The tour started out fine. Shelly was our guide. Though I personally think she shared a bit too much of her personal life, she was energetic and informative. She let us know that we would be making some extra stops on the tour which we did to her cousin or nephew's (can't remember which) pineapple snack stand and to her Aunts fruit stand. This was fine with us as we had set aside the entire day for the tour. However, little did we know that because we made those stops, the stops that we were supposed to make were cut short. We were only given 15 minutes at the Macadamia Nut Farm when it was supposed to be 30 minutes and again, only allowed 15 minutes at the Dole Plantation and it was supposed to be 30 minutes as well. I spent hours on top of hours trying to pick the best tour for our group of 4 that would include the places that were important to us but they were cut short due to the added stops to support Shelly's personal agenda. I happen to run into Captain Vince at the Dole Plantation, expressed my concern to him, and he spoke to Shelly. She then got on the bus (of which we were all back in place by this time as the 15 minutes she had given us were over) and told us we had 15 more minutes to spend there. Well, my group had gotten ice cream since thats all we had time to do and were in place as instructed eating our ice cream.....giving us 15 more minutes at that point wasn't helpful.
When I book a tour, I expect to get what is stated and we did not.
I have various friends and family members visiting Hawaii this year and I will not recommend this tour.
Response from Host
Jun 2022
We appreciate your feedback, especially during the Summer when we are busy!
You're right that we do some times add some stops if there is time permitting. We try to stick with the itinerary but also notice every group is different so our driver's try to accommodate everyone as much as possible. I'm very sorry if you felt your time was cut short. I think she was trying to show you as much of Oahu as possible as we are a sightseeing service mostly, above all.
I will also talk to everyone and make sure we are on the same page. Thanks for speaking up!