We loved the trip. Boats are fantastic. Staff are very friendly. We rented for 8 hours. Whole family enjoyed all. We will come back for sure. % recommend. read more

I loved the crew Travis was very nice and accommodating to all guests and making sure everyone had fun while making jokes and having a great time highly recommend!!! read more

I wish we could give this place 0 starts. By far the worst customer service ever received. The manager Travis or whatever was so rude and would not listen to a single word said and cursed several times at us being completely unprofessional refusing to give service. Do not recommend !!!!! read more

Parasailing? Look no further, ask for Captain Tim and Kevin! Best time ever, awesome energy and totally brought our experience to another level you can't get just anywhere. read more

Gilligan's Watersports - That's Kevin pointing up at us. We were happy to show them some love by tipping them, thank you Captain Tim and Kevin! - Boating Near Me - Destin, Florida

This location just broke my heart. Gilligan's illegally just discriminated against my support animal. I called the day before to just confirm if it was okay if my dog came on the boat. They asked me his weight (which again I could make illegal) and I responded with no problem. They gave me the OK. We come, sign in, and next thing I know these people start saying, "The rest of the people on the boat are not going to like your dog being there"; "the captain said we can't allow your dog on the boat" "he's too big". Regardless of what breed of dog he is, how much he weighs, what color he is, he is an EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL. He is protected by FEDERAL LAW. I could do some serious suing, however I hope this company learns valuable information today & this doesn't happen to someone who literally & medically can't live without their animal. read more

The worst service I've experienced. The staff was extremely rude and impatient. I have never left a negative review before, but here I am. There's so many places in Destin I'd rather give my money to. The front desk ladies were extremely rude and unpleasant. There was a young women signing people in with a awful attitude. Our parasailing was cancelled, and I simply asked why it got cancelled, and she replied with a sharp remark saying that it isn't her job to ask the captain why they cancelled. I understood it was cancelled and wasn't upset, I was just simply curious. There are multiple other rude things, but that's the first thing that occurred. Also there website, google, and yelp says they close at 8pm. However I went at 7pm to pick up my refund from the second cancellation and they were already gone. There are so many awesome places to go to in destin with great people. Please don't go here. read more

(Part 1) We did the parasailing. Quick Recap: Pros: - Troy (one of the guys working on the boat), fun and energetic. The only star is for him. Cons: - Can't reserve a spot for observers (non-fliers) ahead of time, they may not have room on the boat when you arrive even if requested at time of reservation. - Can't choose how many people fly at a time, especially with a large party. - The girls working the check-in at the hut were incredibly unprofessional and rude. - Trip was not 90 minutes. Flights were less than 10 minutes long. The Details: They say they will let a limited number of people not flying ride the boat if there is room upon arrival. I understand they'd prefer to fill the boat with $50 fliers and not $25 riders, but it's an option they offer, and part of the reason we chose this company. We had a parent with a medical condition who couldn't fly, but wanted to watch the rest of his family experience this for the first time. We made a note on our reservation about this requesting a spot if possible. When we arrived at the hut, once I waited several seconds (about 15) of being ignored, I decided to interrupt the girls' conversation working the hut to see if they could assist me. They informed me that there wasn't a spot for our rider. Ok, I get it, it wasn't guaranteed. I do think it's poor customer service since we made a specific request for something they offered, but I understand, money IS more important than a positive experience for a family. At that point we decided to leave our Grandma, a flier we'd already paid for, on shore so that this dad could watch his kids and wife enjoy their first ride. Then we were told we HAD to fly in triplets. That's not what we had planned, and our group doesn't divide into threes easily and still make the weight restrictions (meaning parents can't fly with their own kids), and we had no idea they wouldn't let us fly in the groups/numbers we wanted. That was never mentioned on the website. It worked out ok, but only because we left someone behind we'd already paid for. It wasn't ideal. When I questioned this, the girls at the hut were rude and unprofessional. When my husband also questioned a little later (not realizing I'd already tried) they were again rude, unprofessional, and talking to him from across the hut and over other people. We were told the reason we had to fly in larger groups was because they only had time for 6 flights. We had a 12:00 appointment and we stepped off the boat before 1:00. There was at least another 30 minutes left on our reservation, we could have easily taken at least one more flight, probably 2, especially since each flight was less than 10 minutes long. Troy, one of the guys working the boat, was great. He was energetic, fun, explained things well, and even gave us a great recommendation for lunch! He barely salvaged the trip. (The other guy never spoke a word.) I just hope tips stay with the guys on the boat, because I do not want any part of our tip to go to Morgan, who works at the hut. We did have a little safety concern when getting on the boat. We could only see about 5-6 life jackets and we had 15 passengers and 2 crew. I'm sure they had other jackets stored somewhere, but they were not readily available, we were not informed of where they were, and the kids, I felt, should have worn them the whole time. Will we return? No. And I believe they know that most people never will, so customer service is not important, because return customers aren't important; it's all about the bottom line. We come to the 30A area every year, have been for over 10 years. We have been parasailing before, we will parasail again, but not here. read more

