If I could give zero stars, I absolutely would. We had a snorkeling tour scheduled at Hanauma Bay on 2/19 at 9 AM, with instructions to arrive early at 8:30 AM. At 8 AM, we received a call informing us of a mishap, and our tour was rescheduled to 9:45 AM—no big deal.
However, when no one contacted us for pickup at 9:15 AM, we called the agency. Lisa informed us that the pickup was actually at 9:45 AM from the parking lot, but now it had been delayed again to 10:30 AM. She then asked if we wanted to cancel, reschedule for the next day, or wait. We chose to wait.
Our family includes a child with special needs, and waiting in the parking lot for two hours in the heat was incredibly difficult. Despite this, we remained patient. But at 10:30 AM, no one showed up. No call, no update—nothing.
We called Lisa again, and she assured us that Johnny, the person responsible for taking us snorkeling, was "walking up from the beach to pick us up as we speak." She even described what he was wearing. After waiting another 15 minutes, I walked to the designated meeting point, only to realize that the walk from the beach takes just 4-5 minutes. Calling Lisa back, she again insisted, "Oh yes, he's walking right now."
At this point, I was frantically asking every guy in a black shirt if they were Johnny. Finally, one of them responded—it was him. We then headed to the cashier, where Johnny was supposed to pay for our entry and take us down to the beach.
And then? He turns to the cashier and says, "I forgot my wallet on the beach."
After three hours of waiting, six or seven calls to the office, multiple misleading updates about Johnny’s whereabouts, and zero accountability, he finally arrived—without his wallet. As Johnny slowly walked back to retrieve it, it was already 11:20 AM. By then, my poor daughter had reached her limit. She couldn’t understand why we had been sitting in a parking lot for hours when we had promised her snorkeling.
This was beyond unacceptable.
I spoke to Lisa again, requesting to escalate the issue, speak to management, and cancel the tour. We lost half a day of our Hawaii experience due to the worst service I’ve ever encountered on these beautiful islands. Lisa assured me that this was just a one-time incident, but I find it hard to believe that someone as unreliable as Johnny simply had a "bad day."
Later, I spoke to another agent later and asked if they offered any compensation for customers who were so outrageously mistreated. Her response? The only action they planned to take was "speaking to the personnel", no any other attempts to make things right. Very disappointing.
Response from Host
Mar 2025
Aloha Lucia, We are so sorry to hear about your experience, and We completely understand your frustration. It’s clear we missed the mark in providing you and your family with the service you deserved, especially under the challenging circumstances you’ve described. Waiting in the heat for hours with no updates, and then dealing with the lack of accountability, is completely unacceptable. We take feedback like yours seriously and will be reviewing what went wrong with our team to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Your experience is not the standard We strive for, and We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, especially given your daughter’s special needs. We’d love to make things right. Please reach out to us directly at 808 556-3586 so we can discuss how we can better address this situation and offer some form of compensation for the trouble you encountered. Mahalo for taking the time to share your experience, and We hope We can regain your trust in the future.