,who couldn't have fun!! Lol!! Do yourself a favor,and book this tour,you won't be disappointed!!

It was great, fun snorkeling and Graham the captain was great. Was able to watch the dolphins follow the wake of our boat for a while. Highly recommend.

It was a great time. Our captain was excellent. Water was beautiful. Trip to the island was great. Kids totally enjoyed it.

I booked a snorkeling and shelling experience for 1 day for my daughter and I. We were on the boat with another family and it was wonderful. The captain/ tour guide (younger guy I think his name was John) was great! He had lots of information about the area and animals to share with us and kept engaged with us the whole time. I had such a great time I booked another tour for the next day. I unfortunately didn’t get the same captain/ tour guide the next day. This time the tour guide (older gentleman with accent) said very few words and trying to get him to engage with you was like pulling teeth. He also drove extremely slow and I would have liked to have more time at our snorkeling spot. I would book another tour with this company cause they are polite and the first captain was such a wonderful experience.

Absolutely amazing experience! I couldn’t recommend it enough. We found some great shells and sand dollars! Great experience to see the dolphins and get to hear about the area

Awesome boat ride. We rode and stopped at shell key and stayed for an hour and a half. My 5 year old had a blast swimming and finding shells and sand dollars. Beautiful weather and awesome captain. Took us out of the way to see dolphins and we saw them! Overall great experience.

We had an awesome time shelling, snorkeling, and looking for dolphins with captain John! He was very persistent on finding dolphins. We had dolphins swimming and jumping right next to the boat multiple times!! It was amazing. My kids found over 40 sand dollars and lots of neat shells at shell key island. Thank you captain John for making our adventure so fun and memorable!

Cpt John was awesome! We got to see dolphins and enjoy Shell Key. A great family outing!

Captain John was amazing! My friend and I ended up taking the tour on a colder day so we didn’t see that many dolphin but we did still enjoy collecting shells at shell key! I recommend this tour 100%. Will do again when I visit St Pete.

Captain John fit us in last minute,and it was suppose to storm. Against his better judgment,he took us out on our 3 hour tour and made it an amazing and memorable trip!! He was very down to earth,friendly and knowledgeable about the area and driving a boat. We saw 2 manatees,dolphins jumping in the waves from the motor and at the island for seashelling,we saw 2 blue crabs and a brown crab. I would definitely recommend using charter finders for a future boat adventure!! And we will be using them again also!!

In June 2025, my wife, daughter and I booked a snorkeling/dolphin cruise with this company. For $234.96. We showed up early and sat at a dock at a marina. We were the only ones there. Our departure time came and went. We called the number on this page and got someone’s generic voicemail. Approximately a half hour past our meeting time, we got a call back that our trip had been cancelled. They claimed they tried to call us the day before but none of us received a call. We were told that our trip would be refunded but that never happened. I disputed the charge to my credit card and they provided some type of “proof” that our trip actually did happen. Thankfully my credit card company reversed their decision that I was responsible for this charge. Not only were we stood up, they lied and claimed that services were provided. If you choose to go with this company, I hope the same does not happen to you! You’ve been warned.

John went above and beyond. It was amazing watching the dolphins chase the boat. I will definitely do this again when I come back to Florida.

John was amazing! We didn’t think we would see dolphins but he made it happen for us. This was the best part of our trip. 10/10 would do again!

Captain Tim was an excellent captain on the tour. He knew where the dolphins were and he took our kids to the perfect shellfish area. I would highly recommend the tour.

We had the best time. Our captain, Hunter, was very knowledgeable about the area and made sure to find dolphins for us to see. We had a blast finding shells, sand dollars, and snorkeling. Hunter even had ice cold water on the boat for us. Definitely would do it again.

We had lots of fun on the water and we were lucky to see some dolphins. It was nice that the boat had a little roof so we could sit in the shade.

Made a booking according to a calendar on the app. Turned up to be told we were rebooked to a later slot. Which did not suit is. Not sure if it’s the provider or the app’s issue.

Captain Gram was great ! We did the cruise to the sandbar and back. Would do it again . Only thing we would recommend is the boat really needs some updated speakers, people like listening to music and the speakers are real bad. Otherwise everything was great .

Tim did a great job of getting us to see tons of dolphins and sand dollars! its great for a small group of people!

While we truly enjoyed the excursion, it was way more boat ride than shelling adventure. Captain Graham was great we were just expecting a longer time on the island. We did see dolphins several times and found some nice shells, just wasn't what we were expecting.

