Verified Don’t book this tour find another operator.
For $330 for two adults, this was an expensive day out. We didn't feel it was worth the money.Website says "marine biologist led whale watching tour" and promises a talk of some kind by said marine biologist during the tour. Also states “All our skippers and guides are Marine Biologists whose passion is to share their extensive knowledge of the GBR and marine diversity with you.” No talk was heard or seen. There was no commentary at all! Not even an announcement of any kind when we were watching the turtles at the Cape. In fact quite a few of us were confused as to why we stopped. There were certainly no guides on board. Website says "A wonderful day on the water around the sheltered bays of Magnetic Island offering magnificent scenery" we went straight past M.I. lunch according to their website should have been in the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, it wasn't we didn’t go anywhere near Horseshoe bay lunch was served way past MI.Website says "potential for spotting wildlife like Snub-fin Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Seabirds including Osprey and Sea Eagles, Dugong and Turtles and the chance to get you up close and personal with some of the most magnificent animals on our planet, the Humpback Whale." We realise that they have no control over wildlife and where they are, but we saw a turtle outside of the initial Cape area and two spots where we saw Dolphins. Even then, there was no announcement or acknowledgment of any form of marine life. If we hadn't spotted it ourselves, we wouldn't have seen anything.Website says "delicious fresh lunch and snacks". Whilst there was a bowl of fruit on the table, and a staff member offered us sliced fruit and deep fried vegetarian spring rolls for morning tea and afternoon tea was defrosted muffins. Lunch was DIY salad and cold meat wraps. A bit lack lustre especially as we were told we had a cook onboard. We were also stunned that smoking was allowed on the boat during the tour. It was the staff smoking within 2m of where passengers were sitting and eating. The smoke smell lingered around the vessel. After six and a half hours on the water with no communication a cranky dog that snapped at everyone and barked excessively. When we finally returned to the marine where for the first time since the safety brief we were spoken to where the skipper thanked us for attending Townsville’s Dolphin and turtle tour apologised that we didn’t see any whales and told us how we could book again for half price.I think the business really should updated its website and remove the false advertising or actually deliver what its advertises. A little bit of communication with paying customers would go a long way, we thought we’d go out for the day and support a local business and hopefully see Townsville shine for those tourists onboard. Instead we were left embarrassed to admit we were locals. I wouldn’t recommend this tour to anyone which is really sad for Townsville we didn’t have high expectations but we did have some. Communication or delivering on what was advertised were two expectations we did have.
