Re: Dream Yacht Charters - experience?

Anyone had experience with Dream Yacht charters? Boats? Base? staff? location?

We've done Sunsail, Moorings and TMM...

So who do you want to try another charter company?

I'm admittedly biased since I have a boat in the DYC fleet in Puerto Rico so won't comment on the service and boats.

The base at Hodges creek is convenient to the airport and the new bathrooms and showers are very nice. However it can get a bit warm and buggy so AC is needed to overnight at the dock and the restaurant/pool area near the hotel (which I believe is closed) is not the greatest.

I chartered with DYC before I joined their fleet and was a satisfied customer.

Warren..just looking around based on availability for our dates. btw..you've got a beautiful cat!

I posted this on another forum, but I'll repost it here which outlines my experience with DYC.

I just finished up a charter with DYC - with the caveat that I have only done one charter with them, I would will probably never charter with them again, and would never put a boat into charter with them. We were on a 2015 Bali 4.3 - I was interested in it as a possible boat to put into charter. The boat was only two years old, but was not in great shape - all the cabinetry hardware was ready to be replaced - hinges completely rusted, faucets badly corroded. We also had a problem with cockroaches on the charter which resulted in them fogging the boat after we returned it. Our electronics had nothing but problems - wifi was almost worthless since we were unable to connect to it much of the time. The main chartplotter at the helm froze on a regular basis and had to be rebooted on a regular basis. The sails looked pretty knackered as well, but I don't have a frame of reference if that would be considered typical. The bottom of the boat was in bad need of cleaning - lots of green slime growing on the bottom. One of our heads blocked completely on the trip necessitating two trips out by the repair team and a complete tear down to fix. Fortunately the head belonged to the skipper that was on board, so we weren't the cause of it.
The skipper that was on board was great but did make the comment that after about 2 years in charter the boats are about done - can't imagine what they look like after 5 years.

I sent an email outlining my experience to DYC - have to yet to hear back.

There are better charter companies out there then DYC - we are on our second charter with BVI Yacht Charters in a 2016 Helia and the difference is night and day - of course it is a newer boat, and is better designed boat, but I'm sure glad that we got the better yacht as our second charter rather than the first!

cobradvm, we chartered the same boat (Solace) last May. Things were already a mess on that boat. Rusted, the walk thru door in the back was stuck shut, had to crawl thru the side windows! The chartplotter at helm did not work the entire time. They brought an ipad out to us! Very awkward to use with 2 people on board.
We have chartered Lagoon 450's from Dream Yacht 3 previous times and they were great. When we returned the Bali, they also said were putting it in for repair. Sorry you got it.
Yann, the dock master is a super guy! He will make you happy in the long run. He even offered to bring a L-450 out to us one day after we were so frustrated. In the long run, we should have done it because things kept breaking. I would have no problem using DYC again. That being said, we are sailing again this May with TMM and they are AWESOME!

We also had a terrible experience with DYC's. It was a Bali 4.5 that was just 1 year old. We have had 10 year old boats that were in WAY better shape then this one year old boat.

Here is a correspondence I had with a broker after we returned:

We used owners time for the trip with Dream Yacht Charters. Before we left the base I talked to them about a few problems. My husband reviewed all of the problems in our de-breifing, the person only wrote one of them down. He then said to the office personnel that there was just one issue with the boat. He must not have thought the others were concerns. I also sent a note to the owner that we chartered from and he said he was going to follow up with DYC. Never heard back from him. We have chartered many times, and we are not complainers, but this is, by far, the worst boat that we have ever chartered. The boat was only a year old, so we were really surprised how bad of shape this boat was in.

Here is the list of problems.

1) Boat stunk really bad. Smelled like a cross between diesel fuel and sewer gas. I talked to them about this before we left, said there was nothing they could do. This seemed to get worse everytime we fueled up or ran the engine. It honestly made me sick to my stomach, some times it would be so bad we would go sleep on deck. It was the whole boat too.

2) Generator would run for 30 minutes to an hour and then cut off. It would usually restart, but this meant we couldn’t run it at night because someone would have to keep getting up and re-starting it.

3) Port aft AC unit did not work

4) Starboard forward cabin had no lights and the toilet leaked

5) The sliding door stopper was broken. This could have taken a hand or foot off the way it would slam.

We are seeing many Dream Yacht Charter boats, mostly in the BVI's and even some in St. Maarten.

