Miami Private Boat Tour | Sunset, Snorkeling & Dolphin Spotting

It was very amazing. Worth the wait!!!!

Monica is a great captain, the location is good — right next to Racoon island and the sandbar. The boat is nice.

We had such a delightful time. Captain Monica was delightful and made sure we had a blast. Would 10/10 recommend!

I will do my very best to provide a comprehensive and unbiased review. Overall, I had a pleasant experience working with this company, however, I did not enjoy my experience with our boat captain, Michelle. I would not book with her again - but unfortunately you do not get to choose your captain when you sign up for this tour. An area for improvement would be the option to choose your captain based on ratings and review from prior attendees. What you should know: Do not schedule a 2:00pm tour time. . If you want to see sea creatures and feed animals, you need to arrive during their feeding time (early morning or sunset hours). Call your captain immediately when you arrive - do not look for them first. You will waste time walking around when you could be on the boat. Bring small pieces of ‘junk food’ for the raccoons, high value items that are stinky, like chips, beef jerky, and cookies, not bananas or fruit. And arrive with it, there isn’t a place to purchase food at the dock. Don’t book a tour on a Saturday in February: everywhere you visit in the bay is overcrowded with party boats, including the island and sandbar. Add 30+ mins to your GPS route to account for unforeseen traffic leaving downtown Miami, if you are new to this city. The blue route in Google maps is telling a lie. It should be yellow. Red flags: - An hour before our tour, our captain texted me saying we could pick up raccoon snacks at the gas station on the corner near the dock. There was no gas station on the corner. (But I overlooked this detail at the time, wondering if I missed it while driving) - Our captain told us to meet at Dock 3. We met promptly at 2:00pm on Dock 3, after confirming our location with nearby local boat owners. The captain was at Dock 1 (we’d walked past her while she was talking to a different group and neither of us recognized each other). - The captain called me and said she was wearing a hat and a white golf shirt, so I could find her. Her name was Michelle. She said she’d stay on the phone until I got there. I walked down the dock the opposite direction I came from and a woman waved at me wearing a long-sleeve blue tech shirt with no hat on. As I approached she hung up her phone. She told me she was Michelle, confirmed my real name correctly (“Are you …..?), and asked if I was there for the tour. I was very close to not getting on the boat with her due to her inconsistent self-description, but her phone voice matched up and I’d literally seen her hang up the phone as I was on the other line. - Once everyone was on the boat and it pulled away from the dock, Michelle commented how surprised she was for it being so busy on a Friday. After she said this 4 times and nobody responded to her, I finally said, “Today is Saturday.” She looked at me as though she heard me, but instead of responding, ignored my comment, looked away, and continued muttering (out loud) about the water being so busy with boats for a Friday afternoon. - Right before we got off the boat, Michelle told us she was a certified Coast Guard and that she was legit because she passed their drug test every week, which was a requirement of Coast Guards driving a boat. Then she said, we aren’t allowed to have marijuana on the boat because it’s also illegal in Florida. Her disclosing these two facts so plainly and out of context may not have been quite as weird if everything else she had told us made sense. But something was definitely off - why didn’t we get the experience we were sold, and why did our captain make incorrect observations about reality? Immediately I had this icky feeling in my stomach, as I pulled out my wallet to give her the $100 cash payment + $20 cash tip, requested by the boat company. Positive experiences: We went as a bachelorette group (5 people), and the bride was happy the whole time. She really was only interested in taking pictures on the boat and didn’t want to get in the water, and accomplishing that mission was a success. - Michelle took lots of group pictures for the bride to post on her Instagram. - We brought alcohol but we didn’t drink any of it or even eat the food we brought because we were so ‘busy’ posing for pictures. The silver lining is our bellies stayed trim, all the bridesmaids were sober, and nobody got seasick on the boat. - All of the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves and thanked our captain her help taking photos, and were very positive about the whole thing, even among disappointments with other