Miami Beach Ocean Watersports

I can honestly say that I had a four star experience with MBOW. A friend of mine called and asked a couple of questions about reservation, return policy, method of payment, blah blah blah and hung up content. They made their purchase right after no problem. I had low funds in my card because I decided that it’ll be easier if I had cash so I made the reservation last minute online for the morning and from there everything was a smooth sail. We got there and did the paperwork and waited for the ride to the Marina. The rest was pure fun. The men on the boat we nice, funny, and provided clear instructions. We even got a boat ride to get gas lol. I would go again, but for another water sport.

Very bad experience, spent half a day to hunt down this place because the bad direction they give me, cashier was rude and now I have been sitting here for over an hour waiting for someone to show up to take me to my tour! Yes, they just left and told me to wait here after I paid.

It doesn’t get any better than Miami Beach Ocean Watersports. Bradford picked us up from a local spot along with another couple. We had great conversation from our ride from our resort all the way to their location in Key Biscayne. We signed our lives away, and then decided to have a drink at the bar to ease our minds. We had some GREAT Mai Tais at the bar, that was conveniently ten steps away from sign in. Ten minutes later we we walking on to the boat heading out to PARASAIL! The view was beautiful, just from the boat, then it was our time to go UP! It was a little nerve-​racking at first but once you take in the view, it’s so relaxing and beautiful. We did get the photo package as well for $ 32. The whole crew was great, very helpful and fun!!! I would do it again in a heartbeat. They definitely made the experience and on top of it all Bradford brought us all the way back to our hotel at the end of the trip. The photos were great to show friends and family, and the memories will last a lifetime. :)

Visited here on Sunday July 13^th. The shuttle picked my friend and I up from the hotel in SOBE. The shuttle was on time, the driver was super nice. On the way back I left my sunglasses in the shuttle. He was nice enough to call me and bring the sunglasses all the way back to me. I did the parasailing and jet skis, also paid an additional $ 30 for the pics but they only took pics of the parasailing not the jet skis. And they were uploaded to Facebook and we weren’t given a hard copy. That’s probably my biggest complaint. I wouldn’t recommend that. All and all it was a great experience Id recommend this company to my friends. And may even use them again when I go back!

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR MONEY
First off, I bought this Groupon for my boyfriend’s birthday October 2013 and wasn’t able to schedule an appointment until June 2014 due to boat maintenance and like others have previously said, lack of answered phone calls. We finally went to our appointment June 1, 2014 10:30AM for our anniversary. We had to wait an hour just to get on the boat to actually parasail even though we scheduled the appointment. We also paid the extra $ 20 for the «high definition» photos that were surely below average and three employees had the nerve to ask for tips three separate times. Now believe me, as a server, I have no problem giving tips to people for a good service, and me being a server is the only reason I gave the tip but after seeing those $ 20 photos, I wish I would’ve kept my money. The company may have potential for the future but for my specific experience I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO PAY FOR THIS. Just pay the extra money to parasail on South Beach, you’ll have a better view and better pictures anyway.

It has now been 2 weeks and we still have not received our pictures from our parasailing trip! I have tried contacting the company several times but have not received a response at all. At this point I’m just trying to figure out how I can get a refund. DO NOT PURCHASE THE PICTURES FROM THIS COMPANY!!! It is a total scam.

We went for a parasailing trip yesterday and had a great time! It was our first time and it was sooooo much fun. The crew was great, making jokes and even putting on music when we asked for it. I wish I remember the names of the two guys that were working. They were fantastic and are really what made the trip awesome (besides going in the air haha) We would definitely come back again to parasail, maybe even renting some jet skis. Five stars — great service from the initial scheduling til long off the boat. Thanks for such a positive experience :))
Side note — I had read the other reviews before booking, and despite other people mentioning they had trouble getting in touch with the company, I had actually called on 5 – 6 separate occasions and always got an answer. They were very polite and flexible in scheduling (we went on a Thursday and the beach was beautiful and clear!!) I would definitely recommend this company to anyone wanting to try parasailing.