Excellent! Not a bad thing to say. We came across a parasailing Groupon and we were a little concerned about purchasing it because of so many unknowns. I highly recommend purchasing it if the offer is available. The staff took great care of our children and they had the best time! Excellent memories made! Thanks, Gilligans! read more

Complete Inflexibility. I made a reservation for me and my kids to parasail. The morning of my reservation my child woke with a fever and I asked them to simply change the reservation or put me on a waitlist to change it since we still had 6 days remaining to our vacation and since it was within the 24 hr cancellation window the manager was completely unwilling to offer flexibility for an unforeseen circumstance and continuously repeated the policy to me. I will never book this company again and strongly recommend anyone else using them. read more

The customer service was awful. From desk ladies were rude. Whole Place was completely unorganized and we didn't get the two jet skis we paid for. Would not recommend read more

Jared was a great tour guide definitely coming back. We also went parasailing and had a great time highly recommend this place.

This is a really great adventure. The crew were awesome. They really take care of you and explain everything. They also have a picture package that you can buy that will include your whole group and they give it to you on a SD card. We will definitely book again the next time we are in Destin. read more

Excellent service and very professional employees. Prices are realistic and a family can have a good time w/out breaking the bank. Thank you! read more

We Ben waiting here to go on a boat for the past 3 days and they are telling us the wether is not good but they day the wether is very nice and they still told us that we can't go on the boat the wether is sonny I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone and the operator was also very rude read more

My family of four, including two teenagers, went on the "wave runner dolphin tour". This is advertised as just that--a guided tour on wave runners that takes you to areas in the bay where you can enjoy dolphins up close. We were so excited to do this!!! The check-in staff was pleasant. We watched a movie about safety and using the wave runner, and then went down to the bay to begin our tour. The "tour guide", who we were instructed to follow as he was leading in a small motor boat could not have been any more disinterested. He told us "don't worry about losing me because I'm the only white boat". Well the joke was on us, because EVERY boat out in the bay is white, and once we got out of the no wake zone, he took off at a high rate of speed, not looking back! In order to keep his boat in view, the group had to ride at speeds from 35-50 MPH (yes, MPH, not kms!). We witnessed a couple who fell off of their wave runner, and were assisted by my husband, as our "tour guide" was nowhere to be found. Finally, we found some dolphins! The first pod of dolphins we saw were not seen by the other members in the tour group, who were too busy trying not to lose the guide. We were able to watch them for about 30 seconds before we had to take off after the guide ourselves, soooo frustrating!!! At the end of the tour, having not seen any other dolphins, the guide led us (at high speed) to the entrance of the gulf. Here there was a large pod of dolphins, but again, he took off at a high rate of speed so we were only allowed to view them for about a minute or two. So after two hours of speeding around after a boat, we were allowed to actually observe the dolphins for a collective time of three minutes, tops! I'm guessing everyone else in out tour group felt the same, as I observed not one person putting any $$ in the tips jar at the end of the trip. Wanting to give our feedback to the company, my husband called and spoke with the alleged owner. He was very understanding, listening to what we had to say and stating that some of the kids who lead these tours become very complacent and don't do their jobs very well. He had a manager call us, stating they would offer us some financial restitution. Well, the second guy called us and basically told us to take a hike. In the future, we will NEVER use this company again--misleading advertising, complacent guides, and poor customer service by management. read more

We got the feast for two. It was fantastic, great for the price. We eat here every year we come down. Our favorite place for crab legs and shrimp read more

Gilligan's Watersports is probably one of biggest highlights of our trip down to FL. We were greated by employees who were glad we were there (unlike some places where the people don't even look up off their phones and act like you're bugging them) they had great rates and even worked with us sense we didn't have cash to make sure we could still enjoy the time we spent. We took some jet skis out and I was pretty nervous but they stayed right there until I was ready. I would go again with these guys again in a heart beat. I felt safe and they were really nice about us being totally new. Plus they are in a beautiful location you see some amazing sights I'll be taking a waterproof camera along next time read more

Chose Gilligan's due to reading a brochure that stated they could take up a trio on their parasails. We went up (without incident), one was 9 years old. Nico & Chris were very friendly & helpful. read more

