Captain Morgan Sailing Adventure

[rosey1946]

I'm sailing on the Enchantment of the Seas this coming Feb. Has anyone taken the Captain Morgan Sailing Adventure excursion from RCL? My partner is 77 years old, loves to sail but needs some shaded area.

I'd appreciate any help on this. Thanks.

Linda

[chihuaha]

We took this excursion 11/29/2009 while on the Celebrity Millennium 10 day cruise out of San Juan. It was fun and a little different from the typical large catamaran tours that take 40-50 people.

 

The boat is a Catalina "Morgan" 65 mono-hull schooner (sailboat) and normally takes only 15-20 guests, which is the practical limit as there is no wide deck and trampoline to spread out on like the catamarans. We are former large sailboat owners so this type of boat, where you will probably actually SAIL at least part of the time, was perfect for us.

 

For the typical cruise ship tour your are picked up at the dock late morning and taken by van less than 10 minutes to the marina. The excursion itself is pretty well described on their website:

http://www.captainmorgan-daycharters.com/

as the "shore trip":

 

Capt. Morgan and her crew understand that if you have arrived on St Maarten on a cruise ship, many full day activities including sailing trips may be a tight squeeze to schedule in so we are happy to be able to offer special Shore Trip cruises which consider your ship’s time constraints. Leaving at 11am from Dock Martin in Great Bay Marina we will take you on a discovery of the beautiful southern coast of the island sailing to the world famous exclusive La Samanna hotel on Baie Longue where we anchor for lunch on board and snorkeling on one of the island’s most beautiful and peaceful beaches. Then we continue on to sail past Cupecoy, Mullet bay, Maho Bay, Simpson Bay and Cay hill before returning to Philipsburg at 3:30pm giving you ample time to go duty free shopping along the ‘golden mile’ of Front Street at either end of the day. This is a perfect, no-rushing, no-stress shore trip just for you!

 

During the snorkle portion after lunch, you can partake of the "floating bar" :) which is one of the crew floating on a noodle dispensing rum punches while you swim. On the way back to port we had one of the infamous low-landing jumbo jets fly directly overhead, off Maho Beach, and thought sure there was going to be contact with our mast (just perspective, there was no danger). Just before we reached the harbor we were also overtaken by a small tour catamaran with all on board "au naturel", which is another story...

 

We enjoyed it and found it a little more relaxing and fun than the "cattle call" type boat trips.

 

M & J

[rosey1946]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. Just one other question-any shade on the ship?

Linda

[chihuaha]

...any shade on the ship?

Linda

 

Not much, as I recall. There is a bimini (horizontal canvas on a frame) over the cockpit, and of course large shady areas down-sun from the sails when set. Underway sailing there was adequate shade, but when they drop anchor to snorkle etc. the sails are furled so there is only the small area in the cockpit under shade.

[rosey1946]

Thanks for the information. I have to be very careful with my friend so I so much appreciate the reply.

Linda