Although getting in touch with this company to book a parasailing tour was difficult and frustrating, I eventually succeeded. The parasailing equipment seemed well-​maintained, the staff were fun to interact with in person, and the parasailing itself was great!
Getting in touch with this company is difficult. Their public phone numbers leads to a voice recording with no option to leave a message or number for a callback, which made it impossible to talk to anyone before booking online. My first-​scheduled parasail was cancelled due to high wind about an hour before it was scheduled, which was perfectly reasonable. I was very glad that an actual person called and texted to cancel, because that gave me the functional phone number (that actually reached a person) that I used to call back and reschedule. It was not possible to rebook online using the Livingsocial coupon. Obtaining a rescheduled tour required persistence and multiple calls/​texts over several days. I was most successful in reaching someone to talk to right around their opening and closing times.
The tour itself involves about a 10-​minute boat ride into Biscayne Bay south of Rickenbacker Causeway. Each person or couple who parasail in tandem gets about five minutes in the air, with lovely views. The boat might take out two or three couples in a trip. We also ordered digital photos (about 40 shots for $ 20), which should be available within 24 – 48 hours of the trip: I’ll update after seeing those.
TL;DR: a fun experience after getting past the scheduling difficulties.

0 stars! they are the worst. they never answer the phone goes straight to voicemail, they don’t answer emails. All they do is keep your money.
Once it was canceled the day before due to «weather» after that could never get a hold of them to re schedule. Very disappointed.

Zero stars! By far the worst experience I’ve ever had to deal with. Making an appointment was worse than calling the radio station. They never answer their phones and when they did, the guy was talking to someone in the background while I was trying to schedule an appointment. I finally made an appointment which they ended up canceling the same day just 30 minutes before :-/​due to maintenance problems. So I rescheduled for this past Sunday hoping they wouldn’t cancel on me which they actually didn’t. I finally get onto the boat with my boyfriend along with a father and a daughter attending our same appointment which I didn’t think I had to share my hour with but didn’t mind at all. They went first and everything went well. By the way, the staff never gave instructions or safety precautions. As we went up into the air, within seconds we fell instantly into the water ! I was twirling under water trying to float up but the ropes were tangled around me and my foot had banged into the parasailing bar that we were attached to! I then knew something was wrong, I looked towards the boat and a staff member took off his shirt and dived into the water quickly towards me to untangle all the ropes from around me then told us to swim back to the boat. They had the boat running while trying to get us up instead of turning it off ! I almost stepped on the propeller because I was frantic and so nervous trying to get up into the boat. Not one apology, just a ’ we’ve had engine problems for the past few weeks’ hello ! We could’ve died! WORST experience ever and I stayed with a swollen ankle. This company is garbage!

I got a Groupon deal for parasailing for my anniversary a year ago.
The first three times I scheduled my appointment with them they called me back to say that their boats were down for maintenance and wouldn’t be available, always had to be rescheduled.
80% of the time they wouldn’t answer, very frustrating.
One time they didn’t even bother to reschedule and nothing happened for
months, so I called and pleaded if they could help me make this work BEFORE Jan. 21 because that is when it expires.
The response was: «we can put you in for Jan. 25»
I asked if there was anything they could do about the groupon and it’s expiration date.
No response.

