South Beach Charters

I bought a groupon for my birthday. I got sent a confirmation email immediately after setting up the reservation with Emil. I got sent another confirmation email the day before the excursion with more information needed like the exact pier number. I walked up and met Captain Rich. He was great and super friendly! I paid the gratuities and taxes prior to departure (Because that is protocol for any boating experience) and we were on our way. I plugged in my ipod/​phone and bumped some tunes. We truly enjoyed ourselves, Captain Rich explained what celebrity lived in which mansion on different islands. We even waved to Lil Wayne’s family! We then stopped at an island and got out and swam a little bit. Very beautiful day! The only issue I had was there is a slight ant infestation in the kitchen and in the anchor compartment. Not a huge deal but I hate ants.
Other than that, I loved Captain Rich and our experience and I will (have) recommended this service to other people.

Went on a double date and Emil was amazing. He catered to our needs and was very entertaining. We had a beautiful ride into the sunset and parked and ate at Montys. I would recomend his services to anyone!

I am so upset with their service. «Captain Emil» who claims to be the owner, who decides to include the words «OWNER» in capital letters, in his e-​mail, after I ask to speak with the owner, called me at 10:45am to cancel. 15 minutes before I had to leave my house. Departure time was at 12, they are in Miami Beach and I live in Boca. However, at 10:39, I get a text from «captain Emil» stating that, it is raining but we can still go out. I had purchased $ 215 worth of food for our guests and had everyone at my house prepared to leave. On top of all that he were so unhelpful, spoke to me in a very rude way (degrading in my opinion) mocking me and calling me irrational for being upset and very defensive from the beginning of all this. He never apologized once. He change the time of departure at 11pm the night before. «Captain Emil» was unapologetic and was completely wrong. I believe the reason we did not go out was due to their inoperable boat that was stated the night before departure, AT 11pm! «however would be operable the next day, we would just have to leave an hour later then scheduled». He was not accommodating at all and made it seem like I was crazy for being frustrated about all this.
I will make sure who ever else is in charge of this service knows how he handle’s his clients, as well as living social and any review that is available.
And P. S. It was not per my request, to cancel. As he stated in his e-​mail to me after we decided not to use his service. I wanted to go out and use your service, however I wanted to be accommodated for his neglect. I should have known from the beginning that he were very unprofessional by his type mannerisms.
— sincerely, a business owner as well.

I have never experienced a yacht. The boat itself was decent considering. However, the customer service left much to be desired.

1. The original limo pickup was 11:30 and boat departed at 12 (original emails). Suddenly, it turned to 12:30 the day before, which meant we arrived at the dock for 11:45 to pick up the food we asked to be delivered based on the original time. He did email and change the time the day before, but we had already made a delivery arrangement. Thank goodness the restaurant had a pool that we used to waste away almost 45mins.
HE WAS LATE FOR THE 12:30PM PICK UP TIME.
2. He promised an inflatable raft as part of the deal. He arrived and said he didn’t ever mention a raft, he now said it was an upgrade. When I offered the email he sent me as proof, he said it was in disrepair. He never informed me before we arrived. So we lost out on one of the selling points of the boat.
3. The private island that was promised was a DUMP. Literally!!! There was trash everywhere and a rocky «beach» area. When we asked to go to Star Island (AS WE WERE PROMISED) to see the famous homes, he pretended he couldn’t do it because of distance. Hello, we just discussed this before leaving the dock!!! Mind you, we had another 2+ hours to go. I insisted and he said we could go if we left right away. Thank you, trash island isn’t my thing! I would have expected the captain to see how the island looked and take the initiative to pull me aside and offer another option.
In the future, I think it would benefit all involved to CLEARLY get all details in order and a confirmation email explicitly outlining all payment, pick-​up, and details of the charter a day or so before.
I was contacted several days after originally posting this review. We were offered a voucher for a another yacht experience to make up for some of this confusion. That I do appreciate.

Similar to another review — I truly believe Emil is completely unprofessional, falls right in line with the reason people loath Miami! I prepaid for my charter and he had the nerve to ask for his tip before the charter left the dock. When you do purchase your voucher from Groupon or Living Social — the tip nor tax is included. Although it does say this on the voucher — he does expect his tip UPFRONT!
Reasons why I DO NOT recommend for you to charter a boat with him:
I had to call him to confirm the reservation — a sign I should had picked up on regarding his lack of professionalism. He did however send a confirmation email less than 2 hours before my 3pm departure. It would have been EXTREMELY helpful to receive the information a few days prior to leaving (not after I already left the house and started my day).
I also had to reschedule when i originally purchased the voucher, on the day of (right before boarding the boat) Emil asked for this money as well. The voucher CLEARLY states a 24 hour cancellation policy and nothing about a rescheduling fee. Frankly, I did not wait to find out how much he wanted me to pay for this so called «rescheduling fee» (which was never mentioned in our 14 email conversations) as I ran for the hills before I would get on the boat with the little weasel.
Side note– I love how he wants to charge for additional people — WHAT FOR? I’d be surprised if more people could actually fit or if he even had enough life jackets for more people. The boat did not look clean or nearly as nice as the pictures indicate…
Simply put — I don’t recommend this company to anyone… STAY AWAY!!! There is a reason why he is not on TripAdvisor… he would never last!!!