bridesmaids about a lack of wildlife experience we had been expecting. The girls even offered our captain, Michelle, a chocolate chip muffin when we got off the boat. -Viator itself was very communicative regarding our reservation and the text messages from this company were prompt, respectful, and detailed. The text message updates and response to my questions from the Viator communications team (or boating company) were very helpful and led to a successful tour arrival. Negative experiences: - We didn’t see any fish while snorkeling - We didn’t feed any raccoons (we only saw 2 raccoons after wandering around the island, and they weren’t interested in our bananas and pears so they continued foraging far from us. They didn’t even come up to us - I threw some fruit to them from far away and they just walked by. We had very few ‘junk food’ items, and didn’t think to bring them onto the island for the raccoons, they were all on the boat parked a few yards away.) - We didn’t get any pictures with raccoons. - We didn’t get any sort of real tour about the history of the island, Miami, get to visit famous house etc. We didn’t learn anything educational (3 teachers were on the boat) and we did not take back “memorable” pieces of information to share with our students or to help grow our in our knowledge of the environment’s flora, fauna, conservation efforts, geology, and appreciation of the culture. Michelle told us how vicious the raccoons were to each other (like 2 rival gangs) how sharp their nails were and that they would climb up our legs to get our food, so we had to be careful not to get hurt. This was our educational component. Michelle told us she got married young and then decided she was done being married. And hey, it’s Miami so she’s living her best life. The bride said maybe she would have many stories to share with us, but Michelle was quiet the whole boat ride. - We weren’t shown any pictures and names of tropical fish to keep an eye out for while snorkeling. It was literally 1 person driving a boat around for 2 hours, someone’s uncle with a boating license could have done the same thing. I guess that was the vibe - nothing special. Just the basic bus-driver treatment: tell me where you want to go. - The snorkel gear was minimal (just a few snorkel masks and 1 adult life vest for 5 people). When I visited Biscayne National Park three years ago, they gave us snorkel masks, flippers, anti-fog mask spray, and life vests. I saw a diverse group of fish in many parts of the water in Biscayne National Park. I recommend going there for snorkeling, not here. This location should not advertise snorkeling because there is literally nothing to see in the water except cloudy water and some seaweed. Michelle told us all the fish were by the dock, but that’s where the sharks were, so she decided not to take is there (after we were far from the dock with no time left to see more fish). I would have loved to see the sharks (assuming they were nurse sharks), as well as local fish. - We did not see any dolphins. Again, false advertising. Yes maybe they only come out when they feel like it, and yes we booked a 2pm Saturday boat ride on an overcrowded bay, so anyone reading, please keep in mind, dolphins are a rare sighting for a weekend afternoon where party yahts surround everything. - Multiple times Michelle complained or made passive aggressive comments about her 4:00 tour that she couldn’t be late for, before, during, and at the end of our 2-hr experience. This would happen when the bride asked Michelle to take photos of our group, or when the bride asked to visit the sandbar, pretty much anytime the bride made a request, Michelle threw in some attitude. It felt unprofessional for Michelle to bring up her concerns about timing in a negative way. It would have been more helpful for Michelle to provide a time estimation and offer a few suggestions. For example: you all have 10 minutes left of the tour, would you like option A or B next? While on the boat I tried to manage everyone’s needs and expectations, and felt responsible for Michelle’s annoyance at the bride, which made for an awkward experience between me and the boat captian. When I was getting out of the water with another bridesmaid, the bride suddenly decided to take photo of us climbing into the boat, and asked her other bridesmaids to get in the photo with us. As soon as this happened, Michelle said to everyone, “I wish you started this 10 minutes ago. I can’t be late for my 4:00 tour.” - Michelle told us she had cold water bottles and ice on board but never pulled it out and offered them to us. -We experienced technical difficulties getting the Bluetooth speaker to work. I think one of the girls must have helped Michelle with it because eventually it started playing the music from the bridesmaid’s phone.