My friend found a parasailing deal on Groupon and got it for me for Christmas. I was thrilled. The only slight downside was that we had just two weekends to enjoy the deal before it expired.
On Thursday before the first weekend, we attempted to call and make a reservation but it turns out, their phone hours are from 12 – 2 pm, three days a week. Fantastic. We missed the boat for that weekend, so we waited until Tuesday morning the next week to call back. It went straight to voice mail and there was another message that read that their hours were actually Wednesday through Friday! Based on the Unilocal reviews, I was already thinking this wasn’t gonna happen.
But in the voice mail, there was a message about emailing them for faster response. Sure enough, that worked. We were able to make an appointment for the last weekend of the deal.
So important tip #1: save yourself the aggravation and email them at
to make your appointment.
Important tip #2: Upon recieving the confirmation email, I saw that we owed $ 8 in addition to the cost of the Groupon, which is for «taxes and fees.» So realize when you get a Groupon, it will cost you slightly more than the Groupon, especially if you decide to buy pictures, which brings me to…
Important tip #3: When you get on the boat, the guy tells you that you can’t take pictures with your personal phones or cameras or give such items to other passengers and if you want to buy their awesome pictures, it’s $ 30.
We decided to go ahead and buy the pictures, because we did want them and we were obviously not gonna get them any other way. More on that later.
The actual experience was great. There were six of us in the group total. Two people were late and we waited like half an hour, but that’s no fault of the company. They called each and every party to ensure they were coming. The two guys that took us out were really fun and helpful. It was a gorgeous day and the parasailing process was really straightforward. They put harnesses on everyone and lifejackets and we went up two by two. We were up there for a good 5 – 10 minutes. On the way down, they dunked us in the water, which was my favorite part.
So after everything was said and done, the guy told us our pictures would be up on the website within 48 hours. When I went home to check, I realized the «website» was FB. This is offensive for 2 reasons: First I was never told those images would be displayed publicly on their website and I feel like I should have to sign some sort of waiver for that to be the case. Secondly, and more importantly, I spent $ 30 to buy these amazing photos shot by a professional SLR camera with a kick ass zoom lens. You know what happens to photos like that when they get uploaded to FB? They look like shit. If you’re gonna charge that much, then I feel like we should be entitled to the quality originals and not crappy FB photos.
So do I recommend parasailing? Absolutely! Did I have a good time? Hell yes! Would I recommend this particular company? Meh… probably not. If it weren’t for the fact that the experience itself was really pleasant and the guys were very nice, I would have definitely given them 2 stars.

If you can’t already tell, this company is a scam.
If you call their number on groupon they won’t answer your calls, they just want you to give up and they get to keep your money. We called almost everyday for MONTHS.
Don’t waste your time

How foolish of me. I’m ashamed to even be in this situation given the fact that I use Unilocal for everything, yet here I am writing a review for an experience that could have been avoided had I just checked out the business prior to purchasing a Groupon. This review will sound just like every other one with the exception of the 2 fake 5-​star reviews.
Before I start, I’d like to note that Groupon’s customer service has been excellent throughout the two month ordeal, and that all money paid was refunded without a problem.
Miami Beach Ocean Watersports is a joke. It is impossible to make a reservation with this company. After calling about 3 times I was able to speak with an employee and made a reservation for a month later. No problem. They’re busy people. Day of, I get a text message saying that they had to cancel due to weather. Great. I call back to schedule another but their office hours are Tuesday — Thursday from 12 p.m. — 2 p.m. What? Okay. I called during their office hours and got a voicemail saying they were closed.
I decided to contact Groupon directly to resolve my issue and it took them about two weeks to get back to me because even they couldn’t contact the company. Eventually they did and I received a phone call from MBO Watersports. We rescheduled and I got a text day of (again) saying they were canceling due to boat maintenance. There seems to be a pattern here. These guys are either down on their luck or they’re just bad people.
Take it from me, kids, don’t waste your time with these folks.

If I can’t trust them I don’t want to risk my life with them.
Where is the ZERO star option?
I got a gift from my daughter for Tandem Parasailing from Groupon.
Unfortunately I had to ask my daughter to cancel the deal.
This company doesn’t seem to want any business, nor honor the Groupon deals people purchased.
The phone# found on the Groupon certificate never works, nobody answers, the «old recording» either answers that they are closed for September 3^rd (I am calling in October?) or the machine says they are open for Tuesdays and Thursdays 2 to 4 pm only… And I have called numerous times DURING those 2 days, 2 hour windows. Only machine answers and it doesn’t even give us an option to leave any messages.
I looked up several other phone#s to reach to this business, those numbers say they are not accepting any appointments for the Groupon deals.
I left a few messages through their so-​called Customer service#s… no surprise, never received a call back.
After numerous attempts just to get connected I decided if they are not responsive, serious enough to give business, do we want to take a risk and trust them that they will do things right? (when a few people were recently killed due to the accident that were caused inappropriate maintenance of the equipment by similar para-​sailing vendors???)
I just realized that clearly it was not only me who had the same experiences.
Sorry but it was their big mistake and trying to obtain customers when they have no intentions in following through (after collecting $$).
Needless to say we had to ask Groupon for refund, unfortunately they were quite understanding knowing that same have happened to many others.
If you are thinking of para-​sailing, etc. think twice, can you trust them? Ready to risk your life with them?

