Honeymoon in Maui

[Pembina]

My daughter and future son-in-law are getting married in Maui in February. She has been certified for many years but has only dove in local lakes. He got his certification for Christmas from us (imagine taking his open water the 2 days after Christmas in a cold Missouri lake, burrrrrr).
She has been doing some internet searches and found a dive shop that will do 1 shore dive (son-in-law wants to get his feet wet first) and the following day would be 2 boat dives (1 @ 70', 1 @ 35') Charge would be $200 per person. I don't know the name of the dive shop. Does this sound reasonable?? I have never been to Hawaii myself. Compared with my dive trips to the Carribbean, it sounds high to me.

Please give me your input and if you have any experience with any of the dive shops (good or bad) please sound off.

Inquirying minds want to know.

Thanks,
Pembina

 

[diversteve]

A 2-tank dive with any of the Kihei dive operators is around $130-150. A lot of the better diving is across to Molokini or Lanai, it's close to an hour each way depending on your origin point. So add in the shoredive (are they wanting a DM with them?) and that seems reasonable.

One thing to mention to your daughter is that it's about a 45min. drive from the Lahaina/Kaanapali area to Kihei and vice-versa. So she might want to pick a diveop closer to where they're staying. Some of the Kihei boats leave pretty early in the morning (6AM-ish) to beat the tradewinds on their return. Also generally speaking, boats from Kihei go to Molokini crater, boats from Lahaina go to Lanai due to travel distance - there's exceptions of course.

My recommendations (no particular order):

Kihei area (South Maui)

Ed Robinson's
B&B Scuba - blesi varney (one of the B's) is a member here.
Mike Severn's
Maui Dreams Dive Co. - more shoredive focused.
Shaka Doug (also on SB) runs a dive bus for shoredivng in the area.

Lahaina/Kaanapali area (West Maui)

Lahaina Divers
Pacific Dive - they do escorted shore dives on nearby beaches.
Extended Horizons

Diving in Maui is somewhat different than lake diving so they might want to look for a trip that dives inside Molokini crater for their first ocean dive. Currents can be a factor at some sites on the backside of both Molokini and Lanai. And it's really a good dive, I try to do it every couple of years even though I've dove a dozen other sites.

 

[justleesa]

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[KrisB]

Since it wasn't mentioned here, it's worth asking -- where *are* they staying???

 

[Pembina]

They are staying at Lahaina. The dive shop they have been looking at is Maui Diving Scuba Center. Does anyone have any experience with this dive operation??

 

[diversteve]

I've never dove with them. Out of curiosity I just spent a few minutes on their website. It appears they offer two trips, either Lanai on their boat or Molokini on a combo boat that I suspect is the Pride of Maui. As no one has a 118' dive boat in Lahaina. Also it leaves from Maalea or Kihei so would be either a 15 or 45 min. drive south from Lahaina. We took the Pride over once when I was with 2 non-divers, they anchor pretty close in for the benefit of the snorkelers at the expense of the relatively few divers - several of who did a discover dive course entirely on the trip over - including my brother-in-law.

One other thing that kind of struck me as odd is the amount of non-dive activities featured on their website. Are they one of those "activity centers" that you see in the mini-malls there? Any locals know?

I'm not hypeing Lahaina Divers but they have probably the largest dedicated diveboats in the Lahaina area - 42' Newtons and leave from Lahaina Harbor (not Maalea) in Lahaina. They also generally get a mix of new/experienced divers. If I was going to make the crossing from Lahaina to Molokini, they'd be my first choice as when the tradewinds pick up early afternoon it can get rough on the ride back.

 

[adjuster-jd]

Unless they've gotten one recently, Maui Diving Scuba Center does not have their own boat. They book with other boats, which is not necessarily bad, if what you want is their instructor to go along then that is fine. (for the price quoted, are they provided a dedicated instructor for the shore and boat dives?) I did my AOW with them several years ago. You can do a search for my posts back in 2003 about my AOW experience (and the flames I got in response). At the time, being a new diver, I didnt know any better and was happy with the course. Knowing what I know now about PADI instructional standards I can say that I am disappointed in what I got.
That having been said, if all you are looking for is an instructor for some handholding, pretty much anyone can do that.
For boat diving on Maui, all of the dive ops put a guide in the water with you. Group size will vary with the dive op.
For newer divers, I highly recommend Extended Horizons out of Lahaina - they do shore dives as well as boat dives to Lanai. They are great with all levels of diver from beginner to instructor.

Again, if you are getting an instructor from Maui Diving for all of the dives, it doesnt sound like such a bad deal. If you're only getting an instructor for the shore dive and then being sent on someone else's boat (with the boat's guide) then you might shop around a little and compare quality between ops as well as price.

 

[diversteve]

Unless they've gotten one recently, Maui Diving Scuba Center does not have their own boat.

I knew I'd seen that boat on the MDSS website before. It's Extended Horizon's "II".

Zoom in on the small picture and you can see where someone smeared out the name in Photoshop.

So evidently MDSS has no boats for their trips. May as well book directly with Extended Horizons to go on their boat. Save $20 PP if they have their own gear also, EH charges $139 for a 2-tank Lanai trip.

 

[KrisB]

They are staying at Lahaina. The dive shop they have been looking at is Maui Diving Scuba Center. Does anyone have any experience with this dive operation??

I received my Open Water certification from them back in 2002.

A rather small operation, but they have some good and experienced instructors.

They do *not* have their own boat -- you will get booked aboard another company's boat, possibly with their DM/Instructor, possibly with the DM/Instructor from the boat operator.

If the latter, they cannot guarantee a 75' and a 35' dive.

I *HIGHLY* recommend booking directly with the operator. It usually works out much better monetarily, and you actually get a better idea on who you're diving with.

 

[KrisB]

Oh -- and the comment on activity center... yes. I recall seeing something about six months ago when they were trying to sell about half or more of their income coming from the activity sales... that was hearsay, so don't put too much stock in it -- but wouldn't surprise me.

One Hawaii tip: when shopping around always find out if you're being booked on somebody else's activity. You can almost always get better deals booking directly, though sometimes a package price can reduce it a little. Often, too, booking directly will get you a 10-20% discount if you mention their site or something... look around for that. ALWAYS ask if it's their boat.

BTW: for Molokini trips, I know that the MDSC often books on the Maui Diamond out of Maalaea. Usually a decent trip (and you get a whale watch out of the deal this time of year), but can get rough (and wet) on the way back.