Paradise Pontoon & Captain Services, Destin FL

This guy is a scam and 200% unreliable. We booked our day around this "day of fun" to find ourselves stranded at the city park 800 Beach Dr where it is illegal to pick up a charter! A no show and no call, did not answer his phone. DO NOT USE THIS "SERVICE"!

Captain Shay’s boat ride was a blast! Captain Shay took us to Crab Island, saw the dolphins up close, lunch and many other places. This was my first time and will definitely do it again. Thanks Captain Shay!

Captain Shay is where’s it at if you are looking for a private, personalized, beautiful day on the water! Our family made our first trip to the Ft. Walton/Destin Beach area last week. We didn’t want a big touristy boat trip and we didn’t want to book multiple excursions to check all our boxes. Captain Shay was the perfect answer. He took the four of us out on the pontoon. We saw dolphins, searched for shells, went snorkeling, and made a stop at Crab Island. We were on our own schedule, spending the perfect amount of time at each spot. He was great with our kids, 12 & 10 years old, talking with them and answering all their questions. We learned so much about the water, the marine life and more. Even after five days of vacation, the day with Captain Shay was everyone’s favorite. When we make another trip to the emerald coast, we will definitely be booking again. Thank you, Captain Shay, for the wonderful memories!

Our appointment was for 2 o’clock today July 31st and no one has yet to snow up. We have called 1000 times and no one is answering. What kind of business is this?

Book ANYWHERE ELSE! We got stood up. We booked from 3 to 8: 30pm on a Saturday for a friend's birthday. Captain Shay never showed up and would not answer calls or texts. We have never been more disappointed in our lives.

My friends and I just went on a bachelorette trip and tried to use this company. They put us on the book for Friday 7/23 when we called Thursday 7/22 and sent us a confirmation email. Then Friday morning 2 hours before we were supposed to leave we got a text that said the boat we were going to be going on was having “issues” so our trip was being cancelled. Friday afternoon we get a call from Captain Shay and he was apologizing for cancelling our trip, said he didn’t realize it was a bachelorette trip and would make it up to us by taking us out Saturday. They contacted us Saturday morning around 11 and said they were cutting us a deal because of all the trouble they had caused and they were taking us out and our captain would be Tyler. The girl I spoke with said she would send me the location of where they would be picking us up at Joe’s Bayou. We get to Joe’s Bayou at 12: 30, we call numerous times and no one answers. I send texts to the number that had been texting me all morning with no response. We then wait until 1: 15 and finally leave because we didn’t want to waste our last day of vacation waiting around on them. At 4: 00 that afternoon they call and ask us where we are and where we wanted to be picked up. I then pointed out that our trip was supposed to be at 1 and we waited and called multiple numbers 30+ times and no one would answer so we left. I then asked if she really thought we waited 3 hours on them to pick us up. She then comes up with an excuse that they “lost the boat key” and kept claiming they wanted to make it up to us because they knew they had wronged us. I kept explaining it was our last day of vacation and there was nothing they could do. We were hesitant to even book with them after the other bad reviews we had read and unfortunately we tried to give them the benefit of the doubt which was a mistake. Would absolutely not recommend them to anyone they are a huge waste of time.

This was an awesome experience! We booked this just to go to Crab Island but we got so much more than we bargained for. Captain Shay made sure we saw tons of marine life and even attempted twice to get us a sand dollar. He dove straight off the boat which was beyond nice! We saw a mana ray, sharks, dolphins and even a HUGE loggerhead turtle! Then, we went to Crab Island for the remainder of the day where we hung out on the floats with music and enjoyed good vibes with all of the people. Captain Shay was hospitable and made sure we were taken care of the entire time. I would highly recommend booking with Captain Shay and we are looking forward to doing it again very soon.

