We (family of 4) headed down to Everglade City the week after Easter, March 2008. After reading reviews, checking out their website, and personal recommendations we selected Captain Doug's for air boat excursion. If you have a group, I'd advise stopping at the Everglades Info Center (right on the corner of Hwy 41 and 29) to get a $10 off coupon (these are also on Captain Doug's website).

If you are under a time constraint I'd recommend calling ahead for a reservation. We arrived around 11:30am and our first opportunity for a ride was at 2:15. Plan ahead and you can save yourself a wait (there isn't a tremendous amount to do in the area).

Another review indicated that they felt Captain Doug's was a rip off since they saw few animals. Our driver told us that this time of year the water in the Everglades is more highly concentrated with salt water which the gators don't tolerate as well the usual brackish water. It was disappointing, but we'd gotten our fill of gators by going down to the Everglades Oasis Center. Really, you've seen one gator you've seen them all!

The highlight of our trip was seeing a tidal racoon named Rosie. I won't spoil it for anyone going on this trip. Suffice to say, she comes out at low tide. We did see one gator, an osprey and several pelicans (most of them just feet in front of us on the boat!).

Overall the ride was still fun. We all agreed it could have been longer - by time you taxi through the no wake zone it's probably only about 35-40 minutes of being in the swamp area.

Our only disappointment was when we went down to Captain Doug's second location where it said you could get your picture taken with a live baby gator. We asked our driver about it and he was a bit wishy-washy about it. When we got there no one even acknowledged us. They did have a baby gator in a tank, but no mention of the photo taking. Captain Doug's ads mentioned a free shell or bracelet for "the ladies" but we didn't get that either - no one offered it.