Our guide/driver was helpful in picking us up, phoning me when he was 15 minutes early, and and informative on the way to Pearl Harbor.
Outside the National Monument he gave us timed tickets for the boat tour to the USS Arizona, and took us inside and very clearly explained what we needed to do to get on a boat, where the exhibit galleries were, and how to see the explanatory movie.
All great then? Not at all...
The guide's instruction was to find a ranger near the boat boarding point and ask where to line up. So I walked across and did that... and was told by the ranger that no boats were sailing to the Arizona today because of construction work on the dock. No boats at all were sailing!!! How did our guide not know this? Well, he didn't (I know this for a fact because I called him later on, as I will explain.)
So we paid $200 for two useless - guaranteed, timed entry remember - tickets to the Arizona. The guide left us at 12:15 and said he'd pick us up in the parking lot at 3.45. So just 3.5 hours to kill then...
We saw the movie, did the exhibit galleries, walked the grounds - where there were information displays to explain things - and all that was good and interesting, but then I checked again about the boats: still nothing running today. And probably not tomorrow either! (Another ranger explained that boats often don't when they are scheduled, and many times without any prior warning - outrageous!)
So I called the guide, explained about no boats - which he did not know - and asked if we could leave early as we'd seen everything there was to see, and had nothing else to do. He agreed if all the parties on the bus also agreed. So we found everyone else - some of whom still did not know the boats weren't running - but all agreed to go back early. Well, there's no point in waiting around with nothing to do, was there? I called the guide back, agreed a pickup an hour and half early, which then happened smoothly - at least that went to plan!
My issues are this:
Why did Karma Tours not know the boats weren't running before we were picked up (because they weren't running) and then offer to re-schedule to a day when they were? We lost $200 because of this - Karma never offered a refund or apology.
Same thing when we got there: why did the guide not know, and then take some positive action? He just left us.
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Summary - we didn't have some of the problems detailed by other Karma customers on these excursions (lack of tickets, made to go standby etc), but we weren't in effect treated any better nor have we got a $200 refund for a boat trip that never happened. Shame on Karma Tours.
Cannot recommend Karma Tours - avoid.