JOLLY PIRATES is the BEST

[cmjaffe]

Just back from cruise on Brilliance and did the day snorkle excursion w/Jolly Pirates.. it was a perfect day. Great ship, fantastic crew... wonderful drinks... yummy lunch (chicken and ribs) at a great price (esp. when booked on line). The kids had a great time on the rope swing (Carla, Alex is a flip on it... hope Mike has pictures for website).

We've done other sails before in Aruba... tranquillo, Mi Dushi...

can't wait to get back again to Aruba and sail on the Jolly Pirate again.

Carolyn

[Deloresgardella]

I have been thinking about the Jolley Pirates would they be okay if a person don't swim or snorkle.:cool: I am an older person and don't do either but would like the experience. :)

[cruislovin]

Just back from cruise on Brilliance and did the day snorkle excursion w/Jolly Pirates.. it was a perfect day. Great ship, fantastic crew... wonderful drinks... yummy lunch (chicken and ribs) at a great price (esp. when booked on line). The kids had a great time on the rope swing (Carla, Alex is a flip on it... hope Mike has pictures for website).

We've done other sails before in Aruba... tranquillo, Mi Dushi...

can't wait to get back again to Aruba and sail on the Jolly Pirate again.

Carolyn

 

How do you book the Jolly Pirate on-line? Do you have the website?

[Deloresgardella]

I have Jolly Pirates web site. It is JollyPirates.com. I hope this helps. I am also thinking about using them in April.:)

 

Delores

[cmjaffe]

Delores,

I wouldn't hesitate to go even if I wasn't swimming...

as it was my daughter (who was recouperating from pneumonia) stayed on board and enjoyed herself immensely. The crew was wonderful, good drinks (sodas and mixed adult beverages), delicious lunch and a lovely new pirate ship. A great day in Aruba. Contact Carla and say HI to Herald (hope I spelled it correctly, Carla's DH and captain of ship).

Carolyn

[kristen3525]

How far is the Jolly Pirate from the pier? I e-mailed them with no response. I've never booked any excursions that were not ship excursions and am not sure how it works.

[mjceditor]

Kristen,

Here is a copy of the email I received from Carla at JollyPitates.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahoy!

 

Greetings from sunny Aruba!

 

Thank you for your message and interest in our fun ship!

 

From the cruise ship terminal, you can grab a cab if you like. There are plenty

of taxis in the terminal. You can expect the cab fare to MooMba to be apprx $10

each way.

 

You might also choose to take the public bus which is also easy and convenient.

 

Directly across the street from the cruise ship terminal you will see the brightly

colored main bus station. The island is long and skinny and the busses all run

either north towards the hotels or south towards the airport and San Nicolas.

 

You would take the bus which reads, "HOTELS".

 

Everyone is very friendly here and will point you in the right direction, should

you have any Q-s at all. Everyone on the island makes it a point to make things

very easy for our visitors. All of the hotels in Aruba are basically beside each

other in one long strip. The public bus fare is $1.20 each way. First you will

pass all of the low rise hotels and then you will see all of the high-rises one

after the other. First you will see the Phoenix and Wyndham, Radisson, Hyatt and

Holiday Inn. Jump off at the Holiday Inn, walk through the lobby and onto the beach.

When ur facing the beach, we are just to the right. You will see the large thatched

roof tops at MooMba. Meet us at the MooMba Bar.

 

You might also want to plan to spend some time at MooMba. There is a great bar

and restaurant, tables in the sand, lounge chairs for $3 each, kayaks and other

etcs.

 

Take a peek at our website jollypirates.com for more information and special online

discounts.

 

Please let me know if you have other Q-s , I can help you with.

 

Sunny regards, Carla

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike

[kristen3525]

Mike,

Thank you SO much for posting this, it's is so helpful! I did book it, but still haven't gotten any response, but it doesn't sound too difficult. I can't wait!:D

[mjceditor]

Kristen,

 

As I recall I received an email confirmation with in 24 hours of booking online.

 

Mike

[NoVa Mimi]

Carolyn, thank you for all the information you have shared. I have a couple of more questions, I hope you don't mind. How long ws the excursion? Was it crowded? What time did it start and about what time did you get back? We were thinking of trying to do this one and an ATV trip, though it might be too much to do and the timing not right. Also, is there a lot of drinking like some of the other Jolly Rogers? Thank you for your help and I'm sorry for all the questions!