This past weekend my son rented a pontoon from Paradise Adventures. What can I say about Paradise Adventures? They are just awesome! Everyone that works there is friendly, helpful. Make sure your next rent for a pontoon boat will be with Paradise Adventures

My husband booked a captained pontoon for Crab Island for a group of 8. We had great communication with Angela and Captain Shay initially. Our group showed up to our designated pickup spot 15 minutes prior to departure time as requested. We got a text from Captain Shay 10 minutes before our pickup time telling us to “get comfy it will be about 20 minutes yet. ” That was literally the last we heard from him. We traveled 30 minutes via Lyft to this pickup location with coolers/drinks/food etc. Tried COUNTLESS times to call and text both Captain Shay as well as Angela (whose number is left in Shay’a voicemail recording). We never received any response. Completely ghosted. Luckily we were able to find another Captain who was able to not only pick us up, but take us out to Crab Island and quiet literally saved our day (his name is Captain Sean with Cajun Jack 2 and he is absolutely amazing). While waiting for Captain Sean, we encountered another group who were waiting for Captain Shay and they mentioned that he is notorious for no showing people. Here’s a red flag- Angela appears REAL quick to respond to negative reviews, but has literally zero interest in answering the phone when her stranded clients call/text/email looking for answers. This is a scam and truly the worst business model I have ever encountered.

Wasted a day waiting on a captain that never showed up or who would not respond to call or text beware the person you do talk to is just like a dispatcher they can not help you if you no one shows up but thanks for wasting are day!

We had the best time yesterday with Capt. Shay! He is very professional and so much fun! We were treated like queens and his new boat was fantastic. If you like to dance and have a good time this is pontoon trip if a lifetime! Will be booking again!

Best captain! He took my group and I to see dolphins, and dive for sand dollars. We even got the chance to pass by a few sharks on the way to crab island. He was full of knowledge about the oceans history and loved to educated us. He took a bunch of picture and videos for us on his drone for free. The prices are very reasonable, can not beat them. All around an amazing experience. Thank you captain shay!

We had a great time! Captain Max was an absolute pleasure! He was so unbelievably attentive, timely, and sweet. Thank you Cap Max for an unforgettable day:)!

Captain Shay was very knowledgeable, fun, and accommodating. My family and I had a blast. Many of us had never been on a boat and we felt very safe.

Captain Robert was very accommodating & fun! He helped with the HUGE duck float that we purchased on Crab Island without any hesitation. He answered every question we had. He got us very close to 2 beautiful playful dolphins. We had a great time.
We will definitely use Paradise Pontoon on our next visit to Destin!

We had a great experience with Captain Shay! We had 7 adults 52 and older and he made us feel like young kids! We saw Dolphins, manta ray, spotted ray, loggerhead turtle and spinner sharks. Then crab island and an awesome float! Great time and will definitely call him again if we are in Destin!
Thank you! B. Higgs and our Texas Crew

Captain Shay was in contact with me a week before arrival and when we arrived in Destin we spoke the morning of our trip and he explained where we were meeting. He made the boat trip fun for the whole family. He was very knowledgeable with the area we were visiting. The kids loved him and so did the adults. He took photos and videos of our group with his drone-great memories that we ourself would not be able to capture. 5+ star!

We had the BEST experience with Capt. Shay! He went above and beyond to make our trip to Crab Island a fun experience. There was just one hiccup that was quickly worked out for the best. I would recommend him to anyone and plan on coming back!

Captain Shay took my family and I out today, very professional and the price was great! We saw dolphins everywhere and a few sharks. We went to Crab Island as well. Captain Shay was great, fun, knowledgeable. Would definitely recommend this charter service and will be doing it again! He also took pictures and a drone video for us. One of my daughters has a service dog and Captain Shay took this in stride, stopped specifically for us to allow the dog potty time, and was very accommodating. If I could give 10, I would!

This past weekend I went to Destin, FL for my 40th birthday. I went online and made the reservation in Feb 2021 and called on Monday before the weekend to confirmed everything before we left for the weekend. I was told the captain would reach out to me on Friday. Friday came and it was 3 pm and I never heard from anyone. So I called and spoke with Angela and said she he call you in the morning. I never heard anything on Saturday Morning and our reservation for 6 adults was at 11 am. So I started to call and text at 9 am and still no response from either the captain or Angela the booking agent. So we had to scrumble to find something else to do. We never heard back from the Captain until 1145 am which was 45 mins after the reservation was supposed to start. Worst experience ever.especially when you plan your whole trip around this experience. I would not recommend this experience to anyone.