In desperate and immediate need of Phuket recommendations

[lowwall]

I would also have a look at bigbluediving khao lak . They have a great boat Mv Hallelujah and a good crew of DM's.

They also have very fast boats (maybe the fastest) from Khao Lak to Richelou and Koh Bon if you want to do day trips

Ugh. I wouldn't try the day trip. it's a lot of travel for not much diving. I took one of those speedboats out to a big boat, but I spent the night on the big boat so I got 7 dives over 2 days instead on 2 dives in one day

Here's the itinerary for one of the big boats that's served by a speedboat on the SImilans. The big boat stays out and the divers are transferred to and from Khao Lak via speedboat. It allows for very flexible scheduling, but you can see the issue with single day trips.

And here's the speedboat. Over an hour of this each way is not fun.

 

[Pillpusher]

Eyeballing Manta Queen 7 or 8... Yes, no, maybe so? Still have to look at Steve's later as well.

 

[lowwall]

No, it's usage based, which sucks. It was flat rate for 24 hours, and carried over to connecting flights last time I flew with them. It claims that internet browsing will only eat about 15MB per hour, but it's draining 5-10x that fast. I'm already $90 in the hole on wifi costs this flight. Insane.

Whoops, I'll quit posting photos

Really, give Steven a call once you are settled in. He's a no BS guy (he's Dutch, it's a national trait) and if you can tell him what you want, he'll figure out the best way to accomplish it. He knows far more about the boats and operators than you'll ever be able to get from the internets. And he has all the phone numbers and speaks Thai, so can get answers about availability very quickly which is going to be important in your situation.

 

[lowwall]

Eyeballing Manta 7 or 8... Yes, no, maybe so? Still have to look at Steve's later as well.

My last trip was on Manta 8 (booked through Steven). I'd rate it as acceptable. If I go back there, I will try for something a little higher end. I knew what I was getting into, but it was late in the season and they were the only one offering the itinerary I wanted.

 

[Pillpusher]

My last trip was on Manta 8 (booked through Steven). I'd rate it as acceptable. If I go back there, I will try for something a little higher end. I knew what I was getting into, but it was late in the season and they were the only one offering the itinerary I wanted.

What didn't you like about it? I'm probably less concerned with appearance and cleanliness than I am the quality of the guides and crew, as well as how smoothly the operation runs.

 

[Pillpusher]

Whoops, I'll quit posting photos

Really, give Steven a call once you are settled in. He's a no BS guy (he's Dutch, it's a national trait) and if you can tell him what you want, he'll figure out the best way to accomplish it. He knows far more about the boats and operators than you'll ever be able to get from the internets. And he has all the phone numbers and speaks Thai, so can get answers about availability very quickly which is going to be important in your situation.

Right on. I get along fairly well with most of the Dutchies on Bonaire, so I'm sure we'd get along just swell.

 

[lowwall]

What didn't you like about it? I'm probably less concerned with appearance and cleanliness than I am the quality of the guides and crew, as well as how smoothly the operation runs.

They take lots of groups of inexperienced divers so to keep them safe, dives are short and and they stick to benign conditions. Also the food is only mediocre, which is a crime considering you are in Thailand.

 

[Pillpusher]

They take lots of groups of inexperienced divers so to keep them safe, dives are short and and they stick to benign conditions. Also the food is only mediocre, which is a crime considering you are in Thailand.

Yikes. That’s certainly not ideal.

 

[lowwall]

New divers, especially from the PRC, are the largest customer base there. You won't be put in a dive group with them, but they often set the limits of what the operator will do. You have to go to some effort to avoid them, but it is possible.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I'm happy to report that most of the customers on the MV Bavaria are Austrian or German because it is a German run dive boat and company (Loma Diving)