Well organized, timely, so fun! We had a blast with Troy as our guide. My kids were safe, his advice was spot on, and I learned a lot about the area. We would definitely do this again! Our favorite part was having a small pod of dolphins play in our wake. Troy is clearly an expert at this because another tour boat requested he take the lead and make it happen. WOW on every level. Thank you for making our spring break enjoyable, CharterFinders!

You don’t get to do everything in the discription of the tour. Guide asked us what was most important for tour we said dolphins so he said we wouldn’t have time if we went to shell island so never got to snorkel

My son & I had Troy for a captain and it was so fun! Troy knew where to go to see the dolphins and we even got them playing in our wake a few times. Overall I think we saw around 20 different dolphins. I would highly recommend this adventure.

Captain Troy made our adventure even better, and was full of fun facts and jokes. He helped my girlfriend and i snag an amazing picture of us with a dolphin in the background too. 12/10 would highly recommend!

Troy was awesome! We had lots in common with our travel experiences and likes around the world. We saw tons of dolphins 🐬 Troy got them to jump up in the wake behind the boat. The island was beautiful! Wow holy huge shells! We are from the PNW and we definitely don't have shells like this there. We will definitely be using the service again. Thank you Troy! See ya in Alaska

Troy was a great. We saw beautiful views, about a dozen dolphins and got some good seashells. It was exactly the day we wanted to have. I’d recommend this a thousand times. When we come back to Tampa, we will definitely be doing this again. Thank you Troy!

Captain T was so great to spend the day with! We were racing the clock on a storm and he definitely knew what he was doing to keep us all entertained and safe. We had a great time! We will be back in April!

Nice ride from marina slip in Madeira Beach down to Shell Key Preserve. Good info about the area, the opportunities to charter and do other activities, local info on the sandbar, restaurants, things to do. Good anchor down and time allotted to snorkeling. A bit chilly in the water and the breeze too, but amazing considering it was middle of February. My gf and I had a great time.

We had the best time with Captain T. We saw many pods of dolphins that would jump bWeehind the boat. Our adventure on Shell Island was amazing and we found some stellar finds. Captain T is amazing Captain as well as photographer. The pictures he sent are wonderful and captured the day perfectly. He even broke out the drone and sent us amazing videos! This is an absolute must do, and we will be booking again in the future!

We had a great time out on the water with Cptn T discovering the intercoastal waterways and Gulf while we searched for dolphins. We saw lots of dolphins and stopped and shell key to look for treasures (shells, sand dollars). A great afternoon of memories!

I drove from Miami to Tampa for this activity, but Nobody showed up, this company just borrowed a spot from a hotel to park their boat, therefore nobody is at that location for service. Have to call them many times to find out it was cancelled 2 hrs before starting time.

Hunter did an excellent job and was very personable. He was able to find the areas where the dolphins hang out and we were able to see several, mostly babies, on the tour. This is a smaller boat and because of the waves you need to expect to get wet; it’s just unavoidable no matter how good the operator/ captain is. So if you are okay with that, then I certainly recommend it.

I'm not really sure how people go on these tours. We arrived at a hotel and had to walk through a parking garage to get to the marina. When we were told that was the boat we were getting on I was shocked. Seats are cracked/ripped. The boat was nasty, didn't look like it was cleaned in a long time. And while out on the water, motors sounded rough, wouldn't have been surprised if it broke down while we were out. I will say our Captain Tyler was great, he is the only reason this wasn't a 1 star.

Fantastic trip. Captain T was friendly/knowledgeable and provided a really enjoyable trip for us, we had a great time onboard. Weather amazing, and the seeing the dolphins was awesome. Thank you so much.

Fantastic experience and great day. Captain T is super knowledgeable of the areas, and really welcoming.. thank you we had an amazing time

11/10 recommend!!! Captain T was amazing and made us feel like we were on a day trip with a good friend! We saw dolphins, toured the gulf coast, and found the most perfect spot for shells where my son got ALL his shell questions answered by the Captain T.

We had the best time out on the boat. Captain was awesome! Can’t wait to come back to Florida and do it again.

Captain was fun and very nice!! It was a wonderful experience!! I’m looking forward to coming back with my kids to do this again!!

Captain Elijah was a great time. Lotta fun tried his best to get us to see dolphins. Took us to a great spot to find shells and explain the area to us very well

It was a lot of fun! We had a great guy then I’m sorry, but I can’t remember his name. He went above and beyond to find us some dolphins. It was a great afternoon.