I just came back from a week visit on Oahu. Since my family does not dive, I could only fit in one outing. This is my experience and I want to share. These are facts and that's it.
On reading this board, I checked out Reef Pirates. I called them twice and emailed them twice and they never got back to me.
Because I never got a response from Reef Pirates, I checked out the tour books (ThisWeek Oahu) and ended up calling up Big Kahuna (prodivehawaii.com). They seemed friendly and told me about a Wed dive which avoided the high surf of Mon-Tues. I signed up and gave info.
Wed rolls around, which happens to be my last day of the trip before flying out the next day, and I wait at the hotel lobby for the 7:15 pick up time.
7:30 rolls by
7:45 rolls by, so I call them. Big Kahuna tells me, "oh, we cancelled that tour this morning because we can't start the boat... we tried to contact you". However, there are NO messages on my cell phone (the number I had left) and no messages at the hotel I stayed at. The guy on the phone starts using profanity even though I'm completely composed, "we tried to contact you, I don't know what the hell is going on". I make zero-statements of accusation and ask for other tours that I might be able to join last minute. He gives me 2 phone numbers.
Via the concierge and one of the numbers I get referred to Aquazone who has room and I get to join them for a nice 2 tank off Hawaii Kai. They comment that I just barely caught them... 5 min later and I would have missed them.
Aquazone ran a nice casual tour off a relatively small boat (no toilet) and went to barges. Oddly, for the first time in my scuba life, I was the most experienced customer on the tour. They ran a good tour and I have no complaints. As far as scuba equipement goes, everything was great. They were just a low-frills tour and a bit expensive at $129. But I can't complain because of the last minute booking.
I feel like I got screwed from Big Kahuna. So that's my experience. Take it for what it's worth. I have no idea why Reef Pirates wouldn't contact me. I gave them 2 methods and 2 separate messages with my phone number.
I'm a OW PADI certified diver of 12 years but I don't go very often. I've logged about 25-30 dives in my life. I've gone to most of the common Oahu sites, except Corsair.
Previously I had use Captain Bruce off Waianae (family lived closer to there) several times and was very pleased with them. This time I was in waikiki and wanted south/east shore this time.
Also... I'd like to say thank you to this board for giving me the suggestion to use P mode and custom white balance and no flash on the Canon cameras to get photos. This really improved my colors over the last time.
On reading this board, I checked out Reef Pirates. I called them twice and emailed them twice and they never got back to me.
Because I never got a response from Reef Pirates, I checked out the tour books (ThisWeek Oahu) and ended up calling up Big Kahuna (prodivehawaii.com). They seemed friendly and told me about a Wed dive which avoided the high surf of Mon-Tues. I signed up and gave info.
Wed rolls around, which happens to be my last day of the trip before flying out the next day, and I wait at the hotel lobby for the 7:15 pick up time.
7:30 rolls by
7:45 rolls by, so I call them. Big Kahuna tells me, "oh, we cancelled that tour this morning because we can't start the boat... we tried to contact you". However, there are NO messages on my cell phone (the number I had left) and no messages at the hotel I stayed at. The guy on the phone starts using profanity even though I'm completely composed, "we tried to contact you, I don't know what the hell is going on". I make zero-statements of accusation and ask for other tours that I might be able to join last minute. He gives me 2 phone numbers.
Via the concierge and one of the numbers I get referred to Aquazone who has room and I get to join them for a nice 2 tank off Hawaii Kai. They comment that I just barely caught them... 5 min later and I would have missed them.
Aquazone ran a nice casual tour off a relatively small boat (no toilet) and went to barges. Oddly, for the first time in my scuba life, I was the most experienced customer on the tour. They ran a good tour and I have no complaints. As far as scuba equipement goes, everything was great. They were just a low-frills tour and a bit expensive at $129. But I can't complain because of the last minute booking.
I feel like I got screwed from Big Kahuna. So that's my experience. Take it for what it's worth. I have no idea why Reef Pirates wouldn't contact me. I gave them 2 methods and 2 separate messages with my phone number.
I'm a OW PADI certified diver of 12 years but I don't go very often. I've logged about 25-30 dives in my life. I've gone to most of the common Oahu sites, except Corsair.
Previously I had use Captain Bruce off Waianae (family lived closer to there) several times and was very pleased with them. This time I was in waikiki and wanted south/east shore this time.
Also... I'd like to say thank you to this board for giving me the suggestion to use P mode and custom white balance and no flash on the Canon cameras to get photos. This really improved my colors over the last time.
