Silvermoon 12 sounds great but what about the 24?

[Laulipop]

I see so many wonderful reviews for the small 12 pp Cat -- have many people done the 24 pp tour? Is it the same wonderful service and food? Enough space and shade? Looking forward to our stop in May...

[sadie8]

We booked the Silvermoon for 24 passengers. There were 17 people on board that day, plenty of room, wonderful service, food and drinks. We had a great day and I would highly recommend the excursion.

[Kiwis Afloat]

We had the 24 in January and had 24 people. It was fine. No problem -plenty of space, food and attention.:)

[rashdecision]

We went on the silvermoon 24 person cat and it was fantastic and probably the best exursion of the cruise. We had approx 18 people on board, the turtles were amazing, the cat was maintained EXTREMELY well and looked brand new, the food was good, snorkling was okay but Im a diver and have high standards. The visability was rather poor the day we went which was not silvermoons fault. I would STRONGLY recommend the excursion. We basically followed the 12 person cat for most of the excursion until lunch so I don't believe they did anything beyond what we did.

[dolfndreams]

I just did the 24 person Silvermoon in March, it was great but I am going to try for the 12 person for next year. There is plenty of room to spread out and the meal was decent and crew polite.

 

It was very nice, just was not exceptional as I had read about, but I suspect with only 12 the extra attention is noticable. Of course the blender was broken so no Pina Colada, my mission for next year. ( however as I said before if no Pina Colada is my biggest complaint life is pretty good:))

 

Absolutely would use Silvermoon again even if the 24 was the only one available, I suspect my expectations were a bit high based on the rave reviews. I would definitely like to experience the 12 person.

 

I ended the cruise with the Captain Alan 3 island snorkel with only 5 people in St. Maarten and it was so great with the operator offering equipment, defogging my mask etc without my asking the difference between 24 and less of a crowd was obvious.

 

Again though loved Silvermoon and will try them next year.

[Riversedge]

We felt the same as the previous poster. We have been on both Cool Runnings and Silver Moon and we thought Cool Runnings won hands down. The problem with them is that you have to pay the whole amount upfront and we aren't comfortable with that.

 

Silver Moon is very good (in fact we are going on the 12 person this year) but didn't feel it quite lived up to rave reviews. I think we started out on the wrong foot last time as I slipped on their towel they had laying on the deck edge to step on as boarding. (I'm usually pretty agile so it showed me it wasn't a safe practice). I had to grab on to their canvas cover to catch myself. Even though it didn't hurt it I felt like they were mad at me the whole cruise. We had a group of 8 and although everyone liked it I don't think anyone would have come back here with rave reviews, just good ones.

[QQK]

We just went with Silvermoon 24 passengers last Friday. The cat itself was very comfortable and our captain Nick told us a lot about the island. The crew worked very hard during the entire sail. Lunch included rice, mac 'n cheese, fish (excellent), chicken (I didn't try it), mixed green salad, potato salad, and bread. They also served us banana and carrot/coconut bread. If I have the choice to do it again, I would opt for the 12 passenger. It was a little of a nightmare when we swam with the turtles. People kept kicking and hitting and bumping into me. Apparently most of the people blindly followed the turtles without paying attention to their surroundings. There was a child screaming the entire time when we were with the turtles. My only complaint would be too little time in the water. We got 20 mins with the turtle while most of the time I had to try to stay away from the crowd to avoid being kicked and maybe about 30 mins off the coral.

[Lsimon]

We just did the 24 after doing the 12 4 prior times. The overall experience was about the same - just not as spacious on the Catamaran. We had as good a time as ever. I'd still prefer the 12 but wouldn't hesitate to do the 24 if the 12 wasn't available.

[cruzlovr23]

We spent the day last week (Oct. 26) with Silver Moon on their 24 person catamaran. BEST DAY EVER !!!!! Plenty of room wherever you wish whether it be in the sun, shade or on the trampolines. Catamaran was spotless!! Ben, Dexter and Marlow (our crew) were fantastic and made sure that we were well taken care of. Dexter made the best rum punch we had all week long anywhere! Non alcoholic drinkers had plenty to choose from as well. We snorkeled with the turtles and were able to touch plenty of them. We were then taken to 2 wrecks to snorkel. Beautiful there as well. Next we were served an absolutely delicious lunch. :p After lunch we spent some time swimming and enjoying the beautiful day. Before returning Dexter fired up the blender and made pina coladas for the ride back!:D

We saw other catamarans which were crammed full of people and were confident that we made the right choice. This day was the highlight of our trip!

[fsroadmgr]

We did the Silvermoon 24 on October 26. There were 24 guests. (We were on Celebrity Millenium. There was a Royal Caribbean ship in port as well.) We had a wonderful time. Good food, great service, good snorkeling sites, plenty of shade. Recommend it.:)

[Rozg105]

We too were on the Oct 26 excursion. It was a wonderful day. The crew was wonderful. There was plenty of room on the catamaran. The snorkeling was good. The food was good. Would do this excursion again no problem. Of course we had a great group of 24 guests on the trip and that helped make the day very enjoyable.

[candydane]

Considering doing the 12 or the 24 person tour but I have a bad knee and can't do a ladder or steep steps.

 

How easy is it to get in and out of the water from the catamaran? Also, I expect the head is below deck so how about those steps?

[Lsimon]

Considering doing the 12 or the 24 person tour but I have a bad knee and can't do a ladder or steep steps.

 

How easy is it to get in and out of the water from the catamaran? Also, I expect the head is below deck so how about those steps?

 

The head is down in one of the Catamaran hulls and you're going down pretty steep steps, more like a ladder, about 6 feet to get to it. The incline, and steps, are only slightly wider than a standard ladder.

 

Likewise, entry into, and back from, the water is up a metal ladder extended into the water and onto a platform at the back of one of the hull/pods. In this photo: http://simon-pics.smugmug.com/Cruises/Constellation-March-2009-b2b/March-27th-2009-Sailing-All/7889882_ArRPb#511617179_2LKJj

You can see the back of a pod with white steps going into the boat. You can also see the metal ladder extending down into the water, the person holding the baby is probably standing on the lowest rung of the ladder.