Below Deck Experience on Bravo TV

This is about my Below Deck experience on Bravo TV. I went with friends to Tahiti in February 2018 and we chartered the yacht, “My Seanna.” While we were chartering the yacht, we were also filmed for the Bravo reality television show, “Below Deck.” I’m going to tell you about the trip. My commentary is also available as a podcast.

This is my second time chartering a private yacht and being on Below Deck. The first time was Season 1 of Below Deck Mediterranean in 2016 and now Season 6 of Below Deck. Our two Below Deck episodes aired on December 2018 and January 2019.

HOW DID YOU GET ON THE SHOW?

I was originally contacted by the show two years ago and chartered a yacht on Below Deck Mediterranean. Yes, it’s a real charter you pay for and it’s a real tip you leave. I had a fabulous time with my girlfriends, who are entrepreneurs. We went to Naxos, Greece and had a fabulous experience. Here is my photo from that trip with Chief Stewardess of Below Deck Mediterranean, Hannah Ferrier.

We’ve been contacted and invited to come back on Below Deck Med every year since, but this was the first time we were invited by Below Deck. We were invited to Tahiti and went in February, 2018. The experience was really over the top! I’ve done a lot of cruising (I love to cruise and it is one of my favorite ways to travel). When my husband was alive, it was one of our favorite things to do, but there’s nothing like a private yacht charter cruise.

It’s a very different experience, because you basically tell them what it is you love (your favorite foods, what activities you want to do), and they see that you are completely happy. It’s unbelievable to be on a yacht like these gorgeous luxury mega yachts and I feel incredibly grateful to have that kind of experience.

WHAT WAS THE YACHT LIKE?

The “My Seanna” yacht was over the top beautiful! It had a lot of gold leaf in it, which is extremely expensive, so just the money that had been put into the yacht was incredible. The stern of the yacht had been remodeled and expanded. The whole area where they house the jet skis was all a remodeled area, which I understand helped to save Ashton Pienaar’s life when he went overboard, because normally the propeller would have been there and he might have been cut by the propeller (if you haven’t watched Below Deck, there was a deck hand in the episode before ours who fell overboard).

Ashton actually caught his ankle in a rope, a line, and it pulled him overboard and he could have drowned. Fortunately people thought fast and untied the line and freed him and he was able to be rescued. We came onto the yacht right after this big disaster, not knowing what had just happened. I think the crew was ready to celebrate, let loose, and was very relieved that their fellow crewman was okay and that they had all survived this. We had no idea coming on to the yacht, what was going on. We were greeted very warmly by the crew. It was really neat to meet Captain Lee and Kate and all of the crew. Because I’ve been a fan of Below Deck for so long, it was very, very fun to see Captain Lee and Kate and meet them in person.

I loved all of the crew. I thought they were incredibly sweet to us. The fighting that you see that goes on below deck on the TV show, we didn’t see any of that. All that we know is that people are very friendly. They’re very nice and we had some interaction with some more than others. But everybody was really, really well-behaved and very nice.

WAS THE FOOD THAT GOOD?

I get asked what was the food like and there is a new Below Deck chef this season, Adrian. He was a phenomenal chef. He was absolutely incredible. His food not only tasted good, but it was also a work of art. Every time they would bring out a plate, it was this amazing food sculpture. He would present the food beautifully, paying attention to colors and textures. He was very cognizant of presenting food in a beautiful manner, as well as it tasting really delicious.

The food was as good as everyone says and we had absolutely no complaints about any of our meals. We loved everything. I think I ate every single bite of everything I was served and it was very, very enjoyable. The menu is determined from our preference sheets. Before the trip, you fill out your preference sheet of what you like and what you don’t like. If you’re allergic to anything, if you have any special foods that you can’t live without, what your favorite drinks are, non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages, everything you like, they make sure they have. They look at all the preference sheets and then Adrian comes up with what he thinks you would like. You can say things like, “I really enjoy seafood, I like filet mignon” and it’s up to him to look at everybody’s preference sheet and try to create some meals that would please everybody, and sometimes he ends up making special dinners for people who are gluten-free, or who have special allergies or eating needs.

But most of the time he made the same meal for all of us. There were people in our group that we’re not crazy about seafood (we did have quite a bit of seafood), but they were okay eating it. They preferred meat over seafood. We had quite a lot of seafood, which was great for me, it’s my favorite, so I really enjoyed it.

WHAT IS CAPTAIN LEE LIKE?

People ask “What is Captain Lee like?” I have to say it was really amazing to be able to spend some one-on-one time talking with him. A couple of us got to have cocktails with him for about an hour-and-a-half before dinner, so we got to really get to know him, hear his stories, ask him questions about his career and his family. That was really enjoyable to me, just to sit and chat with Captain Lee and have a glass of wine, and hear what he had to say.

When we all went into dinner, he joined us, and again we enjoyed listening to his stories and having a fun conversation. I don’t know why Below Deck didn’t use any of that conversation. They barely had us saying anything, so I’m not sure why they choose certain moments over another. There were some funny things that happened that didn’t make it onto Below Deck. There was a point in time where we were talking with Captain Lee about yachting. There were a couple of yacht owners with us and they were comparing notes about yachting. They were also talking about golf and celebrity Pro-Am golf. And at one point there was something (I wish I could remember what it was), some reason that I said to Captain Lee, “that’s because you’re the Stud of the Sea”, which of course is his tagline on the show. Because I’ve seen every Below Deck show, of course I knew that and so I had to tease him and call him the Stud of the Sea.

