I want to start with the disclaimer that everyone is on their own journey in life, and because of…read morethat, experiences are personal and may be seen differently by others. I also want to apologize for revising this review twice; my first attempt was rushed and full of misspellings, and the second was a quick fix of those errors. However, after being home and having the time to relax and reflect, I realized there were details gnawing at my soul that I needed to share. While I could have justified the $250 price tag if the experience had met my expectations of what was included, I simply cannot justify it for the experience we actually had. I am left with a soured, bitter aftertaste in my heart for an experience that I wanted with my family.
It is hard for me to give a five-star rating just because someone "tried"; I believe a top-tier rating must be earned through the experience one had, and Jan lacked in presentation, friendliness, and overall value. For our party of four, we paid $1,000, and in hindsight, we could have had a significantly better experience by using our own rental car and buying a high-quality telescope for half the cost. Don't get me wrong, the views were amazing, but Jan expected the National Park (which she did not create) to carry the entire value of the tour. There was no historical context shared about the land; she simply relied on the scenery to do the work.
The lack of consideration for her guests was most apparent in how she rushed us. Both of my parents have medical limitations--my mother is a brain surgery survivor and my stepfather was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. Both were medically cleared by their doctors for this visit, so while their conditions were not life-threatening, they naturally move at a slower pace, or what some would refer to as "Hawaii time." At the stop at the top of the mountain, Jan initially told us we would have an hour to look around, then suddenly changed it to 15 minutes. This was incredibly insensitive; 15 minutes is a rush for someone physically fit, let alone for people managing mobility issues.
The actual stargazing was equally frustrating and felt hypocritical. Jan would complain if someone accidentally turned on a phone screen, claiming it affected her dilated pupils, yet she had no problem using a high-powered laser pointer against rocks instead of the sky, refracting the light directly into our eyes. Furthermore, none of us got long at the telescope because she insisted on refocusing it after every two people, all while a personal friend of hers joined for free and took up our paid telescope time.
To put the lack of value in perspective, we recently paid $165 for a snorkeling tour on a catamaran that included a crew of five, two full meals, and equipment. Here, we had to bring our own snacks and water, and Jan even requested to use our personal National Park passes to get the group through the gate. Between the conspiracy theories playing loudly on the radio, her robotic and demanding attitude, and the underwhelming equipment, we felt massively overcharged. You can find better value elsewhere or by driving yourself at your own pace.