9 day trip - diving similan islands in April + super short trip to Cambodia

[Diva Marine]

Yes, the day of, or day before we were ready to make our trip on Giamani, their generator broke down. They still had a back-up generator, but were being responsible by not taking their boat out for our trip. The dive group of unassociated passengers including us, were locked into our departure date at the end of our planned trip, so options for another boat were extremely limited. Giamani offered to just refund us our money at that time. Our group collectively almost begged them to find an alternative boat b/c we had traveled so far. They jumped through hoops to get us on an alternative boat, with the departure date a day later than our originally planned trip. Giamani put us up in a hotel that night at their cost and paid for a very nice dinner for us all. The next morning we were off to sea on the alternative boat. There were loads of staff taking care of everything with the combined crews. Giamani also brought all of the food and bedding materials for the trip. They worked around the clock to get everything prepared in a short time.

You say the alternative boat was just waiting for its annual maintenance. We think the problems on that boat go way deeper than just needing annual maintenance. The ceilings had extensive leaks throughout the boat, some of which weren't apparent until it set off with movement. The dining area ceilings were dropping brown water on the dining table soon after we set off, before the rain even started. This looks to us like it will require extensive repairs, based upon what we saw. The alternative boat had just run a trip a few weeks ago --- check out this review from divezone.net, which explains exactly what we experienced: SY Diva Andaman Liveaboard Review – Phuket, Similan Islands, Surin Islands, Thailand Dive Boat Reviews posted by Farshad Danicek on April 8, 2018. This means they've run their own charters with the deplorable conditions we saw - previous to stopping for the season for maintenance. Also, the alternative boat gave us their own boat briefing when we got on, never mentioning one thing about leaks or roaches, or what to do about them.

You say that the boat we were on is much more comfortable than Giamani even with a few leaks. That is SOOO not the case. We had reserved the Master Suite on the Giamani. We would have been in comparative blissful luxury to be in that cabin, with no filthy water pouring on our bodies and belongings, without roaches crawling everywhere. That was a horrific experience. Running up to the dining room benches to try to lay down for sleep in the middle of the night, only to be rained on with brown water from those ceilings too, wasn't even a workable solution. 2 nights of little sleep because of being soaked with dirty water, and with roaches crawling around in the kitchen, dining room, cabins and bathrooms was unbearable, and we were so grossed out. Giamani did the right thing in cutting the trip even shorter based on those conditions.

Giamani refunded us all for a substantial portion of our trip, in addition to the hotel and dinner costs the night before the trip. And, despite all of the misery the alternative boat caused us, the Giamani crew made a herculean effort to make the trip fun and managed to salvage 9 incredible dives for us. We would venture to say that Giamani made no money whatsoever from our trip, and quite possibly were in "the red" on this one. We're not saying that the owners and crew of the alternative boat were not nice to us in our interactions with them - because they were. And, this was definitely not the alternative boat crew's fault - they were great. If we were the owner of the alternative boat, there's no WAY we would have let any passengers on it in its present condition.

We have absolute trust and respect for the Giamani operation and crew after this experience, and we would unquestionably trust them for a future trip on their boat.

This writing is solely us speaking our opinions (and facts) from our experience - and we don't know what Giamani would say about it -- they maybe would not want us to go into these details on the alternative boat. We wouldn't have wanted to do that either - had we not read the previous post, and felt the need to set the record straight for the 100% responsibility the Giamani took for this trip.

 

[Diva Marine]

We would like to clarify a few facts regarding the sequence of events that led to the outcome of the dive cruise we operated to help out the Giamani (April 22-26). This is purely with the intention to draw your attentions to the reality of what transpired and not to disregard the feelings of others, nor to participate in the slander that seems to have been initiated.

We believe in the value of good will. We believe that help and support are fundamental within any industry. And despite the complete lack of gratitude we still hope to set the standard of a positive inter-company work culture among the live-aboard yacht owners/operators in this region.

