After seeing all the positive reviews I did not do my typical detailed research. I travel a lot, take 3-4 vacations a year and this is my 4th time to Hawaii. I have very rarely written a critical review but felt this one is warranted as I would NEVER use this company again. When things go right everyone likes to step up and take credit but when things go wrong that is when you find out which company truly stands behind customer service.
We booked night manta and south Kona expedition for a family of 4. On the night Manta trip we saw zero Manta’s, I understand these are wild animals and one can’t guarantee that we will see them even though that is in the contract. On the trip my wife got very sea sick as we stayed out for an extended amount of time to see if Manta’s would come. She threw up twice on the boat, next morning we were on the South Kona Trip, I am not a good swimmer and my kids were not comfortable to get on the boat without their mom. I requested a cancellation but they refused citing 48 hour cancellation policy. I dragged the two kids with me and they were very nervous, they did not get into the water for snorkel at every site and wore life jackets despite being good swimmers. Anyways that is my problem, all I asked was to refund my wife’s ticket and we just call the Manta trip bad luck and no refund needed. SeaQuest still refused and just put a credit for 2 years for a Manta trip. Again I don’t want any such refund all I wanted was refunding my wife’s ticket.
The only thing positive about my experience was their crew, the boat they used for a 5 hour trip was equivalent to a Dinghy boat. One can feel every bump and the waves were coming into the boat and on numerous occasions we were completely drenched. I would suggest you check out the pictures of their fleet before booking, that is what I normally do but I relied on Fairmont this time and in hindsight a big mistake.
Conclusion: don’t trust the positive reviews do a lot of your own leg work before booking, and if anything goes wrong then don’t expect anything from this company.