So much in one day! - We had a great crew, our own Paparazzi, always someone who spoke English and Spanish amongst other languages. Saw whales, loved the beach and the waterfall. There are a Lot Of stairs. Lunch was real nice. Was 11 hours door to door for us.

Great full day excursion - Initial pickup was a bit worrisome, we were picked up from our hotel along with a few others from other hotels. We were driven out to the main road and then half of us were told to get off the shuttle and go to another bus on the road - no explanation given. When we got on the new bus we figured out this was the group doing whale watching. Not a big deal but it was weird. It was a long bus ride but we got to see lots of towns and landscape which was really nice to see. A part of the country we wouldn’t have seen without leaving the resort. We stopped along the way at a roadside shop for bathroom break - their were souvenirs and snacks available for purchase. Then we finished our ride to the boat. Our guide on the bus was very knowledgeable and friendly. We saw a lot of whales. The we were taken to an island for lunch and some time on the beach. Lawn chairs were available as were cocktails and souvenirs. Then the long ride back and another stop at the souvenir shop.

A full day … - It is a very long and full day! Whales are never a guarantee but they certainly try. The island visit is quick and then off to the mountains which are stunning just on the drive alone. DR is beautiful and you see many sides in one trip.

Fantastic whale watching experiences, but unnecessary island stop - The whale watching was very nice, but too short. The stay on the island was unfortunately unnecessary. The place was overcrowded. More whale watching would have been much better. Price/performance ratio was good

The whale watching was... - The whale watching was great but the other 10 hours was not worth it. The experience was only supposed to be 8 hours we were gone for 12

Whale watching experience - This was a lovely day out. We enjoyed all the activities especially the whale watching. The only negative was a lot of people were unsure of what was included in what they paid for. A couple next to us told the tour guide this and they were asked to pay more money!

The positives - we saw... - The positives - we saw whales close up, a beautiful experience. The negatives - pick up nearly an hour late and very disorganised, chaotic transfers from bus to boat, very very loud music playing on the boat with peope drinking, more of a party boat vibe than a whale watching tour, only 1 hour on cayo levantado as everything had been so disorganised. Whale watching was beautiful but i wouldnt recommend this company.

Pretty Chaotic - The pros of this tour was we did get to see whales. However this tour was incredibly chaotic from the very poor communication of finding the bus picking us up from the hotel to getting to the drop off location where no one knew what was going on. The weather was HORRIBLE (while I get they cannot control that they did said they would cancel/reschedule if it was) everyone was throwing up on board, not only were the waves flooding the boat it was pouring rain too making it hard to see the whales. The boat was also way overcrowded. Trying to figure out which island people are going to and where we were going for lunch was a disaster. It was also hours longer than what we expected. Another review posted on here sounded just like the same experience we had. As much as we loved seeing the whales I would have rather stayed at the resort and went else where to see whales.

