Always better than having a blue tarp under your tent. The footprint is well made, clips to tent floor securely and does the job. Light weight and sturdy. Another good job by The North Face.

A long time ago, The North Face made a tent called the Peregrine that had almost the exact same layout as the Manta Ray 33. The Peregrine had less mesh and weighed a little more. I missed out on my opportunity to get a Peregrine and was thrilled to see the Manta Ray series. It's quite light and clearly has some improvements over the Peregrine. I used the tent a couple of weeks ago, shortly after purchasing it and found the set up to be quick and easy. The footprint fits the tent nicely and snaps onto the tent securely. The rain fly also clips in nicely and when staked out provides you with a great water proof shelter. The only downside I can see is that when opening the rainfly flap, it wants to fall into the tent opening. As long as you're expecting that, using two hands during the opening process to toss the flap to the outside while pulling the zipper open seems to take care of this. If you didn't do this and the fly was wet you might get some water in your tent. This is not an uncommon design problem with some tents though. Just a matter of getting to know your equipment. The tent breathed well and there was no condensation on the inside of the fly in the morning. I also have a North Face Mountain 24 and I can't believe how much water develops between the tent and the fly.

The Manta Ray 33 has plenty of room for my wife and myself. You could fit a third person in there if it was a small child or perhaps a dog but it would start to get pretty tight. Typical 3 person tent. It's a comfortable 2 person and a tight 3. Having the "wings" off of each side of the tent is the big plus for us as it gives a place for gear for each side of the tent. If we're not backpacking we'll drag along the 26" wide Thermarests and the two of them fit in there quite well side by side.

Can't say enough good things about this design.