Help with BioBay tour?

[much2buzy]

Here is what I posted on Trip Advisor about our Bio Bay East Island Excursion:

 

We were scheduled to take the Vieques Bio Bay tour through East Island Excusions on December 27, 2010. We booked this tour on November 11. When signing up for this tour, we decided to pay the extra $20/pp to have the tour company come pick us up at our hotel. According to our paperwork, we were to be picked up at 2:30pm. That morning, the company called to let us know that our pick up time had changed to 3pm. At 3:20 we were finally picked up. The driver had to pick up other people at their respective hotels as well. As we were in the shuttle (that they arranged) the tour company calls my cell to ask... "Where are you?" Well, we (all six of us) are on the shuttle that you arranged. The person on the other end of the phone said, "Well, the boat had to leave at 5pm and you missed it!" How could WE miss it when they arranged everything. The person on the phone was very short and said, "Well, you will NOT be charged for it." My point was that I booked the tour in November and they handled the transportation, how could WE have missed the boat. They did NOT care that everything was totally out of our control. Apparently we got a free ride to Fajardo and then had to go back to our hotel in San Juan. This whole process took 3.5 hours of our time. Several people in our group were car sick, hungry, angry and very upset that we missed out on this opportunity. I really hope when thinking about booking this tour, you choose a different tour company. I feel as though we were scammed by this company because I feel that they overbooked this tour. Mind you, we had five family members that were staying close to Fajardo and just drove to the dock. They stated that the boat was too full for the six of us anyways. Please think twice about booking with this company.

[ramble161]

Our group of five recently did the BioBay tour with Kayaking Puerto Rico. We were on a cruise which was in port from 3 PM - midnight. Kayaking PR picked us up at the pier at 4PM and delivered us back at about 9:30 PM. It was a great trip! Kayaking PR was extremely professional, provided education about the whole experience, and was very easy to do business with. We initially booked the trip by email, and then called them on the phone one time to ask them some questions. Everything was done in a very timely fashion.

[deemitt]

Go with East Island so you can get in and swim in the Bio Bay. This was better than I could have imagined and was great at every point of the trip. If you only do one thing on your trip THIS IS IT!

[PINEY10]

I agree with Deemit. I did both and the one that was at Vieques so far exceeded what we did in Fajardo that I, too, recommend the Vieques. The tour outfitters are great at Fajardo but there is no comparison to what you will see and you cannot swim at Fajardo--you can in Vieques. Plus it's a gorgeous island.

[pooh1bear43113]

Just back from a week in San Juan. I had booked Bio Bay thru East Island Excursions a couple of weeks in advance. They only used my credit card info to "hold" our spot (allows 24 hr. cancellation ).

 

We rented a car for the day from Charlie Car Rental - for $19. This rental agency has received good reviews from CC members and it was right around the corner from our Embassy Suites in Isla Verda.

 

On the way out to Fajardo we drove thru the Rain Forrest and spent a couple of hours at the beautiful Luquillo Beach. Amazingly beautiful beach - something I had not expected.

 

We arrived at Puerto del Rey in Fajardo at 4:00 - just in time to talk to folks who were returning from a 3-island snorkeling cruise with East Island Excursions....they could NOT say enough about what an enjoyable day they had had on this excursion. At about 4:30 we were able to "check-in" and at that time our credit card was charged. Before boarding the boat to Vieque, we were asked to select from their menu our dinner - there was a very nice selection. We boarded the boat that took us over to Vieque Island anwere picked up by vans (there were 23 on our excusion) and taken to their restaurant - lovely. Dinner was excellent. After dinner we boarded a school bus for the ride of a life time! This bus went where it would seem impossible to even walk - really tight quarters - ruts - trees overhanging the "path". Upon arrival at the Bay, we were met by a pontoon boat and silently motored out to the bay where it was pitch black - perfect evening for viewing this miracle. After a description of how this miracle comes to be, we were issued life belts and invited to climb down into the water to swim with the lights.

This was the high point of our visit to PR. East Island Excursions is THE ONLY WAY TO GO. Swimming in the Bay was wonderful! The guys and gals go out of their way to educate.

Drinks were served up on the way from Fajardo to Vieques and on the way back across to Fajardo. Excellent Pina Coladas - virgin and otherwise.

