Sunset Dolphin Watch Tour

Enjoy it. Take lots of pictures.Crew was amazing. A lot of information and knowledgeable Great time.

Angie was amazing. She was knowledgeable, thoughtful and extremely helpful. Captain guided us to all the hot spots to see the dolphins and his reverse parking with such a big boat was awesome!! Pro tip, stand near the front for more dolphin sightings.

The view were amazing we took a lot of photos during the tour.the sunset was amazing.my family had a lot of fun! Would recommend it to anyone

It was well worth the $20!!! We had an amazing time!!!🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 Loved that we could bring a cooler and snacks!

Patrick and Oz were great hosts! We were able to vibe out to some classic songs while watching Dolphins on the Bay. It was so much fun.

It was wonderful seeing the dolphins water was beautiful great experience 10 out of ten 😂😂😂 great job guys for being

Great time, I loved the atmosphere and the captain was amazing. Great stories and great weather. The sunset was amazing

Great experience at a great price! We did 2 night in a row. Must experience. You will not be disappointed.

Ozzy and Mike were incredible!! They kept us entertained and informed the whole trip. Best ending to a great birthday trip!

It was amazing! The crew was able to get the dolphins to swim along the boat several times. The historical parts were also very interesting. I would highly recommend using this company! Best bang for your buck!

Fun, beautiful, informative! We saw lots of dolphins and a gorgeous sunset. Michael and Ozzie were great guides. It was nice to have Ozzie helping people take pictures. We will be back for another trip!

Friendly crew - I think it was Michael and Angie. Brief historical insights were welcomed. Enjoyed the dolphins and the birds. The sunset was beautiful near the causeway bridge. Great value - would go again in the future.

The entire experience was in short… PHENOMENAL with a little surprise!

TLDR:

We (my hubby, his brother, and his girlfriend are on our second year of visiting SPI during the first week - second week of April and intend to make it an annual trip. This year we decided to go on this Sunset Dolphin Watch by Isla Tours and I booked the 4 tickets two days in advance through Viator (First time user to Viator as well).. The ticket buying process was very simple, self explanatory, and once you tap “Book now”, Viator puts a temporary hold on your tickets for 30 minutes (it is displayed at the check out screen) and once you complete payment, you immediately have access to your voucher and Viator sends a copy to your provided email address, and also a copy in your account with Viator. The voucher itself is very detailed, they are very clear about where to find them, what is allowed on boat, departure time, name of the boat (we went on the Murphy’s Law) etc etc. Viator also sent a reminder text 24 hours prior to the tour. You also are given the ability to go back and make changes if need be. In my case, our 4th companion backed out after tickets were paid for, and I chose to just take the hit - though honestly their rate is VERY reasonable, Actually, they should charge more lol, it is WORTH IT!

Anyways, I do have to share that on the day of and a few hours prior to the tour, we had gone over to SpaceX and down to the beach where our SUV got stuck and we had to wait for a tow truck- and because of that we were totally down to the wire in making it to the 6:30 pm tour, making it with just 5 minutes to spare (meaning sitting down and waiting on the boat). The Marina was easy to find, and as a person with about 5 degrees of peripheral vision left (Usher Syndrome Type 1), I really appreciated the big signs, and how well marked things were.. The voucher exchange for tickets process was speedy. Lady was very nice.

As the Murphy’s Law pulled in, we were impressed with the size of the boat. Definitely not undersized or flimsy. It is like a double decked pontoon in a sense. They have their system down, it only took mere minutes to load and go. It was very easy to get onto the boat. The pathway to the dock is a little uneven, but nothing too horrible. There’s no big steps, gaps, etc.

Once on the boat, you got to choose where you wanted to be, you did not have to stay where you initially sit. You got to wander up the stairs, out front, sides, or way back, and they even have protected areas against rain / wind - any unfavorable weather kind of stuff.

For us it was blue bird skies, around 6-8 mph winds, and a balmy 73 degrees. So we didn’t experience any poor weather.

The guides were out of this world awesome! I’m not the best at names but pretty sure it was Oz, Zack, and I think Brian. They all were genuinely friendly, engaging, and accommodating.

I can’t speak to the commentary or the music or really any of the auditory related stuff due to being Deaf, though both Brad (hubby) and Jeff (brother in law) who are hearing said it was sublime!

I was a little worried about whether if I’d actually be able to SEE an actual dolphin, and thought they’d probably be a ways out there, and so I went and bought binoculars from the local Walmart ($$ ouch lol) and it honestly was a waste of money. The dolphins were much closer than expected, and super easy for an iPhone to zoom in during recording too. I was tickled pink in being able to actually SEE the dolphins. It was just like the movies!! Where a big ship comes by, and there’s a batch of ‘em leaping about out front. It was SO COOL!

They even had BABY ones close to the boat! SO CUTTTEEEE!!!!!

And! That’s not even the highlight of the tour for me personally. What took the cake was the unexpected mini petting zoo! Oh man! My mind totally was reeling all night long last night, reliving that! That was just too flipping wicked COOL getting to hold a real actual live Pufferfish in my hand and a hand sized sting ray. Totally caught me off guard!

The ride itself was very stable, and there were a couple of times that we were going over bigger swells and even that wasn’t too bad to balance through.

I also really liked that you get to bring drinks, snacks, etc in like a tote bag or a tiny cooler (just no glass) and that made it so I could pack a sweater in case the wind picked up too much, It did get cool enough that I ended up layering up a little but that lasted all but about 20 mins then it seemed warmer again. *shrugs* They also had enough space under the seats to put your bag under so that it was out of the way. Very nice.

Anyways! So yeah that was my experience and I absolutely HIGHLY RECOMMEND this! Even our temporary neighbors at the condo have been on it twice now and they said it’s the best! We are totally doing this again next year too! Maybe we will see you there! Cheers! Xx

Captain shared numerous facts about the area, dolphins, pelicans, and freighters we passed. He was also very humorous. Deck hand had different ocean species onboard to share. Great experience seeing dolphins(and a baby) and gorgeous sunset. Great experience.

Really nice experience from booking to end. Warm welcome on board, safety explained, good sense of humor, informative and educational. As advertised, great dolphin discovery. Captain Patrick and hands Oz and Zach all did a great job. Added bonus was the species of fish and marine life demonstrations. Nice 1 1/2 hours on the bay and a bit of the gulf of MEXICO! Would recommend this outfitter.

Captain Patrick was friendly and funny. He did a great job finding the dolphins. Angie was a great help taking photos for people and being helpful. Well worth it.

What a special experience. Our daughters loved riding up at the front and spotting all of the adorable dolphins. Angie was so nice to offer to take photos, and ended up taking my new fav photo of our family. Patrick, our captain, was so knowledgeable and fun to listen to. Thank you for a highlight of our trip, Patrick and Angie!