[cmjaffe]

Mimi,

I'll try to answer...

if you're thinking about doing an ATV trip.. why not rent a jeep and take it up to Moombas and then after (around 1:30ish) you can explore the island on your own.. not hard to do (even in a regular rental car). The atmosphere on Jolly Pirates is really more of a "family" atmosphere.. no pirate wedding, walking the plank... just a comfortable excursion w/the BEST crew.... they have the rope swing which most enjoyed trying (young AND old <granny> alike). There was an extended family (3 generations), a couple w/their college age daughters, our family and another group or two. There was maybe 20ish people... was ample room in sun and shade (which was good 'cause when we boarded on watertaxi there was a sun shower). It was a WONDERFUL day. If my daughter didn't have plans to go to DelSol near the pier to shop for a shirt she didn't pick up the previous year we would have stayed at Moombas for a while before heading back to ship. Previous year we did Tranquillo and enjoyed Jolly Pirates 10X as much. It was THE BEST day.

Carolyn

[cmjaffe]

One more tip for Everyone...

just an observation I had after spending day in Aruba...

be wary of the taxi drivers.. YOU set the fare before you get into taxi.

They're "supposed" to be set and regulated.. several times they tried to charge us $20 to Palm Beach from pier which IS (by Aruba regulations) supposed to be $10.

Carolyn

[NoVa Mimi]

Carolyn, thank you so much for the information...I'm sold! :) I was hoping it was a family atmosphere instead of a "booze cruise". Not that there is anything wrong with the booze cruises, they're just not for us and our teen son. Jolly Pirates sounds great!

[cmjaffe]

Mimi,

You son will LOVE Jolly Pirates... especially the swing.

Alex, my 12 yo, loved the swing, did a flip off of it and then was having a "competition" with the crew to see who could do"better" was a lot of fun. You'll really enjoy your day and it's a very good "value" too for what you get (think it's more of a family atmosphere than MiDushi and less $$ too)

Carolyn

[NoVa Mimi]

Carolyn I forgot to ask...how long does the excursion last? Thanks again for all the help! :)

[tinkerme1]

Thanks for posting about the Jolly Pirates. I had a couple of questions:

 

1) Is it more for families or for adults (or doesn't it really matter)?

 

2) If you were there with just two adult couples, would you still be interested in doing this excursion? Was there lots of snorkel time?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Morning glory]

Thanks for all your information! I know your 12 yr. old son loved it - what do you think about 4 and 6 year old boys? Or is this really not appropriate for them? :confused:

 

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

[vossjemi]

I went on the Jolly too. See my last post on the poll on this subject. We had 4 or 5 kids on our Jolly snorkel trip. They were all well behaved as were the adults. Sure, there was alcohol, but hey, the trip starts at 9am, noone was slip slopping drunk or anything. I think the kids really liked the rope swing. I would bring my kids on this excursion...DEFINITELY!

[Morning glory]

Vossjemi,

Thanks for directing me to that post. It was very helpful!! I might check out Roberto's too, just because it seems a little more private and I don't want my 3 kids ruining the trip for anyone else. ;)

That pretty good kids, but you never know on any given day.

Thanks again.

[NoVa Mimi]

I did it! Thanks to all the great information I received here, I booked us for 7/12. Carla responded to my request very promptly, and is even going to try to help us coordinate our ATV trip afterwards! I think we're going to have a great time! Thank you all for your help :)

[ptabo]

I am considering doing the Jolly Pirates tour but I have some questions:

 

My wife is concerned with the depth of the water where you snorkel? Can you touch the ocean floor or do you have to tread water? How rough is the water? She likes the water but doesn't want to tread it the4 whole time. We have been on snorking trips where you can 'walk' around and snorkel in some what shallow water.

thanks

[vossjemi]

They take you to 3 places...Malmok Reef, Boca Catalina, and the German Antille shipwreck. I think there were times we could touch at the first 2 reefs, but once you are over the coral, you do not want to touch as you would destroy the coral. No worries though...they give you life jackets to keep you afloat so you don't ever really need to tread water. The shipwreck is in about 60 foot of water so definitely want to have life jacket there.

[cruislovin]

When we snorkeled in Aruba at the Antille wreck, the water was very rough. My husband and son, both strong swimmers, had a very difficult time! My daughter and I did not even get off the catamaran there. It was a shame as that was the main reason we went on the snorkeling excursion. The sailing catamaran was great fun but the snorkeling was quite disappointing to us. Perhaps the tide is different at various times of the year but we have snorkeled at other islands that was much better for us.

[cmjaffe]

We lucked out the day we went w/Jolly Pirates.. it was extremely calm at Antilla (quite unusual from what I understand). Herald (Carla's DH) told me to use the life vest "around the waist" (was easier and not as cumbersome) as a belt.. gave just the right flotation..

Morningglory... wouldn't worry about your kids.. it's a family oriented outing.. they even have chicken nuggets for the kids and lots of juices or sodas for them.

Carolyn

[ptabo]

Thank you for all your input. I booked the tour!