 

The instructions we received from East Island before leaving home were EXCELLENT, however, we got lost coming back - mostly because my co-pilot couldn't read the directions in reverse:D but several stops along the way and we were pointed in the right direction. It's an island: how lost can you get????

 

We arrived back at Charlie Rental Car at 1:00 A.M. and they drove us around the corner to our hotel. Now that's service.

 

We are two senior ladies experiencing our first "girls' trip".....:eek:

Hope this helps those who are thinking about Bio Bay - next time we will do the 3-island snorkel excursion with East Island! And that will when we are in San Juan in December for a Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas.

[1stcruiser1]

Thanks for the great review- we are hoping to go next month with East Island.

[OneLoveReggae]

We will be taking the Biobay tour with East Wind next month. I've done a little reading on these dinoflagellates and am concerned that we might get sick if we ingest them. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience regarding this? What if we have fairly strong allergies to mites? Just checking to be sure. Thanks.

[rainforestgirl]

We will be taking the Biobay tour with East Wind next month. I've done a little reading on these dinoflagellates and am concerned that we might get sick if we ingest them. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience regarding this? What if we have fairly strong allergies to mites? Just checking to be sure. Thanks.

 

I have never heard of anyone getting sick from ingesting them.

[joyride21]

Stayed in Puerto Rico for three nights post cruise in '08 with the intention of doing the Biobay tour with East Wind. Sadly, all three nights the waves were too rough and the tour was cancelled. This year we get another chance! Staying in PR for three nights pre-cruise in November, and the moon conditions are perfect. I can only hope the sea cooperates this time.

[mytime53]

Stayed in Puerto Rico for three nights post cruise in '08 with the intention of doing the Biobay tour with East Wind. Sadly, all three nights the waves were too rough and the tour was cancelled. This year we get another chance! Staying in PR for three nights pre-cruise in November, and the moon conditions are perfect. I can only hope the sea cooperates this time.

 

I wish you luck! When we had that problem last year, we were very disappointed because we didn't expect to be back in P.R. anytime soon. When the opportunity arose this year, we planned the trip around great bio-bay dates, and just went to Vieques and stayed. We weren't going to miss it again!

[busdriver161]

Joyride 21 we are on the same cruise! We are also staying 3 nights before and I plan on doing this Saturday the 26th. Hopefully we do this at the same time. I am not missing this!

:D

[joyride21]

mytime53 - thanks for the good wishes! I'll be immensely disappointed if we miss out again.

 

busdriver161 - we are actually on RCL, and I see you are on Carnival, but perhaps we will meet at the BioBay. not sure if we are going to try for Friday or Saturday...we are traveling with others so it isn't entirely up to us.

[Quampapetet]

We did the Vieques swim-in BioBay earlier this month and the BioBay itself was really great and I'd highly recommend it! We used the BioBay company's transportation to get there and back.

 

I do want to post a BIG WARNING to those who are motion-sensitive, though! The boat from the mainland to Vieques and back was ridiculously bouncy (worse than rocky - the thing was literally bouncing, the waves crashed over the roof of the boat [you could see this via the front windsheild], and the waves had huge ups and big crashing downs) and many ppl felt sick. One of my friends threw up multiple times (they do provide barf bags) both ways. I had taken Bonine in plenty of time before the trip, but had to work very hard to keep myself from getting sick. This was not something we were expecting and might not be the norm, since I hadn't read about it in other reviews/posts, but it does happen, so I want to warn everyone about it. Don't forget to take your anti-seasickness meds several hours before the trip!!

 

The bus ride from the restaurant to the BioBay and back is bumpy, too. The branches scrape alongside the schoolbus you are in because the road is that small.

 

The BioBay itself is completely calm, FYI. You get to see a beautiful sky chock full of stars (no light pollution to block your view of them) and the glowing water is just really cool, especially to swim in!

[rockmegently]

We had the good fortune of taking part in the bio bay tour through East Wind earlier this month. I echo many of the positive reviews already posted regarding this excursion. Unlike some of the others we did not rent a car but took advantage of East Wind arranging hotel pick up in San Juan. They require a minimum of 6 or your cost per person goes up proportionally for each person missing. Our cost was $24 per person as there were only 5 for transportation.

 

As I understand it, Vieques has the highest concentration of the glowing planktons in the world. Swimming with them was magical.