The upper deck seating is a great place to enjoy the cruise to the Na Pali area. There are also seating areas around the deck. There’s even seating inside if your body has had enough sun. There are two reasonably clean "heads."

The captain does a good job pointing out the various landmarks without going overboard. The crew goes out of its way to serve the food and drinks. They seem to know the basic questions to ask a tourist without sounding like they were taught at Wal-Mart. The opportunity to leave a gratuity is offered at the end of the tour.

Most companies use the same snorkel spots on the Na Pali coast. The water instructor gives a good orientation to those who have never snorkeled. Blue Dolphin requires a life vest, which they feel makes it easier to see the bodies in the water. You don’t have to inflate it, but it is a minor annoyance. We found the variety of fish to be good, but to be honest, we saw just about the same fish snorkeling at Poipu in front of the new Marriott. However, the Na Pali spot was BEAUTIFUL.

They offer a one-tank "introductory" scuba dive for extra. You go through a flip-chart orientation and some instruction with the divemaster. I think they use the smaller tanks since the time underwater seemed a little shorter the beach entry dive we took on Maui.

We’ve also done the "Forbidden Island" tour with Blue Dolphin. It is Na Pali tour, except you continue out to Niihau to snorkel and eat. We thought this trip was too long. The diving and snorkeling out at Niihau was interesting, but not worth the two extra travel hours. And Niihau really wasn’t much to look at. We wouldn’t recommend this trip.

We’ve done a late-afternoon tour of Na Pali with no snorkel option. They try to arrive back at Port Allen just at sunset. It’s really quite pretty, and if you don’t want to snorkel, this trip is shorter and cheaper.

Be aware: These are not sailing trips. The sails seem almost more for decor than functionality. Most of the cruise is powered by their engines.

We recommend Blue Dolphin based on their better boat configuration.

The Na Pali coastline was amazing and long. Images of Jurassic Park came to mind and rightly so, as the original movie’s opening scenes were filmed by helicopter from these cliffs. We were told the waterfall in the movie was located on the opposite side of the island from these cliffs even though in the movie the helicopter lands nearby after cruising close to these nature wonders. The water in many of the coves along this side of the island is a brilliant emerald to turquoise color.

The snorkeling, though, was disappointing, as the water was not clear this time of year. Although we were able to spot a few Moorish Idol fish, the specimens were nothing like those we encountered when we snorkeled on the Big Island at the Captain Cook preserve.

After about 30 minutes, we saw four whales who were very active and showed off for us with their leaps and blowing water. This was very unexpected as it was so late in the season to see them. We then encountered a school of dolphins who played with the boat! We go down on the trampoline of the boat and could see the dolphins swimming right underneath! They acted like they were racing with the boat.

The coastline of Na'Pali then came into sight and it was like nothing you can imagine! Sheer mountains coming straight out of the ocean that are green with foliage. The waterfalls and shapes of the mountains are amazing. We stopped to snorkel and I went scuba diving.

Unfortunately, there were not a lot of fish to see, but we did find a blowfish that was interesting. The sails were sent up and we sailed around the point while having lunch and then it was back to the docks. . . this was a very memorable trip and definitely a well-run tour company.