Andaman Wave Master — Local services in Ratsada

RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! ANDAMAN WAVE MASTER, you are SCAMMERS!!! I put one star because Google obliged me.

I took a boat of this company in May 2018 from Krabi to Phi Phi with my bicycle. Yet at the begining, you have to know that sailers, into the terminal ferry, will treat you like dogs, slapping in their hands, to yell at you, as if you were merchandise. When I bought my ticket in the ferry terminal, I asked if I would have any extra fees to pay for my bike, (as I'm used to, because I've been traveling around the world by bike for 2 years now) and the man told me it was ok for sure. (I asked twice...)

But when I arrived on the quay, the boat's personnal (some cheeky teenagers), refused me to come aboard unless I would pay double price. In cash. Obviously. For no reason (please don't answer, that it's for paying the guys who have to carry the bike, cause I had to do it). I refused to pay, and asked to see the captain, who even didn't talk to me, ignored me, and agreed with the teenagers. By the way, they were smoking cigarets on the quay, laughing at me, and talking to me in Thaï (not telling me some kind words, I guess...) Then I said I would take the boat anyway, because it was the scam, and quickly, one of the teenagers, who thought that he was going to intimidate me, came to me as if he wanted to fight! (Lol...) People around were shoked about the personnal's behavior. As I didn't want to move, the captain finally agreed to talk (!!) and told me that if I wanted, I could take the next boat.... Which was the same boat, 3 hours after... with the same team... Consequently, I had to let them SCAM me and I had to pay the teenager, who furthermore, stayed on the quay!!!! He wasn't even working on the boat. It's a SHAME. Andaman Wave Master, you are lucky for the moment, but Internet exists now, and this kind of things will be know in the future. I hope your company will close. You don't deserv your islands, and you are a shame for such a beautful country...

I cannot stress this enough: I had so much fun on what I thought was going to be a very dodgy booking.

We booked the night before and I got an ominous "pickup confirmed" reply back from the company with a 15 minute window. Rocked down to the lobby expecting to have been tourist trapped, but lo and behold 8 minutes past their designated timing this mad mini van with reflective interior decor rocked up to take us to what I can only describe as organised chaos. The Rassada pier is in itself a hectic experience, and the staff from each company exchange patrons like a well rehearsed trade - walking up and down the terminals with a duckling-esque line of foreigners. We got our little sticker from Andaman, and a confirmatory nod our last minute tickets were legit. I was delighted to see a bowl of nondescript pills on the counter which I could only imagine/hope was travel calm (after having seen the winds pick up on our balcony that morning this was some kind of saving grace). We got ushered to the boat 20 mins later, given life vests and packed in against strangers before hitting Sea State 5 at like 40 knots. It was amazing fun to rocket through the Andaman Sea, some people definitely looked like they weren't exactly enjoying themselves, but the staff were quick to respond with plastic bags for anyone who didn't take from the pill bowl.

Recommend these guys if you wanna maximise your time on the islands for a day trip, despite expecting something to fall through at every point in our trip they absolutely came through for us. BYO travel calm, and probably water proof your bags...

Booked speedboat tickets from Phi Phi to Phuket, as we wanted to make sure we had a little more of a cushion getting to our flight at Phuket airport and were told the speed boat would be an hour instead of 2 hours on the ferry. Unfortunately about 3 minutes into the trip one of the three engines started having issues and making a horrible beeping sound. At that point I noticed that one of the other three engines was already out. The crew struggled to get the two non functional engines to work for the entire trip, which ended up taking an hour and 40 min. It was miserable to whole way, with a loud beeping noise and a lot of rocking, since we were just chugging along with a single engine. At several points we came to a complete stop while they tried to fix whatever was going on. Several people got seasick while we were stopped and rocking back and forth.

I understand that mechanical issues happen, but this seems like it was a problem they knew about before leaving, and still decided to embark, which feels like questionable judgement. There was also zero attempt at communication or apologies given. Really regret that we spent extra money on this miserable experience, when the ferry took just as long and was significantly more pleasant of an experience.

Not sure if our airport transfer was booked through the same company (our hotel made the arrangements) but if so, that part was smooth and...