Kāneʻohe Bay Ocean Sports — Local services in Oʻahu

During our stay in Hawaii, this was the single negative experience that we had. Some of the biggest issues included:

Mismanagement of expectations: we were told on the phone prior to booking that we could visit and spend time at the sandbar, that windsurfing was included, and that the boat was an open-air vessel. None of these things were true. On the boat, we experienced a disorganized attempt to explain how groups would be split up and how activities would be sequenced. This was a particularly clowny series of interactions that felt almost comical at times. This was particularly displeasing given that one of our group is 25 weeks pregnant, and only wanted to attend the trip in order to relax at the sandbar or on the open air boat, since she couldn’t participate in other rougher activities. Despite being reassured that this would be possible over the phone, the reality was that her options were to sit in the dungeony closed-air boat or to stand in knee-high water next to the boat. Her frustration was palpable and justified.

Rude captain: the rest of the staff were wonderful. The captain, however, was quite nasty. Our single encounter with her followed our attempt to swim to the sandbar, which was only attempted after an explicit approval from another staff member. The captain approached the group heading to the sandbar (note that sandbar is advertised!), yelled at them for trying to head there (“what do you think you’re doing?!?” “What makes you think you can do this?!?”), and then expressed incredulity when a local who was in our group tried to explain that she was local and understood what she was doing. The attitude, tone, and mixed messages that we received were unacceptable for any business claiming to prioritize customer service.

Reduced activities: there was only one functional jetski, despite normally being two. This meant that the jet ski experience was that people were being taken one at a time for a 2-3 minute spin on the back while one of the staff drove in circles (to be clear, he was very nice and friendly and did nothing wrong). Be aware that jet skis are a minimal part of the experience, and that you’ll spend 2-3x more time self-paddling a canoe from the enclosed boat to the jet ski dock than you will riding a jet ski. Additionally, the snorkeling was hot garbage in about 2 feet of water. The highlights were a puffer fish and a single pair of large size flippers for a boat of 80+ people. Additionally, there was no windsurfing option despite it being advertised.

In summary, this might be a fun activity for small children, but it’s not something that our group of 30-35 year olds considered worth the price.

I’ve noticed that a representative of this company is commenting on other reviews, attempting to attribute these negative reviews to something related to alcohol. There were a grand total of 4 light beers consumed on board, and only after the group realized that the advertised activities were a total farce. This group didn’t come on this tour to drink—we came to engage in fun sandbar-related activities as a group. To me, this half-day experience was worth, at most,...

I’m going to start this review by acknowledging that the staff of the boat were wonderful and why this review gets 2 stars. The rest of the experience was, quite frankly, was not worth the money. My fiancée booked this trip based on the social media posts and advertising the company creates. Our experience was nothing of the sort.

Firstly, the sandbar was quite far underwater, the waves were choppy, and the water itself was not clear. While I recognize we can’t change nature, other boating excursions I have been on will call you day of to let you know of the conditions and offer a voucher to come back when they are ideal. This was not done, and their attitude was more of a too bad you already paid one.

Secondly, the boat itself was dirty and smelled terrible. This in addition to the on the water lounge area also being dirty.

These conditions combined led both of us to not get in the water as it was not as advertised or enjoyable.

I notified the main office of our displeasure via email and they had a staff member come talk to us on the ride back to shore. She made the excuse that all of their advertising is based on the days with their best conditions and that we should not expect that. To me, that seems a bit dishonest, or it would have been nice to know ahead of time, that we shouldn’t expect what the pictures and videos show.

We were also told they clean the equipment and boat EVERY TWO WEEKS and the particular Friday afternoon we were on the boat was the last day in that rotation. Since they run tours five days a week, twice a day with ~ 100 people on them, that means there are 20 groups totaling roughly 2000 people before they clean things again. That’s disgusting.

The insulting part of the whole thing was that when I asked for a 50% refund acknowledging the staff needs to be paid and the boat fuel costs money, they offered me a 10% discount if I ever wanted to book again. Now none of the aforementioned things would ever make me want to rebook, but offering a 10% discount is basically a slap in the face for something that was not good, at all.

I sincerely hope that KBOS changes it’s ways to better serve its future customers. Until then, find a...

Honestly, this trip and this company are awful. Here is a brief rundown of the takeaways my large group had with the company:

First of all, you can't actually go to the sandbar. They park about 500 yards away from the sandbar, and if you try to leave the boat to visit it, you will be accosted by the captain. In our case, this included being extremely road and pretty much racist to the people the in our group The actual boat you will be on, which is only pictured once on the site, is basically just a giant closed room with no sun access. The nicer boat will be parked next to that boat so that you can crowd onto it to try to get some sun The jet skis broke down frequently, so very few people actually got to drive the jet skis. Most people were taken on a jet ski ride. You will be on a jet ski for a maximum of 3 minutes You will not be given the opportunity to actually do all of the activities they advertise. We were told we'd get to go windsurfing. There were about 80 people on the boat and 2 windsurfing boards, and we weren't allowed to use them. Fun! You will snorkel in about 3-4 feet of water. That's as boring as it gets The "canoe ride" is just you paddling out to the small jet ski dock. Beyond boring

Overall, this is a terrible deal on a crowded, boring boat. They seem to make their money mostly by ripping off Japanese tourists. I literally couldn't feel stronger - this is an awful experience.

正直なところ、この旅行とこの会社はひどいです。これは私の大規模なグループが会社に持っていた持ち帰りの簡単な要約です：

まず第一に、あなたは実際にサンドバーに行くことができません。彼らは砂州から500ヤードほど離れたところに駐車していますが、ボートを訪れようとすると船長に告発されます。私たちの場合、これは私たちのグループの人々にとって非常に道が広いことと人種差別主義者であることを含みます あなたが乗る実際のボートは、敷地内に一度だけ描かれていますが、基本的には太陽の光が当たらない巨大な閉じた部屋です。あなたはいくつかの太陽を取得しようとするためにそれに群集することができるように、より良いボートはそのボートの隣に駐車されます ジェットスキーは頻繁に故障したため、実際にジェットスキーを運転する人はほとんどいませんでした。ほとんどの人はジェットスキーに乗っていました。あなたは最大3分間ジェットスキーになります あなたは実際に彼らが宣伝する活動の全てをする機会を与えられないでしょう。ウィンドサーフィンに行くと言われました。ボートには80人、ウィンドサーフィン用のボードは2人いました。楽しいね！ 3〜4フィートの水でシュノーケリングをします。それはそれが得るのと同じくらい退屈です 「カヌーに乗る」とは、小さなジェットスキードックにパドリングするだけです。退屈を超えて

全体的に見て、これは混雑した、退屈なボートでのひどい取り引きです。彼らは主に日本の観光客を追い払うことによって彼らのお金を稼いでいるようです。私は文字通り強く感じることはできませんでした...