The. EstherChew: FantaSea no more

f anyone tells you that FantaSea is a must visit place in Phuket, I’m here to tell you the opposite.. Wait, of you haven’t hear of FantaSea before, check this out first before you continue reading..

So why I say this?

Before the trip, a friend mentioned that it is a must-visit place in Phuket. It’s like the Thailand Disneyland.. Hmmm, sound quite cheesy but I agreed to go. Remember our stop at the tour agent counter after touch down at Phuket? Yeah, there’s where we bought out tickets from. Not sure it is a good price or not, but since we got our island tour package from them, we decided to get the FantaSea ticket from them as well. According g to the agents, the cost for the show is RM150 and dinner is RM80.. But if together its RM220.. But they say they can give us a discount to RM190 but after bargaining, they say they will drop the price.. Well, I can’t say how much, even though it was a slight difference only cos they made us promise not tell anyone.. If not they will get in trouble with the management of FantaSea.. So yeah, it may be a marketing gimmick but wth, I’m not saying it here as I have given my word…

So why is it a must-not visit place?

Reason No. 1

They charge extra for transport. 150bht per way per person. For 4 of us, it will amount to 1200bht. So we decided to rent our own transport, and finally manage to pay only 700bht for a tuk tuk for a return trip. Well, if you ask me, it’s still cost quite a lot but considering that it’s a 20mins drive away on a hilly road, it’s OK.

Reason No. 2

If you are not a cam whore, don’t go. This is a place where many tourist goes around taking pictures of everything and with everything..

Reason No. 3

Disneyland? Where are all the rides? All I see are just overprice shops selling anything that they can con tourists from. Though I must admit, their concept it’s pretty attractive. And they have some cool games, where most of it just con your money as its almost impossible to win. I quite like the “catching the chicken eggs as it spins around while laying eggs”.

Reason No. 4

World Grandest Buffet is only the grandest cos they make GRAND PROFIT from it. Haha… Check out the number of tables and chairs in the picture below, and that is only for 1 section. There are 4 connecting sections altogether in the whole restaurant. The food is OK, not too bad. Not much variety and the desserts are… erm…. Well, let’s just say I’ve been spoiled with Sunway Hotel’s desserts. Actually the only grand thing about it it’s the setting of the room . Check out the lights, ceiling, walls… Feels like I’m eating at the palace or something.. until I see the table. Such a spoiler…

Reason No. 5

The show was pretty boring at some parts as it was in Thai, and we couldn’t understand a word they were saying… Their focus was on Thai’s history and for us non-Thai’s it was hard to understand as we have not studied it. All I can understand was this young men who saved them from the dragon, then he disappear throughout the whole show and only appear at the end to fall in love with a girl, who was then captured by demons, and he almost died when he tried to saved her, but was saved by his elephant, who then ascended to heaven and he and the girl lived happily ever after. The only thing that I like was the acrobatics that did their stunts right above our heads, hanging from the top of the hall. Sorry no pictures cos we were not allowed to bring camera in. Although I managed to sneak my phone in, did not want to risk getting thrown out of the hall. Oh yeah, if you do go for it, enter the hall earlier cos there are things to see as you walk along the walkway to the hall.. There was a picture taking booth where you pay for a photograph of you feeding a baby tiger. They are really cute. Seriously! Cost : 750-800bht.