Yacht
Princess Marcie is a 1999 Azimut motoryacht with the kind of sleek exterior the Italian builder is known for, plus a top speed of 28 knots (far faster than most fully crewed motoryachts). There aren’t a whole lot of Azimuts out there for charter, primarily because the crew quarters are usually pretty tight, which makes providing service to guests difficult. 

That’s not the case on this yacht, whose crew offers good service throughout the yacht, including on the party-ready top deck, which includes a Jacuzzi, a seating area, and a barbecue. Weather prevented us from dining outdoors during our charter, but we were perfectly comfortable in the interior dining area, which is directly across from the small, open galley and adjacent to the main saloon.

Crew
Capt. Dave Laird sets the can-do, have-fun tone onboard this yacht, but it is chief stewardess Soni Ricci who really brings things to life. The self-dubbed “theme queen” creates everything from Pirate Night to New England Night to Disco Night onboard Princess Marcie, thus taking charter guests to a “new” place every evening during dinner, no matter the boat’s actual location. 

Kids particularly love theme nights, as do adults who are young at heart. If you’re not interested in all the hoopla, Ricci can play it straight, but what a waste of her talents that would be. If you want to dive into a fun atmosphere, this is the boat for you.

Chef
Greg Parise was brought on for our charter as a freelance chef because the owner was still shopping for a permanent crew member in the galley. He did a fine job for us, serving nicely prepared staples such as shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, and French toast, and his presentations were clean and simple.

It’s almost certain that a different chef will be onboard by the time you charter Princess Marcie, so we won’t waste your time here in a full review of Greg’s abilities.

Accommodations
All four of Princess Marcie’s guest cabins are on the bottom deck, separated from the crew’s quarters by the yacht’s engine room (thus affording a great deal of privacy). The master stateroom is amidships and spans the entire yacht’s beam. A queen-bed VIP cabin is all the way forward, and two twin-bed cabins are positioned in between the master and VIP. Each cabin has its own en-suite bathroom.

Two couples could split the bill on this yacht and feel as though they got their money’s worth, or four couples could go together with the understanding that two of the couples would have significantly smaller, twin-bed cabins. Ideally, you would choose this yacht if you had two couples with children in your charter party.
 
Destination
The Bahamas are a tricky place. They are so lovely in their remoteness that, when the weather is fine, you feel like you’ve found your own personal paradise. The problem arises when the weather takes a turn for the worse—as it did during our charter—and you find yourself stuck at the same marina on the same little island for the better part of a week.

Luckily, in our case, that marina was on Harbour Island, which is relatively well organized for tourism. We visited in December, after a battering bunch of hurricanes, and still found plenty of shops and restaurants open for making merry on a daily basis. The beaches were clean and beautiful, the golf carts were aplenty for tooling around, and rental cars were to be had if we wanted to drive across the bridge to the adjacent island Eleuthera for a look around on foot.

If you can start your charter on Harbour Island and then go south to explore the Exumas, that’s ideal. But rest assured that if you get stuck, as we did, you’ll still find enough to stay busy in this charming little part of paradise.