More Bad Than Good! - I generally only do reviews when I’ve had an exceptionally great experience or a bad one. Unfortunately, this one falls into the latter category. I have purposefully waited a few days before writing this review because I wanted to be fair and factual. We booked the Full Day Whale Watching Tour in Samana Bay from Punta Cana through Viator tours but the tour operator was Shelting Tours. The Good Part: • We managed to see some of the best whale watching we’ve ever experienced. This lasted about 30-45 minutes and it was up close showing mother and baby and I think we even saw the father at some point. We took some very nice pictures and video so we could relive it later on. • Also, overall, the staff was very friendly. The Bad Part: • Speaking of the boat, it was very nice but certainly overcrowded. There were some people that didn’t even have a seat so they had to stand for most of the trip. We also had a few situations where people were blocking our view, so we missed some of the action. Of all the other boats we saw that day, ours was the most crowded. • There are many different tour packages offering a variety of activities thrown in with the whale watching as well as the duration of the tours. We chose the 8-hour version by Shelting tours that advertised to last about 8 hours and it included transportation on a comfortable air conditioned coach bus, whale watching, and lunch at Bacardi Island and a brief time on Bacardi beach. Some of the other tours ranged from 10-14 hours and included horseback riding, visiting waterfalls and other excursions. We opted for the shorter trip because we simply didn’t want to be gone that long. But here’s how it actually played out... We were picked up at our hotel at around 6:40am. At the security gate, not the lobby as they had promised in the advertisement. This meant we had to get the hotel to give us a ride to the gate. The drive from the hotel to the boat was about 75 miles and since there were several stops and waits along the way, we arrived at the boat dock 2 hours and 45 minutes later. There were stops literally along the side of a major road where the person in charge opened the door, called some names and pointed to another bus pulled off of the road near us… not exactly a comfortable experience for those pulled off and directed onto another bus. The “comfortable” coach bus we were promised was an older bus that seemed to have been designed for children with very narrow and small seats. Every seat was taken, including an extra jump seat by the door. Not the “Comfortable Coach” that was advertised. • When we arrived, we were dropped off at a dirt lot right at water’s edge where garbage was stacked up around at the water line and throughout the lot. They offered a snack of a piece of meat between 2 slices of bread and some coffee. • Poor, poor communication and chaotic and uncoordinated transfers (bus to boat, boat to shore, shore to boat, boat to bus) at every point. Yes, there was a huge language barrier, but also little to no communication or even coordination most of the time. If this is a daily occurrence, print up some basic instructions or pieces of directions in different languages to use. There was a guide that spoke several languages, but I’m not sure he understood what he was saying since he could not really answer questions. • We were supposed to eat lunch at Bacardi Island beach. See their advertisement. Instead, after dropping off some from the group who signed up for one of the longer trips, we were taken by the boat somewhere else (Santa Barbara de Samana, I think) and then ushered to this small local dive where we ate then waited about 30 more minutes for our boat to return. No beach or explanation whatsoever on what was going on. Anyway, we were then picked up by the boat and taken back to Bacardi Island beach. The beach was OK but was a bit crowded with trash laying around. OK now if you are doing the math based on the quoted 8 hours, you are thinking that we are only going to be at this beach for an hour or so. Here’s where it begins to get very sketchy. We were given a free drink ticket and told we would not be picked up from the island until 5:00 - 5:30pm and it’s now 1:15pm. We were in fact picked up at around 5:30pm so at this point the 8-hour tour is already into 10 hours and we’re still a boat ride to get back to the bus and a long bus ride. Anyway, once we arrived back to where the many buses were waiting, nobody was telling you which bus to get on and it was up to you to walk to each bus and check if it was your bus. We spent a good 5-10 minutes in a bit of a panic looking for our bus. We were afraid we would be left behind and we’re 2 hours and 45 minutes from the hotel and it’s getting dark. We finally arrived back at the hotel at 8:45pm. There were some other not so pleasant things that happened, but I think you can get a good sense for how this went. • So, it looks like various tour operators share the bus and boat with other tours and other tour operators. Us signing up for an 8-hour tour didn’t matter since we were lumped in with 12-14 hour tours…they simply stretched the 8 group out to 14 hours. There was no warning they were planning this at any point. There was also a feeling (comments from workers) that they do this all the time, so I don’t think this was a one-off situation. They were in fact saving money (boat and bus transportation as well as labor) by combining all transportation for the two tours. I would steer clear of Shelting Tours and also this 8-hour tour by unless you like unpleasant surprises. Read reviews carefully and verify with the tour operator all the details before you signup and do screen shots of any text communications.

Beware… don’t assume all tour operators care if you get what you paid for - Good: We saw many whales in the 30-45 mins in the sanctuary. Bad: The boat was very crowded and we could not see what was happening on the other side of the boat. The bus ride took 2 hrs and 45 mins each way with many stops and waits. The bus was very uncomfortable and every seat was filled including an extra jump seat - it seemed like the bus was made for children since it had very, very narrow seats. We signed up for the 8-hr whale watching, lunch and beach time on Bacardi island and we were merged into other groups on the bus who signed up for the longer tour so we were left to wait on Bacardi island for the others to return. We didn’t have lunch there as promised but we’re boated to another location to what I would call a complete dive of a restaurant. We were expecting to be back to hotel before 5 pm and we were instead still waiting at 5:30 for the boat to pick us up on Bacardi Island to take us back to the bus. We got back to the hotel at 8:45pm. This was a very long day since we were picked up at 6:35 am. It was far longer than the 8 hrs we signed up for. The tour operator, Shelting Tours, made a conscious decision to roll our 8 hr tour into the longer tours and just left us and approx 10 other people to just fill the time gap till they returned. Terrible communication all day at every step of the way. Other than 30 minutes of seeing whales, the rest of the day was uncomfortable and not what we signed up for. Our request for a refund was denied. Beware and be careful with the details. Our pickup location changed at the last minute and was very inconvenient. Don’t assume these tour companies care if you have a good time or not.