I have been surprised how much resistance I am getting to changing our format and giving up our fully crewed rates and focus...
After having been asked numerous times, I have come up with a "mostly inclusive" for those who wish it, on top of our "captain only" plus all expenses. The cooking seems to be the thing that most groups do not want to take on themselves, but most say they are happy to pitch in with a lot of the other onboard tasks.
If this below sounds like your group, great, we are happy to have you onboard...Believe me, our knowledge of the islands and water (above and under) in the BVI is more valuable to guests then us picking up towels during the week.
Promenade is a large yacht, and has many toys and amenities on board, which can keep everyone busy, but with only two crew, guests have to be willing to pitch in. The yacht will be fully provisioned and ready to go and includes all food, ship's bar, cook, fuel, water, on board water toys (except SCUBA diving), permits and cruising taxes.
It does not include getting to and from the yacht (air and transfers), any meals you choose to have on shore, anything other then ship's standard bar, communications, dockage, SCUBA, and overnight Air Conditioning.
Our rate is $12,900 for 6 guests, 7 nights and then add $1000.00 for each additional guest (adult or child) up to 10.
Overnight air conditioning is $65.00 per night extra. SCUBA Diving will be $10.00 per person per dive for certified divers. Gear rental (BC and Reg) is $125.00 per person per week. Resort diving is possible on a per charter basis with two SCUBA Instructors on board, depending on how much diving is being done. Please ask in ADVANCE.
Generally, my meals run like this:
Breakfast: Early risers can help themselves to coffee, juice, cereal, fruit, yogourt, toast and the like. Please find your way around the galley. Generally Bazza and I are not around until about 830 to 9 and at that time, I am happy to do hot breakfast cooked to order for those who want it.
Easy enough for me, I used to own a short order restaurant at one time, Breakfast meats, eggs, omelettes, pancakes and the like, not a problem, if asked. However, you are certainly welcome to cook your own eggs if you want them earlier.
Lunch is buffet style, and always includes salad, and good food, but I don't like fiddly gourmet with names I cannot pronounce. We stick to sandwich platters with fresh baked buns, salad, burritos, and the like.
Dinners could either be buffet style or at the table, depends on my mood that day...I try and do a night with a nice tablecloth at the table. Again, good food, fairly simply prepared, family style, but lots of it. Good American cooking: steak, ribs, pasta, seafood, fish...and of course whatever is proper to serve with it.
I have no problem with putting on a piece of chicken say, if someone does not eat seafood, but I don't have the crew any longer to do special diets (lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant etc etc). I have no problems with things like "we all hate fish don't make it" or "always have PB and J and bread on hand for this person" or we "hate mushrooms" type of thing. You are certainly welcome to take care of yourself if you have special dietary needs that we cannot provide.
Our ships bar is basic, but plentiful, and all of it is self serve. From your wine with dinner to your cocktails and beer, help yourself.
We appreciate one dinner and one lunch on shore for the guests.
We are happy to do whatever we can to make our guests trip through the Virgin Islands enjoyable, but we look more for guests who want to share the experience and are not looking for someone to wait on them hand and foot all day long, which with two crew is pretty hard. ALthough guests don't necessary have to spend their time cooking and doing dishes (besides finding coffee, breakfast and snack items and their own drinks...) we expect the guests to help set and clear the tables and bring their used dishes down to the kitchen and to generally pick up after themselves. Washing our their own personal cups and plates and putting them in the drying rack is always appreciated, Hang their towels, keep their bathrooms and cabins tidy etc. Keeping in mind that the sooner this type of work gets done we can get onto helping with the fun tasks.
We definitely expect help with the sailing (Bazza and I can do this ourselves, but how much the guests pitch in will make the difference between us sailing more, or just turning on the engines and motoring instead...) Of course it is all under direction of Bazza and turns out to be quite fun! They will be pro's by the end of the week!
We have many pull toys on the yacht, double tubes, 4 person couches, wakeboards, you know...that type of thing that is generally popular with teenagers, and we are happy to teach someone else in the group how to drive the tender and pull others around if guests want to do that type of thing quite often. If they already know how to drive a tender, even better! We of course, are happy to do it ourselves a couple times a week, but the more participation the more it can happen.
Although we never move the boat early, unless we have to, you will often finding us sailing at sunset still to get to our anchorage. We will go anywhere the guests want, and it is reasonable to expect us to move the yacht every day to a "interim spot" for snorkeling or beachcombing or exploring, and then onto an anchorage for the night that there are more things to do at. We specialize in out of the way places that others don't get to, with a couple beach bar cocktail hour places thrown in there for good measure.
We are very casual and easygoing, we know the islands and the waters inside out. We enjoy a drink or two, but are not partiers. Our guests can if they like, stay up all night and party, we don't care, but we pretty much go to bed after dinner, although we are happy to drop guests off ashore and pick them up at a certain time if they want to go out...No problem. We do often spend a bit of time fishing with the guests after dinner, as we love to fish and are probably better at it then any other yacht around.
Our guests should be able to entertain themselves though, we are happy to show them where the lights are to turn off when they go to bed and what needs to be closed.
SCUBA Divers should be able to set up and take apart their own dive gear, and be able to do the easy dives themselves with a good dive briefing and always someone on deck watching for any problems or divers gone astray. However, guests assume liability for the diving. A dive Master will be in the water with you when required.
******
So, to sum up:
Captain only: $11,000, up to 12 guests.
All expenses on top,
as per our work sheet here
SCUBA is $10.00 per dive for certified divers
Mostly inclusive: $12,900 for 6, add $1000.00 pp up to 10.
SCUBA is $10.00 per dive for certified divers
A reminder: you are welcome to hire a freelance chef on board as well if you would like as long as you have a bed for them...
******