Guest Stewart Posted February 27, 2017 Posted February 27, 2017 All the best information on the ferry can be found in ChristainPFC blogspot. I found it useful to read beforehand as it would have been a complete mystery to me otherwise. However I can add a few oddities (thai style) that some may be interested in knowing. Their web site for instance tells me that they accept mastercard and visa. However in the ticket office they tell me its only cash ! Purely as a matter of assisting with their marketing (others tell me I have a certain expertise in that area). Speaking with the office manager she polity told me that they do accept credit cards but probably not until sometime in march. "To avoid pissing off tourists who did not know this fact it should be mentioned in the website", I said. She disagreed, as if it had said in the web site that you can pay with a credit card then she agreed they would be in the wrong, but is only says they accept credit card but not today, and tomorrow is not looking good either. So be warned. I am sure they will get there in the end. The same goes for the online booking system (non existent). We were told to be at the ferry terminal 1 hour before departure to go through the checkin and security formalities. This comprised of an airport style bag scanner and a metal detector which bleeped every time someone went though causing a lady with a magic wand to brush your genitals slightly with it. I did wonder why every one had to turn up at 1 hour to kick off as it caused a bit of a jam. We were all left outside in the sweltering heat until they opened security and the same on the quay side where we all had to cook while we waited before they allowed us to board. We got on with 30 minutes to go to cast off. Next time I will arrive at my leisure 30 minutes beforehand to avoid the hanging around which I did on the return. Boy watch Another point to watch out for is that the seat numbering shown on the panel above the seats is presumably the original operators seat numbering system. Your ticket has a number and that is the number as shown on the seat itself. There is no relationship between the 2 systems. How confusing is that. Everyone was looking for their seat using the old system until they all finally worked it out. I had thought of pointing this out but after a month and a half of operations they must have been told about it. So I decided to relax in my club class seat. Well worth the extra as the recline is good and the window seats have club 4 arrangement with table. Complimentary soft drinks and coffee were offered during the journey. We stayed in the Marriott resort and WOW what a great hotel. The only thing I have ever achieved in my life is to get the Marriott Lifetime Platinum Card. You get this for staying 750 nights and 2 million reward points. I was paying for the first night on my points and the second on a member rate. No reward night available on the saturday night. Even so I got upgraded to a beach view room which was superb. We had a late lunch at the pool restaurant and then got a few hours in the sack before heading for the bars. I had not done that much research so we went to the nearest as shown on the map being "Red Indian" It was a bit tricky to find as its amongst a labyrinth of small bars. There was just 1 cute boy behind the bar and about 6 beefy looking farang so I decided not to add to the competition. We ended up drinking beers (80 baht) in a lady bar watching some cute boys playing pool. Sorry I can not add further to the action as I am on curfew with my little love so have to behave. You know "eyes to the front and hands on the table" We did not get up until 1pm the next day and just lazed around the pool. I had booked a table for the Meat and Seafood BBQ Buffett that evening as this was going to be our Valentines night. (soppy) At 1300 Baht some may think on the pricy side but to me was cheap for what I would pay for that in a 5 star hotel in the UK. It was very good and gorged myself on lobster and tiger prawns until I could barely walk. This being added to the beer deal at all you can drink for 400 baht. I have a camelesque beer belly so that did not present any problems for me, they just kept coming. We were lucky with the weather and the sea state was smooth for both crossings although my sea urchin was feeling a bit queasy by the time we got on to dry land. Maybe the balloon trip is out. I would highly recommend it if you just wanted to get away from the madness of Pattaya. It was nice to be back in my usual seat at Sun Bar Jomtien watching the world go round. I was persuaded to open a bottle of whisky for the boys. My chance to get a little grope of the cuties they have there as they come and say thank you. God I love this place !!! Quote
biguyby Posted February 27, 2017 Posted February 27, 2017 I may take a trip on the new ferry as I also enjoy just a few days away from Pattaya and I also like Hua Hin very much. I would return on the bus if I remember rightly it's around 450 baht only. Quote
