Having done a similar America's Cup sailing experience with a friend years ago, I was excited to take my kids (11 and 13 years old) on this and show them how much fun sailing could be. The weather was perfect (sunny with a moderate breeze), so I called and booked this for the three of us. I was required to and paid the NZ$390 charge over the phone, gave them my mobile number and email address, and promptly received an email receipt. Not once during the phone call did Amy (if I recall her name correctly) mention that a minimum number of people were required and that there was any risk of this not proceeding. Instead, she simply told us to be sure to arrive at the pier by 4:45PM for a 5:00 PM sailing.
With this booking in hand, we worked our last afternoon in Auckland around this activity - deciding against a couple of other great choices. We were excited and arrived early (at 4:30PM) to their kiosk only to learn that they have a minimum tour size of 10 people and that only two other people had signed up. This was the first I'd heard of this, but I then went through the fine print on the third page of my email receipt, which states, "Explore Group... reserve(s) the right to cancel any trip for any reason, including due to insufficient passenger numbers…." The disclaimer was certainly there, but equally certainly this was neither communicated directly nor was it easy to find - especially on a mobile device.
About 4:45 PM, another couple expressed interest in going - making it 7. With that couple, we even offered to pay for 10 people, but were told that they needed a minimum number of people to work the boats. At that point, the boats came in from a packed prior cruise (match racing) and the crews immediately set to work putting the boats away for the evening. They certainly weren’t waiting to see if anyone else would want to join or looking for ways to make this work for their customers.
The fact of the matter is that Explore Group didn't level with us. At some point, they knew that our cruise was unlikely to go. (Having only 5 booked on our sail compared to something around 40 on the prior match racing sail - which wasn't offered to me when I called.) Further, they had my email address (obviously, because they used it) and my mobile number. Not only did they neglect to tell me the conditions under which I was booking when I paid, but they also neglected to reach out to me when it became obvious that the cruise wasn't going to go. Finally, they had more than enough crew members on the dock to make up the last 3 people, but they further decided to prioritize their profits over what they lead their customers to believe.
As a result of their practices, we wasted a good chunk of our last afternoon in Auckland. Some airlines used to do this, too, but customers finally got sick of it and spoke out. The same applies here.
Please be aware when booking with this company that you may not be told the whole truth and that they are likely to cancel whenever it suits them.