I will not go into much detail i will just say that every single negative review on here is RIGHT ON. we had the same experience. Groupon voucher + unable to reach customer service to schedule an appointment. one month later we contacted Groupon and they gave us a full refund. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. we live in Miami. there are many other companies offering this service with way better customer service. I wish we would have read these reviews prior to purchasing from Groupon.
There should be a zero stars button on here.

I bought their groupon deal but when I try to call the groupon reservation number, I get a message saying «please call us during regular business hours, Tuesday to Thursday 12pm to 2pm». What kind of business hours are these?
I also tried calling their office number; nobody picks up. Automated voice system option for sales tells you to call back during regular business hours without further specification (if 10am is not regular business hour, I don’t know what is?) and the option to speak to customer service takes you straight to voicemail.
Unfortunately there is no way to go any lower than one star in this rating. DO NOT go with this company, they don’t deserve your business.

Attempted to call this company for two weeks about a booking issue. Left several messages! When I finally got through after the 20^th call, they said they couldn’t accommodate me because I was using a promo and they only had spots left for regular paying customers on my requested date. After complaining that I had been trying to call for this date for two weeks, the man hung up on me!
I then decided to post on their FB page about the incident. A man claiming to be the CFO, Michael Peralta, replied and promised to have one of his reps call me ASAP. Nobody called me after 5 days and I just recently learned that I have been BLOCKED from their FB page. Low-​class company that will run and hide from complaining customers about their bad business practices.

My wife had purchased several promotions on Living Social for our family vacation to go parasailing hosted by this company. The kids got really excited when she told them about this. For this promotion you had to book online and were given promotional codes. It takes 24 hours for the codes to be activated so she waited the allotted time and tried to book our day. After numerous tries over multiple days to schedule the event, the codes still did not work. She called and left Miami Beach Ocean Sports and could not get through for several more days, she could only leave a message. Nobody called her back. She contacted Living Social who thought the problem may be on their end and they offered to research or refund, but we chose a full refund.
The next day my wife saw a Groupon offer for Parasailing, since she used Groupon before with no problems, she figured she’d try to purchase there. Well guess what? With Groupon you actually have to call the vendor (Miami Beach Ocean Water Sports) on a special number to make reservations. She called for 4 days and got the same recording being told to leave a message. Of course, none of her messages or calls were ever returned. All we’d hear when we called within their specified business hours were that the office was either closed or all attendants were helping other people and the recording said to leave a message. After several days of calls and no response to her messages she was tired of calling and decided this wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
I had contacted Groupon and like Living Social they were very happy to return our money and apologized for the vendor’s behavior.
Like the other reviewers I wish I could give them 0 stars and two thumbs down. Pass the word to friends and family to skip this place and find another company. To those at Miami Beach Ocean Sports, you run a very bad organization and its obvious customer service is not on your priority listing. Did you do the specials just to get the money and then not deliver on the offer? Thank you for disappointing my wife and I, and a hats off to you all for disappointing my children. We will find a much more reputable place and based on reviews I’ve seen, have much more fun than you could offer.

I wish I could give them 0 stars. They are unbelievable! Took a vacation to Miami and in preparation bought a groupon for a parasailing trip. Thought I’d give it a try and hey I’d recommend the place to my brother who lives there on south beach and other friends in the area.
Little did I know they would cancel my reservation the day before and then when I called the next day acting as a new customer say they would take me out until I said I had a groupon. Then they said, «oh, sorry actually the weather is bad, were not taking anyone out today.» Lied right to my face (or ear).
So disappointed with the service, I was really looking forward to it. Never will I rely on this place ever again, thank you for nothing Miami Beach Ocean Watersports. I will definitely go back to Miami one day and WILL NOT even think about your company when I am looking for places to rent jet skis, go parasailing etc.
If you don’t want groupon business, don’t sign up for groupon!!! SCAM!