Booo! I'll use BOO for lack of other choice words I have for this company. I booked the Tiki carving experience at least 2 months in advance. I traveled with my family to the Big Island specifically for this excursion. So - 3 RT tickets to the Big Island for an afternoon Tiki carving experience.
Sure, we did other things during the day to keep busy but we were there for this Tiki carving experience for my birthday. Scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon.
Upon arriving on the Big Island, there were passing showers. Talk with locals and excursion employees was the Big Island was experiencing flooding in some areas.
Since this excursion, I assumed was indoors - I did not concern myself with the weather. Throughout the day we kept busy with an outrigger experience and light shopping near Marriott Courtyard as we didn't have a car.
So, the day is going well up until 90 minutes before the Tiki Carving experience is about to begin. I am literally jumping into an Uber to go to Aloha Farms for this experience. The employee tells me the Tiki Carving excursion has been canceled due to rain and flooding. "I'm sorry".
In my mind, I'm thinking - we're supposed to be indoors and if the flooding is so bad why am I getting this call 90 minutes before the excursion.
For clarification and so I don't sound like a spoiled tourist or jack***, I understand about flooding and other natural event that could cause a cancellation. This is Wednesday afternoon. If it had been raining for 3 days straight and there was flooding....
...... why are you telling me this 90 minutes before the start of the class??? You decided at 2:00 in the afternoon the day of the excursion - conditions were not good???
If you had told me on Monday or Tuesday, I could have cancelled my 3 RT tickets to the Big Island and planned to do something else, somewhere else.
On the Big Island now with limited choices because we don't have a car and we didn't plan for anything else to do at that time on that day for a scheduled excursion.
So yes, I got my refund for the excursion- Thanks - what about the $300 for the RT tickets, $30 flight modification charge for an earlier flight at 4:24 instead of the original 6:30 flight, and 60 dollars for the Uber travel from the airport to the Marriott Courtyard and back to the airport. Not to mention scrambling on the island with limited options.
It's not like you can drop in on any other excursion the day of.
In the end - I have no doubt the Tiki carving experience is fantastic. I believe this company used bad judgement calling to cancel the excursion 90 minutes before start time - if the conditions were bad - make the determination sooner knowing tourists are traveling from other islands.
Ответ от хоста
Aug 2021
It is really unfortunate that your tour was cancelled. While it does rain almost every evening 95% of the time it doesn't affect our tours. However, occasionally the amount of rain that will come down and run down the mountain will cause the water to go over the floors of the huts. Or make conditions unsafe for our guests. This combined with unexpected lightening and thunder added to our decision to cancel the tours. The weather conditions are not something that we can determine 3 days in advance here in Hawaii. Especially because the last few days we were experiencing leftover bits from a hurricane. Our earlier tours in the day and the 2 days before all functioned without cancellation. However the tour directly before you that had to be cancelled did not have the luxury of 90 mins ahead of their tour to know about the cancellation. The thunder and lightening began and it was cancelled and refunded on the spot.
While we too wish we could control mother nature for our benefit we haven’t found a way to do so. She also doesn’t tell us her plans. The BIG Island of Hawaii has multiple climate zones. Sometimes we have heavy rain in one spot of the farm, but it isn’t at the check in spot and it isn’t at the carving hut. Safety is our number one priority. We hope you can still find aloha and the magic of Hawaii somewhere in the beautiful scenery. And if not we wish you safe travels and aloha!