The hurry up and wait luxury yacht cruise

One of the excursions I had found for while we were in Phuket was billed as a luxury yacht cruise to the James Bond Island and Phang Nga Bay.  I pictured this as being actually a luxurious experience from start to finish.  We were told to be in the lobby by 11:50 to be picked up for the cruise.  We were there right on time, but in the end the van did not arrive until 12:40.  Then. . .a drive of about an hour to the pier.  Not that the pier is so very far, but traffic is slow going.  Once there, we were herded into a non-air-conditioned souvenir shop to wait another ½ hour.   Finally we were directed to a rickety vehicle that took us down the pier to the waiting boat.  It was an OK boat, but nothing like the “yacht” I had been expecting.  Nevertheless, we did see some very beautiful scenery, and we enjoyed our day.  We were very happy, however, that when we finally returned to the pier around 7:30, that the air-conditioned vans were ready and waiting to return us to our hotel.