I scored a spot on the Niihau trip, and it was bey...

I scored a spot on the Niihau trip, and it was beyond amazing! Captain and guides were all rock star. Many was my guide and he was great. I was a little worried when they were reviewing the basics as if it was OW dive 2 on what was clearly an advanced dive(s), but I saw why once we hit the water. They did good by reviewing on the surface and helping the less experienced without calling them out.
The guides worked hard and did a stellar job at showing the sites and the captain made the crossing as good as I imagine it could be.
Why 4 stars then? Well, when I walked into the shop days prior to the charter to rent tanks and weights so I could shore dive in the mean time, I was more than convinced to take that business elsewhere and was very nervous about the personalities of the charter staff based on that experience.
The young lady at the front immediately acted like I annoyed her by walking in. I briefly explained that I was on a boat in a few days, but wanted to rent tanks and weights to dive with in the mean time. She said "there's no where to shore dive here".
"No where?" I questioned, having already researched, checked conditions and knew that was obviously not true.
"no"... "Tunnels you can't get to and the landing has maybe 2 feet of viz."
The real kicker was that she didn't even try to upsell us to a boat or anything. Just ended the conversation.
If the boat crew and the guys I originally spoke with are a true representation of the staff, they're great, but that one person manning the shop drove away over $300 in rentals and more on boats tickets she COULD HAVE sold us on. And that was just one experience, with one group... And it looks like someone else had a nearly identical experience in the reviews, too.
And, BTW, we rented our gear from someone else and did 5 dives at the landing (where there was supposed to be 2 ft viz) and experienced great reef, teaming with life and between 30-50ft of viz. Turtles, fish, eels, crabs... It was awesome!
I recommend the Niihau trip!