Diving Catalina — Local services in Avalon

TLDR: They will not let you reschedule despite what they touted on their website/ticket. The owner (David) berates at me when I asked him to honor his fine prints. He makes me feel that he only cares for his own financial benefit over his customer's.

So I recently booked a midday (12:30 pm) snorkeling tour for my partner and I through Groupon ($37 + $7 extra fee from Diving Catalina's full site).I was very excited for my trip and diving experience . Due to it being our first time on the island and COVID, we didnt realize that Dana Point's port was not servicing its ferry to the island. Realizing that means we would miss our tour, I called Catalina Diving promptly (8 am) and let them know about our situation, asking them if they would kindly reschedule us for a different day if possible and I wouldnt mind paying a bit extra. At first, they said that they would not be able to reschedule us for tomorrow unless I purchase 2 new full prices tickets ($59/ each person). Upon reading the fine prints, which said that "Within 7 days on the original booking date, a re-booking fee of 25% of the full internet tour rate will be applied." I then asked the owner again that if it possible to honor the fine prints, I would be more than happy to pay the 25% of the tickets I already bought, also there was nowhere which said rebooking within 1-2 days were not possible. The owner (David) then became upset at me telling me that he "hated repeating himself" and "there was no way he would just take us on the boat by ourselves, causing his business to lose money" while solely placing the blame on me by saying that I was being dishonest. He had no empathy for his clients, although a pandemic is out of our control. He also did not considerate that I called him due to wanting to be honest. I could have easily called/emailed to reschedule without telling him why I would need to, since rescheduling within 7 days is fine. Beside not having the integrity to honor what was put on their tickets, I think that the company owner should learn how to communicate with his clients properly. He was thinking of his company's benefit while disregarding the customer's. During our conversation, he kept backtracking on what he said, and changing things as he goes along. He initially offered a tour on Thursday for full prices, then backtrack and said it isnt possible to reschedule on that day after I brought up the fine prints. At the end of the day, I understand time is difficult and I truly want to support small businesses. I wouldn't have mind spending more money if they were up front that they could not honor the fine prints, it would cost them too much to operate a boat for just two people and it would help if I pay more. However, placing the blame solely on your clients isn't an honest and resepctful way to run a business. Hopefully others will find this review helpful before booking with...

We were with Diving Catalina on the first week of May and booked 6 dives with them over 2 days.

Diving Catalina has a dive truck right at Casino Point which allows for easy access to the sea. Rain was a great guide for us, very knowledgeable, and went at a good pace with a few of us in the group. We even did the DPV with Lisa and that was great fun!

I had just been open water certified 2 months earlier and this was my wife's first dive trip since her certification about 2 weeks earlier. On the night dive on Saturday, one of the divers made a fuss that one of us did not have our buoyancy in check and was making the visibility worse for everyone. She called me out in front of the entire group saying, 'yeah you with the yellow fins'(I have orange fins and there was another diver with yellow fins in the group). It was not worth an argument, especially a 6am boat from Long Island and 4 dives.

However, then, being very new to diving, it did make me conscious of diving in groups and how, I never want anyone to feel the way I did being called out in public, albeit wrongly. The next morning we came in and Lisa had heard what had happened on the night dive, for someone who dives almost every day and deals with divers of all levels every day; she was just amazing. She was annoyed that the diver the previous night even said anything and really lifted my spirits. She gave so much advice on gear, trim, and her life in general. Having someone with empathy and so much passion as your dive guide is very rare. She made us feel like family as opposed to just being cattle in a dive group. It's been 5 months and multiple dive trips since we were in Catalina, and until now, we speak about Lisa and how she influenced us and is a reason we became even more passionate with diving. We want to come back to Catalina and dive with her again soon.

I highly recommend Diving Catalina; convenient location, new gear, and they set it up for you (A lot of people don't realize this is a luxury diving in California), and of course the great guides like Rain and of...

Saturday 8/8 my husband and I did the snorkel tour and had a great time!! Diver Dave (owner), and Lisa, our tour guide got us all suited up with the gear and Lisa gave us a very informative overview of what we would be doing and seeing on the tour., how to stay safe, etc. We loved it. It’s definitely a busy spot when you’re on land and see all the divers and snorkelers gearing up, but don’t be put off by that because in the water it’s wide open with lots of room (I.e. no bumping into people). Only thing bumping into you is the fish (well not really) there’s tons of fish to see especially when Lisa fed them. I wasn’t so sure about being that up close and personal with the fish, but it’s cool! The Girabaldi fish (bright orange) are beautiful!! She let us have our own personal experience, if we wanted to be above water listening to her talk about what we were seeing, we could, and she’s full of info, It’s clear she loves what she does. I did a bit of both, I spent most of my time head down, just checking everything out. Couple things I would highly suggest....Know how to swim! But also be comfortable in the water. We had wetsuits on, which help keep you afloat, while your snorkeling, but they aren’t supposed to be used like safety gear, you gotta be able to swim. We felt totally safe out there. Next time we’ll do the discovery dive or snorkel again depending on how much time we want to spend. We would definitely be back. Oh ya, all the masks and snorkels are sanitized before and after. Overall experience...