Slapped In The Face By Tornado Marine Fleet

[Abdulrahman]

This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth !!!!! I own and run a scuba dive center in Kuwait - Bubbles Diving Center- i have been organizing live a board trips for the past 2 years for my dive shop in the red sea (Saudi Arabia) with Al-Ahlam Marine in Jedda and i have to say they are amazing and very HONEST.....
I decided to go to the red sea in Egypt and chose the TORNADO MARINE FLEET based on there huge adds and reputation, anyway i chartered the whole boat (MY HURRICAINE) for my group and paid the down payment like the company asked me to do and i took my reciete.... The trip was for a whole week in the south red sea, i kept getting calls from them that they wanted to keep changing the price which of course was higher never lower, then they said that the nitrox was not included even though the agreement was 18.000 euro and the bus fair was not included as well, keep in mind that we were paying for our own air fare..... once they said the boat would leave from marsa alam then they said from hurgada anyway after all these calls i decided to go before my group to have a look for my self because i wasnt 100% sure that they were being honest with me.....
the trip was suposed to start 4th of aprill 2011 so i travelled Thursday the 31st of march and passed by there office in sharm al shaikh friday night, after i had met with the manager and the owner mr ayman mousa they said there is i small and very minor problem, i said what ? they said the boat is not available and its in dry dock !!!!! that was a huge smack to my face !!!!! i asked why did you say the boat was in the water and one day its in marsa alam and the other its in hurgada and one time they even said its in sharm al shaikh on a mini safari.....?
they said we will give you another boat called the cyclone instead of the hurricaine and also for the same price,,,,, this was nonsince since they knew all along that the boat was in dry dock for a whole month ! how did they rent me the boat and why did they rent me the boat ???? or is this normal for them and this is just there way of buisiness ????? and they were so cool abut the whole deal and expected me to just take the other boat . what if i had come along with my group on monday directly to hurgada and find that there was no hurricaine ?? there were so many what ifs and they just kept saying no this is normal...
I dont really think its normal for them to sell me a boat thats in dry dock and they kept making up stories that the boat was here and there and they knew all along that i was never really gonna get the boat ... thank god a i had met an owner of another boat the night before and i called him and chartered his boat,, believe me it is a much bigger and better boat than the tornado marine fleet will ever have its called the REEF MASTER 42mt steal hull amazing boat...
I am not writting this to advertise for this boat i am saying the truth so be carfull when you deal with the tornado marine fleet cuz you just might end up on a safari in a zodiac and there excuse will be well the zodiac is owned by the fleet so its the same standards............!!!!!

www.redsea-cruises.com check out the boat i chartered

 

[Layla]

This does sound terrible

I've been using Tornado Marine on eight trips [Huricane twice] and never had a problem
But, now there is so much competition in the Red Sea that they are struggling

I'm glad you found a better boat, I'll check out that link for my next Red Sea trip

I hope your trip was, eventually, very enjoyable
Do you have any pictures to post?

Moving the location of the boat may have something to do with weather conditions the previous week
For example the previous week should have been Brothers/ Elphinestone starting Hurghada ending in Marsa
but, weather conditions meant they could not go down
or changing itinerary for the previous guests
But, they should pay your transport

They probably just switch the maintenance months for Hurricane + Cyclone
and thought, well they had an adequate replacement so why worry you

I'm sure Nitrox was included in Hurricane

 

[Abdulrahman]

Thanks for your reply Layla but the main issue was that they knew there boat was in dry dock and they told me that it was out on a mini safari somewhere..... yeah i have some pics will post when i get them resized

 

[TheUWPhotographer.com]

I had looked into this company to organize a photo workshop trip to the south Red Sea. They came with high recommendations from friends in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The vessels looked fantastic, but I got stuck corresponding with some middle-man who could not confirm whether he was a travel agent, wholesaler or neither. The per person price he quoted me was not bad, but he wouldn't give me a price for a whole boat charter or tell me the commission rate. On top of that, he wanted me to give him two free spots so he and a friend could come along and join the workshop! I tried to go direct to the boat, but they would not work with me, since I was already talking to a representative. They had no US representation at all. The deal was just too shady, so I moved on.

Didn't they also lose one of their boats in a marina fire?

 

[Abdulrahman]

Good for you that you didnt get your selt tied up with these people, anyway there are alot of boats out there and alot cheaper as well and very clean as well but the only thing that keeps these guys going is there marketing, they have made a huge name for them selfs but they do not care about there clients, basicly a client to them is a one time thing not really important if the client wants to come back or not

 

[Doc Harry]

I am sorry that you had so much trouble with the TORNADO MARINE FLEET

 

[photog]

...
I dont really think its normal for them to sell me a boat thats in dry dock and they kept making up stories that the boat was here and there and they knew all along that i was never really gonna get the boat ...

Really sorry to hear you had such problems! In 2000 I learned to be very suspicious when I charter a ship. Had a similar story to your's. The company told me everything is fine for our cruise. My partner and I flew to Indonesia early and put our dive gear / cameras on the ship in Bali. They would go with the crew to Kupang (where we meet the ship to begin a 21 day cruise) so we would not have to pay excess baggage fees.

Several days later, the night before we were to board in Kupang, I met my group at the Bali airport, got everyone in bed, had breakfast and airport transfers arranged for 5am next morning. I was just falling asleep when I got a call from the owner. The ship had just left port in Bali. A 3 day cruise to our pickup point!

Major hassle! The owner promised a refund of our lost 3 days. But when we arrived in Kupang it was a different smaller ship! Many problems. Most communication out, leaks, surly cruise director, etc.

The good news is that the ship I HAD chartered was running another trip so we were NOT on it when it caught fire and sank with a load of divers in Bali.

I've seen other instances of dive operators (both live-aboard and resorts) not honoring commitments and disguising the truth. One must be very careful, check up on things oneself and not rely on owners / cruise directors / travel agents to tell the whole story.

I'm glad you had the good sense to go early to learn of the problem and were able to find another ship to take your group!

Deb Fugitt
817-626-0636 (Texas)
cityseahorsetours@gmail.com
www.cityseahorse.com/raja-ampat-diving/

 

[Abdulrahman]

Photog - thanks for sharing your story with us and im so glad you were not on that ship that burned :blessing: your quite lucky but God help the people that were on it... thanks again for sharing