My wife and I did this tour on October 3.
Although we enjoyed the activities (the panoramic views and observatories at the top, and the stargazing), we were extremely disappointed with our experience on the tour. It all came down to the staff.
It started with the hot minibus – keep in mind it’s 85 °F/30 °C outside, and everyone wore warm pants as instructed – driven by Jamie, who transported us from Kona (via a second pickup stop at Waikoloa Beach) to the base of Mauna Kea Access Rd. He seemed to be clicking the AC on and off to suit his own comfort rather than ours. On the return trip that night, Jamie was watching music videos AND texting on his cell phone, which was mounted to the windshield at his eye level!
When the minibus reached the base of the access road, we transferred to two Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans which were driven by the tour guides, ‘Jessie’ and Rob (a married couple). The vans were already mostly full of guests whom they had picked up in Hilo.
My wife and I were put in Jessie’s van, which lacked two seats together. We were forced to sit apart from each other on the bumpy treacherous road, which worsened my wife’s anxiety (she has prescription medication). She was crying rather than enjoying herself, and she couldn’t even see out a window due to the location of her seat next to a pillar/door frame. So we paid US$550 to be unable to talk, hold hands, or share the experience!
The first stop was the visitor centre, where everyone is required to spend 30 minutes acclimatizing to the elevation. When we returned to the van, I noted another couple had left their seats empty (they’d taken all their stuff with them) – I told my wife that we could sit there instead. Jessie intervened, telling us, “A family is sitting there, trying to stay sitting together – I don’t think they’d be very happy.” I made it clear that we wanted to sit together as this was our honeymoon, and we weren’t happy either. She sorta ignored me.
At the next stop (the VLBA observatory), I re-expressed my complaint to Jessie. She and Rob said that we could ask other people to trade spots with us, which we weren’t very comfortable doing – so nothing changed for the duration of the tour. My complaint about this is that Jessie apparently doesn’t want to get involved, but she already got involved by preventing us from changing spots. She can’t have it both ways! My wife says she could make it fun by saying something like “We’re going to play musical chairs!”
At the VLBA, Jessie and Rob said we were going to take a couple of group pictures of our whole ohana (family) – in the first picture, my wife and I are in such a dark shadow that our faces aren’t visible. In the second photo, she’s still in that deep shadow and I’m actually framed out of the shot!
All the way up and all the way down, Jessie was on the mic. When she wasn’t telling rambling stories or answering “questions” that she says gets asked all time (ten minutes to go on about how she and Rob met), she was offering a never-ending stream of bad jokes. Every joke was met with awkward silence, broken only by her laughing at her own joke. At one point near the end, she told a joke, no one laughed except her, and she said, “Okay I’ll stop -- Anyways, I joke, but the thing is… [and she most certainly didn’t stop there.]”
My biggest beef is with Rob, whom we had erroneously decided wasn’t as bad as his wife. Both vans stopped at the visitor centre for a bathroom break on the way down. When we got back into the van, my wife was struggling with her seatbelt (which had been giving us both trouble all day). I was standing in the open doorway with her seatbelt in my hand when Rob decided he wanted to address those in the back of the van. He climbed up in front of me, knocked the seatbelt out of my hand, pushed me back, and told me to “Sit down so we can get going!” I replied, “Well, I was helping my wife with her seatbelt.” After he was done talking to the group in general, he looked at my wife and said, “You’re having trouble with your seatbelt?” We both said we’d been having trouble all day, and he proceeded to ‘mansplain’ the seatbelt to my wife while blocking my access to her. I was furious!
On the way down, Jessie said they appreciate tips. Rather than even thank her, we ran for the minibus as soon as we could.
Would we recommend this tour to others? Not a chance, especially not to another couple. Jessie (she hates that name!) and Rob were discourteous and at times outright disrespectful.