Sent my kids on this tour. Although they appeared to have fun the tour started late, there was confusion as to where it was, there was issues with waivers that they did not get to us as discussed, and the snorkeling was non existent as there was like two feet of water and no fish. Essentially this was a boat ride to see racoons and such. The captain asked us where to take them which was confusing since there should know what the trip is. And they hit me with a surprise $100 "captain fee" at the last minute which I hadn't seen advertised on top of it.

we booked a couple days before Christmas. we drove down from Orlando and didn't realize the high winds hitting Miami. when I suddenly realized that the winds may impede our trip, I was about 5 mins late for the 24 hr cancelation window. they wouldn't work with me. so we went on the trip with rains hitting half the time, did not see dolphins, did not snorkle. but fed the raccoons for $450 and returned half an hour early due to the weather. the captain was really cool but this booking agency is all about the money and not the experience. it really is false advertising, no dolphins. snorkeling. they knew this. but will send u out into the rain nonetheless.. book with local captains that may actually care about the experience

This was unfortunately a sub optimal experience. Part of it was the weather which of course no fault of the tour company. But this did mean that we did not get to snorkel or swim because it was too cold, maybe the trip would have been better had we done that. The tour covered the Racoon Island (you have to hunt for the raccoons - it's not like there are many all waiting for you), the Bay Area, and the back gardens of many beautiful homes. It was nice to see this part of Miami from the water. The boat was just ok, and our captain was nice enough but I expected more professionalism. She was casual and hospitable. We cut the tour 2 hours short as it was cold and there was nothing else to do since we had seen the sights. The extra time was built in for snorkeling and swimming. Good to know that there is not much to see when you snorkel (according to our captain and also from what we could see in the water). It's pretty water but don't expect a good snorkeling experience.

Monica our captain was awesome, and I’d give her a 5 star review. The boat had a lot of wear and tear (large sections of the cushions with ripped areas, some covered in duck tap) and I wish they were more upfront about the actual cost of the tour. The advertised price doesn’t include the $50/hr captain fee and the $50/hr does not count as a tip. For the 2 hour tour you should expect to pay $500-600 depending on what you leave as a tip. Overall it was a great experience. They are very responsive to communication and the process was easy and the tour was really fun. Thanks Monica!!

Captain Daniel was fantastic! The walk from the parking lot to the boat took longer than expected and that time came off our actual boat time. That was disappointing. Also the area where we went snorkeling was beautiful but the water wasn’t very clear and there wasn’t much to see underwater.

An absolute amazing experience visiting Raccoon Island and snorkelling with our fab captain Monica! The best part of our boat trip was without doubt seeing the dolphins - just amazing. Our trip was made all the better as we were able to meet and feed the raccoons (don’t forget to take some nuts for them)Thanks again to our host and Captain Monica who made the trip so much fun. 5* TRIP

From the description, we were expecting an actual tour. With some history about the area and different things to look at. We didn't feel like we got anywhere close to a tour. Our captain showed us the island where Tom Brady and Jeff Bezos have houses. And she showed Dexter’s place (from the show) and that’s abt it. The description made it sound like we’d see all sorts of marine life. We didn’t see any! It was very disappointing. When we snorkled, all we saw was sand. Oh and exoskeletons of snakes and snake holes, which kind of creeped us out. So really what we got was a very expensive boat ride to the sandbar. Not worth it!! I would highly recommend just renting a boat to drive yourself where you want to go.

This was completely false advertising. We paid $750 ($550 to Viator then another $200 as the "Captain's fee" and all we did was ride around. There was no visits to islands, there was no "nature immersion" as advertised, and there was no marine life where we were taken to snorkle. Most times if snorkeling is advertised, they at least take you where you might see fish. This was a complete waste of money. The captain was texting while driving the boat, talking on the phone at other times, and gave minimal information about sites we were supposed to see. I will never use Viator again and truly feel like this was such a rip off that it's criminal level.

Captain Monica and her little raccoon buddies were the highlight of our holiday. Would give 500 stars if we could. Amazing, thank you so so much!!

