DO NOT RECOMMEND
We sailed with Festiva in the BVI's the…read moreweek of November 22, 2025. This review comes four weeks after completion of our trip due to the conversation we've been attempting to have with management. This was our third trip with this company. We were returning guests that brought friends along to join us in what was one of the best holidays we had ever taken; unfortunately, this was not the case this time around, not even close.
I honestly don't know where to begin as there are so many things to mention. From the start Captain Tyrone was aloof, dismissive and uninformative. The first 24 hours onboard we had an alarm, like a smoke detector or carbon monoxide alarm, going off every 30 minutes. We woke up First Mate Compton to address the situation, since Tyrone was not on the boat and no where to be found, and were told there was nothing he could do about it. After a sleepless night, once our captain returned in the morning, we asked three times for the situation to be rectified. We were brushed off, told it was a bilge pump, told to try turning off the AC the told, "it's a boat, it makes noise. We owned a boat, this was not normal, it was an alarm, neither one of our crew cared. Only after writing an email to Tammy in the office was the situation addressed. Tyrone simply disconnected the alarm, which we found out later was a high water alert, and had to be in good working order to legally be underway on this vessel. After getting annoyed about the fact we had to contact management with our concern Tyrone proceeded to be argumentative and rude through the rest of the week.
We moored around Tortola for 3 nights, at least 2 more than we should have, so, we're guessing, Tyrone could sleep at home, since he was off the boat every one of those nights, all night. Not only did we have no way of reaching him, he disappeared with the dinghy, our only way of getting off the boat if there had been an emergency since there was no life raft. We did not go to any good snorkel spots, stopping at maybe 4 over our entire week. We were told half way through our trip that we could not go to most of our anticipated bays and beaches because the anchor was broken. Why were we on a catamaran with a broken anchor? Or was this just an excuse out of sheer laziness? This was not the only thing malfunctioning on the boat; we had broken cupboards, no shower off the back, torn seats, and general uncleanliness.
Our meals were very basic, mostly sandwiches for lunch and a bag of chips for snacks. Compton did make a couple of lovely dinners, but the service was not what we expected, not what was advertised and not what we paid for. Our captain told us we could not get more Baileys as requested, "once it's gone, it's gone" was the answer we got. This was not our previous experience, we are dumbfounded that this could even be the same company.
The other two couples on the boat were great. We only just met when we boarded and had a great week with them, thank goodness. They were in the same situation as us, returning customers who brought friends. They, too, were regretful and embarrassed they brought along others since this vacation was nothing like the one they had experienced in the past. There were many other little, and not so little, things that occurred, this post could go on and on, but I'll leave it here, for now.
After returning home we all wrote separate letters to Tammy expressing our disappointment. A week later we got a blanket email back from her stating that she received a very different story from the crew, that we had been difficult to please, and essentially called us liars, all 8 of us. Interesting that she received similar letters from guests that started as strangers, had sailed with them before, had genuine concerns with service and safety and she still chose to dismiss and insult each of us.
We have now written a lower, as a group, to the "higher ups" and marine agencies that regulate safety on the water. We presently await their response. We will be review posting again accordingly.