Reviews

Dolphin tour was cancelled due to weather while in Pensacola last month . My fiancé Christopher Sirico has been on the phone with both the tour company and tripshock for a month attempting to get a refund . Today the tour company said they had already sent the refund to trip shock -trip shock still has not refunded the money

Hello Schuyler, Thank you for leaving your review. Unfortunately the tour company is unable to refund your card and we were not aware any refunds were due until we received an email on July 8th from your fiancé. As soon as we got confirmation of the cancellation from the provider we processed the refund. Typically this can take 5-10 business days to post on your end however, we will send proof of this refund having been processed to you via the email on your reservation. Again, we are sorry for the delay in processing your refund and hope that you will give us another chance during your next visit to the Gulf Coast. Thank you.

Booked a dolphin trip and like others, when I click on the link to purchase tickets, I was directed to TripShock. Went ahead and booked the tickets based on the picture and description of the boat seeing that it would be accessible for my 92 year old mother. Arrived at Top Tier Watersports and discovered since I was using a 3rd party (TripShock) I had to pay for parking ($23). Paid for parking. Boat arrived-it was an open bow boat not fit for easy access, no restrooms, no indoor seating, no refreshments. I questioned the boat and showed them the boat pictured in my confirmation was not the boat present. Top Tier basically said too bad and no refund. I would need to talk to TripShock. They did refund parking fee. Talked to a rep at TripShock said that they needed to go through Top Tier for refund and TripShock does not do refunds which I find odd since I purchased through them. Was told no refund as did not cancel in 24 hours as per waiver I signed. I submitted a dispute through payment center. Emerald Memories who now owns TripShock responded with same saying no refund. I pointed out that the info in my reservations (picture/boat description) did not match what was presented and I felt it was a misrepresentation of what was actually provided when we arrived to the dolphin cruise. This was a lesson learn. Never trust TripShock reservation information as it may not represent was you get. Read everything at least 3 times as they did not state if what you see is not what you get (different boat than pictured/different experience). Do not trust the initial reservation and if anything, make your reservation directly with the company you are doing business with - not a 3rd party. I learned my lesson.

We’re sorry to hear that you did not go on your dolphin cruise. While we can understand that a change might cause some issues, there is information on the trip you purchased that states, “Other boats may be used in the event that the Southern Rose is down for maintenance. Regardless of the boat, you will have a wonderful time. Guests are encouraged to bring their own drinks & snacks in small bags.” This statement is actually required to be agreed to in order to place your order. While we are understanding of your situation we did have it clearly stated in the trip details and information you are required to agree to prior to adding your tickets to the cart.

The reason we include this information is specifically for people such as you and your family that have requirements in a boat and need to be assured the boat in question meets those needs. We have a call center both at TripShock and also one our partner, Top Tier, operates that would have been happy to confirm which boat was being used for the specific date and time you wished to go out on the trip. As you are aware, there was a 24hr cancelation policy that you agreed to when booking your reservation, since you decided upon arrival to not take the trip on the provided boat we are unable to refund your reservation based on this 24hr policy. We are the business that would process any approved refunds however we still need authorization from our partner, so I apologize if this was not more clearly explained. We did sympathize with your family and tried to see if we were able to get the policy waived however this was not possible for your trip.

We understand that you are disappointed but had you called us beforehand, we could have checked the type of vessel being used for you. You also had the opportunity to cancel before the 24 hour cancellation window and did not. We do our best to list any and all information pertaining to any of the trips we book. While we have photos of the main vessel being used for a trip we can't include photos of every other boat in the partners fleet that may or may not run the trip during our winter months when maintenance is being done as that would cause more confusion than this statement clears up. We do hope that you and anyone else please reach out if you do not understand statements you are being required to agree to so we can explain what that means and if there is a change what that change is going to look like for your specified date and time for your requested outing.

We booked trip to crab island. we were informed to come one hour earlier, so we did and ended up with just sitting there and waiting. They check you in 5 min before departure. 1 hrs earlier is requested so you could buy food and spend your money -kinda favour for businesses around.
It was 3 hrs excursion. For the whole trip our guide didn't mention a word about crab island , why is it called like that, didn't tell us about low and high tide, just reminded several times that he would appreciate tips. After 1 hrs we realised we could buy drinks at the boat and it was never announced. For that price that should have included complementary drinks at least. We ended up trapped in green water for 3 hrs, no entertainment except for two floating boards. 30 min is enough there but not 3 hrs!! Terrible experience! Waste of money and time!

Hello ******

I am sorry you did not enjoy your experience. While the official check in may only have taken place 5 minutes prior to departure for your group, the partner likes to have customers show up early so that they have plenty of time to get everyone checked in for the trip as it is a shared charter. Traffic, parking and bringing things down to the dock can also take more time for some than it can for others. Our partner was lucky you are an avid traveler and know to plan for these different scenarios, however not everyone is like this and for that reason the partner would rather err on the side of caution and ask that customers arrive with plenty of time than saying to arrive 5 minutes prior and ending up with multiple parties running late and potentially missing the boat. Regarding the specifics of the trip I see here that you booked this yourself online, when you were on the page that describes this trip it states that it is recommended to bring: cash for the snack bar, water toys & floats for your entertainment as well as any snacks or drinks you would like, limited to a small 6 pack cooler bag per party, if you wanted to bring your own refreshments. There is an upgraded VIP ticket that does include some extras such as drinks from the snack bar however it appears your party did not choose to take advantage of this upgraded option. Again, I am sorry that you did not enjoy your experience and hope that you will give us a chance again on your next trip. Please be sure to call and talk to one of our knowledgeable reservation agents so they can get you paired with the best suited experience for your party to enjoy.