One of the benefits of flying in HI is that the FSDO is never able to accommodate the check ride within a reasonable amount of time, so they just let you go to a DE by default and not even ask for a FSDO ride, and yes I'm talking about the CFI initial.

But I'm shopping around for price, I think if I do it Part 61 I could get away with the CFI-MEI for about $1500 if I do the ride in a multi first.