Don’t let US disappoint YOU!
My husband Corey and I have been coming to Maui for years. We were normally here in the summertime, which are known to be quieter months.
For December of 2015, we chose to have our Christmas on Maui with family. I was lucky enough to be here for almost a month, and my husband for about 16 days. We had family coming, some of whom were divers, others who were not.
We started planning this trip in January 2015. We talked dates, condos and airlines. My sister snagged the condo next to ours. She booked that about eight months in advance. Our daughter booked hers in September. The whole trip was coming together.
Now, my husband and I are certified divers as is our daughter. Her boyfriend is not, so to get him diving, we needed to schedule an Introductory Dive. We knew we wanted to boat dive on the Maui Diamond II. We also wanted to do scooter diving. We had LOTS of diving we wanted to do!
We got the Intro dive scheduled AND the scooter dive. However, boat dives were scarce. We learned that during the busy times, many things had already been booked for months. There can also be many private charters (where one group has booked the entire boat) and these can quickly cut into your vacation time options!
Luckily, Corey and I were here after the New Year so we got some time on the boat, but the choices were limited, so we took what we could get. Before this, we never gave it a thought, that, well…. Christmas was busy – it was our first time!
VERY fast forward to one year later and now we live on Maui (yay!). We not only live here, we work in the dive industry.
Our first holiday season living here was rapid/crazy/busy and for us a bit short because we were away for a few days in the middle of it all for a long Christmas weekend. However, I was back working at Maui Dreams by December 28. During this busy two week period, the phones never really stopped. People called from the start of business to the end of the day, often leaving messages, trying to book guided dives, boat dives, even certification dives, all at the very last minute.
We were swamped. Though we bring in temporary help over the holidays and everyone works as many days and hours as they can, many times, our answers to these last minute inquiries was “NO, we cannot take you diving”, or “We can put you on a wait list”. Neither of these options are very pleasing to people who have just come to Maui and planned on doing all kinds of fun activities, not realizing that activities actually DO get sold out.
Maui Dreams and the Maui Diamond II are only shut down four days a year: New Year’s Day, Employee Appreciation Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There was a point were some people were less than happy that we were closed on days THEY wanted dives…but we were closed and could not accommodate them.
SO…. what IS the moral of this story?
Winter is in FULL swing. Mid-winter and Spring Breaks are on the way. Are you coming to Maui? Have you booked your plane tickets? What about your diving? Luaus, zip line tours, whale watches? If you get here and aren’t able to do any of these things, will you be okay with that?
Call us now… book us now! Don’t let us disappoint you by not scheduling your diving. We HATE saying no! We LOVE to take you diving!
In addition to our seasoned crew, we also have two NEW instructors (formally Divemasters) who are ready to do introductory dives and certification courses!
It’s the rare soul that shows up at the airport without a ticket, and even rarer one who would get ON that plane without a room booked. So, break out your calendar, visit us online or give us a call. Get those dives booked!
Who’s on Thursday?
Aloha, Kate
