The Groupon Read: Nestled in the lush crater of a dormant volcano, Koko Crater Stables offers a picturesque backdrop for horseback escapades. Visitors can take a one-hour jaunt along the flora-lined trails traversing the crater's verdant interior. Led by one of the stable's experienced horse trainers, the excursion will provide views of the crater rim, chances to spot native wildlife, and sweeping oceanic panoramas undisturbed by the presence of unspeakably tentacled behemoths.I bought three.
The difficulties began when the stable was not prepared for the 1314 groupons purchased. No one answered the phone number listed. The voice mailbox was full. We emailed and got no response. When we got an email response regarding our ride time, it took them a week to return a confirmation, so no go. Eventually the stepkid went home and the husband got deployed. Unhappy groupon buyer. Now what was I supposed to do with these?
Eventually, a repeat of above occurred, an unpleasant phone conversation with the manager of the stable (at 9pm at night when she phoned me), and I was finally booked for Statehood day, August 19. It took a while to get some takers (if you can believe that!) but I finally got a friend and her daughter excited about going. All set, FINALLY.
The manager of the stable called me and woke me up at 7am on my day off to confirm some information. Not starting off the day on a good footing. I live on the Leeward (west) side of Oahu. It takes an hour to get to Koko Crater, on the north eastern side of the island by Sandy Beach. The drive takes you through the traffic of Honolulu but the ride through Hawaii Kai, around Hanama Bay and the Blow Hole and Sandy Beach was spectacular. What looked like an overcast morning was turning into a beautiful afternoon. Let's see some scenary on horseback!
Our "expert trainers" took us up another short path to other corral. We circle it and enter. We got to "free ride" (as long as I stayed a bit from other horses). We walked around the dry corral, wondering aimlessly (me at a distance). When the time was up, we left the corral, walked alongside the barns, past the stable, out to the parking lot area. We circled the parking lot and returned to the stable to dismount.
UHM. Hello? Anyone? Well...let's review.
Nestled in the lush crater of a dormant volcano (true), Koko Crater Stables offers a picturesque backdrop for horseback escapades (escapades?). Visitors can take a one-hour jaunt along the flora-lined trails traversing the crater's verdant interior (Jaunt? There were no flora-lined trails. There were no trails!). Led by one of the stable's experienced horse trainers, the excursion will provide views of the crater rim (nope), chances to spot native wildlife (uh, nope), and sweeping oceanic panoramas (only ocean I saw was on the drive to the stables) undisturbed by the presence of unspeakably tentacled behemoths.
This Groupon was a BUST.
9 comments:
I've heard similar comments from folks about groupons here. It seems many businesses were not ready for the flood of interest... And then you had that experience. Yuck.
We absolutely agree as we had an almost identical experience. A complete waste of time and we feel cheated for what we spent and what we believed we would experience.
I used to ride there. I actually owned Buddy at one point (if the buddy you rode was big paint quarter horse). There are no expert trainers there, just plenty of people that will give you an earful about how much they think they know. There is a botanical garden in the crater too, however the horse are not allowed on the trails. If you want a trail ride try some place like Kualoa Ranch. Most of the other riding facilities on island are either show barns, privately owned, or don't have many school horses.
Perhaps you should move back to the mainland where ungrateful people are allowed to voice such one sided views and slander local businesses. Here in Hawaii local businesses take pride in their scenery be it a luscious or dry season. Too bad the horses, craters, birds and neighbouring botanical garden weren't enough to satisfy your mainland style. Did I mention koko craters is a sanctuary for horses, volunteers run and operate this business and these stables depend on the local community and trail rides solely for its income? Take a look at the entire community especially when negatively reviewing our 4 legged friends whos homes are being threatened because of your lonely opinion. BTW most people enjoy horse backriding. Young. Old. Experienced. Inexperienced. Maybe you'd get more out of go-cart riding in kapolei. Than again...that is another local business that doesn't need such a mainland mentality. Signed, a volunteer.
I wanted to add the anonymous comment. I can only assume this is a volunteer from Koko Crater Stables. Since I did not give this less then par experience a raving review, the volunteer believes that it must be because I am from the mainland and expect to much. The only thing I expected was what I believed I was purchasing. I did not get what was stated in the Groupon. I dare to suggest to the volunteer run organization that if you get critical statements regarding the business, and so many local people, animals, and flora depend on it, instead attacking me for the experience I had, why not improve the experience for everyone. If indeed, I am the only, lonely, complainer, then the other positive 1311 people will keep it afloat. I too am sorry that instead of making suggestions on coming during a different time period or how to improve the experience that I had, this volunteer has insured that I will continue to have a negative feeling about this stable. Thank you to the other anonymous comment that suggests a better location to get the promised experience. I enjoy Hawaii, try to buy and support local vendors, businesses and economy. However, I work hard for my money and do want to get what I a pay for and am promised. Everyone wants that. It is not just a mainland mentality, it is common sense. Thank you all for commenting and stopping by.
This place is barely justifiable as a place of business. SO unprofessional. They don't know a thing about customer service or horses for that matter (being a horseperson). We came here on vacation(from outer island) and took a so-called 'trail ride.' I wonder why this was the only place that wasn't booked up. Now I know. We visited some other barns on the island and got the dish on this place. I'm not surprised that this place has quite the horrible reputation. Kualoa ranch is great. But it can be hard to get reservations-- or at least when we called. Too bad so many people have been treated so horribly, and too bad that there aren't a lot of reviews on this place so that people won't waste their money. Hope you have a better experience somewhere else.
By the way, anon, Koko Crater is no 'sanctuary' for horses. Have you seen the condition of the horses and their stalls? Besides providing 'trail rides,' they also get their income from 'lessons,' and various programs. I know what good customer service is and this place definitely does not have it. Give me a break.
Thank you Shauna for sharing your experience. I see this Groupon posted several times since my experience and hope that if someone googles the stable they will get this listing. It should help them make their decision on whether or not it is worth the purchase.
I agree that getting a reservation was an exercise in frustration! I could only leave a message so I said that I did have a voucher and I left the day and time that I wanted. Got a message back saying "we have rides on these days, at these times." I called again, left a message saying, "I want this day, this time, 2 girls." Got another message back saying exactly the same thing as before, I think it's a recording! Finally did go on the chance that they'd have room, my daughter had to ride a pony because that was all that was left. They said it was "lame." Also the people working were not friendly.
Total waste of time and money, and I even bought one full price ride for another person who wanted to come along. My horse(Misty) was a sweet, very small horse, and I even got to have a volunteer to lead me (because she could be stubborn.) What?? This horse did not want to walk any where, although she did it, very slowly. Poor thing! Sure glad, as a 50 year old, I had some one to lead the poor horse. I don't expect too much on these trail rides but come on!!! The horse might do well in the carnival pony ride but not this kind of work. I won't even start on the false advertising of what to expect on the ride. We did go buy the trash 2 possibly 3 times.
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