I looked away and I looked back at Captain Lee and his face was bright red! I said. “Look everybody, Captain Lee is blushing!” I looked back a minute later and he had put his white linen napkin over his head to hide his red face! I thought that was definitely going to be on the TV show, but it was cut out. It’s too bad it didn’t make it because I thought it was hysterical and I thought that the audience would love to see Captain Lee put the napkin over his head. It was pretty funny. Captain Lee is every bit as funny, charming and smart as he appears on the show. He’s the real deal.

DID YOU HEAR ANY ARGUING?

Another thing I get asked is, “Did you hear anyone arguing?” I personally did not hear any of the staff arguing, but one of my friends did hear an argument going on below deck. So she did pick up that people were yelling and screaming and having an argument. We didn’t have any service problems, except one night we wanted to shower before dinner and we didn’t have any bath towels in our room. When we told Kate, I think she spoke to Laura about it, but it wasn’t mentioned on the show.

People ask me about Kate’s drinks. Is she a good drink maker? And I have to say her drinks are very strong and yes, she’s a great bartender! The people we were with tended to help themselves to their own drinks and Kate really wanted to have them ask her for service, so there was a bit of back and forth about that, but Kate is spectacular at her job. She was very professional. Josiah was also extremely professional. The two of them were really serving us most of the time. The way they acted and asked questions and served us really was five star service. I have to say they did a great job!

IS THE SHOW REAL OR SCRIPTED?

People also ask, “Is the show real or is it scripted?” The show is 100 percent real. The producers of the show basically said, we want to create an amazing trip for you. Just have a good time. Don’t worry about the camera, don’t think about it. Just enjoy yourself. And that’s what we did. So, no, it’s definitely not scripted. We did the things we wanted to do. You are aware that you are on camera. I wanted to go down the slide but I didn’t want to get my hair all wet and my makeup all smeared and have to go and get ready again for dinner. We were criticized on the show for not wanting to go down the slide, but it really was just a matter of not wanting to have to go and get ready again. Plus, it’s kind of nerve wracking to be seen in your bathing suit on television. I don’t know about men, but for women that’s kind of a nerve-wracking thing. So I have to say, I was not excited about being seen in my bathing suit on television.

As far as some other cool moments, I would say definitely going up to the wheel house and sitting with Captain Lee was incredibly surreal. The morning after dinner, we went into the wheelhouse and he was sitting in his captain’s chair steering the yacht. We were heading back to shore and we were just looking out the window, looking over the bow. It was surreal to have Captain Lee there and we were up in the bridge. It was one of those pinch yourself moments. I’ve been a fan of the show and a fan of Captain Lee and I was thinking, “I can’t believe I’m standing here in the bridge of a mega yacht next to Captain Lee!”, so that was really fun.

WHAT WAS TAHITI LIKE?

Tahiti impressed me because it was very natural. There were very few homes that we saw in Tahiti, and if there were homes, it was only along the water’s edge. There were no homes built up the side of the hill. There was one row of homes along the water. Other than that, it was really untouched and very beautiful, very picturesque and postcard-like. It was amazing to see the scenery. Because it’s part of French Polynesia, they speak French and I didn’t really realize the whole French angle to Tahiti before I went there. It had this very French flavor to the cities that we went to. The show chose our itinerary and we went to a small island called Tahiti-iti.

That was our ultimate destination, Tahiti-iti. I went on the jet skis and just went out and toured around for awhile. The funny thing was, they said, “watch out for coconuts, don’t run over coconuts with your jet ski!” I thought it was pretty hilarious that coconuts are floating around and you have to be careful not to run over them.

So all in all, we had a fabulous trip and everybody was super nice to us. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was something that was a very special memory. Something I’ll always remember. We had a fabulous first-class time and vacation. Thanks to Kate, Captain Lee, Josiah, and the entire crew (even Laura and Rhylee). Everyone was polite, very personable and treated us well.

All of the crew were great. I don’t have any complaints. They were all extremely professional and very, very nice to all of us. We didn’t see any of what you saw on the television show. Other than my friend hearing some of the fighting, we didn’t see them act in a bad way. We certainly didn’t see anyone have an obvious crush on anyone else. We didn’t see any inappropriate behavior. We didn’t see any of that. We saw only professionalism and a service attitude that was really first class. I was shocked when I saw the show and what they chose to show and leave out. It is what it is. I’m just happy that we had a fabulous trip and had the opportunity.

I feel really, really grateful and look forward to watching each episode of Below Deck until the end of the season. Those were my experiences and I thought I’d share them with you and give you a little bit of the behind the scenes scoop.

Linda P. Jones is the author of “You’re Already a Wealth Heiress, Now Think and Act Like One: 6 Practical Steps to Make It a Reality Now!” The 5-star book gives you a Wealth Heiress Checklist and a Millionaire Action Plan (MAP) for simple steps to financial freedom. Her book was named one of the “Best Wealth Books of All Time” by BookAuthority. Linda hosts the highly-acclaimed “Be Wealthy & Smart” podcast on iTunes, listened to in 181 countries with over 6 million downloads. Linda believes that being smart with money is about making the right choices, and with the right knowledge anyone can have financial freedom, no matter how much money you are starting with or how late you start. Connect with her for daily tips on Facebook and Instagram.