If I could just rate on food, snorkeling and the sea it would be 5 but unfortunately the overall experience fell short. Transfers there and back are chaotic to say the least. Our morning pick up was 45 minutes late. The change of bus at the transport company's office was marred by a total lack of communication. Chantel's greeting when we finally arrived was lovely. We were then left with the crew and didn't see Chantel again. The crew were nice...although not massively attentive and I think it would be worth getting larger plastic cups for serving drinks in as the ones used are very small...I know this sounds petty but it's so important to keep everyone hydrated on these trips. The exception was the photographer who was brilliant and couldn't do enough.
Snorkeling at the wall was fantastic even though there weren't many fish when we were there. The water is amazing and the coral is beautiful.
Catalina Island is more touristy than we hoped...it's not a private beach, but a designated area of the beach which is also used by loads of other similar groups. The area needs a litter pick doing, and the sun beds were all quite tired, as was the snorkeling gear available...the gear on the boat was excellent though. Again a bit chaotic and we had no idea what was happening. In fact it's free time before lunch. But having started the day at 7.20, we were hungry by this point so some snacks would have been nice. Also, I think bottles of water would be better than tiny cups. Snorkeling at the beach was great and we saw loads of fish...beach shoes recommended though. When lunch finally came, it was brilliant...the lobster was fantastic and would certainly recommend.
After lunch, a bit more free time then back to the mainland where transfers were again completely chaotic. The driver was told half a dozen times which hotels and still took us to the wrong one, and forgot 2 other hotels he was meant to have stopped at.
Overall, a nice enough day, but could be so much better with some attention to detail.