Hi Andy, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to leave this review and start off by apologising that you experienced a breakdown while on tour with us on 20 August. This is certainly not the experience we want to provide to our guests; however, even with regular maintenance boats do sometimes experience unexpected issues. Unfortunately at the time of your tour all boats and staff were out and therefore could not come immediately to relieve you. As the boat was otherwise fine and safe, and you were in a calm and shallow area, guests were given free refreshments, including rum swizzle, and invited to go for a swim while waiting. This happened at about 2:30, approximately 30 minutes after departure time. Kirk is the owner of nine boats and extremely busy, but he of course immediately dropped everything to come to see if he could fix the boat, and he brought a mechanic with him to help. Unfortunately, it was ultimately determined that the problem could not be fixed on the water. However, during the time that Kirk and the mechanic were trying to fix the issue, he stated that you repeatedly demanded to be given special treatment and brought immediately to a spot where you could catch a taxi. Given that there were 20+ guests on the boat and the only available transport was our mechanic's very small runaround boat, it was simply not a feasible suggestion. This was explained to you, but you persisted in demanding to be treated differently to the other guests, who were much more understanding about the situation. You were picked up at 4:30 by another of our tour boats, and dropped back to the dock just before 5:00 (your original return time). You were of course refunded in full, as the breakdown prevented you from doing what you had planned with your day. However, in exchange for this, our staff tried to make your wait time as pleasant as possible, including offering free drinks, talking about the island, and letting guests swim. We are very pleased that you had such great service from Ryan. We are also again sincerely apologetic that you experienced a breakdown on our boat - this is both very rare and very undesirable. However, given the circumstances, I believe that we did all that we could do to make the best of the situation is it was, and would argue that we provided the best service possible. Thanks again for the time you took to write this review, and I hope you enjoyed your time on the island.

Hi Lloyd, Thanks for taking the time to write this review. I have a clear recollection of your time on Bottom Peeper and our conversation following the tour, and unfortunately you have misrepresented the situation a little! The area we took you snorkelling is called King's Point, and the boat anchors over a sand bar where there is absolutely no coral. Guests are directed to snorkel (if they wish to) around rocks on the other side of the sand bar where the water is considerably deeper, and there is coral clustered around the rocks. We take approximately 300-350 snorkellers a week to this and similar sites - and other boats with similar numbers frequent the same sites; in ten years of working on these boats, I must say I have not had a complaint like yours before. During the snorkelling portion of the tour, we have one staff member in the water assisting guests, and at least one standing on the back of the boat observing guests in the water. At no point did your family ask for help or indicate the extreme distress you describe in your review - if at any point in the tour you had indicated you were in distress, or even asked for advice on how to snorkel safely over coral, the crew would have been very happy to provide you with assistance in the water. With regards to our conversation after the tour, you approached me and offered me advice on how to improve my tour. I was interested to hear what you would suggest, but you then explained that your wife and daughter were afraid to snorkel and told me it was important to tell guests that 'it's okay if they accidentally touch the coral'. At this point, it is entirely possible my face changed. I was disappointed to learn that our message of the importance of protecting coral had not gotten through to you! I tried to explain that we could not say this, as it doesn't matter if contact is accidental or not - the coral will be harmed either way, and our first goal is to protect it. Unfortunately, although I tried to explain this further to you, you became quite condescending yourself and repeated a few times what you had said before. I realised soon that I would not be able to get through to you, so I simply thanked you for the feedback and said I hope you enjoyed the tour. You never mentioned anything about your wife or daughter being in 'real distress and in danger of drowning'. I sincerely apologise if I came across as condescending - while a bit frustrated and upset by the conversation, it was not my intent to condescend to you. Given the chance, I would have explained that although the water is shallow at some sites, there is always plenty of space to go around the coral that you cannot swim over. However, snorkelling is not an activity for everyone, as some people get a bit nervous in that sort of environment. I'm very sorry you did not enjoy your time with us, but I am very glad to have the opportunity to clarify what happened. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in Bermuda. Thanks, Zoe