Phuket Day Trips - What's the shop offer?

[JeffBures]

I'm going to Phuket in April. I'll have three days for diving, and have been trying to find the right dive shop / daytrip schedule. Diving Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Hotel in Karon.

All the dive shop web pages seem to have the day trips on the exact same boats, with a few varations. I'm wondering if the dive shops are just a middle man and taxi service, and I'll be handed off to a totally different operation on the dive boat. Is this true? If so, what's the point in picking one dive shop over another, if they can all book me on the same day trip?

Should I just pick a dive ship in Karon, so I have someone in person to deal with?

My second, more general question: Which day trip boat? I've seen at least three; Asia II, Reef Cruiser, and Choksomporn (Sea Fun Divers). The are all within my budget, so I really don't know which one to pick. Any advice?

I'd like to have nice dives with personal service and decent food. I don't need anything fancy, but am willing to pay a little more for good quality service.

Any advice, insight, experiences, or recomendations?

Thanks!

 

[stevenl]

If so, what's the point in picking one dive shop over another, if they can all book me on the same day trip?

Depends. Some of the DC's will also send a guide with you, so you don't have anything to do with the (sometimes appalling) guides from the boats.

My second, more general question: Which day trip boat? I've seen at least three; Asia II, Reef Cruiser, and Choksomporn (Sea Fun Divers). The are all within my budget, so I really don't know which one to pick. Any advice?

One of the advantages of working together with different boats is that you don't have to limit yourself to the schedule of one boat, but that you are flexible. When you want to go to a certain destination you can go there.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[BigJeff]

I've been diving with Sea-Bees for the last week and a half (and have done so for the last few years).

Very nice boat, big dive deck, food prepared and cooked onboard and experienced staff.

Don't know how the prices compare to the others.

 

[stevenl]

Don't know how the prices compare to the others.

Most expensive of the operators departing from Chalong Pier.
Experienced staff: a lot of their guides are actually trainees. So they can be good, but are not very experienced. Most of their fixed staff is very experienced BTW.

 

[BigJeff]

I do not agree with "a lot" of staff are trainees - having been on the boat for the last 10 days they have had a couple of their students on (qualified Divemaster, not instructor). You are a lot more likely to meet these at the Hotel Pool intro's.

For a typical day I've not seen these represent more than 20% of the dive staff, with 30% more being "regular" freelancers, and 50% being employees.


It's been a long time since I've been on Reef Cruiser (since Fantasea Divers!) - your an agent for other boats (with a good reputation) so how do the onboard facilities compare between the choices?

Asia II,
Reef Cruiser,
Choksomporn (Sea Fun Divers),
Sea-Bees (Excalibur II/Aragon)

 

[Bronson]

Phuket can be quit busy on the piers with lots of dive shops to choose. I like this shop for what they had to offer. They are in Kate Beach.

Scuba Diving Holiday in Phuket, Thailand

 

[iztok]

Have you considered doing a live-aboard during that time? There are operations that have daily departuers/arrivals for say Similan Islands. They offer you flexible schedule.

 

[PSUhorty]

I'm going to Phuket in April. I'll have three days for diving, and have been trying to find the right dive shop / daytrip schedule. Diving Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Hotel in Karon.

All the dive shop web pages seem to have the day trips on the exact same boats, with a few varations. I'm wondering if the dive shops are just a middle man and taxi service, and I'll be handed off to a totally different operation on the dive boat. Is this true? If so, what's the point in picking one dive shop over another, if they can all book me on the same day trip?

Should I just pick a dive ship in Karon, so I have someone in person to deal with?

My second, more general question: Which day trip boat? I've seen at least three; Asia II, Reef Cruiser, and Choksomporn (Sea Fun Divers). The are all within my budget, so I really don't know which one to pick. Any advice?

I'd like to have nice dives with personal service and decent food. I don't need anything fancy, but am willing to pay a little more for good quality service.

Any advice, insight, experiences, or recomendations?

Thanks!

I dove with Dive Asia out of Karon. They couldn’t have been more professional if they tried. They have their own boats, btw. Food was great, boat was great (never felt crammed up with other people), and the employees were great.
Look ‘em up.

 

[stevenl]

I do not agree with "a lot" of staff are trainees - having been on the boat for the last 10 days they have had a couple of their students on (qualified Divemaster, not instructor). You are a lot more likely to meet these at the Hotel Pool intro's.

For a typical day I've not seen these represent more than 20% of the dive staff, with 30% more being "regular" freelancers, and 50% being employees.


It's been a long time since I've been on Reef Cruiser (since Fantasea Divers!) - your an agent for other boats (with a good reputation) so how do the onboard facilities compare between the choices?

Asia II,
Reef Cruiser,
Choksomporn (Sea Fun Divers),
Sea-Bees (Excalibur II/Aragon)

I don't want to get into an argument here about the quality of dive operators here on the island. Next time you're here, come on over for a beer and I'll be happy to let you know my point of view.

So back to the OP's question: you can book with an agent or directly with an operator, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Of the ones you mention:
Dive Asia has the biggest boat, what I don't like is that after pick up they first go to their shop, people fill out firms, sort out equipment etc., and if not applicable one still has to wait till everybody else is finished.
Reef Cruiser is the smallest boat. Normally not that many people on the boat, but if full the boat will feel overcrowded.
Seafun limits the number of divers to 20, so always plenty of space on the boat.

On all these boats you'll have a nice experience.

 

[Quero]

Jeff, you note correctly that everybody here has access to the same boats doing daytrips out of Chalong. But that doesn't make agents mere middlemen. Agents are a source of information in a way that a boat operator, who is obliged to insist on selling its own product first, can not easily be. This is most likely what Stevenl means when he says that agents have more flexibility in scheduling itineraries for dive clients than the boat operators do.

If you go to the boat operators' websites, you will see that each one has a fixed weekly schedule. Depending on the boat and your diving days, it is perfectly possible that you will repeat some dives/dive sites over the days you will be diving if you opt to stick with just that one boat. When you use an agent, this industry professional has access to ALL of the weekly schedules for the 20 or so daytrip boats so that s/he can piece together an itinerary during which repetition of dive sites is kept to a minimum, but which might make use of more than one boat operator. For the days you want to dive in April, for example, if you were to choose to dive exclusively with Dive Asia, you would repeat on Sunday and Tuesday as the itinerary for these day (Phi Phi) is the same. An agent can also tell you that getting to Phi Phi takes 3 hours, and the same getting back, which may mean 6 hours travel time on a boat for two hours of diving (e.g., Euro Divers' Monday itinerary), so maybe you'd like to jump on the op with three dives on the Phi Phi day (Dive Asia) to compensate for the long travel time, and then, to avoid repeating the same itinerary you might switch to a different boat/operator for one of the days. It can be a bit confusing, and that is where an agent comes in to provide insights that can help the diver make informed choices.

If you just pick a shop in Karon someplace, you may very well be greeted by a brilliant Thai smile and receive the warm personal attention of a front office staffer who knows nothing more than what her company offers on any given day. However, if you contact any of us who share information in this forum, you will most certainly get individualized service and lots of help in putting together your itinerary. It is in our best interest to make sure that our divers come off their daytrip boats satisfied, so we are unlikely to simply hand you off to any old op. We have our preferred ones with whom our customers have been happy, and we tend to offer those before any others.

I hope you have a great time here on Phuket!