Diving World Disaster
On 26th September 2007 I woke at 230 am in a state of pre holiday excitement, with bags packed and tickets and passport checked and double checked my dive buddy and I set of for Gatwick South terminal. Having arrived with plenty of time at the airport parking I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when it turned out our holiday operator diving world had miss-informed us. The tickets clearly stated the flight departed from South terminal--this was not the case. Luckily we had given plenty of time and so we managed to transfer to the north terminal with all our bags ready to book in.
Having safely landed in Egypt the problems started again. We had pre-booked Egyptian visas with diving world and had had several conversations with the manager Yassin prior to leaving to ensure that confirmation of this fact was received at the Egyptian side. However the tour guide insisted that we had to pay again. He then attempted to charge $15 USAD for the visa whilst stood outside the office, where the same visa was just $7 USAD. At first I thought, it's Egypt-lets just forget it and move on, but the organisation did not get any better from there.
The holiday we paid a considerable fee for was due to start with us boarding The Reef Master at Marsa Allam on the first night ready for a fully days diving on St John's Reef the next morning. The un-explained change of itinerary saw us sitting on an un-air-conditioned bus for 2.5 hours. Contact with Yassin was attempted at this time but unsurprisingly he was unable to speak with us. We were put up in a holiday complex, made to rush straight from the bus to get some dinner as the restaurant would not wait for us to get into our rooms and change, and then to rub salt into the wounds we were made to pay for all beverages despite the fact that the holiday we paid for was all inclusive. Shortly after dinner at about 9.30pm all the lights were switched off and it was impossible to find anyone to buy a drink from.
Having been told we would be embarking the Reef Master at 1pm the next day - we were again disappointed by another 2 hours wait. We eventually got on board the boat at 4.30 pm. Just enough time to watch the sun set before our suggested first dive in the pitch black of night--not everyone's cup of tea as you can imagine. So end of day two and three dives lost, small compensation that the boat was just the luxury we had expected and the staff were very welcoming. On the penultimate day we had to fight for three dives as the crew were informed by Yassin that we would do one morning dive and that would be it--another attempt by Diving World to lessen our promised three or four dives per day.
Having returned home and raised these issues with diving world, I got no response, in fact Yassin flatly refused to speak with my dive buddy insisting that all contact be made through me. With this in mind I spoke directly with Yassin and on two occasions despite my friendly attitude to resolving our complaint Yassin decided the best way to deal with the issue was to blame Reef Masters crew and hang up the phone. I know that I was not alone in writing to Yassin and I was not alone in getting no response. The other passengers who were on the boat had booked with diving world previously and had the same poor organisation and service that we experienced on this instance, needless to say what had been forgiven for a one off mishap--has now been confirmed as poor service guaranteed. Over one month on there has still be not response from Yassin at diving world--despite numerous telephone calls and e-mails. One of the passengers return flights was not confirmed until the day of departure, leading him to have significant stress throughout the holiday and having to make numerous expensive phone calls back to the UK based office of diving world to try and ensure he was in fact going to make it back to Manchester, not exactly the service you expect when you are paying for 5* luxury.
The bottom line is if you plan to book a luxury diving holiday don't use Diving World--www.divingworld.co.uk. It is a shame that it has come to this, Reef Master was a fabulous vessel and I can not recommend it highly enough but I would not dive with this company again and I would recommend you don't either.
On 26th September 2007 I woke at 230 am in a state of pre holiday excitement, with bags packed and tickets and passport checked and double checked my dive buddy and I set of for Gatwick South terminal. Having arrived with plenty of time at the airport parking I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when it turned out our holiday operator diving world had miss-informed us. The tickets clearly stated the flight departed from South terminal--this was not the case. Luckily we had given plenty of time and so we managed to transfer to the north terminal with all our bags ready to book in.
Having safely landed in Egypt the problems started again. We had pre-booked Egyptian visas with diving world and had had several conversations with the manager Yassin prior to leaving to ensure that confirmation of this fact was received at the Egyptian side. However the tour guide insisted that we had to pay again. He then attempted to charge $15 USAD for the visa whilst stood outside the office, where the same visa was just $7 USAD. At first I thought, it's Egypt-lets just forget it and move on, but the organisation did not get any better from there.
The holiday we paid a considerable fee for was due to start with us boarding The Reef Master at Marsa Allam on the first night ready for a fully days diving on St John's Reef the next morning. The un-explained change of itinerary saw us sitting on an un-air-conditioned bus for 2.5 hours. Contact with Yassin was attempted at this time but unsurprisingly he was unable to speak with us. We were put up in a holiday complex, made to rush straight from the bus to get some dinner as the restaurant would not wait for us to get into our rooms and change, and then to rub salt into the wounds we were made to pay for all beverages despite the fact that the holiday we paid for was all inclusive. Shortly after dinner at about 9.30pm all the lights were switched off and it was impossible to find anyone to buy a drink from.
Having been told we would be embarking the Reef Master at 1pm the next day - we were again disappointed by another 2 hours wait. We eventually got on board the boat at 4.30 pm. Just enough time to watch the sun set before our suggested first dive in the pitch black of night--not everyone's cup of tea as you can imagine. So end of day two and three dives lost, small compensation that the boat was just the luxury we had expected and the staff were very welcoming. On the penultimate day we had to fight for three dives as the crew were informed by Yassin that we would do one morning dive and that would be it--another attempt by Diving World to lessen our promised three or four dives per day.
Having returned home and raised these issues with diving world, I got no response, in fact Yassin flatly refused to speak with my dive buddy insisting that all contact be made through me. With this in mind I spoke directly with Yassin and on two occasions despite my friendly attitude to resolving our complaint Yassin decided the best way to deal with the issue was to blame Reef Masters crew and hang up the phone. I know that I was not alone in writing to Yassin and I was not alone in getting no response. The other passengers who were on the boat had booked with diving world previously and had the same poor organisation and service that we experienced on this instance, needless to say what had been forgiven for a one off mishap--has now been confirmed as poor service guaranteed. Over one month on there has still be not response from Yassin at diving world--despite numerous telephone calls and e-mails. One of the passengers return flights was not confirmed until the day of departure, leading him to have significant stress throughout the holiday and having to make numerous expensive phone calls back to the UK based office of diving world to try and ensure he was in fact going to make it back to Manchester, not exactly the service you expect when you are paying for 5* luxury.
The bottom line is if you plan to book a luxury diving holiday don't use Diving World--www.divingworld.co.uk. It is a shame that it has come to this, Reef Master was a fabulous vessel and I can not recommend it highly enough but I would not dive with this company again and I would recommend you don't either.