It seems there are no skipper qualifications for these boats because Dream Yacht Charters even offers the 58 foot catamarans as a bareboat.

It is very difficult to captain even a 52 foot catamaran, especially if you don't sail the boat all year long, except for a week or 2 week charter. They systems on the boats will baffle nearly everyone as well as being able to handle these larger cats in anything but gentle conditions.

But if you want to bareboat a very large catamaran with little or no experience then Dream Yacht Charters would be the place to go.

Just what we have seen this season down here.

Boatdrinks2

Thank you.

Wow, were these boats priced really low? We chartered a couple of times from North South and the boats were kinda beat up, but the price was right and we pretty much got what we paid for. I'd be super pissed if we paid a lot and had the kind of problems you folks are describing.

Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

This thread is really depressing.

Sad to hear this. We chatered an Lagoon 400 2 times from DVC and had no problems.
Last time the cat was 5 years old.
Lars

https://youtu.be/SWgWp3MvIQc is a link to a youtube video from "Cruising Off Duty", a sailing vlogger that I follow. His group just returned from the BVI's after chartering with Dream Yacht Charters. It is pretty timely considering this thread.
He attempted to join TTOL yesterday so he could tell his story first hand but his email was rejected.

I didn't get a chance to watch the entire video, but that brings up a good point. We also chartered a boat that was advertised with a water maker, found out the same as these folks, the water maker never worked, and they had no plans on putting it into commission.

Interesting the lack of response from Dream..you've got to know they are aware of this thread by now. Time to respond I say..

IMHO I think they have a much bigger presence in other parts of the world, and don't really focus on the BVI's.

OK,

I'm officially scared now. We have a Lagoon chartered from them in May. We normally use Horizon or BVI Yacht charters but wanted to go through Dream Yacht Charters this time. We were able to get Owners time from an friend of a friend.

Wow... Unbelievable...

Having had some experience placing a boat into a charter at CYOA a few months ago I suspect there are two things going on here.

First, looks like the boat wasn't commissioned but rather the household junk was thrown on and the boat pressed into service. I was on my boat one day during commissioning and I can tell you that a proper commissioning goes through a lengthy check list with every single system including every single light bulb checked. While it's possible that the fridges failed after commissioning I rather suspect they may never have worked properly.

Second, it's entirely possible to have some equipment on a boat that either the owner or charter company doesn't want to expose to the charter guest. My charter company for example does not want the electric winches to operate so they disable them for most guests (and they certainly do not advertise the boat to have electric winches). Assuming someone disabled the water maker the fault here isn't that the water maker wasn't working but rather that they were deceptive regarding the equipment on the boat.

My expectation as an owner is that my charter company is taking care of my boat the same way I would take care of it myself. I know this may be a lot to expect but that's what I want and I feel this is what I'm getting. If I owned the boat in the video I'd come unglued!

They are. We spent 2 weeks on your baby and it was flawless <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />
Thank you and CYOA

NGAWolf, I've just paid first payment on a boat with them in May. The Charter Gods WILL be with us!!! No negative waves!! That being said, I'm still tempted to copy this thread to my broker and owner just to see if they might light a fire at this place. I would think owners with boats under their management would appreciate knowing what the vibe is out here...

Before to many people panic I will mention that I looked long and hard at the Bali 4.3 for purchase into the DY fleet. The boat had a lot of interesting features we liked but it also had very different systems from most boats. Some were just plain strange. The watermaker driven off the port engine as a example. Almost everything in the boat was a brand not the norm in the Carribean so service looked difficult. In the end it scared me away. I gather now for good reason. My point is that this may be a specific boat rather then a company issue.
G

I agree that it's easy to over react. However... having a water maker advertised when it's never been available on the boat is not a boat problem. That's a company problem. And telling the charter guests that the boat has been fully checked out when it's obvious there are issues like the fridges not working - again... a company problem.

I had heard they went from 17 boats to 66 boats in a 2 year time. They had a hard time getting and keeping good help. NO EXCUSE. Why should the customer suffer because they tried to grow too fast without the proper staff in place.

It was very clear that they boat was not even looked at until a couple of hours before we were suppose to leave. Even though is was at the marina for 4 days prior to our charter. The cleaning staff did a half a** job cleaning the boat too. There was long black hair everywhere! Everyone on our boat was a blond.