(Part 2) Suggestions for others: - If you want to ride in pairs, book in pairs. Make separate reservations for each group of fliers so they don't force larger groups to ride in 3's if it's not desired. - If it's important for someone to ride the boat, pay for a full price ticket ahead of time even if they aren't flying. Suggestions for management: - You might want to address the poor attitude and lack of professionalism with the hut girls. They are killing your customer's experience from the beginning. Which makes it harder for the guys on the boats because everyone shows up on the boat in a bad mood and they have to work to fix it. (All three of our groups on the boat had equally negative things to say, and several people we spoke with at the hut when we left felt the same. Plus, many of the negative reviews on Yelp are due to their lack of customer service.) You can say no to a customer, and still be professional and friendly. The short and put out attitudes of your staff doesn't help when things aren't going as planned. - Have a reservation system that allows you to reserve a limited number of spots for extra riders. - Allow customers to decide how THEY want to split their groups. Have them pay per flight and not per person. You could easily do this in the reservation program to limit your flights per trip if necessary. - Make sure people are getting the time on the water they paid for. - Note: 9 of the 14 reviews left for you this summer are negative, and 8 of them are 1 star. And most of them have to do with your poor customer service. I can not recommend Gilligan's to others. I strongly suggest others use one of the hundreds of other service providers in the area. read more

Went parasailing for the first time and had a great time! The only downside was that ads say 10-12 minutes and it was more like 7-8 minutes of fly time. Highly recommend. Reasonably priced and very professional. read more

Tried to book an all day Pontoon rental but their phone system blocks my phone number. Screw these guys. Taking my business elsewhere

Had lunch at Gilligan's Seafood and then rented a pontoon boat from Gilligan's Watersports for a few hours. Great staff, very friendly and helpful. The boat looked new and ran smoothly. Excellent afternoon! read more

Tried saying we wrecked wave runner. The younger girl at check in was so rude. When we were accused of wrecking waverunner she was so cocky with my teenage daughter. We did Not damage there waverunners and recommend you don't go there unless you want to be accused by a lil rude girl of untrue facts. Also wanted to tell my teenage daughter if she were to sign something to know what she was signing. Also location is far away from anywhere because you have to idle a long way. Get a waverunner closer to crab Island or bridge. Not this place. And young girl also said she did not like working on July 4 and the other level headed woman had to put her in her place again and reminded her this is a TOURIST TOWN!! I was very disappointed and disappointed with being accused of something we didn't do. We rented 3 waverunners for 1 hr. Too much Money read more

We did the dolphin wave-runner tour, family of four with 2 kids. The staff was friendly but the tour was not what we expected. We weren't given much instruction on the WaveRunners, other than how to start it and where the throttle was. Once we got out of the slow speed no wake area, Gilligan's employee just took off at high speed across the bay. It was a challenge to keep up with him and not a fun experience. We had been told he would not leave us but he did. We had been told if someone fell or flipped a WaveRunner he would be right there. Thankfully we didn't fall or flip, but if we had he was no where near us for the majority of the tour. Finally after circling the bay at high speed with no dolphins, the guide took us back under the bridge to the no wake zone and found some dolphins for us to watch. That part of the tour was beautiful and what we were expecting, but only a few minutes of the tour. read more

Went to Gilligan's to take kids parasailing. They had a blast with all three of them - including the seven year old - up at the same time. Nico and Chris were exceptional and professional. Chris worked with the kids on the gear, etc. while Nico drove the boat attentively. Helpful with local information. We enjoyed our time so much, we went back a couple days later to rent pontoon boats. Staff at counter was attentive and appreciative of our business. Rained a lot (sporadically) during the week of our vacation, but they were forthright when we called. Other businesses we called for pontoon boat rentals were more than happy to get you on the boat then deal with weather later. Gilligan's would not rent the boat without some confidence in the weather. We ended up skipping a day. Next day we returned and as it is, we paid for the half-day, but we had to return about an hour short of the four hours. Gilligan's refunded us the difference without issue, but we had a blast for the three hours we were able to enjoy puttering around the harbor. Overall I would recommend them. Rates are decent, and the equipment newish and look to be well taken care if by the staff. Staff was helpful and friendly. Cannot speak to wave runner / dolphin excursion experience, but based on my two rental experiences, I would highly recommend them! read more

This is the first time of done para-sailing and I'm glad I did. I feel as if all the companies that do para-sailing offer the same thing. What I liked about Gilligan's is that their service was great. The captain and first mate were very pleasant and did more than just drive the boat. They discussed Destin, it's history, and the marine life that you could see from the air. They also made you feel safe and were very thorough when securing you in. I recommend this for anyone looking for a little adventure, but nothing scary. You'd be amazed at the fish that you can see from that high up. We saw a lot of jelly fish and even a hammer head shark. read more

kevin and tim were awesome! kevin was especially funny with everyone and made us feel alot more comfortable about parasailing. he took super cool selfies and was just super funny in general!! read more

I am so glad we chose Gilligans. Nico and Brad were top notch and really know what they are doing. After sailing with them I wouldn't consider any other company to go out with. Hats off th Gilligans for having such great employees. read more