Monica was great and the trip was so much fun! She made it a perfect day even when we were faced with rough weather. And of course, the raccoons were definitely a highlight for us!

It was the perfect day for boating! ASK FOR CAPTAIN MONICA! She was such a vibe and made the trip so fun and enjoyable! The complimentary champagne was fabulous! Would definitely book with this business again.

The best experience of my life!! Monica was so great and taught us so much about the raccoons, a can’t miss Miami excursion!!

Captain Monica took us to Raccoon Island for my fiancés birthday. The boat ride was so fun and safe! She even stopped and took us to where some dolphins were swimming. It was amazing! She’s also so knowledgeable about the island and the raccoons. I definitely recommend her if you’d like to visit!

We rented a boat with Dolphin Water Sport to take a tour to Sandspur Island this past Monday. Captain Monica took us around the area, she was a great time, very funny and easy to talk with, we were all joking around, it made things a lot better for us. The raccoons didn't stick around as long as we hoped but we still had a lot of fun. We ended up walking around the island a little bit to check out some of the other wildlife. Our tour was four hours, rather than the two that seem to be more common, and Monica didn't seem like she was rushing us at all to move on, it's really nice that it seems like she enjoys her job. We would definitely book again with them in the future if we're around the area.

Captain Monica was absolutely fantastic. She expertly navigated big wake from other boats and kept everyone in our party comfortable. After she spotted some dolphin, we were treated to a beautiful and joyful display of animal magic. We took in the sunset views and had just the perfect day on the water. Highly recommended!!!!

What a unique way to spend the afternoon! Dolphin Water Sports was proactive with communication and our captain, Monica, was a gem. We saw so many dolphins and raccoons, it was incredible! 10/10

Daniel gave us a really great trip! We went to a sandbar to snorkel and swim and got a tour of the beautiful houses on the water. He pointed out several homes (Bezos, Tom Brady). We saw several raccoons on Racoon Island and a few dolphins. Very nice trip!

Yesterday we went on an amazing private charter boat tour of Miami and to a little place, called raccoon Island. We had an amazing captain named Daniel and he made our trip so much fun! The sunset was beautiful and we were lucky to encounter dozens of dolphins playing, and jumping out of the water . It was a magical site. We didn’t know what to expect regarding raccoon Island, but we were blown away how much fun it was to see the raccoons. We fed them some healthy snacks, and they’re cute. Little black paws were so soft taking them out of our hands. The process for booking, the trip was painless and very efficient and this was the most memorable memorable time in Miami we had during our stay Special thanks to Daniel for helping us make memories! Ed and Kathy

Captain Monica is really nice! She is friendly, caring and has a good relationship with racoons! We spent some time on a sandy island where you can enjoy yourself in the clean water (cleaner that what you can see from beach area). Then we went to raccoon islands where we saw a lot of cute raccoons! Monica also reminded us to bring what they like to attract them. It was a surprise that we even saw dolphins on our way back. In all, a perfect boat tour!

Captain Monica was great! She is knowledgeable, easy going and funny. We fed raccoons on Raccoon Island saw some famous people’s houses and cruised the bay. Would highly recommend!

Captain communicated from the start and gave lots of helpful tips to make our experience great! She was kind and informative. She was a great captain all the way around! Highly recommend her as your captain for this experience 10 out of 10! She is dedicated and hard-working and it shows!

A great way to spend a couple hours exploring the bay. Monica was our captain and she was a total joy. I recommend.

Monica was awesome!!!! Weather was perfect! Beautiful sunset cruise! And we saw dolphins!!! Hope to come back and do this again! Highly recommend!! ❤️

Jack was amazing! He was very respectful and fun!! He was knowledgeable on the tour and a great guide. Our bachelorette was a success! Thank you!

