Hawaiian Adventures Kona — Local services in Hawaii

We were on a two hour tour but it could have lasted for 10 hours and nobody on the ship, including the captain and crew, would have wanted to leave! We were floored with how incredible the experience was. Right off the bat, we saw a turtle sunning itself while leaving the dock. Before we even got to deeper waters, there was an enormous pod of dolphins doing jumps together out of the water - seriously like 20+ dolphins in a row traveling and having fun. It was adorable.

Once we got to slightly deeper waters, about 15 minutes in, we started seeing multiple whales, and this lasted for the entire 2 hours. These whales were HUGE and ACTIVE! They were doing flips, jumps, dives, and seemingly playing tag with one another the entire time. I think we saw at least 6 or 7 different ones in total.

There was a pod of 3 males who were actually competing with one another to have the chance to mate, since January/winter is mating season according to the guides. They were just swimming alongside each other, gradually trying to one-up the last behavior (this is the term the crew used rather than "tricks" which seemed like a subtle but important distinction) that the prior whale performed.

We saw almost all of the major behaviors exhibited by whales. We learned from the crew that they are:

1. Breaching - a full-body sort of backflip out of the water where we saw the entire belly and body of the whale
2. Lunging - a less powered-up version of a breach
3. Lobtailing - when the whales are swimming along and they make a big effort to slap the water surface with their tale, making a big splash
4. Spouting - the whales would be racing alongside one another (we could see their backs out of the water most of the time) and then randomly stick their tale up in the air and bring it down, causing the others to do so in response
5. Flipper Slapping - exactly what it sounds like, they would turn on their sides and slap the surface of the water with their flippers

It gave me a newfound understanding and appreciation for whales. They are incredibly social creatures, and their interactions reminded me of a bunch of hyper, playful puppies that loved to show off to each other, and maybe to us spectators as well!

The crew was phenomenal. They clearly were having just as much fun as the rest of the group was. Even though this is their job that they do multiple times a day every day, you could absolutely tell that every single time they spotted a whale was as exciting as the first time they saw it. It was honestly very endearing and made us all the more excited to be there. When we had to turn around because of the next tour coming up, everyone was super disappointed (including the crew who was smiling, laughing, and having fun). I know that the tours are a family operation (and also friends on the crew) and think it's awesome to be able to support local in that way.

Pro-tip: Get there early so you can be one of the first ones on and get one of the 10 seats up on the top deck where the captain steers and the crewmembers narrate the tour from. Not only do you get the best view on the deck, but you get to talk to the captain and crew personally and they are super interesting with a TON of stories, facts, and information to share. I would do this every day if I could - book if you come to the big...

Pros - Captain and Firstmate were knowledgeable and friendly. We got to see Pilot Whales, Spinner Dolphins, and Bottlenose Dolphins. The Spinner Dolphins were by Captain Cooks monument area, so that was nice to see from ocean view. Drinks were provided.

Cons - Nothing horrible but a few things to know. Your seats are not assigned, so when you get on, you pick where you're going to sit. So if you have more than two of you, the possibility exists you might not sit together but probably near each other like we did. With this, they will tell you it's fluid seating. Just note someone may take your seat during a stop while you're up at the railing looking at the whales or Dolphins because, as the office and the first mate explained to me, when I discussed what happened... it's fluid seating. But then they proceeded to tell me if I had come to them when it occurred, they would have got them to move. Now, to be fair, I was furious at the time it occurred with the couple that did it and felt my words would have been more harsh than I wanted, so I did not say anything when it occurred. That's on me. But I did want you aware that some people on the boat may take advantage of the wording. This particular person was sea sick, and his wife was with him. Apparently, the first mate had told him to take a seat on our seats with her intent being only for a few minutes while we were stopped, but they told me she had told them to stay there the rest of the trip. While I sympathized with his situation, I also had a medical necessity to think about. My husband has a medication that says, "Do not stay in direct sunlight long." Our seats were under the shaded part of the boat to help protect him. There are 12 seats toward the front that are in direct sunlight. So, if you want to protect your seats, I would keep someone by them.

Overall, I rate the...

When I first heard about swimming with mantas, it may as well have been sharks because I was NOT interested...until I kept hearing how fabulous the experience was, how gentle and harmless these rays are, and how my husband really did want to go. So I put my big girl swimsuit on and went on this night swim (something I have never been comfortable about). As it turned out, it was one of the best things I have ever experienced. The crew made everyone comfortable. Mori and Duke were our swim guides, and they did an excellent job of instructing us as to what to do. After a 20(?) minute boat ride to an area near the airport, we donned the provided wet suit tops and snorkel/masks and jumped in. We had to keep our legs afloat with pool noodles and hold on to a square floating, lighted platform with our hands while our guides pushed our bunch to an area where the rays were. After some frustration with the bubbles from some divers who were on the ocean floor (maybe 35 feet below us) and getting accustomed to feeling like we were in an enormous tank of tetra guppies (they were completely willing to do their thing as if people are not to be feared), the rays were attracted to our light. They would do backwards somersaults, mouth agape, to scoop plankton and those little fish, looping from deep beneath us up towards our light and then back down. We floated in snorkel position for 40 minutes before reembarking the boat for the 25ish minute ride back to the dock The details that we could see on the manta rays were incredible! I found the individual markings of each gentle giant totally fascinating. Their method of eating was also eye-opening. Do not miss this opportunity if you can in any way work it into your itinerary! Basically, if I was limited to a single adventure, this is the one I...