We are a group of 9 divers from Hong Kong and all of us have been joined the liveaboard in Similan for more than 3 times. The diving experience on 25-29 Nov 2010 with Santana (MV Discovery) is the worst we encountered so far. Our entire vacation is ruined.
Santana is owned by a German called Andrea and the company claims that they are the most experienced dive centre with more than 30 years experience in business. This is one of the reasons why we choose this liveaboard. I have been contacting Andrea before our trip constantly through emails and we have paid her deposit in July. She asked me to pay her the rest on 25 Nov 10:00am but since we arrived at mid-night on 24 so I suggested paying her on 25 Nov 12:30pm when her staff went to pick up our bags on 25 Nov. She didn’t say no so I supposed it’s ok for me to pay when her staff dropped me in her office. When I arrived Santana office, Andrea welcomed me with a rude manner and said she was waiting me for the whole morning. She accused me of not being paying her on 10:00am but I had sent an email to her saying I’ll be there at 12:30pm! OK, anyway, I didn’t argue with her and I paid the rest and confirmed with her the car will pick up our group from hotel at 6:00pm on 25 Nov.
Our nightmare began on 25 Nov. At 6:00pm, all of us wait at the lobby but until 6:30pm, the car hadn’t come. So, I called Andrea and she said the car was picking someone else up and asked us to wait for 5 mins. We waited for another 15 mins and the car finally arrived. When we arrived Santana office, it was already 7pm. We then filled in the questionnaires and thought we could get on the boat very soon. As from what Andrea communicated with me before, MV Discovery would depart from Patong at around 7:00pm. However, I was told another 30 mins waiting for the car to come picking us up because the boat was not parked on Patong beach!! By then, it was about 7:45pm and all of us didn’t have our dinner because Andrea said dinner would be served on the boat. When I asked Andrea how long does it take from Patong to the pier, she said 20-30 mins but it finally took us an hour to the pier. By the time we were on the boat, it was 9:00pm and all of us felt hungry and tired. According to itinerary, dinner aboard was at 7:00pm. It was talking about 2.5 hours behind schedule. After briefing and unpacking, it was 9:30pm and dinner was served with only ONE plate of noodles!!!! On the boat, there were 16 starving people (My group has 9 divers, 3 more individual divers, 2 DMs and 1 boat in charge) who were not having dinner until 9:30pm and there was ONE plate of noodles!!!! Some of my friends were getting crazy and ask the kitchen to prepare some more food. The cook then cooked some rice and at 11:00pm, we have our SECOND plate of fired rice finally!!!
However, some basic human needs, such as having adequate food is normal and natural. Is this the way a so-called 30-years diving experience company treating it’s customers?
The boat in charge is an English guy called Spencer. He asked us to take off our sandals/shoes and put them in a bucket. The floor of the boat was so dirty and seems lack of maintenance. All of us took our sandals on again after we saw the dirty floor!
And the so-called TV room, the TV was placed on the floor. The sockets on the top seems to be very old and were going to have power leakage. The light besides the sockets was broken by the way. The sun deck was very dirty and no one dare to stay for a second. All in all, the MV Discovery looks like uninhabited for a very long time. The vessel was not being taken care of. It is not a boat which is suitable for people to live in.
Talking about diving, it was another nightmare. We were told by Mr. Spencer one of the compressors was broken and hence we would not have air-con in the room. He gave us two choices. One was having air-con in rooms but no tanks for diving. Second was no air-cons in rooms but had tanks for diving. Of course, we chosen second option because this was our diving holiday, right? Besides, he asked us to open the windows and turn on the fans instead. However, all fans were very dusty (forget to take pictures L) and when we switched them on, some black and grey materials fallen on our beds!! And one of the windows in the room couldn’t open. This is the worst diving operations we have ever encountered. We paid money for the enough food, clean and air-cons rooms and good maintenance of diving gears but none of these were within our expectation!!! One thing we were satisfied with was two good DMs who only worked as freelance for Santana only.
Everyday, we woke up at 7am and dived at 8am. Second dive at 12:00pm. Third dive at 4:30pm. Night dive at 7:40pm. By the time we had our dinner, it was talking about nearly 9:00pm. All of us are not first time going liveaboard. The surface time is far too long compare with other boats. The reason given by Spencer was that there was not enough time for charging the tanks. Luckily, we bought a lot of snacks ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll feel starving all the times. Since one of the compressors was broken down, all the tanks were not fully charged. 170-180 bar approximately. On first day of diving, when we checked the air, we found that about one-fourth of the tanks were empty. Spencer explained there maybe some misunderstanding with the crew and asked us to take off the first stage after each dive so the crew would know which tanks were empty. However, after we followed his instructions, the same situation happened again for the next dive. What the hell were the crew and Mr. Spencer doing actually? One of major their tasks was to fill up our tanks and make sure the tanks had air inside. Am I thinking or expecting something wrong?! Besides, we were accused some of us leaving the tanks with 30 bar after dive. Spencer said this was the main reason why it took so long for him to charge the tanks back to full but the main reason should be his broken compressor! Let alone the long surface time between dives because of the broken compressor, the bottom time was especially short. We were told if we wanted to have a full tank for night dive, we had to wait until 8:30pm. So, after discussion with my friends, we came up with a suggestion to have 150 bar tanks and the bottom time of the first night dive was 30 mins. This is the shortest dive time I ever have! Besides, our group’s dive time was apparently shorter than the other group for all 12 dives. Say, we dived for 50 mins and the other group at least could have 60 mins dive time. I don’t know why we were discriminated!!
On 28 Nov, we had our first dive in Ka Bon Pinnacle which we were told this was a deep dive. However, when we checked our computer, it was only 28m. 28m cannot be clarified as a deep dive I presume. The last night dive was in Honey Moon Bay at around 7:30pm. After this dive, the boat drove back to Patong immediately. The sea was very choppy and the boat swung quite severe. Some of my friends felt unwell and could not have dinner in this situation. We asked if the boat could stop for us to have dinner first and was told the boat would not stop until 3:00am! Hence, the last dinner on the boat was another disaster. Besides, the cooking team was merely responsible for cooking and washing the dishes. After each meal, we, DMs and all other divers had to clean up the table ourselves! On one occasion, my friend could not stand the floor was so dirty and she even took up a broom to sweep the floor herself!
On 29 Nov morning, we all felt reborn because we saw Patong beach was just within our distance! However, before we departed to Patong, Spencer checked and found one torch was missing. He asked if we took it and forget returning to him. God damn it……my friend had returned on the date before. He accused us of taking it and asked us to reopen our packed luggages to check for him. Luckily, one of the crew admitted taking his torch for finding something. See, this was how he treated his customers, seems like we were thefts!!
Seeing all the miserable experience we have with Santana and MV Discovery, I will never return to this boat again and would urge anyone else interested in Phuket diving, safe service and good business ethic to do the same. Lastly, I must say, Andrea and Spencer, you guys have ruined our holiday and nothing can be done to remedy the situation. In the meantime, I will continue to tell my story to as many people in the dive community as possible to avoid more victims.
