After Your Charter is Booked
Who to Talk To
The advantage of an all-expenses paid yacht charter is that there are many people whom you can speak to about your desires on your charter. For changes in itinerary, talk to the head stewardess or the captain. For use of the yacht’s tender and water-sports toys, seek the head stewardess first, then find the other members of the crew if she is unavailable.
What to Talk About
A plus expenses yacht charter is great when you want more control over the specifics of your charter yacht vacation as you pay for all of the additional expenses outside of the flat rate for the yacht and crew. For example, you get to tell the crew if you would like to be on a dock in Monaco for New Years. As with all charters, you include all your preferences; like when you like to get up in the mornings, if you want a full breakfast, does one of your party members dislike shellfish, etc.
Another advantage is that you have the freedom to choose what types of food and drink you want aboard for your trip. For example, you would like to have fresh lobster twice a week. Food and drink can be a substantial expense, depending what you select. If your luxury yacht charter is scheduled for a destination like the Western Mediterranean, for instance, then French wines will be far less costly for the crew to provision than if your charter is in the remote islands of the Southern Caribbean. Talk to us at Regency and we can help you create a budget that encompasses your desires.
Fuel Cost
With an all-expense paid yacht charter, you get to choose where you want to go and dock. Fuel usage is typically the largest additional expense to expect as part of your APA. Our brokers at Regency Yacht Charters will help you estimate the amount of fuel usage for any mega yacht charter based on the type of yacht you select and the itinerary that you anticipate cruising. A super yacht will almost always burn more fuel than a sailing yacht, while a go-fast megayacht can burn several times the amount of fuel as a slower-paced cruising megayacht. You are also responsible for fuel that is used to propel the yacht’s tenders and equipment, including Wave Runners and generators.
Gratuity
It is customary to offer a crew gratuity at the end of a luxury yacht charter. The gratuity is based solely on your satisfaction and the level of service that you received. Industry standards vary around the world. The European standard is lower suggesting a gratuity of 5 – 10 percent. In the Caribbean 15 – 20 percent is standard, with gratuities of 20 percent or more for truly exceptional service.
If you want to leave a cash gratuity, the appropriate way to do it is by handing it directly to the captain. While you may wish to single out a stewardess or deckhand who showed you particular kindness, it is the captain’s job to ensure that all crew are rewarded fairly—including crew members such as engineers whom you rarely see, but who are also key to your luxury yacht charter experience.
Generally speaking, luxury yacht charter expenses can be anticipated and managed to fit within any given budget. Our brokers at Regency Yacht Charters can help you understand what to expect based on our years of experience booking yacht charters for clients worldwide.
