Bareboat Charter -BVI- Dream Yacht Charter Review

[SleeSail]

12/31/23-1/6/24

I just finished a bareboat charter with Dream Yacht Charter out of Hodge's Creek Marina in Tortola, BVI. It was a great chartering experience, staff was very helpful, and there were no inconveniences. Anyone with experience chartering in the islands is aware of "island time", language barriers, and overall uncertainty of things going according to plan.
A few positives stand out:
DYC had a driver to meet us at Beef Island Airport, dropped some of us off at the base, and continued with others to the grocery store and waited for them.
Driver assisted with last minute dinner plans- very helpful. (it was new years eve)

We arrived to the base at 4:45pm on new year's eve. Although I had called ahead the day before and told my reservations agent we were arriving late on NYE, I was hoping to go through briefing that night so we could leave early the next morning. Likely an unexpected long shot. To my surprise, the operations manager / head briefing agent agreed to stay late and do the briefing. The channel to the marina was narrow and skinny, but Teka drove the boat out to show the approach tricks. Teka was pleasant and thorough, and very accommodating. Outstanding service.

We didn't depart at first light, and had forgotten to gather snorkeling equip. the night before. That was the only negative, there weren't many snorkeling masks to choose from, but Teka was able to find some that worked fine. Plenty of fins.

The boat was quite new. Lagoon 42. Excellent condition. Water maker, AC. Food storage was lacking, but there was enough refrigeration with the two outside drawers. Water maker proved essential. We were low on water, but able to make a half a tank at mooring ball. Little gas was used. Drinking glasses were small in size, but we all brought insulated tumblers. Plenty of dishes and pans, and even a jigger and a shaker, and a blender. Coffee maker was small, but when asked, Teka looked on other boats and found a larger one for us.

Hodges Creek does have fuel available, and that was very helpful in returning the boat and not needing to get fuel at another marina. Gas attendant was very pleasant and helpful. Instead of waiting for staff to come and move it from gas dock to slip, I backed it in myself, likely bypassing a 30 minute wait. Debriefing went smoothly, and we hopped on the waiting shuttle to Road Town.

DYC was extremely friendly, helpful, and worked to satisfy my needs and requests. No problems.

[Shanachie]

Hmmm.


First post by OP. Glowing review of a company that has been trashed all over the Internet by charterers for major problems at some, but maybe not all bases.



My radar starts beeping.

[SleeSail]

Geez Shanachie,

I guess since you have fired off 435 replies and I have 1 I can't be trusted? Have you been to Hodges Creek Marina recently or chartered with DYC? You sound like an Internet troll with a conspiracy theory problem.

I thought I'd take time out of my day to contribute to the greater good and post a recent experience, because I've read those other threads. Maybe try pinochle with your time?

[ChrisJHC]

Hi, Sleesail, I appreciated your post given I have no personal experience with DYC.

Like Shanacie, I take any review with a grain of salt but don’t disregard it immediately!

Like anything I read on the internet, I do my own research.

[Shanachie]

Take a look at some of the recent terrible reviews at trustpilot.com and other sites:


https://www.trustpilot.com/review/ww...chtcharter.com


I personally lost some money to Dream Yacht during the pandemic. Not a life-changing amount of money. But just enough to irritate me. Older threads on this site confirm I was not the only one at the time.


A glowing review of a company on your first post raises the reasonable suspicion that you are working for them rather than providing an unbiased account of your experience.


Sorry, but that's just how it is. There are many online reputation companies that perform this service to businesses that suffer from poor dealings with customers.


If you had a great trip, well, great. You apparently got lucky.

[SleeSail]

I've always thought it's better to be lucky than good!

I agree, ChrisJHC, do your own research! My approach and expectations for a trip will not be the same as anyone else's.

This last trip was my fourth bareboat in eight years. Once with Moorings, twice with DYC, and once though an agent who sent me to DYC. All different locations. All trips have been successful with no nightmares. I've booked newer boats when possible, and not old fleet boats, which I think is the reason for few mechanical issues. If you drive around any island you'll notice in the auto body shops, grocery stores hardware stores that there are supply chain issues. If you've waited for service you'll know things move slower. There is plenty of potential for error, and I've experienced some issues, but overall I've had 4/4 excellent trips.

[gnetwerker]

For reference, I've chartered in the BVIs about 12 times over almost 45 years, as well as Greece, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. We chartered in late Jan (2024) from Dream Yacht Charters out of Hodges Creek Marina near Fat Hog Bay on Tortola.

On the one hand, sailing in the BVIs is always wonderful, so I'm not doing a hand-wringing "our trip was ruined" post. On the other hand ...

The older boats at Dream Yachts are very poorly maintained. We faced myriad problems, including an ancient repeatedly patched bimini and dodger that ripped on the first windy day, and a hole in the galley floor caused by one of the checkout crew, that was never fixed. Multiple systems were leaking into the bilge or broken, including the A/C pump (leaking at the thru-hull!) and the galley seawater pump. The fresh water system broke halfway into the trip. Most alarming was the failure of one of the head macerator pumps -- they checked to see if "we'd clogged it". The "technician" disappeared into the head with a wad of paper in his hand, closed the door behind him so I couldn't see, and then announced that the pump output pipe (that I had previously checked) was clogged! A complete scam/ripoff. The sails on our boat were old and patched, the V-berth mattress and all the cushions mold- and mildew-stained, and everything generally tired.

The galley was awful, with two wine glasses (for max pax of 8) and zero tumblers. We had to ask for a pot big enough to cook pasta, and for a colander. The shore power at the marina didn't work (we didn't stay at marinas elsewhere) -- which threatened to spoil our newly-purchased provisions.

Of folks we met from other boats, one had a problem with their winch, and I heard of many other problems. Bottom line -- they don't maintain their boats.



I'll never charter from Dream Yacht again (at least in the BVIs).

[Tin Tin]

I think the OP is a genuine review, I have had similar experiences with Moorings/Sunsail. Horizon, TMM and a number of 2nd tier local operators around the planet. Did all boats have the right type of wine glass, no. Our first charter in Belize years ago the only functioning instruments were the depth sounder and compass - tied some string to the side stay and away we went using a photocopied paper chart - we had a blast.

[bstreep]

Just read about a charter group with 31 people got cancelled by Dream Yacht just days before the charter. Money refunded, but they had all bought plane tickets, etc that weren’t refundable. To sue DYC, your contract says you will sue in Mauritius. Middle of the Indian Ocean. Nope. They aren’t scum are they. Yup. Go ahead and trust them with your vacation. They ruined ours.

[jspoone]

I just wanted to confirm the same experience as the OP. We just got off a 7 day charter with DYC out of BVI on Saturday. We arrived late after the base was closed, so we did have a little trouble finding the boat as there was no list on the door as I was told there would be. I was hesitant to use DYC after all the bad negative reviews, but I would not have any reservations about chartering with the BVI base again. We had a Bali 4.4, which was great for the group of people we had, but it does not sail well at all. Everything on the boat worked great, AC, Genset, watermaker, etc. The only hiccup we had was when we arrived at the boat they had the generator running instead of hooking up to shore power, so we only had 80% fuel. Before departure the next morning, they moved the boat to the fuel dock and topped it off and we were gone. This was a minor delay, so no real inconvenience. Please feel free to PM me if anyone has any additional questions.