Helicopter tours on your own - caution

[Bucky3]

Sorry this has nothing to do with the subject on this thread, but I wanted to get information from you on the Dolphin Excursion you took on Oahu that I remember reading about. Do you have any specific information - such as how/when/where did you book this trip. We are going to be on Oahu for three days the first of October and thought this might be a good family excursion? Sorry to bud in here but didn't know how else to reach you. Mahalo for any information on the dolphins! Must say this thread has been most interesting to read and glad to know it looks like a good resolution will come about.

[bankofdad]

Sorry this has nothing to do with the subject on this thread, but I wanted to get information from you on the Dolphin Excursion you took on Oahu that I remember reading about. Do you have any specific information - such as how/when/where did you book this trip. We are going to be on Oahu for three days the first of October and thought this might be a good family excursion? Sorry to bud in here but didn't know how else to reach you. Mahalo for any information on the dolphins! Must say this thread has been most interesting to read and glad to know it looks like a good resolution will come about.

 

Hi Bucky3,

 

We made our reservation by calling Dolphin Excursions directly. You can find out all of the details here www.dophinexcursions.com. Their on-line system seems to be down a lot (as it was when we made our last reservation with them). If I recall correctly, we made our reservation a few months in advance.

 

BTW - I think this would make a fantastic family excursion, and I plan on taking my kids on it when we do our next family trip together in June.

 

Have fun and post and please post a review when your back!

[stevecw]

Igarner - I saw your question to FendBass. We used Island in May of this year. The flight was around 55 minutes. It was enough time to make it pretty much all the way around the island. We also got a free video for each couple. Its not a video of your flight, but one they made as a generic helicoptor tour of Kauai. I don't remember if they offered a personal video for sale. We booked online in advance, which included the free video. We paid around $144 per person with a cash discount. Would have been around $154 by credit card. As mentioned by Fendbass, they pick you at at the pier and return you afterwards for free. The helicopter was very nice and clean. Its a 6 passenger (plus pilot). They had 2 running the day we flew. It was very easy to see out the windows. I was able to get tons of pictures and shoot some video. I would highly recommend Island. We did a 4 seater at Hilo, and it had a lot of stuff in the way of your view. A steel wall between the front and back, and smaller windows with seems in the way. Not near as nice as Island for taking pictures. The only bad thing I can mention was that two of our party got a little quezy on the Kauai flight. (but luckily kept everything down).The helicopters do a lot of dipping up and down along the mountains and Nai Pali coastline, and hovering around in circles inside some canyons. The two learned their lesson and took some motion sickness pills before the next helicotper flight, and were fine on it. If you are prone to motion sickness, it may bother you, so you may want to consider a motion sickness pill first.

Good luck and enjoy!

[breeding]

This is not about helicopters but I wanted to add our experience about other non-cruise line tours. We booked a Shogun fishing/snorkeling combo for our Kona stop while on the NCL Wind in June. I was very worried about the cancellation policy because of the information on this board about missing ports. I did not want to spend $600 and get nothing. The captain assured me that the ships always make it into Kona. I went on his word and guess what? The tendering process was too dangerous and we could not get off the ship. When we called to tell him he already had the boat warming up for us. I was very nervous about the fact he never did say yes or no to charging if we could not make it all he did was assure me we would. I was too upset to talk to him that day. He was sincerely apologetic and to my relief did not charge us. I just wanted to share this because I was new enough to Hawaii and cruising to believe this captain and not ask for it in writing. He could have charged us for a trip we could not take if he had a policy like the helicopter company. I was ready to jump ship if he could just pick us up but my DH wouldn't let me.

[Aloha_Jackie]

We have been fortunate enough to sail with Captain Rayjay on the Shogun twice. Once while we were on a land-based vacation on the Big Island and once when we were on a 15 day Island Princess sailing. He is an exceptional Captain! I highly recommend him. You may wish to check out my thread under Hawaii (under "ports of call") entitled "Kona Fishing - My Blue Marlin" at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=80855

 

Yep, I caught a whopper while on a fishing/snorkeling adventure aboard the Shogun - you can see it on his site too at http://konaseasports.com/SportFishing.htm

 

Contact RayJay at ray@konaseasports.com 808-937-6944 or 808-322-3955

 

No, I dont get any kickbacks - just trying to pay it forward

 

I hope you all get the chance to pull in a whopper like I did!

[dobie]

Hi Nancy, nrknits.....did you ever get a refund? If not, I am really glad that you helped other people avoid the same problem you had. It certainly wasn't OUR fault that we sat out there in the harbor for several hours hoping it would open up.....Kauai is my favorite island, and we hated to miss it, but safety was a factor.....hope you and your family are doing well...

[sherry7]

This was an informative post. I'm glad Jack Harter changed his policy...although I didn't see it spelled out anywhere on his website that there was an exception for cruise ship passengers.

 

We are going to Hawaii next May on with RCCL, and I'm still deciding which island we should do a helicoptor tour on. :confused:

[fendbass]

Hi Lisa,

Our tour was about 50 minutes. We did not purchase a video (it was not available back then, but we did purchase one from Blue Hawaii helicopters in Hilo when we took the volcano flight tour)

[Aloha_Jackie]

we recommend the Big Island Spectacular (circle island) tour on Blue Hawaiian

 

http://bluehawaiian.com/tour_overview.php?tgid=3 - red hot lava, waterfalls, Parker ranch, and everything in between - they dont call it the BIG island for nothing!

 

Or second, choose Blue Hawaiian again and via Temptation Tours, take a guided Limo-Van tour along the road to Hana - they do the driving - Blue Hawaiian flies you out - its in cahoots with Temptation tours - called Sky Trek - very nice!:)

[Aloha_Jackie]

forgot to mention that the Road to Hana is on Maui - Sherry - wherever you decide to take the tour - it will be incredible - Kauai is a good one too!