Let me first state that this review is not at all directed at Captain Luis and his assistant, Captain Rebeca. They were wonderful—Kind, attentive, respectful and accommodating. I am grateful for both of them and glad we had them as our crew.
Overall, I was fairly disappointed in this trip. I spent a total of around $2700 (not including $100 tips I gave to both crew members) to have an afternoon to bring my wife’s entire family together - sisters, brothers, cousins, parents, etc. In total, we had 11 people on the boat, and let me first say that overall, the day was wonderful and memorable. It was wonderful and memorable because of the rare time we all come together to do something different, not necessarily because of trip details.
Here are my reasons for rating the trip so low at 2-stars. I am usually fairly forgiving, but at $2700, I expected the little things to be a lot better.
1) This first issue is not a “little thing”, however. I paid 10% up front to make the reservation. Great. No biggie. Once our trip started at 10:30, I received multiple texts to my phone (which I was wasn’t paying attention to because you know….I am on a trip with my family and don’t want to be glued to these stupid devices). Because I wasn’t glued to my phone, on a boat going to Icacos, the Captain received a call around 11am and he handed the phone to me and it was the guy I had been communicating with the day prior to work out trip details. He was telling me they expect payment right now for the remaining ~$2,400 balance. They wanted the “rest of the money before the trip ended” (scheduled to end at 4:30pm), but he wanted the money “right now”. I didn’t make a big deal about it then, and obliged for the sake of not making a scene. Because of some electronic payment issues, it took me about 45 minutes to work out the payment and sent him $2,410 as requested around Noon.
This was unbelievably frustrating to be bothered and annoyed for the remaining balance WHILE I AM ON THE TRIP WITH MY FAMILY. I wasted almost an entire hour screwing around with my darn phone trying to make this guy happy than being with my family, which was the whole point of my paying for the trip. Why on earth would anyone think it is reasonable to bother the person in the middle of the trip that was done to create time together and memories? Although I reflect fondly on the day, I immediately get frustrated thinking about how this person kept bothering me to “pay up now” at the beginning of the trip. I was in the middle of the ocean, on a beautiful island off the coast of Puerto Rico, and I was forced to be on my darn phone for something the clearly could have waited until we got back to shore. I was terribly disappointed in this behavior and is the main reason I am leaving only a 2-star review. Had I been shown the slightly bit of respect with regards to payment details, I’d have left a 3-4 star review, but this really got me annoyed and overall disappointed in the trip.
2) Food: the included food was very basic. We had 11 people and had a single plate of fruit, and tiny turkey/cheese sandwiches made of the cheapest stuff possible - fewer sandwiches than there were people. I would recommend bringing your own food if you want anything reasonable.
3) BBQ “Upgrade” option: Knowing that the included food would probably not be enough or of higher quality, I asked the gentleman coordinating the trip to “add on” a $250 BBQ of chicken skewers, churrasco, rice/beans PR style, etc. I didn’t send him an itemized list of things I wanted, as I didn’t really think this was my job, but in the end we got essentially some chicken skewers with a cheap Kraft peanut marinate, all cooked on the “BBQ”, also known as the
“kitchen stove top”. They did not have a BBQ grill. Just got pan fried chicken skewers with a bottle Kraft marinade. It was probably $25 of food at most that we paid $250 for. They did not bring any Churrasco (red meat), as I requested multiple times. Overall, this was a total disappointment. I paid $250 for something I should have paid like $50 for, at most.
4) The boat anchored 100 feet off shore. Getting little kids to/from the beach was annoying all day long. This really didn’t play into my rating, however, but thought the public should know.
Overall, # 1-3 above were the reason for my poor rating, in addition to having the bedrooms on the boat unusable due to mildew smell in one, and equipment in the other (couldn’t use either for kids’ naps). For $2700, I expected the basics to be covered without just covering the bare minimum standards, and expected to not be bothered for payment right when my trip started, distracting me on my phone for almost an hour while I was supposed to be disconnected. It felt like an aggressive money grab at the beginning of my trip, and it affected my attitude all day long. Also, trash/empty beer bottles from the trip the day before were on the boat - so clearly the boat wasn’t cleaned.
Let me first state that this review is not at all directed at Captain Luis and his assistant, Captain Rebeca. They were...