This was probably the newest boat we had ever chartered, so we were very excited, it was a big disappointment.

Now, don't get me wrong, we still had a fantastic time, after all we where still in the BVI's!

It seems as the problems are with the Bali boats. I just switched my charter from the 4.5 to a Lagoon 42. I looked at the reviews on Vi yachts regarding Dream Yacht charter and they are generally positive. They are definitely price competitive. We go in July will report back.

http://www.viyachts.com/dream-yacht-charters/dreamyachtcharters-references.php

All the Best
Steve

Steve... The boat will still be a step down from the one you are stood on in your profile photo <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Have a great trip <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

I don't think you will be disappointed in the Lagoon 42. There is reason it won "Cruising Cat of the Year" in the 40-50 ft range.

I think you will be much happier with the Lagoon then the Bali. Not only did we have problems with the boat, but the Bali sails like crap. Couldn't get out of its own way!

Mike it is Jeannuis that started this whole catamaran thing for me. Before that just monohulls. Jeannius showed me how great these boats are. The Bali boats look great on paper but so did the Titanic.Fortunately I have this board and it helps me to figure out what really is going on. Thanks to Orangeburst for being the boat tester. Sorry it was not a good outcome. Well on to july and the next big adventure.
All the Best
Steve

Steve... Colleen (Orange_Burst) is a many time sailor of Jeannius so she knows a good boat when she sees it. If she says the Bali is bad then it is bad!

I want to let folks know what the DYC response was - about 3-4 weeks after I sent them an email outlining my experiences I received an apology with an offer for 1 free day of cruising with DYC if I charter with them again. I politely declined. Then I received another offer of two free days on our next charter - an offer that is good for three years. I think that is a fair and reasonable response. I think I would consider chartering again with DYC.

Here is a response from a good company.

Last charter with BVIYC we had a mechanical issue while at anchor in Long Bay, Mt Point VG. The anchor cranker failed and we called BVIYC.. They called Polo, the mechanic and since it was already afternoon we decided to lay over another night (no boo hoo from me) and he would come the next day. He dinghyed around the point and after a few frustrating hours for him got the anchor up with some VG engineering. He ordered the correct part from BVIYC and we headed to Leverick (our original destination) for the night. Part was there bright and early next morning and we were good to go. On our return to base they had a letter for us apologizing for our trouble and adding a full day to our next charter, no time limit. I am taking them up on their kind offer and our 10 day trip in July is now 11 days.

That is how a class act operation handles problems with boats.

I agree with Rita on BVIYC - top notch company - we've been with them for years too. They take VERY good care of their boats!

BVIYC is a good company now, years ago they had a nightmare fleet that rivaled North/South, so companies can and do change.

We have been chartering BVI since 1985. first time with BVIYC was 2007. We are still with them. I can't speak for the boats prior to our using them but we have never been dissatisfied with any of their equipment or office/dock staff.

Prior to using them we used several now defunct operators, TMM and Conch. We would use TMM again if they had the boat we wanted.

Rita - I don't think that either Conch or TMM are defunct - they are very active charter operations still! I haven't used Conch, but I have used both BVIYC and TMM and both are good outfits.

They're both very far from defunct.

Think she meant she had used some defunct operations..plus TMM and Conch..

yep..

Check out Sailing Off Duty on You Tube. They are video documenting the whole trip. Go to the video which I think has the ferry ride from St Thomas. It shows them checking into and checking out the boat. It seems as though Dream Yacht Charters does not do much in the way of maintenance, nor in trying to rectify the situation.

Ouch. That video is going to cost them some customers/money...and it should.

I am sure I will draw some heat for this but you could not pay me to charter a boat with a exposed helm station like that boat!

G

I'm with George on this one.

I've said the same as George for years. Having done a delivery on a Switch 51 with exposed help in extreme weather it was miserable.

Please post the YouTube link referenced earlier.
THANKS

The link to their youtube episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-QDSd5Uk_-zWCJ6rC2Xn1Q

I found them to be hilarious and entertaining - some wicked rum philosophy <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" /> - some interesting seamanship decisions - some of the STT observations really cracked me up - the dinghy trip to the Bitter End to and from dinner is not to be missed - great drone footage when included.

Thanks!!

We chartered an Open 40 last fall. There are twin helms, and each has very high sides, so actually quite protected for BVI conditions. Ours had small biminis over each helm, so that helped with the sun, definitely need the biminis.