Last August my wife needed/wanted to do the same thing - do her open water dives on Maui as a referral. We initially picked Maui Dreams and made a "booking" two months in advance for her dives at the begining of our 10 days there.
For some reason, my wife called them again to confirm literally hours before we were to leave for the airport. To our surprise, they had not made/completed the reservation and not booked an instructor! They suggested we drop by once we got to Maui and that they were going to try to figure something out. I'm an experienced diver - I don't leave stuff to chance. So I immediately hit the web to find an alternative and called Doug (ShakaDoug), left a message on his voicemail and continued to hunt for options. Soon after I left the message Doug called me back - he was on vacation on the mainland (Arizona, I think) and apologized for not being available, but offered up B&B as an alternative. I thought that was amazing courtesy and professionalism and think he's a credit to the dive and tourism industry on Maui. I called B&B and set it up - they were happy to have her!
Once we got to Maui we first checked in with Maui Dreams, as they had asked, just in case - their response was "Sorry, we might be able to do it on Friday" - that would be near the end of our time there and too late to enjoy the week as a dive vacation. Anyway, we then went to B&B and they were only to happy to help us out - with literally less than 24 hours notice! My wife got certified with the careful and capable crew at B&B and we spent the rest of the week enjoying some of our best diving we have had to date.
Given our experience, I'd go with ShakaDoug or B&B, two great outfits!
Lee