Everything was nice, including our captain Monica! They only thing is that the cooler didn’t have ice as indicated in our reservation it was water (probably melted ice) our champagne bottle wasn’t cold but other than that a great experience

My 3 bridesmaids and I went on 7/27 for part of a bachelorette trip and all in all I'd say we had a lot of fun. Check in was a smooth process and the meet up spot was easy to find. Boarding was straightforward and quick. It was Florida in the middle of July so it was HOT especially on the lower deck of the boat that wasn't open like the upper deck, it was fairly difficult to have space to move past people but everyone on our boat was super nice and I think everyone was on the same page about space. Once we settled into a spot though we had a lot of fun! Drinks were defiantly strong and the music selection was great. One of the staff in particular I believe her name was Anna, was so amazing. She checked in with us frequently and offered to take pictures of us. I ended up getting thrown into the wall of the boat from some rough water and breaking my nail pretty far down and Anna sat down with me and cleaned it and bandaged it for me and stuck some bandaids in my bag for later. The only reason I knocked off a star was because of the amount of people that were onboard for the size of the boat was a little hard to navigate through. I think it's a great value for the money and would book again!

The sandbar was really nice. I wish the trip had been longer! It felt nice being out in the water like that.

Love this tour, done it a few times. Great host and a nice ride for a reasonable price. Beautiful pictures! I recommend the dusk cruise to see Miami all lit up, it's beautiful!

beautiful experience Our boat guider was amazing. Book now do not wait i will do it every time i come to Miami

It stormed during our entire 2 hour ride. Not sporadic showers but pouring rain the entire time. The captain was the only person with shelter. My friends and I were forced to endure a miserable 2 hours being pelted by rain. Instead Of canceling the trip the captain essentially forced us to endure the ride. I could not cancel because they would not refund me. The captain watched us sit miserably and instead of canceling she continued just to keep the money. The company and viator refused to issue even a partial refund. I wouldn't recommend this to my enemy

Awesome experience with Captain Jack he was so nice and we had fun. Weather was bad on the first day he advised us to reschedule and helped us sort this out. When we finally set out the next morning it was a really nice experience. We only wish we booked a longer time.

Great day on the water with Captain Jack. He was great! We were fortunate enough to see dolphins. Thanks for the tour.

We had the best time on this trip!!! Jack was amazing and we had so much fun!!! We definitely recommend this boat trip!

It was an excellent trip, a happy experience and Captain Monica Mercato was excellent. She is friendly, pleasant, good communication and made us very comfortable during the tour. We recommend and will be back. Thanks.

Captain Jack is an awesome host! He exceeded my expectations!! My favorite part was when we visited Flagler Island!

The tour was awesome! Jack Richardson was very friendly and knowledgeable and made sure my group was comfortable and most importantly had fun.. I will definitely book this again on my next visit.. I highly recommend

Captain Cece was great. Very knowledgeable, personable, and kind. I would definitely recommend again

Our guide was amazing, the boat was perfect for our family of 5. Tons of fun and the houses are beautiful. Highly recommend!

Awesome intimate experience with friends/family. I highly recommend Captain Jack Richardson. He was very accommodating and even pointed out the dolphins and tried to follow them. Overall, it was worth the price.

Our family really enjoyed the bay views and cool ocean breezes. The best part was opening up a coconut on Flagler Island!

We had the best tour with Cece. We designed the journey and she was full of interesting information. Enjoyed our bubbles, sights and information. Lovely boat. Highly recommend this trip.

Amazing. We had a lot of fun. We love the boat ride and the captain was amazing. She made the experience even better. I highly recommend

We enjoyed the 2 hour boat ride! We highly recommend Captain Jack. He was amazing! 10/10 recommend! :)

Knowledgeable captain of the area. Very pleasant attitude and great music on the boat. Lucky to see dolphins.

Captain Jack was simply amazing - very communicative the day of so we knew where to be and what to expect. The boat was clean, with some shade, and some sun - it was perfect. Little champagne, some music: Beautiful tour of the bay. Lots of fun nuggets about the homes and area from Captain Jack. Stopped for some snorkeling and swimming. Bumped into a curious sting ray. Really fun adventure!