Hi !
I did the clearwater tour with lunch and the dolphin encounter on Aug 28 this year.
To be honest, I was really disappointed with it. But that again depends on what it is you are looking for.
The trip by bus was vey fun (approx.90 min) The bus driver told stories and pointed out historical buildings on the way. He was very funny and very nice.
When we got ther 11:00 AM we had to go to lunch right away. We weren't very hungry at this point and my kids (7 & 12) wanted to see the beach. We tagged along to the restaurant which is a cheesy decorated hawain style boat. The food was disgusting in my taste. Not many choices there. Pasta overcooked had a weird smell, pepper steak that burned in your mouth, and tasteless roasted chickhen pieces. The service was very fast and you almost got the feeling they wanted you to leave as fast as possible. They also make an announcement that tipping is very important because these people live off of it.
The beach itself is beautiful ... white sugary sand. But again that's where it ends. I was very disappointed there too... I guess I was expecting clear waters. The water is far from being clear. There were sooo many seaweeds floating in the water till at least waist deep. The water was musty kinda, I guess because the sand lifts as you walk in the water, so don't expect to see anything. I may have seen too many movies ... so I didn't stay in the water very much ... makes me nervous not to be able to see where I am going or what I am stepping on. There were also alot of signs that said to be very careful of jellyfish. We did not see any or did anybody else near us.
The dolphin cruise .. hmmm. The people were very nice and friendly. We did get to see dolphins or the cruise is free. There are sooo many boats on the marina who offer this service for less than 20$ a person, so expect to see alot of boats and people around the dolphins. We only saw them from quite a distance, for too many little boats were closer and we could not get in there. My kids especially loved the part where you can bird feed. They stopped the boat in the middle of nowhere and attract the birds. They get all the kids to throw bread in the air to feed them. You get flocks of birds flying around the deck. It was cool... to see thekids so excited. Once again when we approched the end of the cruise we got the gratuity speech..as these people somehow don't have enough with what you pay for this tour and need tip.
You get to have about another 2 hours on the beach and the charter picks you up at about 4:00 pm. As you enter the bus you are handed 2 papers. They tell you it is a survey...hmmm. One is indeed a survey and well the other is a brief explaination on gratuity AGAIN. This time they tell you that gratuity should be 5$ per person for the poor cuban bus driver depends on this to make a salary !!!!!!
All in all it was a nice day ... but not sure I would repeat it for the money I paid 285$ for 1A and 2C.
This is of coarse my opinion ....
We are going back to disney in December and the kids really have they're heart set on seeing dolphins. With a bit of research I found a marine rehabilitation center that rescues dolphins and other sea animals and that you can interact with them for a cost of coarse. I will probably try that this time around ... just haven't figured out yet how I am going to get there from Disney. No way am I paying 65$ per person for the ride. My kids had to pay this fare too!
Anyway sorry for the long reply .... hope this helps
Claudia
