faqs

This is one of our top questions from prospective guests. Your CetoSea trip includes a substantial amount more than the typical luxury yacht vacation, specifically crafted to have ZERO hidden fees or charges.

Head over to our Amenities & Activities page for a detailed list of everything we have for you waiting aboard.

Our 5-cabin Lagoon 52 vessel is coded for 14 passengers legally to SOLAS and USCG standards. However, we prefer to take groups of max 8 guests to ensure comfortable living arrangements and accommodations for everyone. If you’re interested in booking a trip for a larger group, please Contact Us today to discuss options!

Yes! Each guest will choose their own shared or private cabin aboard the yacht with ample sleeping and living space, and a private bathroom/shower. However, you’re welcome to sleep pretty much anywhere you please! We find the most memorable evenings are spent snuggled on the trampoline with a blanket under the stars, or swinging gently in a hammock on deck as the tide lulls you to slumber. See Our Yacht Layout here!

Three healthy, hearty, fresh meals per day will be provided aboard the yacht, including an open snack & refreshments bar in the galley. Choose whether you’d prefer a private yacht chef to prepare all meals, or participate in the cooking yourselves. All our meals use fresh, locally-sourced products and blend a unique Caribbean flair with your favorite dishes. Our fully-loaded galley contains several fridges, freezers, stove, oven, microwave, blender, coffee machine, and more! We can accommodate any food allergy or dietary preference, so please let us know how we can curate to your tastes.

Each cabin has a private bathroom with shower (5 total aboard) stocked with environmentally-friendly and reef-safe shampoo, conditioner, and body wash – however you’re welcome to use your own products as well! Please remember that these showers drain to the sea, so we kindly ask guests to inform us if their shower drain should empty to our ‘grey water’ tanks aboard for storage and proper disposal. A simple switch of a valve allows our custom plumbing system to safely store potentially-harmful ‘grey water’ on board instead of discharging into the sea. We recognize and respect the wide variety of self-care products which you might prefer, but also want to ensure we aren’t dumping untreated waste into the ocean’s fragile ecosystems.

Another fun way to shower on the yacht is off the stern (rear) at the swim platforms! Using reef-safe products, we find guests love a sea water wash, followed by warm fresh water rinse from our dual swim showers located at the back of the boat.

Great question! Once you reserve a spot on any of our trips, you’ll be updated periodically with links to a personal portal on our website containing a wide variety of packing tips & suggestions. We’ll email you a recommended Sustainable Packing List 2 weeks prior to the trip start, and highlight luggage and gear options we’ve found work marvelously for our previous guests.

Unlike a traditional monohull (single-hulled) sailboat which you’ve probably seen in movies or advertisements, our catamaran (double-hulled) sailing yacht does not heel, or lean over, while underway. Ask your Captain for the full physics lesson behind the theory of lateral resistance, righting moment, center of vanishing stability, and center of effort principles that apply here – or just suffice it to say two hulls are better than one!

Our yacht is a stable, comfortable, level platform in a wide variety of sea states and conditions, including at anchor and while sailing. You’ll notice a steady, even roll while we sail up and over the ocean’s waves, but need not worry about sliding and falling while heeled 25 degrees. This yacht is designed for comfort! You can even put your drink down without it sliding off the table!

Your Captain & Crew can tell innumerable stories of storms weathered at sea aboard the safety of the yacht, but you need not worry about bearing these conditions. CetoSea has adopted an extremely conservative approach to storm management, which can simply be summarized as: we don’t go sailing in storms! We don’t have anything to prove by exposing guests to the dangers and risks of storm sailing, and instead will modify our itinerary to either avoid major storm systems, or plan an activity shoreside while the ocean rages.

Squalls in the Caribbean are a common occurrence however, and while your Captain will do his/her best to play what we call, “dodge-squall”, and avoid the blustery, rainy fronts – sometimes the inevitable little rain squall passes right overhead unavoidably. In these events, the boat will be reefed (shortened sail) by the professional Captain and Crew, and actively managed to maintain the utmost of safety-at-sea principles. You may be asked to step inside the salon (interior), or help clear the foredeck of lounge cushions, food, beverages, towels, etc, but the good news about Caribbean squalls – they come on fast, and they leave ya’ fast!

Most of our SCUBA diving will be conducted from the swim/dive platforms at the stern (rear) of the yacht, however some dive sites are more easily accessed via our tender dinghy. Your PADI Dive Instructor will provide complete pre-dive briefs before we enter the water, and you’ll have the chance to practice giant strides and back rolls alike.

We store all our SCUBA gear aboard our yacht, and are self-contained with a complete set of tanks, weights, BCD, regulators, mask, fin, snorkel, dive computer, and wetsuit for each diver – in addition to a Bauer Oceanus air compressor for refilling our tanks. CetoSea prides ourselves in self-sufficient dive operations, and our ability to teach PADI dive courses and/or lead dives for certified OW/Advanced divers.

You’re correct that most vessels are wired for 12V appliances and operation – largely because 12V applications are easier and safer to install and maintain. However, the advanced and supplemental customized electrical distribution on our yacht actually provides 12V (Marine), 110V (North American), and 220V (European) power from our triple-redundant inverters and smart charge distributor busses. So, yes, you will absolutely be able to power your device onboard the yacht! In fact, most of the electricity in our ship’s battery bank will come from solar and hydrogenerators we’ve outfitted on the yacht. Green energy at its finest!

Seasickness is not something to be afraid of, and while it certainly has a physiological etiology, there’s a very strong psychological component to seasickness which can allow you to overcome any mild discomfort through a variety of techniques. Our simple recommendation (from years of offshore sailing) is to not think about it. Seriously! The more you think or worry about seasickness, the worse you’ll feel.

Our Captain and Chief Mate are skilled at helping people when they start to feel sick, and will guide you through the steps of managing any discomfort. We don’t sail in rough conditions which enhance motion sickness, and recommend guests keep alcohol consumption to a minimum while underway. Other strategies include drinking ginger tea or ginger ale, trying Sea-Band pressure point wristbands, or employing the use of antiemetic drugs such as oral dramamine, meclizine, promethazine, quinine, or transdermal scopolamine patches. Keep in mind modern antiemetic drugs will make you drowsy, but a nice afternoon nap never hurt anybody!

Stay hydrated, have a snack, get some fresh air, and chat with other friends aboard – and before you know it, you’ll forget you were feeling seasick.

We carefully and specifically sought out our Lagoon 52 yacht with a highly-reviewed 5-cabin layout for your ultimate comfort. In fact, we brought our yacht all the way from Istanbul, Turkey because our search for the right design was uncompromising! You can see the interior layout of our vessel, or check out our video walk-through (coming soon!) to explore all the features of this superb yacht. 5 private cabins, 5 private heads & showers, a generous galley, spacious salon, and luxurious lounge areas make our yacht perfect for maximizing interior volume space and sleeping arrangements.

Great question! Absolutely NOT! Bananas are not permitted aboard the yacht at any time, but you’re welcome to enjoy them ashore or dockside. Ask your Captain why…(is it a superstition if it’s real?)