I really don't like leaving bad reviews, but this experience felt like such a rip off from the beginning.
- Our guide arrived 45 minutes late (and this doesn't appear to be the first time this has happened based on previous reviews), and while at the time we were not bothered by this, it was the first in a long slew of negative parts of this tour.
- This being our first time in Hawaii, we had no idea we were arriving after the end of whale season - the "whale watching" part of the tour was still included in the title and, while the guide obviously has no control over migration patterns, we were not made aware that this was guaranteed to not be part of the trip until he got there. It would have been nice to have a heads up so we would have the opportunity to cancel if that was a particularly important aspect for us.
- Once we got out onto the water, he continued to talk poorly about his employees (which left a bad taste in our mouth) who did not set up the gear properly, but it should be the guide's responsibility to ensure the gear is properly set up prior to the tour.
- He also forgot to bring the snacks that we were told we would have, but he definitely didn't forget to pack himself a sandwich and eat it in front of us. He also was smoking a cigarette while on the kayak behind me, which...gross.
- We had to paddle back to shore after about 2 hours because of the winds, which made paddling incredibly difficult going against the wind, and he was so far ahead of us he would have had no idea if we had flipped (which we almost did) or be able to check if we were okay.
- Since the kayaking part had to end an hour and a half early, I felt he should have offered to let us snorkel right off the shore like other beachgoers were doing for the remainder of the time we paid for, but instead he packed up and that was it.
- We overheard another tour that had started about when ours did but ended an hour later say that the guide took photos of them and sent them to the group (he never offered to take our photo, even above water) and that tour was $10 less per person.
Overall, you're better off renting your own gear and taking yourself out than paying for this.