• We received a call from the Giamani manager/owner on Sunday evening just before sunset
• He explained that the Giamani’s generator was out of order beyond repair and they had six clients scheduled on the Similans cruise that night.
• He requested Diva’s help by taking the group as scheduled, else they would have to be cancelled altogether with no way to reach the Similans & Surin.
• We explained that we had begun our low-season works and that the Diva was not ready for operational use; the decks were being refurbished, the AC was being serviced, refrigerators dismantled, there was no linen onboard or supplies of any sort, our fuel tank had only the buffer amount and we had only 3 staff on board (the captain, engineer and dinghy boy)
• We asked twice if there was an alternate option as we would rather not do this.
• Additionally, if the boat was to be made even partly usable we would need staff to help cleaning the rooms and toilets, stocking supplies, setting up the rooms and lounge and in general participating in the entire preparation – for a departure within 8 hours!
• He said he would run this situation by his clients (disclosing the reality) and check as to whether they were still keen given this minimal option.
• When he called back, to our surprise, he claimed that his guests were fine with this. We therefore presumed that he had disclosed all this information to them and his cruise leader and instructors and staff and genuinely got their approval.
• Incidentally, this was not considered nor charged for as a charter – but the Giamani offered a nominal amount to cover the running costs for this last-minute trip.
• The food, housekeeping, cruise-leading, diving was to be managed by the Giamani’s team as we were not staffed
• Through Sunday night, our team of three worked on the boat set up, without the assistance they had guaranteed
• Anyhow we went ahead with a genuine intent and spirit to help achieve a pleasant and successful cruise for the group.
• During our boat-briefing we reiterated a general description of the situation and status of the boat to the instructors and guests
• The instructors and crew were provided our spare guest cabins that were under renovation
• We ensured keeping to the route and accommodated any and all changes that were requested, managed all the tank fills, offered the use of our equipment, shared our stock of wine, coffee, tea, cold drinks and everything else that we had on board, all at no charge, and managed the dive drop offs and pickups with our dinghies, in a reliable, safe and timely manner.
• Our skeletal crew even assisted in everything from kitchen to housekeeping operations

It is obviously not a matter of pride that during the two nights of heavy rain, our decks, which were undergoing a major overhaul, sprouted numerous leaks. Our team stayed up all night to resolve the situation and the owners cabin was made up fresh and provided to the guests whose cabin was leaking.

We would like to state again, in earnest, that we did our best, and what we believe was the right thing to do. Helped another boat operation in need. And clearly disclosed our current status as ‘under-repair’ at the very outset.

We would also like to highlight that this episode has set our own work back considerably, while we are on a tight schedule to be ready by June. Numerous appointments, service arrangements and repairs were cancelled and put on hold in order for us to fare out to assist the Giamani at 8 hours’ notice. This was done with grace, goodwill and a thoughtful spirit. We did not quote an amount and accepted what they could offer even though it wouldn’t cover our overheads.

The least we would expect now is an apology from them and their cruise leader for the verbal abuse and slander that was then showered upon our team as a charade for the clients.

By early June, the SY Diva Andaman will be again fully operational and in perfect condition to operate cruises, at least at her initial luxury level. After the loss of 2 masts in a storm 1 ½ year ago, our team achieved miracles to bring her back to life. This low season’s works and refurbishing projects planned for her further upgrade are very ambitious and we’re looking forward to presenting these upgrades with the dive community very soon.

We do hope that along with poorly informed opinions broadcasted within the community there is also a sense of reasonable consideration and respect for sincere work.

We would warmly and gladly host any and all of you onboard again to share the real Diva Experience with you as we do feel poorly for the fact that you weren’t informed by the tour leaders of the realities and circumstances.

Yet, most importantly we are happy that you had enjoyable dives and a good diving experience with every sighting that divers dream of.


Best Regards


Yannick Mazy