We rented waverunners from Gilligan's and had a great time. The location is convenient to get in and out of the harbor. The staff was very helpful and friendly. Don't forget to tip the Hut Girls. read more

We rented a pontoon for two hours and had a great time. The staff at Gilligan's was very helpful and laid back, and all of them made sure to ask if we had fun after the trip. This was our second time taking a pontoon boat around Destin harbor and it is fun to learn all the places you can explore. The boat itself was in nice condition and very large with nice leather seats. A great end to our vacation! read more

PEOPLE there are so many other boat/jet ski/parasailing rental options to choose from.... I am telling you... DO NOT choose this location. If I could give 0 stars, I would. We are on our family trip and there are 15 of us. We did not know that per law, you can only have 12 people on a pontoon boat. No one that worked at this establishment educated us about this law, yet they clearly saw there were more people than there should have been, on the boat once we got on it. No one said anything, we are not from Florida, we do not know the law. No where in any e-mail or waiver did it say there were only 12 people aloud. We had barely taken off and the coast guard pulled us over. They stopped our trip and made us go back due to not having any hard copy of our rental agreement paperwork (which we also did not know we were required to have) and for having more than 12 people on the boat. The owners son was very unprofessional. We had signed 10 waivers, we had 5 kids that we put under a few of the waivers. We then attempted to talk to the owners son about the situation and he proceeded to tell us "well why did y'all only sign 12 waivers, y'all should've known there can only be 12 people" and we let him know we actually only had signed 10. The young man had no idea what our situation was, and when we tried to have the situation fixed, by getting 2 jet skis, we thought it was only fair that since it was THEIR fault the coast guard cut our boat trip short, they could have been considerate and at least utilized their customer service skills and comped us the jet skis or gotten us the bigger boat that did allow 15 people. Instead, the son was going to make us sign waivers all over again for the jet skis, pay the $500 deposit, pay for the jet skis, and basically return to the back of the line. It was very rude and they wouldn't even give us our money back for the pontoon boat we did not get to enjoy. We also asked to speak to the OWNER and his son stated that he wouldn't do anything different anyways, so we never even got a chance to speak with the owner. It was a horrible experience and they put a pretty big damper on our vacation. Again, in order to avoid a run in with the coast guard.... DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE! read more

This is the best thing to do in fl. I got a deal on groupon for less. Very cordial and safe .. no need to be scared and the tour guides were very professional..every one needs to go on this for parasailing ...also if you wanna see exactly how this is ..check out this video I made and put on youtube. https://youtu.be/u4HMbKrA49k ..ask me any questions in the comments section if you want. https://youtu.be/u4HMbKrA49k read more

We absolutely had a blast on the parasailing trip with these guys. We chose Gilligan's after reading the reviews on here and were thrilled with our choice! The guides were down to earth and great to chill with, and the view is awesome! Don't go elsewhere.... Gilligan's is the right choice! read more

My husband and I went parasailing with this company and have no complaints! The staff was extremely friendly and fun. The first day we tried to go, it was too gusty. We were bummed but they made the safe decision. We were able to go a couple days later and had a blast! I also recommend adding the photo package, such a cool keepsake. read more

Went on a spur of the moment trip. Fast friendly service. Easy experience. And had lunch afterwards...reasonably priced and good food for the touristy area it is located in. read more

These guys are pro's. They have a top notch friendly staff. Reasonable rates. I took my kids for a jet ski ride and only brought debit cards. They were kind enough to waive my deposit and just hold a card so that I would not have a hold on my checking account for the week. The riding area is though the harbor on the far side of the Destin bridge. You really get a feel of harbor life. On a sunny day you'll see F-16s flying above. Can't go wrong here! read more

Great time... our guides were awesome!!! Literally the guy told us his name was Awesome... and he was. Both guides were helpful and made the outing great. read more

Don't waste your time....booked 2 days in advance, for a party of 6 people for 2pm parasailing, got there, filled out the waivers, sitting there waiting for load up, my husband got up and says, guess its time to go, the 2 chicks behind the counter, "Oh, no, it was cancelled" due to high winds, now mind you, we were sitting 2 feet away from them for a good 15 minutes and they never said, a word, till my husband said it's about time to load up....so unprofessional....will NEVER go back! read more

We had great parasailing crew in Capt Gabe & 1st mate Blake. They had everyone interacting and had the 1st timers feeling very calm before going up. We were able to spot a whale shark, which just added to the parasail adventure. Definitely get them as your crew when in Destin. read more

Wow! If you want a fun afternoon, come parasail with Gilligan's Water Sports. Today I brought my 13 and 14 yr olds, to enjoy a fun new experience. We had a blast. These guys know how to have a good time. You can tell they really enjoy their job. The energy on this boat is wonderful. We really had a great time. Thanks Gilligan's, for helping us make a wonderful new vacation memory. read more